1 what do you know about the life of sofokles. S.I

) participated in the folk festival as a choir leader. He was twice elected to the post of strategist and once served as a member of the collegium in charge of the union treasury. The Athenians chose Sophocles as a strategist in 440 BC. NS. during the Samos war, under the impression of his tragedy "Antigone", the staging of which on the stage dates back to 441 BC. NS.

His main occupation was the compilation of tragedies for the Athenian theater. The first tetralogy, delivered by Sophocles in 469 BC. NS. , gave him a victory over Aeschylus and opened a series of victories won on stage in competitions with other tragedians. The critic Aristophanes of Byzantine attributed 123 tragedies to Sophocles (including Antigone).

Sophocles was distinguished by a cheerful, sociable character, he was not shy of the joys of life, as can be seen from the words of a certain Kefalus in Plato's "State" (I, 3). He was closely acquainted with the historian Herodotus. Sophocles died at the age of 90, in 405 BC. NS. in the city of Athens. The townspeople built an altar for him and honored him annually as a hero.

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  In accordance with the successes which the tragedy owed to Sophocles, he made innovations in the stage production of plays. So, he increased the number of actors to three, and the number of choirists from 12 to 15, while reducing the choral parts of the tragedy, improved the scenery, masks, and the sham side of the theater in general, made a change in the staging of tragedies in the form of tetralogy, although it is not known exactly what this change consisted of. Finally, he also introduced painted decorations. All the changes were intended to give more movement to the drama on the stage, to strengthen the audience's illusion and the impression received from the tragedy. Keeping the representation of the nature of the celebration of the deity, the priesthood, which was the tragedy initially, by its very origin from the cult of Dionysus, Sophocles humanized him much more than Aeschylus. The humanization of the legendary and mythical world of gods and heroes followed inevitably, as soon as the poet focused his attention on a deeper analysis of the mental states of the heroes, which were known to the public until now only from the external vicissitudes of their earthly life. It was possible to depict the spiritual world of the demigods only with the features of mere mortals. The beginning of this treatment of legendary material was laid by the father of tragedy, Aeschylus: it is enough to recall the images of Prometheus or Orestes created by him; Sophocles went further in the footsteps of his predecessor.

  Characteristic features of drama

  Sophocles loved to push heroes with different life principles together (Creon and Antigone, Odysseus and Neoptolemus, etc.) or to oppose people with the same views, but with different characters to each other - to emphasize the strength of character of one in his collision with another, weak character (Antigone and Ismena, Electra and Chrysothemis). He loves and knows how to portray the mood swings of the heroes - the transition from the highest intensity of passions to a state of decay, when a person comes to the bitter realization of his weakness and helplessness. This turning point can be observed in Oedipus in the finale of the tragedy "King Oedipus", and in Creon, who learned about the death of his wife and son, and in Ajax, who was regaining consciousness (in the tragedy "Ajax"). The tragedies of Sophocles are characterized by dialogues of rare skill, dynamic action, naturalness in unleashing complex dramatic knots.

  Tragedy plots

  In almost all tragedies that have come down to us, it is not a series of situations or external events that attracts the attention of the audience, but the sequence of mental states experienced by the heroes under the influence of relationships, immediately clearly and finally set in the tragedy. The content of "Oedipus" is one moment from the inner life of the hero: the discovery of the crimes he committed before the start of the tragedy.

  Extant plays

  • "Trakhineyanka" (about 450-435 BC)
  • "Ajax" ("Eant", "Scourge") (between mid-450s and mid-440s BC)
  • Antigone (c. 442-441 BC)
  • "King Oedipus" ("Oedipus the tyrant") (about 429-426 BC)

  (495 - 406 BC)

  Sophocles' birthplace - Colon

  The tragedy, which received, thanks to Aeschylus, such a development, reached the highest degree of perfection in the works of Sophocles, the greatest tragedian of antiquity. It is impossible to determine the exact year of his birth; but by the most probable calculation, he was born in Ol. 71, 2, or 495 BC. Therefore, he was 30 years younger than Aeschylus and 15 years older than Euripides. He came from a wealthy and noble family. His father, Sophill, was a gunsmith, i.e. had a workshop in which his slaves made weapons, and belonged to the demos or district of Colon Ippios, located near Athens, which should be distinguished from the one in the inner city of Colon Agoraios. Half an hour's distance from the Dipila Gate, northwest of Athens, near the Academy, there was a sloping hill with two peaks, of which one, dedicated to Apollo Hippias and Athena Hippias, was the so-called Colon. On the slopes of this hill, in its natural surroundings, there were many temples; there were also colonial dwellings. Sophocles loved this place of his birth, where he played as a boy, and already in ripe old age immortalized it, placing his description in his tragedy "Oedipus in Colon". In the first chorus of this tragedy of Sophocles, the colonies glorify before Oedipus the beauty of their region and call Colon the adornment of the entire Attic land.

  On the western hill, near the olive grove, is now the tomb of the famous explorer of antiquity, Otfried Müller; from the eastern hill, a magnificent view opens up, especially attractive in the light of the evening dawn. From here you can see the city of Acropolis, the entire coast from Cape Kolia to Piraeus, and further - the dark blue sea with Aegina and the coast of Argolis disappearing on the distant horizon. But the sacred groves of Poseidon and Erinnios, the temples that were once in this area, and Demos itself - all this has already disappeared, leaving behind only a few ruins on the hill and its slopes. Only further to the west, where the olive grove begins, the grapes, laurel and olive grow green just as in the time of Sophocles, but in the shady bush irrigated by the ever-running stream of Kephiss, the nightingale still sings its sweet-sounding songs.

  Childhood and adolescence of Sophocles

  In the ancient biography of Sophocles, an extract from the writings of Alexandrian critics and literary historians, it is said: "Sophocles grew up in a hall and was well brought up"; Athens at that time provided rich means for this. He received good knowledge in the arts necessary for a tragic poet, in music, gymnastics and choral singing. In music, his mentor was Lampre, the most famous of the teachers of his time, whom, for his lyrical works in an ancient, sublime style, the ancients compared with Pindar. For his knowledge of music and choral singing, and at the same time, of course, for his blossoming youthful beauty, 15 or 16-year-old Sophocles was chosen, in 480 BC, as the leader of the choir that sang the victorious pean at the festival after the battle of Salamis. Naked, according to the custom of gymnasts, or (according to other reports) in a short cloak, the young man Sophocles, with a lyre in his hand, led a circular dance around the victorious trophies taken at Salamis. With his skill in dancing and playing the cithara, he sometimes took part in the performance of his own tragedies, although, due to the weakness of his voice, he could not, contrary to the prevailing custom of his time, act in his plays as an actor. In his drama "Tamir" he played the role of the beautiful youth Tamir or Tamirid, who dared to compete with the muses themselves in playing the cithara; in his other play, Nausicaä, he won general acclaim as an excellent ball player (σφαιριστής): he played the role of Nausicaa, who in one scene has fun dancing and playing ball with her friends.

  The biographer says that Sophocles learned the tragic art from Aeschylus; this can be understood literally; but the biographer, apparently, only wanted to say that Sophocles took his great predecessor as a model and at the beginning of his poetic career tried to improve in tragic art, studying the works of Aeschylus. Although the poetry of Sophocles in many ways deviates from the path paved by Aeschylus and has its own original character, however, Sophocles, as everyone admits, nevertheless, followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, which is in full agreement with the very essence of the matter.

  Sophocles' first performance as a playwright

  With this great teacher, a 60-year-old old man, Sophocles, a young man of about 27 years old, decided to enter into a poetic competition, putting his works of art on the stage for the first time during the great Dionysius of 468 BC. day were extremely excited and split into two parties. “Here, not two works of art, but two literary families were arguing about the primacy, and if the first works of Sophocles attracted to themselves by the depth of feeling and the subtlety of mental analysis, then his opponent was a great teacher, who until then had not surpassed in the majesty of characters and strength of mind not one of the Hellenes. " (Welker). The first archon, Apsephius, who, as chairman of the festival, had to choose the judges for the appointment of the award, seeing the excited state of the audience, heatedly arguing among themselves and divided into two sides - one for the glorious representative of the old art, the other for the new direction of the young tragedian, was in difficulty and did not know where to find impartial judges. At this time, the chief commander of the Athenian fleet, Cimon, who had just returned from the island of Skyros that he had conquered, from where he had taken the ashes of the Athenian people's hero Theseus, appeared, along with other generals, to the theater, in order, according to ancient custom, to make a sacrifice to the hero of the festival, God Dionysus. This was what the archon took advantage of; he asked these 10 generals to remain in the theater until the end of the performance and to assume the duties of judges. The commanders agreed, took the established oath and, at the end of the performance, awarded the first award to Sophocles. Such was the great and glorious victory of the young poet, remarkable both in the strength of the opponent and in the personality of the judges.

