Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/361

339 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT OREECE. 33G According to several old anecdotes, Sophocles preserved even in the bustle of war his cheerfulness of temper, and that poetical disposi- tion which delights in a clear and tranquil contemplation of human affairs. It was also on this occasion that Sophocles became acquainted with Herodotus, who about this time was living at Samos (chap. XIX. § 1.), and composed a poem for him, no doubt a lyrical one.* It is interesting- to think of the social intercourse of two such men with one another. They both scrutinized the knowledge of human affairs with calm and comprehensive vision ; but the Samian, with a more boyish disposition, sought out the traditions of many nations and many lands, while the Athenian had applied his riper and more searching intellect to that which was immediately before him, — the secret workings of power and passion in the breast of every man. Tt is doubtful whether Sophocles took any further part in public affairs at a later period. On the whole, he was, as his contemporary Ion of Chios tells us,t neither very well acquainted with politics nor particularly qualified for public business. In all this, he did not get beyond the ordinary standard of individuals of the better sort. It is clear that, in his case, as in that of iEschylus, poetry was the business of his life. The study and exercise of the art of poetry occupied the whole of his time, as appears at once from the number of his dramas. There existed under his name 130 plays, of which, according to the grammarian Aristophanes, seventeen were wrongly ascribed to him. The remaining 113 seem to comprise tragedies and satyrical dramas. In several of the tetralogies, however, the satyrical drama must have been lost or perhaps never existed (as we find to be the case with other poets also), because otherwise the number could not have been so uneven ; at the utmost there could only have been twenty-three extant satyrical dramas to ninety tragedies. All these pieces were brought out between Olymp. 77. 4. B.C. 46S, when Sophocles first came forward, and Olymp. 93. 2. B.C. 406, when he died; consequently, in a period of sixty-two years, the last of which, comprehending his extreme old age, cannot have added much to the number. The years of the Peloponnesian war must have been the most prolific ; for if we may depend upon the Sophocles took a part, 'l-i C (p. 1S2, Kd. Frommel. ) shoulders. It is from this poem, of course, that tie author of the Vita Sophoc/ix derives his assertion with regard to the age of Sophocles at the time of the Samian war ; otherwise, how did he come to make an assertion so unusual with gramma- rians ? We must, therefore, emend the readings in the liln Sophac/is according to the passage in Plutarch, where the text is more to be depended on. This will make Sophocles 55 years old at this peri d. t A the nanus XIII. p 603.
 * See Plutarch An sent, &c. 3., where this story is brought in by the head and