A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

868 SOPHIOCLES. SOPHOCLES.
was then in his eighty-third year, it is not likely ciliation was referred to in the lines of the Oedipus
that he took any active part in their proceedings, at Colonus, where Antigone pleads with her father
or that he was chosen for any other reason than to forgive Polyneices, as other fathers had been
to obtain the authority of his name. All that we induced to forgive their bad children (vv. ] 192, foll.).
are told of his conduct in this office is that he con- Whether Sophocles died in, or after the comntented to the establishment of the oligarchical pletion of, his ninetieth year, cannot be said with
Council of Four Hundred, B.C. 411, though he absolute certainty. It is clear, from the allusions
acknowledged the measure to be an evil one, be- to him in the Frogs.of Aristophanes and the IlIusae
cause, he said, there was no better course (Aristot. of Phrynichus, that he was dead before the repreRhet. iii. 18, Pol. vi. 5). The change of govern- sentation of those dramas at the Lenaea, in Fement thus effected released him, no doubt, from all bruary, B. c. 405, and hence several writers, anfurther concern with public affairs. cient as well as modern, have placed his death in
One thing at least is clear as to his political the beginning of that year. (Diod. xiii. 103;
principles, that he was an ardent lover of his AIarm. Par. No. 65; Aryg. III. ad Oed. Col.;
country. The patriotic sentiments, which we still Clinton, F. H., s. a.) But, if we make allowance
admire in his poems, were illustrated byhis own con- for the time required for the composition and preduct; for, unlike Simonides and Pindar, Aeschylus, paration of those dramas, of which the Frogs, at
Euripides, and Plato,and others of the greatest poets least, not only refers to his death, but presupposes
and philosophers of Greece, Sophocles would never that event in the very conception of the comedy,
condescend to accept the patronage of monarchs, or we can hardly place it later than the spring of
to leave his country in compliance with their re- B. C. 406, and this date is confirmed by the
peated invitations. (Vit. Anon.) His affections statement of the anonymous biographer, that his
were fixed upon the land which had produced the death happened at the feast of the Cho's, which
heroes of Marathon and Salamis, whose triumphs must have been in 406, and not in 405, for the
were associated with his earliest recollections; and Chois took place a month later than the Lenaea.
his eminently religious spirit loved to dwell upon Lucian (Macrob. 24) certainly exaggerates, when
the sacred city of Athena, and the hallowed groves he says that Sophocles lived to the age of 95.
of his native Colonus. In his later days he filled All the various accounts of his death and funeral
the office of priest to a native hero, Halon, and the are of a fictitious and poetical complexion; as are
gods were said to have rewarded his devotion by so many of the stories which have come down to
granting him supernatural revelations. (-ye'-yove us respecting the deaths of the other Greek poets:
KCad aeosPLX7s o,OPOKeXp S aiS OVsc oaAos, &C. Vit. nay, we often find the very same marvel attending
Anon.) the decease of different individuals, as in the cases
The family dissensions, which troubled his last of Sophocles and Philemon [PHILEMON, p. 263,
years, are connected with a well-known andbeau- b]. According to Ister and Neanthes, he was
tiful story, which bears strong marks of authen- choked by a grape (Vit. Anon.); Satyrus related
ticity, and which, if true, not only proves that he that in a public recitation of the Antiione he
preserved his mental powers and his wonted calm- sustained his voice so lone without a pause that,
ness to the last, but also leaves us with the satis- through the weakness of extreme age, he lost his
factory conviction that his domestic peace was breath and his life together (ibid.); while others
restored before he died. His family consisted of ascribed his death to excessive joy at obtaining a
two sons, Iophon, the offspring of Nicostrate, who victory (ibid.). These legends are of course the
was a free Athenian woman, and Ariston, his son offspring of a poetical feeling which loved to conby Theoris of Sicyon*; and Ariston had a son nect the last moments of the great tragedian with
named Sophocles, for whom his grandfather showed his patron god. In the same spirit it is related
the greatest affection. Iophon, who was by the that Dionysus twice appeared in vision to Lylaws of Athens his father's rightful heir, jealous sander, and commanded him to allow the interment
of his love for the young Sophocles, and apprehend- of the poet's remains in the family tomb on the
ing that Sophocles purposed to bestow upon his road to Deceleia (Vit. Anon.; comp. Paus. i. 21).
grandson a large proportion of his property, is said According to Ister, the Athenians honoured his
to have summoned his father before the (ppaopfs, memory with a yearly sacrifice ( Vit. As2on.).
who seem to have had a sort of jurisdiction in family No doubt the ancient writers were quite right
affairs, on the charge that his mind was affected in thinking that, in the absence of details respectby old age. As his only reply, Sophocles ex- ing the matter of fact, the death of Sophocles was
claimed, "If I am Sophocles, I am not beside a fair subject for a poetical description; but, inmyself; and if I am beside myself, I am not So- stead of resorting to trifling and contradictory lephocles;" and then he read from his Oedipus at gends, they might have found descriptions of his
Colonus, which was lately written, but not yet decease, at once poetical and true, in the verses of
brought out, the magnificent parodos, beginning - contemporary poets, who laid aside the-bitter satire
Emitmrmrov, e'es, -raoase Xcepas, of the Old Comedy to do honour to his memory.
Thus Phrynichus, in his Moruoai, which was acted
whereupon the judges at once dismissed the case, with the Frogs of Aristophanes, in which also the
and rebuked Iophon for his undutiful conduct. memory of Sophocles is treated with profound re(Plut. An Seni sit Gerend. Respub. 3. p. 775, b.; spect, referred to the poet's death in these beautiful
Vit. Anon.) That Sophocles forgave his son might lines: —
almost be assumed from his known character; and M
Mabcap oepotKcxs, b% 7rox'v Xpvov Doss
the ancient grammarians supposed that the recon- deav, eiaaluv dar kp ca Vieos
WroAhhs uroldaas sale KaXcas c pa-yqlaS'
* Suidas mentions three other sons - Leosthenes, KAch P s' TEAUl' oi7i0 shvrojmivas Kacco'y.
Stephanus, and Menecleides - of whom we know
nothing. (Arg. III. ad Oed. Col.; Meincke, Frcgy. Corm.