  According to some writers, old Aeschylus, saddened by his failure, left his homeland and went to Sicily. Welker, who has proved the groundlessness of this opinion, at the same time notes that there is no reason to assume hostile relations between the two poets. Rather, the opposite can be said; Sophocles always highly respected Aeschylus, as the father of tragedy, and often imitated him in his works, not only in relation to myths and characters, but also in individual ideas and expressions.

  Lessing, in his life story of Sophocles, with the help of an ingenious combination, made a very probable assumption that among the works that brought Sophocles this first victory was the tragedy "Triptolemus" that has not come down to us, which was supposed to win the audience's favor in its patriotic content: the plot for her was the spread of agriculture that arose in Attica and the softening of morals by the labors of the Eleusinian-Attic hero Triptolemus. But the real reason that the Athenians gave Sophocles an advantage over Aeschylus was, of course, in the innovations Sophocles introduced into tragic poetry.

  Sophocles' innovations in ancient Greek theater

  Aeschylus in his trilogies combined a number of mythical actions into one large whole, depicting the fate of generations and states in such a way that the main lever of tragedy was the action of divine forces, while the depiction of the characters and everyday environment of the action was given little space. Sophocles left this form of trilogy and began to compose separate dramas, which, in their content, had no internal connection with each other, but each separately constituted an independent, complete whole, but at the same time he still put on the stage three tragedies with a satirical drama. Since in each separate play he had only one main fact in mind, thanks to this, he was able to process each tragedy more fully and better and give it more vitality, sharply and definitely outlining the characters of the characters that determine the course of the dramatic action. In order to introduce into his dramas a greater variety of characters and, as it were, set off some of the characters by others, he added a third to the previous two actors; this number of actors has since remained constant in ancient Greek tragedy, with the exception of a few isolated cases.

  By adding a third actor, Sophocles also cut down on the choir singing, giving him the role of a calm spectator. From this, the conversations of the characters gained predominance over the chorus, the action became the main element of the drama, and the tragedy acquired ideal beauty.

  Comparison of Sophocles with Aeschylus and Euripides

  The characters of Sophocles, created on the basis of a multifaceted and profound experience, appear, in comparison with the gigantic images of Aeschylus, purely human, however, without losing their ideality and without dropping, like in Euripides, to the level of everyday life. Their passions, despite all their strength, do not violate the laws of the graceful. The denouement is prepared slowly and diligently, and when it has already come, the agitated feeling of the viewer is calmed down by the thought of the justice of the eternal gods, to which the will of mortals must obey. Wise moderation and dignity, combined with the attractiveness of form, reign everywhere.

  The Athenian citizens of the Pericles' century wished that the tragedy aroused only sympathy, not horror; their exquisite taste did not like rough impressions; therefore Sophocles eliminated or softened everything terrible or fierce that was in the myths, from which he took the content of his tragedy. He does not have such majestic thoughts, such deep religiosity as Aeschylus. The characters of the mythical heroes are depicted by him not according to the popular concepts of them, as in Aeschylus; they are given universal human features, they arouse sympathy for themselves not by national Greek characteristics, but by moral, purely human greatness that perishes in a collision with the power of inevitable fate; they are free, they act according to their own motives, and not according to the will of fate, as in Aeschylus; but fate also reigns over their lives. She is the eternal divine law that rules over the moral world, and its requirements are higher than all human laws.

  Aristophanes says that the mouth of Sophocles is covered with honey; he was called the "Attic bee" for his pleasantness, as Svida says, or, in the opinion of his biographers, because he primarily meant the beautiful, the graceful. His works fully reflected the higher development of the Hellenic spirit of the times of Cimon and Pericles; that is why he was the favorite of the Attic people.

  The tragedies of Sophocles

  Sophocles combines the greatness of thought with the artistic construction of the details of the plan, and his tragedies give the impression of harmony generated by the full development of education. For Sophocles, tragedy became a faithful mirror of the impressions of the human heart, of all the aspirations of the soul, of the entire struggle of passions. Sophocles' language is noble, majestic; his speech gives picturesqueness to all thoughts, strength and warmth to all feelings; the form of Sophocles' tragedies is quite artistic; their plan is excellently thought out; the action develops clearly, consistently, the characters are thoughtfully created, clearly outlined; their mental life is depicted with full vividness, and the motives of their actions are skillfully explained. No other ancient writer penetrated so deeply into the secrets of the human soul; tender and strong feelings are distributed in him in perfect proportion; the denouement of the action (catastrophe) corresponds to the essence of the matter.

  From his first appearance on the stage, in 468 BC, and until his death in 406, more than half a century, Sophocles worked in the field of poetry, and in extreme old age he still excited the surprise of the freshness of his creations. In ancient times, 130 dramas were known under his name, of which 17 Byzantine grammar Aristophanes considers not belonging to Sophocles. Consequently, he wrote 113 plays - tragedies and satirical dramas. Of these, according to the remark of the same Aristophanes, the tragedy "Antigone", presented in 441 BC, was the 32nd, so the period of the greatest fertility of the poet coincides with the time of the Peloponnesian War. Throughout his long career, Sophocles enjoyed the unfailing favor of the Athenian people; he was given preference over all other tragedians. He won 20 victories, and often received the second award, but never received the third.

  Among the poets who competed with Sophocles in tragic art were, besides Aeschylus, his sons Vion and Euphorion, of whom the latter once defeated Sophocles. Aeschylus's nephew Philocletes also defeated Sophocles, who staged his Oedipus; the orator Aristides considers such a defeat shameful, since Aeschylus himself could not defeat Sophocles. Euripides competed with Sophocles for 47 years; in addition, at the same time, the tragedies were written by Ion of Chios, Achaeus of Eretria, Agathon the Athenian, who spoke for the first time 10 years before Sophocles' death and defeated him, and many other tragedians of the lower order. The highly praised, humane and good-natured character of Sophocles suggests that his relations with these comrades in the case were friendly, and that the stories of anecdotes about the envious enmity between Sophocles and Euripides are stories, in themselves rather meaningless, devoid of credibility. At the news of the death of Euripides, Sophocles expressed sincere sorrow; Euripides' letter to Sophocles, although false, nevertheless testifies that in ancient times the mutual relations of both poets were looked at differently. This letter refers to the shipwreck that Sophocles suffered during his trip to Fr. Chios, and several of his tragedies died. Euripides says in this regard: “The misfortune with dramas, which everyone would call a common misfortune for all of Greece, is hard; but we will easily be comforted, knowing that you remained unharmed. "

  The news that has come down to us from antiquity about the relationship of Sophocles to the actors who performed his tragedies allows us to conclude that these relations were also friendly. From these actors we have information about Tlepolemus, who constantly participated in the tragedies of Sophocles, about Cledemis and Callipides. The biographer says that Sophocles, writing his tragedies, had in mind the abilities of his actors; at the same time, it is said that he made up "of educated people" (among whom, of course, should include actors) a society in honor of the muses. The newest researchers explain this in such a way that Sophocles founded a circle of art and knowledge lovers who honored the muses, and that this circle should be considered the prototype of the troupe of actors.

  Sophocles retained the form of a trilogy, which has a satirical drama as its epilogue; but the plays that form this group are not united by a common content for him; they are four different pieces (cf. countries. 563). Of the 113 plays of Sophocles, only seven have survived. The most excellent of them both in form, and in content, and in characterization is "Antigone", for which the Athenian people chose Sophocles as a strategist in the Samos war.

  Sophocles - "Antigone" (summary)

  Read also individual articles by Sophocles "Antigone" - analysis and Sophocles "Antigone" - abstract

  Three of the best tragedies of Sophocles are borrowed from the Theban cycle of myths. These are: "Antigone", staged by him about 461; Oedipus the King, written perhaps in 430 or 429, and Oedipus at Colon, staged in 406 by the grandson of the poet who died that year, Sophocles the Younger.

