Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/374

352 352 HISTORY OP THE given to human actions in every field. There is, however, one drama in which the religious ideas of Sophocles are brought so prominently forward that the whole piay may be considered as an exposition of the Greek belief in the gods. This drama, the CEdipus at Colonics, is always connected in the old stories with the last days of the poet. Sophocles attained the age of 89, or thereabouts, for he did not die till Olymp. 93. 2. b.c. 406,* and yet he did not himself bring out the CEdipus at Colonus; it was first brought on the stage in Olymp. 94. 3. b. c. 401, by his grandson, the younger Sophocles. This younger Sophocles was a son of Ariston, the offspring of the great poet and Theoris of Sicyon. Sophocles had also a son Iophon by a free-woman of Athens, and he alone, according to the Attic law, could be considered as his legitimate son and right'ul heir. Iophon and Sophocles both emulated their father and grand- father; the former brought tragedies on the stage during his father's lifetime, the latter after his grandfather's death : the whole family seems, like that of iEschylus, to have dedicated itself to the tragic muse. But the heai-t of the old man yearned towards the offspring of his be- loved Theoris ; and it was said, that he was endeavouring to bestow upon his grandson during his own lifetime a considerable part of his means. Iophon, fearing lest his inheritance should be too much di- minished by this, was urged to the undutiful conduct of proposing to the members of the phratria (who had a sort of family jurisdiction) that his father should no longer be permitted to have any control over his property, which he was no longer capable of managing. The only reply which Sophocles made to this charge was to read to his fellow- tribesmen the parodos from the CEdipus at Colonus ;f which must, therefore, have been just composed, if it were to furnish any proof for the object he had in view ; and we think it does the greatest honour to the Athenian judge, that, after such a proof of the poet's powers of mind, they paid no attention to the proposal of Iophon, even though he was right in a legal point of view. Iophon, it seems, became sensible of his error, and Sophocles afterwards forgave him. The ancients found was the year of the Archon Callias, in which Aristophanes' Frogs were brought out at the Lensa, and the death of Sophocles is presupposed in this comedy as well as that of Euripides. The Fit a Sophoc/is, however, following Istrus and Neanthes, places the death of Sophocles at the Chots ; and as the Choes, which belonged to the Anthesteria, were celebrated in the month Anthesterion, after the Lenaea, which fell in the month Gamelion. the death of Sophocles must be referred to the year before the archonship of Callias, consequently to Olymp 93. 2. If we suppose that some confusion has taken place, and substitute for the Choes the lesser, or country Dionysia, we should still be very far short of the necessary time for conceiving, writing, and preparing for the stage such a comedy as the Frogs, even though we should also suppose an intercalaiy month inserted between Poseideon and Gamelion. f EiiVfl-ow, £ev£, rao-h xcopxs, v. 663 ff. Comp. chap. XXII. §.
 * The old authorities give Olymp. 93. 3. as the year of Sophocles' death: this