Sophocles
(c. 496–c. 406 B.C.)

Sophocles' life spanned the fifth century B.C. During that time he enjoyed a long and successful career as one of the foremost Greek tragic poets. He saw the rise of Athens to imperial greatness and lived through the period of cultural and intellectual enlightenment in which Athens was "an education to Greece." He witnessed the deterioration of Athens brought about by plague and warfare. In 404, two years after the death of Sophocles, Sparta defeated Athens at the end of a long and bitter struggle. Tyranny replaced democracy.

Sophocles was born in Colonus, a suburb of Athens. His father, Sophillus, was a wealthy manufacturer. Sophocles received a traditional training in literature as well as lyre playing, singing and dancing. There are references to Sophocles' striking good looks and to his skill as a dancer and a musician. In 480, the Greeks defeated the Persians in a naval battle at Salamis. At age 16, Sophocles played his lyre and led a chorus of boys at the public victory celebration.

Sophocles had a brief career as an actor and was remembered for his virtuoso lyre playing in the role of Thamyris. Sophocles' voice, however, was not strong enough to continue as an actor. He then devoted himself to writing.

After the Persian Wars, Athens controlled a vast empire and became the cosmopolitan center of the world. Artistic and intellectual life in Athens was in full bloom. It was a time and place in which philosophers and poets challenged time-honored beliefs. At age 26, Sophocles flashed into prominence as a tragic poet by defeating Aeschylus at the height of his powers. The next 25 years are a blank page. In 443, Sophocles was elected as an administrator of the Athenian Treasury, an office that he performed competently. In 440, Sophocles was elected as one of ten generals, on the strength of his achievements as a poet! The play that supposedly earned him this distinction was Antigone.

During the final period of Sophocles' career, war and disease spread through Athens. A campaign against Sparta, led by Pericles in 431 and begun with high hopes, ended in catastrophe. Two years into the war, a great plague broke out in Athens and took the life of Pericles. His death marks a turning point in the fortunes of Athens. During this period, Sophocles belonged to a religious group that worshipped the doctor-hero Amynus, and in 421 was instrumental in establishing the Athenian sanctuary of Asclepius, the god of healing. Of the five Sophoclean plays from this final period, four involve characters whose physical or psychological suffering shows decidedly plague-like symptoms. The world of these tragedies is one in which good men are unexpectedly and undeservedly brought low, and in which faith in divine justice is put to an extreme test. It is a world very much like that of Athens in the final years of the Peloponnesian War.

After the Sicilian expedition ended in disaster in 411, there was a military coup in Athens. Sophocles served on a Council of 400, which replaced the democratic government. "I'm not for it," he said, "but there's no other way." When Euripides, his innovative rival, died in 406, Sophocles is said to have dressed his chorus in black as they marched into the theatre of Dionysus. This gesture is an eloquent symbol of the times: a funeral march that marks not only the loss of a fellow tragedian, but the passing of the golden age of tragedy and the expiration of a great civilization as well. In the same year, Sophocles himself died. So universal was respect for him that the Spartan commander who presided over the siege of Athens, ordered his soldiers to step aside for the funeral cortege as it made its way from the outlying district of Colonus. There the citizens worshipped Sophocles as a hero under the name Dexios, "the Welcomer." Two years later, a defeated Athens extended bitter welcome to the armies of their Spartan conquerors.

In 430, Athens went to war with Sparta. Athens was at the pinnacle of power and had, in Pericles, a general of intelligence and foresight. Victory seemed assured. Then two unexpected catastrophes occurred. First, a deadly plague swept through Athens. The city was crowded with the dead and the dying. The disease did not distinguish between the weak and the strong, the good and the evil, or the just and the unjust. The historian, Thucydides, survived the plague. He observed a breakdown of moral and religious values and gave the following explanation for it: "The great lawlessness that was everywhere in the city began with this disease, for people saw before their eyes such quick reversals of fortune, as the rich suddenly died and men previously worth nothing took over their estates." Pericles managed to restore order and revive popular morale. "What heaven sends," he declared, "we must bear with a sense of necessity, what the enemy does to us we must bear with courage."

Then the second calamity occurred: Pericles, the one leader able to hold things together, died from the plague. The city became divided between those who favored democracy and those who favored oligarchy, government by the few. Strategic errors, political discord, private quarrels, rebellions among the allies, and monumental lack of foresight brought about the eventual downfall of Athens. It is important to keep these events in mind when considering the impact that Oedipus the King had on the audience of Sophocles' time. It is curious that Oedipus the King, now considered one of the greatest dramatic masterpieces of all time, won second place, defeated by a play that time has forgotten. One wonders whether Sophocles touched on matters that were a little too close to home?

A  |  B  |  C  |  D  |  E  |  F  |  G  |  H  |  I  |  J  |  K  |  L  |  M
N  |  O  |  P  |  Q  |  R  |  S  |  T  |  U  |  V  |  W  |  X  |  Y  |  Z