  However, the first in the order of the development of the plot of the main Theban myth should be not "Antigone", but the tragedy "King Oedipus" written later by her. The mythological hero Oedipus once commits an accidental murder on the road, unaware that the murdered man is his own father, Lai. Then, in the same ignorance, he marries the widow of the murdered man, his mother Jocasta. The gradual disclosure of these crimes is the plot of Sophocles' drama. After the murder of his father, Oedipus is made king of Thebes in his place. His reign was initially happy, but after a few years the Theban region was plagued by plague, and the oracle cites the reason for his stay in Thebes of the assassin of the former king Lai. Not knowing that he himself is this murderer, Oedipus begins to look for the criminal and orders to bring the only witness to the murder - a slave shepherd. Meanwhile, the soothsayer Tiresias announces to Oedipus that he himself is the killer of Laius. Oedipus refuses to believe it. Jocasta, wanting to refute the words of Tiresias, says that she had a son from Laius. She and her husband left him in the mountains to die in order to prevent the prediction that in the future he would kill his father. Jocasta also tells how, years later, Lai fell by the hands of some robber at the crossroads of three roads. Oedipus recalls that he himself once killed a man at such a crossroads. Heavy doubts and suspicions settle in his soul. A messenger arriving at this time announces the death of the Corinthian king Polybus, whom Oedipus considered his father. At the same time, it turns out: Polybus previously concealed that Oedipus was not his own son, but only a foster child. Following this, from the interrogation of the Theban shepherd, it becomes clear: Oedipus was the very son of Laius, whom his father and mother ordered to kill. Oedipus unexpectedly reveals that he is the murderer of his father and is married to his mother. In despair, Jocasta takes his own life, and Oedipus blinds himself and condemns to exile.

  The theme and culmination of Sofokles' "King of Oedipus" is reckoning for the crimes committed by Oedipus. He did not know that Lai was his father and Jocasta was his mother, but he was still a parricide, and his marriage was still incest. These terrible facts have as their consequence the death of Oedipus and all his family. The drama of "King Oedipus" consists in the gradually depicted by Sophocles the transition of Oedipus and Jocasta from happiness, from a calm conscience to a clear consciousness of their terrible crime. The chorus soon guesses the truth; Oedipus and Jocasta do not yet know her. The contrast of their delusion with the chorus's knowledge of the truth makes a tremendous tragic impression. Throughout the drama of Sophocles, there is a sublime irony that the thought about the limitations of the human mind, about the myopia of his considerations, about the fragility of happiness; the viewer foresees catastrophes that will destroy the happiness of Oedipus and Jocasta, who do not know the truth. "O people, how insignificant your life is!" The chorus exclaims in Oedipus the King. Indeed, Oedipus and Jocasta are plunged into such despair that she deprives herself of life, and he deprives himself of his sight.

  Sophocles - "Oedipus at Colon" (summary)

  Oedipus at Colon was Sophocles' last work. He is an old man's swan song, filled with the most tender love for his homeland, inspired by Sophocles' memories of his youth, which he spent in the rustic silence of his native town of Colon, near Athens.

  "Oedipus in Colon" tells how the blind Oedipus, wandering with his loving daughter Antigone, comes to Colon, finds here finally protection from the Athenian king Theseus and the last quiet refuge. Meanwhile, the new Theban monarch Creon, having learned the prediction that Oedipus after death will be the patron saint of the region where he dies, is trying to force Oedipus back to Thebes. However, Theseus protects Oedipus and does not allow violence against him. Then his son Polynices comes to Oedipus, who is just gathering the Campaign of the Seven to Thebes against his own brother, another son of Oedipus, Eteocles. Polynices wants his father to bless his venture against his homeland, but Oedipus curses both sons. Polynices leaves, and Oedipus hears the call of the gods and, together with Theseus, goes to the sacred grove of the goddesses of heavenly punishment Eumenides who have reconciled with him. There, in a mysterious grotto, his peaceful death takes place.

  This drama of Sophocles is imbued with a wondrous tenderness and gracefulness of feeling, in which the sadness of the poverty of human life merges with the joy of hope. “Oedipus in Colon” ​​is the apotheosis of the innocent sufferer, to whom divine providence gives consolation at the end of his mournful earthly life; the hope of bliss behind the grave serves as a consolation for the unfortunate: a person dejected and purified by misfortunes will find in that life a reward for his undeserved suffering. At the same time, before his death, Oedipus shows in all his majesty his parental and royal dignity, nobly rejecting the selfish ingratiations of Polynices. The material for the tragedy "Oedipus in Colon" was Sophocles' local legends of Colon, near which stood the temple of Eumenides with a cave that was considered the way to the underworld and had a copper threshold at the entrance.

  

  Oedipus at Colon. Harriet's painting, 1798

  Sophocles - "Electra" (summary)

  In "Elektra" Sophocles refers to a cycle of myths about how Agamemnon, the main leader of the Greek army in the campaign against Troy, was killed on his return from it by his own wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. Clytemnestra wanted to kill her son from Agamemnon, Orestes, so that he would not take revenge on her for her father in the future. But the boy Orestes was saved by his sister Electra. She gave him to the old uncle, and he took the boy to Phocis, to the king of the city of Chris. Electra, remaining with her mother, endured oppression and humiliation from her, for more than once she boldly reproached Clytemnestra and Aegisthus for the atrocity they had committed.

  "Electra" Sophocles begins with the fact that the matured Orestes comes to his homeland, to Argos, accompanied by the same faithful Uncle and friend Pilad, the son of King Chris. Orestes wants to take revenge on his mother, but intends to do it by cunning and therefore hides his arrival from everyone. Meanwhile, Electra, who has suffered so much, learns that Clytemnestra and Aegisthus decided to throw her into the dungeon. Uncle Orestes, with the aim of deceiving Clytemnestra, comes to her under the guise of a messenger from the neighboring king and, deceiving her, reports that Orestes is dead. This news plunges Electra into despair, but Clytemnestra rejoices, believing that now no one will be able to avenge her for Agamemnon. However, another daughter of Clytemnestra, Chrysofemis, returning from her father's grave, tells Electra that she saw there gravestone sacrifices that only Orestes could bring. Electra doesn't believe it at first. Orestes, disguised as a messenger from Phocis, brings a funeral urn to the grave and, recognizing his sister in the woman grieving there, calls himself to her. At first, Orestes hesitates to immediately take revenge on his mother, but Electra's strong character persistently urges him to punish those who violate the divine law. Pushed by her, Orestes kills his mother and Aegisthus. In contrast to the interpretation of Aeschylus's drama "Choehora", Sophocles' Orestes does not experience any torment, and the tragedy ends with the triumph of victory.

  

  Electra at the grave of Agamemnon. Painting by F. Leighton, 1869

  The legend of the murder of Clytemnestra by Orestes is reflected in the tragedies of each of the three great Athenian tragic poets - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, but each of them gave it a special meaning. Sophocles has the main person in this bloody affair - Electra, an inexorable, passionate avenger, endowed with high moral strength. Of course, we must judge her case in accordance with the concepts of Greek antiquity, which imposed on the relatives of the murdered the obligation to take revenge. Only from this point of view becomes understandable the power of hatred, irreconcilably burning in the soul of Electra; her mother is alien to repentance and calmly enjoys the love of Aegisthus, stained with blood, - this supports the thirst for revenge in Elektra. Moving our thoughts into the concepts of Greek antiquity, we will sympathize with the sorrow with which Electra hugs the urn, which, as she thinks, contains the ashes of her brother, and we will understand the delight with which she sees Orestes alive, whom she considered dead. We will also understand the ardent cries of approval with which she, hearing the cries of the murdered from the palace, prompts Orestes to complete the work of revenge. In Clytemnestra, at the news of the death of Orestes, a motherly feeling awakened for a moment, but he was immediately drowned out by the joy that she was now freed from the fear of his revenge.

