Page:A History of Ancient Greek Literature.djvu/273

Rh curse-scene, could perhaps be made grand by sympathetic acting.

The play is said by the 'didascaliæ' to have been produced after the poet's death by his grandson of the same name. The verse, however, seems decidedly earlier than that of the Philoctêtes (409), and the political allusions have led to various unconvincing theories about its composition at earlier dates. Prof. L. Campbell's (411) is perhaps the most probable.

Though not one of the most characteristic of the poet's plays, it is perhaps the most intimate and personal of them; and it would be hard to find a more typical piece of Sophoclean writing than the beautiful lines of Œdipus to Theseus: