Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/141

 SOPHOCLES. 123 burial created peace out of war, and hostile armies held a truce, as the tomb closed upon one loved by all Athens, admired by all Greece, and destined to teach and delight the civilized world in ages yet to come. Of the seven plays of Sophocles, which have come down to us, only two are referred by express testimony to fixed dates — the Antigone, which, as we have seen, was acted in B.C. 440, and the PMloctetes, which appeared in B.C. 409 ^ Although it is stated that the (Edipus Coloneus was first acted, after the death of the poet, in B.^c. 401, and though, as we have seen, a pretty story refers its composition to the end of the poet's life, it is almost generally agreed among scholars that it belongs to the most vigorous period of his life, though it may have received additions and modifications at a later period^. With the exception then of the Antigone and Philoctetes, we have only internal evidence to fix the succession of the extant Tragedies. And here we cannot, as in the case of ^s- chylus, divide tlie plays into distinct groups indicating an earlier and a later period of dramatic art. They all exhibit the tragic power of Sophocles in its full maturity, and they all exemplify that wonderful power of drawing upon the most recondite treasures of the Greek language which made Sophocles a favourite with Virgil, the only Latin poet who exhibits the same combination of profound thought and elaborately chastened style ^. It is true that Sopho- cles, in an important citation of his words preserved by Plutarch, recognized three epochs in his own style — first, the tumid grandeui*, which he had borrowed from ^schylus; secondly, a harsh and artificial employment of terms, which he had introduced himself; Tov 7^s iTn(/a(>(TavTa Kad^ viro crTeyrj irvKvrjs oLKOVcrat xpeKcidos evSovay <ppevi. It is clear that this^ like many other passages referring to escape from the sea, expresses the feelings, and in part the language of those, who were initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries. Cf. Eurip. Bacch. 900; Demosth. Coron. p. 516 a; Lucret. 11. init. ; Cic. Att. 11. 7. 1 Arff. Philoct. : ididdxOv eirl TXavKlvTov, -rrpCoTos rjv Zo(pOKr]S. 2 See Bernhardy, Grundriss, 11. p. 788. 3 Virgil says {Eclog. viii. 10): Sola Sophocleo tua carmina digna cothurno. And there are examples in his poetry of a very close imitation of the peculiarities of the Sophoclean style. There are at least four imitations of the line in the Ajax, 674 : heLvCov drj/xa TTvev/j-dTuv iKoifii(T€ arhovTa irbvTov — namely, Eclog. il, 26 ; Georg. iv. 484 ; JEn. I. 66, v. 763 ; and the figure in Georg. III. 243, nigramque alte subjectat arenam, is clearly borrowed from Soph. Antig. 590 : Ktai.vdv dXvo, KoX bvao^v^fiov.