  Sophocles - "Women of Trakhine" (summary)

  The content of the tragedy of The Trakhineyanka is the death that Hercules exposes to the jealousy of his wife, Deianira, who passionately loves him. The choir in this tragedy is made up of girls, natives of the city of Trakhina: their name serves as the title of the drama. Hercules, destroying the Euboean city of Echalia, took captive the beautiful Iola, the daughter of the Echali king; Deianira, who remained in Trachina, fears that he will leave her, fall in love with Iola. Sending her husband the festive clothes that he wants to wear during the sacrifice, Deianira smears it with the blood of the centaur Nessus, who was killed by the arrows of Hercules. Nessus, dying, told her that his blood is a magical means by which she can turn her husband away from all other love and bind him to herself. Hercules put on these clothes, and when the heat from the sacrificial fire warmed the centaur's blood, Hercules felt the agonizing effect of the blood poison. The shirt stuck to the body of Hercules and began to cause him unbearable torment. In a rage, Hercules smashed the messenger of Likhad on the rock, who brought him clothes; since then, these rocks began to be called dashing. Deianira, having learned that she had killed her husband, takes her own life; Hercules, tormented by unbearable pain, orders to lay down a fire on the top of Mount Eta and burns himself on it. The artistic merit of "Trakhineyanka" is not as high as those of the four tragedies mentioned earlier.

  Sophocles - "Philoctetus" (summary)

  The plot of Philoctetes, staged in 409 BC, is also associated with the myth of the death of Hercules. Poias, the father of the hero Philoctetes, agreed to light the funeral pyre of Hercules and as a reward for this service received his bow and arrows, always hitting the target. They passed to his son, Philoctetes, a participant in the Trojan War, the legends of which are the theme of the seventh tragedy of Sophocles, "Ajax the Scourge." Philoctetes went with the Hellenes on a campaign near Troy, but on the way to the island of Lemnos he was stung by a snake. The wound from this bite did not heal, emitting, moreover, the strongest stench. To get rid of Philoctetes, who became a burden for the army, the Greeks, on the advice of Odysseus, abandoned him alone on Lemnos, where he, continuing to suffer from an incurable wound, could somehow get his food only thanks to the bow and arrows of Hercules. However, later it turned out that without the miraculous Hercules arrows belonging to him, the Trojans could not be defeated. In the tragedy of Sophocles, the son of Achilles, Neoptolemus, and Odysseus come to the island where Philoctetes was left to take him to the Greek camp. But Philoctetes mortally hates the Greeks who abandoned him in trouble, especially the insidious Odysseus. Therefore, it is possible to take him to the camp near Troy only by cunning, deception. The straightforward, honest Neoptolemus first succumbs to the cunning advice of the cunning Odysseus; they steal the bow from Philoctetes, without which the unfortunate patient will die of hunger. But Neoptolemus becomes sorry for the deceived, defenseless Philoctetes, and the innate nobility triumphs in his soul over the plan of deception. He reveals the truth to Philoctet and wants to take him home. But the deified Hercules appears, and transmits the command of the gods to Philoctet that he should go to Troy, where, after the capture of the city, he will be rewarded from above with healing from his serious illness.

  So, the collision of motives and passions is terminated by the appearance of a deity, the so-called Deus ex machina; the knot is not untied, but cut. In this, the influence of the spoilage of taste, which also affected Sophocles, is clearly expressed. Euripides uses the deus ex machina method even more widely. But with amazing skill Sophocles performed the difficult task of making physical suffering the subject of the drama. He also perfectly portrayed the character of a true hero in the person of Neoptolemus, who is incapable of remaining a deceiver, rejecting dishonest means, no matter what benefit they represent.

  Sophocles - "Ajax" ("The Madness of Ajax", "Ajax the scourge", "Eant")

  The subject of the tragedy "Ajax" or "The Madness of Ajax" is borrowed from the legend of the Trojan War. Her hero Ajax, after the death of Achilles, hoped, as the most valiant after the deceased warrior of the Hellenic army, to receive Achilles armor. But they were given to Odysseus. Ajax, considering this injustice to be the intrigues of the main Greek leader, Agamemnon, and his brother, Menelaus, planned to kill both of them. However, the goddess Athena, in order to prevent the crime, clouded the mind of Ajax, and instead of his enemies, he killed a herd of sheep and cows. Coming to his senses and realizing the consequences and shame of his madness, Ajax decided to commit suicide. His wife Tekmessa and the faithful warriors (who make up the chorus in the tragedy of Sophocles) try to keep Ajax from his intentions, keeping a close eye on him. But Ajax eludes them to the seashore and stabs himself there. Having quarreled with Ajax, Agamemnon and Menelaus do not want to bury his body, however, at the insistence of Ajax's brother, Tevkra, and now showing the nobility of Odysseus, the body is still buried. Thus, the matter ends in a moral victory for Ajax.

  In a humiliating state of madness, Ajax appears to Sophocles only at the very beginning of the drama; its main content is the emotional suffering of the hero, who grieves that he has dishonored himself. The guilt for which Ajax was punished with insanity is that he, being proud of his strength, did not have the due humility before the gods. Sophocles in "Ajax" followed Homer, from which he borrowed not only the characters of the characters, but also expressions. Tekmessa's conversation with Ajax (verses 470 et seq.) Is an obvious imitation of Homer's farewell to Andromache. The Athenians really liked this tragedy of Sophocles, partly because Ajax of Salamis was one of their favorite heroes, as the ancestor of two noble Athenian families, and secondly, because Menelaus's speech seemed to them a parody of the backwardness of concepts and arrogance of the Spartans.

  Sophocles and Pericles in the Samos War

  In 441 BC (Ol. 84.3), during the great Dionysios (in March), Sophocles staged his "Antigone", and this drama won such approval that the Athenians appointed an author, along with Pericles and eight others, a general for the war with the island of Samos. However, this distinction went to the poet's lot not so much for the merits of his tragedy, but because he enjoyed a general disposition for his amiable character, for the wise political rules expressed in this tragedy, and for its moral merit in general, since there is deliberation in it. and rationality in actions is always placed much higher than impulses of passion.

  The Samos war, in which Sophocles participated, began in the spring of 440 under the command of Archon Timokles; the reason for it was that the Milesians, defeated by the Samians in one battle, turned, along with the Samos democrats, with a request for help from the Athenians. The Athenians sent 40 ships against Samos, conquered this island, established a people's government there, took hostages and, leaving their garrison on the island, soon returned home. But in the same year they had to resume hostilities. The oligarchs who fled from Samos made an alliance with the Sardian satrap Pissufn, gathered an army and captured the city of Samos at night, capturing the Athenian garrison. This garrison was handed over to Pissufnu, the Samos hostages, taken by the Athenians to Lemnos, were freed, and new preparations began for war with the Milesians. Pericles and his comrades again marched against Samos with 44 ships, defeated 70 Samos ships near the island of Tragia and laid siege to the city of Samos from land and sea. A few days later, while Pericles with part of the ships set out for Caria, to meet the approaching Phoenician fleet, the Samians broke through the blockade and, under the command of the philosopher Melissa, who had once defeated Pericles, defeated the Athenian fleet, so that for 14 days indivisibly dominated the sea. Pericles hastened to return, again defeated the Samians and laid siege to the city. In the ninth month of the siege, in the spring of 439, Samos was forced to surrender. The walls of the city were torn down, the fleet was taken by the Athenians; the Samoans gave hostages and pledged to pay military expenses.

  If Sophocles, as one must assume, was a strategist only in 440, while Pericles retained this position for himself the next year, then he probably participated in the first war and partly in the second, but did not remain a commander until the end of the war. ... Pericles, not only a great statesman, but also a great commander, was the soul of this war and did the most in it; where Sophocles' participation was expressed, we know very little about this. At Svida it is said that Sophocles fought the philosopher Melissus at sea; but this news, apparently, is not based on historical information, but on a simple guess. If Melissa and Pericles fought each other, and Sophocles was Pericles' comrade in office, then the thought could easily arise that Sophocles also fought with Melissus; and "the idea that Melisse the philosopher and Sophocles the poet fought each other is so attractive that it completely excuses the conjecture of a later writer." (Boeck). Sophocles was, of course, not a particularly good general, and therefore Pericles hardly sent him to any military undertakings; on the contrary, for negotiations, which during the entire existence of the Attic state constituted a very important part of the commander's occupations, Sophocles could be very useful, as a person who knew how to deal with people and dispose of them in his favor. While Pericles was fighting at Tragy, Sophocles went to about. Chios and Lesbos to negotiate with the allies about sending an auxiliary force, and made sure that 25 ships were sent from these islands.

