With Aeschylus
and Euripedes,
Sophoclesis the greatest of Athenian tragedians. Born around
496 BC, the son of a wealthy armour manufacturer, his charm
and physical grace won an enduring
popularity — 'contented among the living, contented
among the dead', said Aristophanes. Sophocles did not engage
in politics but seems to have enjoyed polis life, leading
the chorus in the celebrations for Salamis
in 480, and twice acting as strategos (general).
Unlike Aeschylus and Euripedes, he was not prosecuted or
self-exiled, and always refused invitations to princely
courts. Of his 123 plays, 96 won first prize, the rest coming
second. He was still writing in his eighties and left two
sons to continue the tradition. He died in 405/6, and was
honoured as a hero for receiving the cult of Asclepius into
his house while a temple was being made ready.
Sophocles's achievement
If the plays of Sophocles
lack the grandeur of Aeschylus and the psychological insight
of Euripedes, they have a directness and density that operates
on many levels. Although (according to Plutarch)
Sophocles had an earlier high-flown style, and an intermediate
artificial and harsh style, it is the final style that appears
in the seven plays that have come down to us — dignified,
natural and with a good ear for dialogue. He 'depicted people
as they ought to be', remarked Aristotle, which is not idealized
but intensely human. Tragedy grows out of the innate character
of the dramatis personae in Philoctetes,
Oepidus
Coloneus, Antigone,
Trachiniae,
Ajax,
Oedipus Tyrannus
and Electra,
and the end cannot be otherwise. Sophocles substituted a
self-contained plot for the Aeschylean habit of relating
to current events, and introduced
a third actor to make plot and characters more complex
and interesting. By dealing with universal themes, the plays
have generated an enormous number of renderings and imitations,
in painting,
poetry,
plays
and films.
Athenian
tragedy
Tragedy
probably originated in Athens
in the fifth century BC, and was very different from today'scommercial
theatre. The plays were performed on a few occasions during
the year, only one play being presented at the time and not
repeated. Production was decide by competition. Three poets
were chosen by wealthy citizens, and each poet submitted three
tragedies and a satyr play. Tragedies
consisted of two elements — choral song in lyrical measures
and accompanied by music and dancing, and dramatic exchanges
between two or three characters, who generally spoke in iambic
trimeters. Both actors (who included the author in earlier
productions) and chorus wore masks. Athenian
tragedy gradually became less ritualistic,
but still dealt with man's relationship to the gods, taking
themes from mythology that were well known to the audience.
A prologue was followed by a choral song; then came episodes
of actor and chorus, followed by a standing chorus and the
final scene. By the end of the fourth century, the greatness
of Athenian tragedy had apparently waned, and the numerous
examples thereafter were not preserved.
Reading the Greek
Ancient Greek differs considerably from modern,
and is not easy to learn or appreciate. But its
study yearly by thousands of university students throughout
the world shows the task is not impracticable. Workable translations
exist — Fagles,
Lattimore,
Fitzgerald,
Pevear,
Michie,
Myatt
and others
— and some which are better as poetry — Butler,
Murray,
Pope
— but none come close to the experience of reading the
original. Those who possess no Greek may wish to approach
Sophocles by first reading the plays
in English, then immersing themselves in the history
and culture
of the classical
world, perhaps then moving to some of the great poetry
the work has inspired, and finally to seeing the plays
enacted. After that, the real
learning starts, but sites like Ancient
Greek Tutorials and Translatum
will introduce students to the language, and classical literature
read in the original can be heard at Harvard
Classics. Excellent resources exist at Corax,
Classical
Drama Sites and Didaskalia.
General books include T. Woodward's Sophocles (1966),
The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature (1989)
and the biography following the Greek Poetry section of The
New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (1993).
