Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/133

 SOPHOCLES. 1 1 5 novelty and loveliness of youth which hung around the form and the poetry of the beautiful son of Sophillus. Sophocles rarely appeared on the stage, in consequence of the weakness of his voice ^: we are told, however, that he performed on the lyre, in the character of Thamyris, and distinguished himself by the grace with wdiich he played at ball in his own play called Nausicaa^. In 440 B. c. he brought out the Antigone, and we are informed that it was to the political wisdom exhibited in that play, that he owed his appointment as colleague of Pericles and Thucydides in the Samian war^. On this occasion he met with Herodotus, and composed a lyrical poem for that historian It does not appear that he distinguished himself in his military capacity^. He received many invitations from foreign courts, but loved Athens too well to accept them. He held several offices in his old age. He was priest of the hero Alon^, and in the year 413 b. c. was elected one of the irpo^ouKoi. This was a board of commissioners, all old men, which was established im- mediately after the disastrous termination of the Syracusan expe- dition, to devise expedients for meeting the existing emergencies'''. ^ UpQiTov KaToXvcras ttjv VTroKpiaiv rov ttoltjtov Sta ttjv iblav tVxi'O^wj'iai'. Vit. Anonym. ^ See the passage of Athen (i. p, 20) quoted above. ''The Nausicaa was, accord- ing to all appearances, a satyric drama. The Odyssee was in general a rich store- house for the satyrical plays. The character of Ulysses himself makes him a very con- venient satyrical impersonation." Lessing, Lehen des Sophocles, note K (Vol. vi. p. 34'2)- 3 Strabo, xiv. p. 446; Suidas, v. MiXtros; Athen. Xiii. p. 603 f; Scholiast, Aristoph. Pax, v. 696; Cic. de Off. I. 40; Plutarch, Pericl. c. viii. ; Plin. H. N. XXXVII. 2; Val. Max. iv. 3: all testify that the true cause is assigned by Aris- tophanes of Byzantium in the argument to the Avtigone: <^a(rl 5^ top 2o0o/cXea Tj^iuxrdai TTJs h 'Zdixi^ (TTparrjylas evdoKLfj^rjcravTa iv rfj dLdaaKoXig. ttjs 'Avriydvrjs. A similar distinction was conferred upon Phrynichus, ^lian, V. H. iii. 8. It is probable that Sophocles conciliated the favour of the more popular party, by the way in which he speaks of Pericles, v. 662, and they were perhaps willing to take the hint in v. 175, where, we may observe in passing, <ppovrfixa signifies "political opinions," as in the phrases, e/xiridois (pov7]jj.a<nv, Tot6u8* ep.bv (pp6vr]p,a, taov ^povwv, which occur in the same play. On the meanings of (ppovetv and (ppourjpLa in Sophocles, see the notes on the translation of the Antigone, pp. 155, 168. ^ Plutarch, An seni, &c. c. 3. iv. 153, Wyttenb. On this subject the student may consult the Introduction to the Antigone, p. xvii, and Transactions of the Philol. Soc. I. No. 15, where it will be seen that Herodotus was an imitator of Sophocles. •^ At least if we may credit the tale told of him by Ion, a contemporary poet (Athenaeus, xiii. 604), where he is made to say of himself: MeXerw arpaT-qye^v, J avhper iTreidi^Trep HepticX'^s Troietv pLep ^cpr] pt.€, arpaTTjyeTv d' ovk lirlcrTaadai. ^ "E<rxe Zh koI ttjv rod "AXojvos iepuxxvprju, 8s rjpus rjv /xerd '' A ct KKrj-mov Trapa Xeipcovi. Vit. Anonym. Thucyd. VIII. i : ^'at o.pxy]v riva. rOiv Trpea^vrepojp avdpQv eXeadai oltlvcs irepl twp irap'jvTwv ws hv Kaipbs tJ Trpo^ovXeva-ovai. We consider these irpd^ovXoL to have been most probably elected to serve as ^vyypacpijs (Thucyd. viii. 67), for it was the ^vy- ypa^Tjs who brought about the revolution, and we learn from Aristotle (see below) that Sophocles contributed to it in his character of irpo^ovXos. 8—2