  The character of Sophocles

  Athenaeus preserved the news about this trip of Sophocles to Chios, literally borrowed from the book of the poet Jonah of Chios, a contemporary of Sophocles. We present it here, as it contains an interesting image of Sophocles, already a 55-year-old man, in a cheerful company.

  “I met the poet Sophocles in Chios (says Ion), where he visited as a general on his way to Lesbos. I found in him an amiable and cheerful person to talk to. Hermesilaus, a friend of Sophocles and the Athenian people, gave a dinner in honor of him. A handsome boy pouring wine, flushed from the fire near which he was standing, apparently made a pleasant impression on the poet; Sophocles said to him: "Do you want me to drink with pleasure?" The boy answered in the affirmative, and the poet continued: "Well, bring the cup to me as slowly as possible, and just as slowly take it back." The boy blushed even more, and Sophocles, addressing his neighbor at the table, remarked: "How beautiful are Phrynnich's words: on the purple cheeks the fire of love is burning." One school teacher from Eretria said in this regard: “Sophocles, you certainly know a lot about poetry; but Phrynich nevertheless said badly, since he called the handsome boy's cheeks purple. After all, if the painter really decided to cover the cheeks of this boy with purple paint, then he would cease to seem beautiful. There is no need to compare with what does not seem so. " Sophocles smiled and said: "In that case, my friend, you, of course, do not like the expression of Simonides, which, however, is praised by all Greeks:" The girl, from whose purple lips a sweet word fell! " Probably you don’t like the poet who calls Apollo golden-haired? Indeed, if the painter had taken it into his head to paint this god with golden, and not black hair, the picture would have been bad. Of course, you also don't like the poet who speaks of rose-fingered Eos? After all, if someone paints their fingers pink, they will be the fingers of a dyer, and not at all of a beautiful woman. " Everyone laughed, and the Eretrian was embarrassed. Sophocles again turned to the boy who was pouring wine, and noticing that he wanted to remove the straw that had fallen into the goblet with his little finger, asked him if he saw this straw. The boy replied that he saw, and the poet told him: "Well, blow it off so as not to wet your finger." The boy tilted his face towards the goblet, and Sophocles brought the goblet closer to him to face the boy face to face. When the boy moved even closer, Sophocles, embracing him, pulled him to him and kissed him. Everyone laughed and began to express their approval to the poet for outwitting the boy; he said: “It’s me who is practicing strategy; Pericles told The Tragedy of Sophocles that I understand poetry well, but a bad strategist; Well, and this stratagem - didn't I succeed in it? " So spoke and did Sophocles, remaining equally amiable both during the feast and during the lessons. In matters of state, he was neither experienced enough, nor energetic enough; but still Sophocles was the best of all Athenian citizens. "

  Undoubtedly, we can recognize this verdict of a clever contemporary about Sophocles' political talents as completely fair, although the poet's biographer praises his political activities; we must also believe in Pericles' words that Sophocles was a bad strategist. It is very likely that he held the post of strategist only once in his life, since it is hardly possible to give faith to Justin's testimony that Sophocles, along with Pericles, devastated the Peloponnese. Plutarch tells that at the council of war, Nikias asked Sophocles, as the elder, to express his opinion before others; but if this is historically true, then we must attribute this reading to the year of the Samos, not the Peloponnesian war. Sophocles, according to Plutarch, rejected Nikias's desire, telling him: "Although I am older than others, but you enjoy the greatest respect."

  In the above story, Jonah Sophocles is a cheerful and amiable person in society, and we fully believe his biographer, who says that Sophocles had such a pleasant character that everyone, without exception, loved him. Even in the war, he did not lose his gaiety and his poetic mood and did not betray his nature, which was too sensitive to bodily beauty, as a result of which his comrade Pericles, with whom he was in close friendship, sometimes made him friendly suggestions. During the Samos war, Sophocles, seeing a beautiful boy passing by by chance, said: "Look, Pericles, what a nice boy!" Pericles remarked to this: "The commander, Sophocles, must have not only clean hands, but also clean views." “Sophocles was a poet,” says Lessing, “no wonder he was sometimes too sensitive to beauty; but I will not say that his moral qualities are diminished by this. "

  Here we must justify Sophocles from the reproach that was sometimes made to him - namely, that he had become rich during the Samos war. In Aristophanes' comedy Peace, someone asks about Sophocles what he is doing; to this they reply that his life is good, only it is a little strange that he has now turned from Sophocles into Simonides and in his old age has become stingy; now, they say, he is ready, like Simonides, to deny himself the most necessary for the sake of stinginess. The comedy of Aristophanes "Peace" was presented in 421 BC, therefore, 20 years after the Samos war; consequently, the poet's words cannot refer to this war, and the scholiast's remark concerning this place is, of course, only a guess for the explanation of the comic's mocking comments. However, there is no doubt that Aristophanes reproaches old Sophocles for miserliness; but to what extent this reproach of the comedian is fair, whose jokes are not always to be taken literally, we do not know. Recent writers agree that Aristophanes' words contain the usual exaggeration of comedians; scholars have tried to explain these words in different ways. O. Müller attributes the reproach of Aristophanes to the fact that Sophocles in old age began to pay more attention to the fee for his works; Welker notes: “To become Simonides may mean: putting on the stage a lot of dramas, engaging in poetry to a ripe old age, and constantly receiving payment for his works; in the same sense, Euripides, in his Melanippe, reproaches comedians with greed. " Boeck believes that this reproach of greed only, apparently, contradicts the well-known story of how the sons of Sophocles complained against him to the court for being careless about his property; “I even admit the assumption, he says, that Sophocles' stinginess was closely related to his extravagance: since there is no doubt that the poet, even in his old age, as in his youth, was very fond of beauty, women probably cost him considerable money, which affected the income of his sons, in relation to which Sophocles was stingy; the sons who were offended by this could bring a complaint against their father in order to get possession of the property, and thanks to this, Sophocles was known at the same time as a wasteful and a curmudgeon. " Boeck relates the tragedy "Oedipus in Colon", which Sophocles, as we will see below, read at the trial with his sons, to the 4th year of the 89th Olympiad (420 BC).

  Sophocles and Herodotus

  Many assumed that during the Samos expedition, Sophocles first met the historian Herodotus, who around this time lived on the island of Samos. But Herodotus's stay on this island dates back to an earlier time, and the poet probably got to know him even earlier than 440. Sophocles was on friendly terms with Herodotus, and when he was in Athens he often saw him. Both of them converged on each other in many ways and had the same views on many subjects. Sophocles appears to have included in his dramas some of Herodotus' favorite ideas: cf. Sophocles, Oedipus in Colon, v. 337 et seq. and Herodotus, II, 35; Sophocles, Antigone, 905 et seq. and Herodotus, III, 119. Plutarch, speaking of works of art created in extreme old age, reports the beginning of an epigram relating to Herodotus and attributed to Sophocles. The meaning of his words is as follows: 55-year-old Sophocles composed an ode in honor of Herodotus. The very same epigram, according to Boeck's guess, was a dedication to the ode that Sophocles presented to the historian as a sign of friendship on a personal date. But since 55 years cannot be called a ripe old age, this figure given by Plutarch is, in all likelihood, inaccurate.

  After the Samos war, Sophocles lived another 34 years, studying poetry; during this time, despite the fact that various sovereigns, patrons of the arts, often invited him, like Aeschylus and Euripides, to him, he did not leave his beloved hometown, remembering the saying he said in one of the dramas, until we reached:

  Who crosses the threshold of the tyrant,
  That slave of his, even if he was born free.

  The last years of Sophocles' life

  

  Marble relief supposedly depicting Sophocles

  We know about his political activity in later times only from the words of Aristotle, that in 411 BC he, as an adviser, προβουλεϋς, contributed to the establishment of an oligarchy of four hundred, for, as he himself said, doing something better was impossible. In general, we can assume that he rarely left the quiet life of a private person and mainly lived for the sake of art, enjoying life, loved and respected by his fellow citizens not only for his poetic works, but also for his fair, peaceful and good-natured character, for his constant courtesy in circulation.

