Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/132

 114 SOPHOCLES. (468 B. 0.^). He arrived at Athens about the time of the tragic contests, and ^schylus and Sophocles were among the com- petitors. The celebrity of the former, and the personal beauty, rank, popularity, and known accomplishments of the latter, excited a great sensation. When therefore Cimon and his nine colleagues entered the theatre of Bacchus, to perform the usual libations, the Archon, Apsephion, instead of choosing judges by lot, detained the ten generals in the theatre, and having administered an oath to them, made them decide between the rival tragedians. The first prize was awarded to Sophocles, and, as we have seen, ^schylus departed immediately for Sicily I This decision does not imply any disregard of the JEschylean Tragedy on the part of the Athenians. The contest was, as has been justly observed, not between two individual works of art, but between two species or ages of art^; and if, as we think has been fully demonstrated*, the Trij>toleinus was one of the plays which Sophocles exhibited on that occasion, we can readily conceive that, when the minds of the people were full of their old national legends, the subject which the young poet had chosen, and the desire to encourage his first attempt, would be sufficient to overweigh the reputation of his antagonist, coupled as it was with anti-popular politics, especially as the ^schylean Tragedy lacked that freshness of ^ Marm. Par. No. lvii. : d0' ov "ZiocpoKXij^ 6 ^o<piXov 6 ck KoXojvov iviKriae rpayiji- dig,, iruu dju AAIIIII, ^ttj HHIII, dpxoPTos 'Adrivrjaiv 'AxJ/rjcpiouos. "These were the greater Dionysia, or the Aiovv(Xt.a ra kv darei, in the month Elaphebolion ; because the Archon Eponymus, Apsephion, presided; and, 6 ixkv &px(^v diaridrjai, AiovvaLa, 6 Si PaffiXevs (conf, Aristoph. Acharn. 1224, et Schol. ad loc.) irpo^ar-qKe Krfvaiwv. Pollux, VIII. 89, 50." Clinton, F. H. 11, p. 39, '^ "YidevTo 5' eh pLvr)ixt}v avrov, Kal rrju tQv rpayqjdwu Kpiatu dvo/jLacrrriv yevofiivrjv' vpiorrju yap SidaaKaXiau rod "Zo^okX^vs ^tl viov Kadivros, ^kcpexpliav {sic), 6 dpxiov, (piXo- veiKias oijffTjs Kal irapard^ews tG}v BeaTwv, Kpiras fJikv ovk iKXrjpojae rod dyQvos' cos 5^ Kifiuv ixera rdu cvcTTparriyQiv irpoeXdwv els rb d^arpov eiroirjcxaro t(^ 6e(^ rots vevopLLff- fihas (Tiroudds, ovk diXoTi/XLav VTrep4j3aXe. viK-qaavTos be 'Lo(poKX^ov$, X^yeraL rbv Alax^Xou irepiiradrj yevb- fievou, Kal ^ap^ios iv^yKovra, xjP^vov oh ttoXiju 'Adrjvrjcri biayayeii', eXr otx^crdaL 5t' opyrjv els 1,i.KeXiav. Plutarch, Cimon, c. Vlll. There is probably an allusion to this in Aristoph. Ran. 1109 sqq., where the chorus says, that the military character of the spectators fits them to be judges of the contest between ^schylus and Euripides, earparevixevoi ydp elai. ^ Welcker, Trilogie, p, 513. ^ By Lessing, Lehen des Sophocles (note I), from a passage in Plin. II. N. xviii. 7 : Sophoclis Triptolemus ante mortem Alexandri annis fere 145. But Alexander died 323 B.C., and 323+ 145=468. On the Triptolemus in general, see Welcker, Tril. 514 (who thinks it was certainly not a satyrical drama), and Niebuhr, ffist. Rom. Vol. I. pp. 17, 18. The arguments adduced by Gruppe {Ariadne, pp. 358 foil.) to prove that the Rhesus was the play which Sophocles exhibited on this occasion, are all in favour of Lessing's opinion.