  Being the favorite of all people, Sophocles enjoyed, according to the belief of the people, the special disposition of the gods and heroes. Dionysus, as we will see below, took care of the burial of the poet, who often glorified the Bacchic festivals. The biographer tells the following anecdote about Hercules' favor to Sophocles: Once a golden wreath was stolen from the Acropolis. Then Hercules appeared to Sophocles in a dream and showed him the house and the place in this house where the stolen thing was hidden. Sophocles announced this to the people and received the talent of gold, appointed as a reward for finding a wreath. The same anecdote, with some changes, is found in Cicero, De divin. I, 25. Further, the ancients said that the god of medicine Asclepius (Aesculapius) honored Sophocles with his visit and was received by him very cordially; therefore, the Athenians, after the death of the poet, established a special cult in his honor, ranking him among the heroes under the name of Dexion (the hospitable) and sacrificing him annually. In honor of Asclepius, Sophocles is said to have composed a pean, to which was attributed the power to calm storms; this pean has been sung for centuries. In this regard, there is news that Sophocles received from the Athenians the position of priest of Galon (or Alcon), a hero of the medical art, who was brought up with Asclepius by Chiron and was initiated into the secrets of medicine. From all these stories, apparently, we can conclude that Sophocles, according to the belief of the Athenians, enjoyed the particular favor of Asclepius; one can guess that the reason for this belief was the fact that during the Athenian plague Sophocles composed a pean in honor of Asclepius with a prayer for the end of the calamity, and that soon after that the plague really stopped. Let us also mention that in one painting by Philostratus the Younger, Sophocles is depicted surrounded by bees and standing in the middle between Asclepius and Melpomene; consequently, the artist wanted to portray his beloved poet, who lived in alliance with the muse of tragedy and with the god of medical art.

  The Legend of Sophocles' Judgment with Sons

  In ancient times, much was said about the process instituted against the aged Sophocles by his son Iophon. Sophocles had from his lawful wife Nicostrata a son Iophon and from the hetera Theoris of Sikion another son, Ariston; this latter was the father of Sophocles the Younger, who earned acclaim as a tragic poet. Since the old man Sophocles loved his gifted grandson, more than his son Iophon, who was weaker in tragic art, then Iophon, as they say, out of envy, accused his father of dementia and demanded that he be removed from the administration of property, since Sophocles, as if would be already unable to conduct his own affairs. Sophocles is said to have said to the judges: “If I am Sophocles, then I am not feeble-minded; if I am feeble-minded, then I am not Sophocles, "and then I read my, just finished, tragedy" Oedipus in Colon "or the first chorus from this exemplary work that we reported above. At the same time, Sophocles is said to have noticed to the judges that he was trembling not at all in order to seem an old man, as his accuser assures, but trembling involuntarily, since he did not voluntarily live to be 80 years old. The judges, having listened to the wonderful work of the poet, acquitted him, and reprimanded his son; all those present saw the poet out of the court with applause and other signs of approval, as they had done before from the theater. Cicero (Cat. Mai. VII, 22) and others, talking about this incident, call the accuser not only of Iophon, but of the sons of Sophocles in general, who demanded that their old father, careless and wasteful, be removed from the management of property, as a person out of my mind.

  Whether these stories are based on any historical fact - about this the latest scholars have expressed different opinions. We can join the opinion of those who believe that this whole story is nothing more than a fiction of comic writers. At least with regard to Iophon, we know that in the last years of his father's life he was in the best possible relations with him; as a sign of love and reverence for his father, he erected a monument to him and in the inscription he pointed precisely to "Oedipus in Colon", as an exemplary work of Sophocles.

  Some researchers argue that the very background of this anecdote is wrong. It mistakenly says that the grandson, for whose love Iophon was angry with his father, was not the son of Iophon. But some inscriptions on the monuments indicate that this grandson of Sophocles, Sophocles the Younger, was the son of Iophon. Thus, the motivation for Iophon's displeasure contradicts the fact.

  Death of Sophocles

  Sophocles died at the end of the Peloponnesian War in 406 BC (Ol. 93, 2-3), about 90 years old. We have various fabulous stories about his death. It is said that he choked on a grape, that he died of joy in winning a dramatic contest, or from the strain of his voice while reading Antigone, or after reading this drama. He was buried in the family crypt, which was on the road to Dhekelia, 11 stadia from the Athenian wall, and a siren was depicted on his tomb or, according to other reports, a swallow carved out of bronze as a symbol of eloquence. At the time when the burial of Sophocles was taking place, Dhekelia was still occupied by the Lacedaemonians, so that there was no access to the poet's family crypt. Then, according to the biographer, the Lacedaemonian commander (he is incorrectly called Lysander) appeared in a dream Dionysus and ordered to skip the funeral procession of Sophocles. Since the commander did not pay attention to this phenomenon, Dionysus appeared to him a second time and repeated his demand. The commander inquired through the fugitives who exactly would be buried and, hearing the name of Sophocles, sent a herald with permission to skip the procession. The Athenians, in their national assembly, decided to sacrifice annually to their great fellow citizen.

  Soon after the death of Sophocles, during the Lena festivities (in January) 405 BC, the comedy of Aristophanes "The Frogs" was put on the stage, in which full gratitude is given to the high poetic talent of Sophocles, along with Aeschylus, and another comedy - The Muses, Op. Phrynnich, in which Sophocles is also glorified. "It is wonderful," says Welker, "that at the same time as Aristophanes, another great comic writer honored Sophocles, who had died no more than two months before, with a work of fiction of a kind that had never been used to glorify the dead before — comedy." From this comedy ("Muses") the following words have been preserved, which depict the meaning and happiness of the recently deceased poet:

  Happy Sophocles! After a long life, he died, being a wise man and loved by all. He created many excellent tragedies and ended his life beautifully, not overshadowed by grief. "

  Subsequently, the Athenians, at the suggestion of the orator Lycurgus, erected a statue of Sophocles in the theater, along with the statues of Aeschylus and Euripides, and decided to carefully preserve the lists of the tragedies of these three writers.

  Many images of Sophocles have survived to our time, about which Welker speaks in detail in the first volume of his "Ancient Monuments". Of these, the best is the larger-than-human statue in the Lateran Museum in Rome, which is probably a copy of the one that once stood in the Athenian theater. Welker describes this statue, representing the poet in the prime of life, as follows: “This is a noble, powerful figure; position, body shape and especially clothing are beautiful; in posture and drapery, the ease of a Roman commoner of our day is combined with the dignity of a noble Athenian; to this must be added the natural freedom of movement, which distinguishes a person who is educated and aware of his mental superiority. The lively facial expression gives this statue a special meaning and character. - Facial expression is clear, but at the same time serious and thoughtful; The poet's perspicacity, expressed in a gaze directed somewhat upward, is combined with the full color of physical and mental strength. This statue shows talent, intelligence, art, nobility and inner perfection, but there is not even a remote hint of demonic animation and strength, the highest originality, everything that sometimes gives a genius an external imprint of something extraordinary. "

  

  Sophocles had sons: Iophon, Leosthenes, Ariston, Stephen and Meneclides. Of these, Iophon and Ariston, the son of Theoris, are called tragic poets. Iophon took part in dramatic competitions and won a brilliant victory while his father was still alive; Sophocles himself argued with him about primacy. Attic comedy recognizes the merits of his works, but expresses suspicion that his father helped him to process them, or, to use a comic expression, that Iophon abducted his father's tragedies. Ariston's son, Sophocles the Younger, was a very talented tragedian and won many victories in competitions. In memory of his grandfather, he put on the stage, in 401 BC, his tragedy "Oedipus at Colon."

  Translations of Sophocles into Russian

  Sophocles was translated into Russian by I. Martynov, F. Zelinsky, V. Nilender, S. Shervinsky, A. Parin, Vodovozov, Shestakov, D. Merezhkovsky, Zubkov

  Literature about Sophocles

  The most important list of Sophocles' tragedies is kept in the Laurentian library in Florence: S. Laurentianus, XXXII, 9, refers to the 10th or 11th century; all other lists available in various libraries represent copies from this list, with the possible exception of another Florentine copy of the 14th century. No. 2725, in the same library. Since the time of W. Dindorf, the first list is designated by the letter L, the second by G. The best scholias are also taken from the list L.

  Mishchenko F.G.The Theban Trilogy of Sophocles. Kiev, 1872

  Mishchenko FG The attitude of Sophocles' tragedies to the contemporary poet of real life in Athens. Part 1. Kiev, 1874

  Alandsky P. Philological study of the works of Sophocles. Kiev, 1877

  Alandsky P. Depiction of mental movements in the tragedies of Sophocles. Kiev, 1877

  Schulz GF To the question of the main idea of ​​the tragedy of Sophocles "Oedipus the King". Kharkov, 1887

  Schultz GF Critical Notes on the Text of Sophocles' Tragedy "Oedipus the King". Kharkov, 1891

  Yarkho V. N. The Tragedy of Sophocles "Antigone": Textbook. M .: Higher. school, 1986

  Surikov I.E.The evolution of the religious consciousness of the Athenians in the second half of the 5th century. BC BC: Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes in their relation to traditional religion

  (about 496-406 BC) ancient greek playwright

  Along with Aeschylus and Euripides, Sophocles is considered the great playwright of Ancient Greece, the master of classical tragedy. His fame and fame were so great that after the death of the playwright they called him heros dexion ("right man").

  Sophocles was born in the Athenian city of Colon into the family of a wealthy arms shop owner. High social status predetermined the fate of the future playwright. He received an excellent general and artistic education and, already in his youth, became famous as one of the best Athenian choirists - choir leaders during dramatic performances. Later, Sophocles was entrusted with the most important position in Athens - the guardian of the treasury of the Athenian naval union, and, in addition, he was one of the strategists.

  Thanks to his friendship with Pericles, the ruler of Athens, as well as with the famous historian Herodotus and sculptor Phidias, Sophocles combined literary studies with active political activity.

  Like other Greek playwrights, he regularly participated in poetry competitions. Scientists estimate that in total he performed more than thirty times, and won twenty-four victories and only six times took second place. Sophocles first defeated Aeschylus at the age of 27.

  According to contemporaries, he wrote 123 tragedies, of which only seven have survived to this day. All of them are based on the plots of ancient Greek mythology. Basically, the heroes of Sophocles are strong and uncompromising personalities. Such is Ajax, the hero of the tragedy of the same name, offended by the unjust decision of the leaders. A similar character is possessed by the wife of Hercules Deianir, suffering from love and jealousy, who inadvertently became the culprit of his death ("Trakhinyanka", 409 BC).

  The most significant are the tragedies of Sophocles "Oedipus the king" (429) and "Antigone" (443). Oedipus, expelled from his kingdom, tries to understand the reasons for such a harsh decision of the elders and dies when he learns that he has become the husband of his mother. Such acute dramatic conflicts would later become the basis of the aesthetics of plays of the period of classicism, the basis of plots in the works of P. Corneille and J. Racine.

  Sophocles strove to make his tragedies more dynamic and expressive. To do this, he came up with painted theatrical scenery, which helped the audience to feel the drama of what was happening. Before that, the whole action was explained by the choir, who appeared with the appropriate tablets ("forest", "house", "temple").

  In addition, Sophocles for the first time brought to the stage not two, but three characters, which made their dialogue more lively and deep. In his works, actors sometimes even portrayed abstract concepts: for example, in the tragedy Oedipus the King, a special actor played the role of Rock, the personification of a ruthless fate.

  Sophocles also simplified the language of his plays, leaving the slow hexameter only for the choir. Now the speech of the characters was constantly changing, approaching natural human conversation. Sophocles believed that a playwright should portray people as they should be, and not as they really are. He expressed his views in a treatise on the theory of drama and choral singing that has not come down to us. Even during the life of the author, his tragedies were recognized as exemplary, and they were studied in schools. Even at the end of the ancient era, already in ancient Rome, Sophocles was considered an unattainable role model.

  This is probably why other playwrights often used his tragedies as a source for their works. They were much more dynamic and believable than the plays of his contemporaries. Of course, the authors of different eras reduced their text, but they always kept the main thing - its courageous and fair heroes.

  In addition to tragedies, Sophocles also wrote satirical dramas. A fragment of one of them called "Pathfinder" is known.

  52
  4. The general nature of the poems ......................... 56
  5. The main images of the poems ......................... 61
  6. Features of the epic style ...................... 67
  7. Language and verse of poems ........................... 74
  8. Nationality and national significance of Homer's poems ............ 76

  Chapter III. Homeric question Chapter V. The simplest forms of lyric poetry Chapter IX. Aeschylus Chapter X. Time of Sophocles and Euripides Chapter XVI. The flourishing of oratory Chapter XIX. Literature of Hellenism Chapter XXI. End of Ancient Greek Literature and Early Christian Literature

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  2. PRODUCTS OF SOPHOCLES

  Sophocles reportedly wrote 123 dramas, but of them only seven have survived, which were apparently arranged chronologically in the following order: "Ajax"

  224

  Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus in Colon. The dates of the performances have not been set exactly. It is only known that Philoctet was staged in 409, Oedipus at Colon in 401, after the poet's death; "Antigone", as indicated above, refers, in all likelihood, to 442; there is reason to believe that "King Oedipus" was staged around 428, since the description of the pestilence in Thebes is similar to the response experienced in 430 and 429. epidemics in Athens. "Ajax", containing satire on the Spartans, was staged, apparently, before the thirty-year peace with the Spartans concluded in 445. In 1911 in Egypt, significant fragments of the satire drama "Pathfinders" were found on papyrus, which, apparently, belongs to the early ones.
  The content of all these works is taken from three mythological cycles: from the Trojan - "Ajax", "Electra" and "Philoctetus"; from Theban - "King Oedipus", "Oedipus in Colon" and "Antigone"; the plot of "The Little Women" is taken from the legend of Hercules. In the future, their content is considered according to the cycles of legends.
  The plot of "Ajax" is borrowed from the cyclical poem "The Little Iliad". After the death of Achilles, Ajax, as the most valiant warrior after him, counted on receiving his armor. But they were given to Odysseus. Then Ajax, seeing this as an intrigue on the part of Agamemnon and Menelaus, decided to kill them. However, the goddess Athena clouded his mind, and instead of his enemies, he killed a herd of sheep and cows. Coming to his senses and seeing what he had done, Ajax, conscious of his shame, decided to commit suicide. His wife Tekmessa and the faithful warriors who make up the chorus, fearing for him, closely monitor his actions. But he, having deceived their vigilance, goes to the deserted shore and throws himself on the sword. Agamemnon and Menelaus think to take revenge on the dead enemy, leaving his body without burial. However, his brother Tevkr stands up for the rights of the deceased. He is supported by the noble enemy himself - Odysseus. Thus, the matter ends in a moral victory for Ajax.
  Elektra is similar in plot to Aeschylus's Hoefor. But the main character here is not Orestes, but his sister Electra. Orestes, having come to Argos, accompanied by his faithful Uncle and friend Pilad, hears the screams of Electra, but God ordered revenge by cunning, and therefore no one should know about his arrival. Elektra tells the women of the choir about her difficult situation in the house, since she cannot tolerate the murderers 'mockery of the memory of her father, and reminds them of Orestes' awaiting revenge. Elektra's sister Chrysothemis, sent by her mother to make atoning sacrifices at her father's grave, brings the news that the mother and Aegisthus decided to plant Electra in the dungeon. After that, Clytemnestra comes out and prays to Apollo to avert trouble. At this time, Uncle Orestes appears under the guise of a messenger from a friendly king and reports the death of Orestes. The news plunges Electra into despair, while Clytemnestra triumphs, freed from the fear of revenge. Meanwhile, Chrysothemis, returning from her father's grave, tells Electra that she saw there grave sacrifices that could not be anyone else.

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  brought, except for Orestes. Electra refutes her guesses, passing on the news of his death to her, and offers to take revenge by common forces. Since Chrysothemis refuses, Electra declares that she will do it alone. Orestes, disguised as a messenger from Phocis, brings a funeral urn and, recognizing his sister in the grieving woman, opens up to her. After that, he kills his mother and Aegisthus. Unlike the tragedy of Aeschylus, Sophocles' Orestes does not experience any torment, and the tragedy ends with the triumph of victory.
  Philoctet is based on a plot from the Lesser Iliad. Philoctetes went on a campaign near Troy along with other Greek heroes, but on the way to the island of Lemnos he was stung by a snake, from the bite of which an unhealed wound was left, emitting a terrible stench. To get rid of Philoctetes, who had become a burden for the army, the Greeks, on the advice of Odysseus, left him alone on the island. Only with the help of the bow and arrows given to him by Hercules, the ailing Philoctetus sustained his existence. But the Greeks received a prediction that without the arrows of Hercules, Troy could not be taken. Odysseus undertook to get them. Going to Lemnos with the young Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, he forces him to go to Philoctetus and, having crept into his confidence, take possession of his weapon. Neoptolemus does so, but then, seeing the helplessness of the hero who confided in him, he repents of his deception and returns the weapon to Philoctetus, hoping to convince him to voluntarily go to the aid of the Greeks. But Philoctetes, having learned about the new deception of Odysseus, flatly refuses. However, according to the myth, he still took part in the capture of Troy. Sophocles resolves this contradiction through a special technique, which was often used by Euripides: while Philoctetes is about to go home with the help of Neoptolemus, the deified Hercules (the so-called "god from the machine" - deus ex machina) appears in front of them and gives Philoctetes the command gods that he should go to Troy, and as a reward he was promised healing from the disease. The plot was previously handled by Aeschylus and Euripides.
  From the cycle of myths about Hercules, the plot of the tragedy "Trakhineyanka" is taken. This tragedy is named after the chorus of women in the city of Trakhin, where Deianira, the wife of Hercules, lives. It has been fifteen months since Hercules left her, giving her this period for waiting. She sends her son Gill to search, but then a messenger comes from Hercules with the news of his imminent return and with the booty he is sending, and among this booty is the captive Iola. Deianira learns by chance that Iola is the royal daughter and that for her sake Hercules undertook a campaign and ravaged the city of Echalia. Wanting to regain the lost love of her husband, Deianira sends him a shirt soaked in the blood of the centaur Nessus; many years earlier, Nessus, dying from the arrow of Hercules, had told her that his blood was so powerful. But suddenly she receives the news that Hercules is dying, as the Shirt stuck to the body and began to shoot him. In desperation, she takes her own life. When then the suffering Hercules is brought, he wants to execute his murderer wife, but learns that she has already died and that his death is the revenge of the centaur he once killed. Then he orders to carry himself to

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  the top of Mount Eta and there to burn. Thus, the tragedy is based on a fatal misunderstanding.
  The tragedies of the Theban cycle are best known. The first in the order of the development of the plot should be the tragedy "King Oedipus". Oedipus, unaware of it, committed terrible crimes - he killed father Laia and married mother Jocasta. The gradual disclosure of these crimes is the content of the tragedy. After becoming king of Thebes, Oedipus reigned happily for a number of years. But suddenly a pestilence began in the country, and the oracle said that the reason for this was the stay of the murderer of the former king Laia in the country. Oedipus is taken to the search. It turns out that the only witness to the murder was a slave who now grazes the royal flocks in the mountains. Oedipus gives the order to bring him. Meanwhile, the soothsayer Tiresias announces to Oedipus that he himself is the murderer. But this seems so incredible to Oedipus that he sees this as intrigue on the part of his brother-in-law Creon. Jocasta, wanting to calm Oedipus and show the falsity of divination, tells how she had a son from Laia, whom they, fearing the fulfillment of terrible predictions, decided to destroy, and how, many years later, his father was killed by some robbers at the crossroads of three roads. With these words, Oedipus recalls that he himself once killed some respectable husband in the same place. His suspicion creeps in whether the man he killed was a Theban king. But Jocasta calms him, referring to the words of the shepherd that there were several robbers. At this time, the Messenger, who came from Corinth, reports the death of King Polybus, whom Oedipus considered his father, and then it turns out that Oedipus was only his adopted child. And then, from the interrogation of the Theban shepherd, it is revealed that Oedipus was the very child whom Laius ordered to be killed, and that, therefore, he, Oedipus, is the murderer of his father and is married to his mother. In despair, Jocasta takes his own life, and Oedipus blinds himself and condemns to exile.
  In "Oedipus in Colon" it is presented how the blind Oedipus, traveling accompanied by his daughter Antigone, comes to Colon and here he finds protection from the Athenian king Theseus. Meanwhile, the Theban king Creon, having learned the prediction that Oedipus after death will be the patron saint of the country where he will find his end, is trying to force him back to Thebes. However, Theseus does not allow such violence. Then his son Polynices comes to Oedipus. Going on a campaign against his brother Eteocles, he wants to receive a blessing from his father, but he curses both of them. After the departure of his son, Oedipus hears the call of the gods and, accompanied by Theseus, goes to the sacred grove of Eumenides, where he finds peace, taken by the gods into the bowels of the earth. Sophocles used a colonial legend here.
  The plot of "Antigone" is outlined in the final part of the tragedy "Seven Against Thebes" by Aeschylus. When both brothers - Eteocles and Polynices - fell in single combat, Creon, assuming control of the state, forbade the body of Polynices to be buried under pain of death. However, his sister Antigone, despite this, performs the burial ceremony. During interrogation, she explains that she did it in the name of the highest, not

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  written law. Creon condemns her to death. His son Gemon, Antigone's fiancé, tries in vain to stop. She is walled up in an underground crypt. The soothsayer Tiresias tries to reason with Creon and, in view of his stubbornness, predicts the loss of his closest people as punishment. Alarmed, Creon comes to his senses and decides to free Antigone, but, having come to the crypt, does not find her alive. Gemon is stabbed over her corpse. Creon's wife Eurydice, having learned about the death of her son, also commits suicide. Creon, left alone and morally broken, curses his folly and the joyless life that awaits him.
  The satire drama "Pathfinders" is written on a plot from the Homeric hymn to Hermes. It tells how he stole Apollo's wonderful cows. Apollo, in his quest, turns to the satyr chorus for help. And those, attracted by the sounds of the lyre invented by Hermes, guess who the kidnapper is, and find the abducted herd in a cave.

  Prepared by edition:

  Radtsig S.I.
  R 15 History of Ancient Greek Literature: Textbook. - 5th ed. - M .: Higher. school, 1982, 487 p.
  © Vysshaya Shkola Publishing House, 1977.
  © Vysshaya Shkola Publishing House, 1982.

  Sophocles (c. 496 - 406 BC)

  Ancient Greek playwright. One of the three great masters of ancient tragedy, occupying a place between Aeschylus and Euripides in terms of life and nature of creativity.

  The worldview and skill of Sophocles are marked by the desire for a balance of the new and the old: glorifying the power of a free man, he warned against violating "divine laws", that is, traditional religious and civil norms of life; complicating psychological characteristics, preserving the overall monumentality of images and composition. The tragedies of Sophocles "Oedipus the King", "Antigone", "Electra" and others are classic examples of the genre.

  Sophocles was elected to important government posts, was close to the circle of Pericles. According to ancient testimonies, he wrote over 120 drams. The tragedies "Ajax", "Antigone", "King Oedipus", "Philoctetus", "Trakhine women", "Electra", "Oedipus in Colon" have come down to us in full.

  The philosopher's worldview reflects the complexity and contradictions of Athenian democracy during its peak. On the one hand, the democratic ideology, which had grown up on the basis of "joint private property of active citizens of the state," saw its stronghold in the omnipotence of divine providence, in the inviolability of traditional institutions; on the other hand, in the conditions of the most free development of the personality for that time, the tendency towards its release from polis ties was more and more persistently manifested.

  The trials that fall to the lot of man could not find a satisfactory explanation in the divine will, and Sophocles, preoccupied with the preservation of polis unity, did not try to justify the divine government of the world with any ethical considerations.

  At the same time, he was attracted by an active person responsible for his decisions, which was reflected in Ajax.

  In Oedipus King, the hero's inexorable investigation of the secrets of his past makes him responsible for involuntary crimes, although it does not give grounds to interpret the tragedy in terms of guilt and divine retribution.

  Antigone appears to be a solid, unshakable person in her decision with her heroic defense of "unwritten" laws from the arbitrariness of an individual, hiding behind the authority of the state. The heroes of Sophocles are free from everything secondary and too personal, they have a strong ideal beginning.

  The plots and images of Sophocles were used both in subsequent ancient and in new European literature from the era of classicism up to the 20th century. A deep interest in the work of the playwright was manifested in studies on the theory of tragedy (G.E. Lessing, I.V. Goethe, the Schlegel brothers, F. Schiller, V.G. Belinsky). From the middle of the XIX century. Sophocles' tragedies are staged in theaters around the world.