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

SOPIIOIOCES. SOPI-OCLES. 869
Graec. vol. ii. p. 592; Editio Minor, p. 233.) And ideal representations, rather than actual likenesses.
if the last line is not specific enough for those who Philostratus (I2ang. 13) describes several such porare curious to know the details of the death of traits by different artists, and an account of those
such a man, we venture to say that the want may which now exist will be found in M'iller's Archiiobe supplied by those exquisite verses in which the logie der Kunst, ~ 420, n. 5, p. 731, ed. Welcker.
poet himself relates the decease of Oedipus, when The following chronological summary exhibits
restored by a long expiation to that religious calm the few leading events, of which the date can be
in which he himself had always lived - a descrip- fixed, in the life of Sophocles:tion so exactly satisfying our idea of what the 01. B. C.
death of Sophocles must and ought to have been, 71. 2. 495. Birth of SophocIes.
that we at once perceive, by a sort of instinct, that 73. 4. 484. Aeschylus gains the first prize.
it was either written in the direct anticipation of Birth of Herodotus.
his own departure, or perhaps even thrown into 75. 1. 480. Battle of Salamis. Sophocles (aet.
its present form by the younger Sophocles, to make 15-16) leads the chorus round
it an exact picture of his grandfather's death- the trophy. Birth of Euripides.
where Oedipus, having been summoned by a divine 77. 4. 468. First tragic victory of Sophocles.
voice from the solemn recesses of the grove of the Defeat and retirement of AeschyEumenides, in terms which might well be used to lus. Birth of Socrates.
the poet of ninety years of age (Oed. Col. 1627, 78. 1. 469. Death of Simonides.
1628):- 80. 2. 458. The'OpeorEia of Aeschylus.
w3 oereo,. o;'o0, OilSir'ov,'ri UhAo/erv 81. 1. 456. Death of Aeschylus.
XwpECiV; 7rhaAac 5h s'ri o'6 fppase'TatS,- 81. 1. 455. Euripides begins to exhibit.
84. 3. 441. Euripides gains the first prize.
having taken leave of his children and retired from 84: 4. 440. Sophocles gains the first prize with
the world, and having offered his last prayers to his Antzgone, and is made strathe gods of earth and heaven, departs in peace, by tegus with Pericles in the Samian
an unknown fate, without disease or pain (1658, war.
foll.): — 85. 1. 439. Probable return of Sophocles to
O0'yp Tis aVtoh' oe're 7rvpip6Opos aEo Athens. Death of Pindar?,Kepavu3s 4s'srparev, orTe 7rov'ria 91. 4. 413. Sophocles one of the Probuli.
EshhXa KtvqEOs7aa T'r 70'r' 4V XpOT'vp 92. 1. 411. Government of the Four Hundred.
dhA'' rEs ei &sieiSv 7roLrds, 7)'rO ep'rp-pwv 92. 3. 409. The Philoctetes of Sophocles. First
evVovv 8isarciyv yrs dh/arsreso' B13Opov. prize.'Avup yadp oil.rr'EacTOds o0 o adb v oosoS 93. 2. 406. Death of Euripides. Death of SodhAyelvOs 4e7reyrres', adh' EY nTs Bpoercv phocles.
aavao',re's. Et e A7n 3OKC cppOVYV hXYEL, 94. 3. 401. The Oedipus at Colonus brought
oUKc a'v rapdegL7v oer y) Solci ppopYeV,. out by the younger Sophocles.
If any reader thinks that the application of these The following genealogical table exhibits the
lines to the death of Sophocles himself is too fan- family relations of Sophocles, omitting the three sons,
ciful, let him take the last words of the quotation of whom we only know the names (see above): —
as our answer; and let us be left still further to
indulge the same fancy by imagining, not the applause, but the burst of suppressed feeling, with
which an Athenian audience first listened to th (Wife) Nicostrate= SPHocLE 1 =Theoris (Condescription, applying it, as we feel sure they did,I I cubine)
to the poet they had lost. Iophon Ariston
The inscription placed upon his tomb, according l
to some authorities, celebrated at once the perfec-SophocLes 2.
tion of his art and the graces of his person (Vit. All these descendants of Sophocles seem to have
Anon.): — been occupied, to some extent, with tragic poetry.
Kicpsrrrvt'rc'E'rie EOfOeriAr'rpw'rsa lan6rna Iophon was of some celebrity as a tragedian [lopvrTe T'Poffc T.fpV o upoa K o 7OeoTa o7a eq'a rPHON]. There is some doubt about Ariston; the.i-p ejuTfi XvP, (YX0lA~a es'r probability is that he was a tragic poet, but that
Among the epigrams upon him in the Greek An- he generally preferred the reproduction of his fathology, there is one ascribed to Simmias of Thebes, ther's works to the exhibition of his own dramas,
which is perhaps one of the most exquisite gems in [ARISTON, literary, No. 1.] (Comp. Kayser, Hist.
the whole collection for the beauty and truthfulness Crit. Trag. Graec. pp. 74-76.) Respecting the
of its imagery (Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 168; Jacobs, younger Sophocles see below, No. 2.
Anth. Graec. vol. i. p. 100; AntIs. Pal. vii. 22, ii. The Personal Character of Sophocles.- In
vol. i. p. 312, ed. Jacobs): - that elaborate piece of dramatic criticism, the pur-'HpE'1' v'rdp TrrvLCLo:eofoeos, ljp;ea, ueKLOi, pose of which is undoubtedly serious, though the
form is that of the broad mirth and bitter satire of
c eal ~ tranov ~rdl S ol po ov, Ir se (opI the Old Comedy, we mean the Frogs, it is exKraerose, 7E ypa a creptp K'7Puad a I eva Te'v O, tremely interesting to notice both the respectful
4es oes IE-ypci 1r 7l 7 i7, eras x LVEuXPOSe, reserve with which Sophocles is treated, as if he
s1siKrnav Movriu' a 71rpeya nan Xapi pve. were almost above criticism, and the particular
force of the few passages in which Aristophanes
Among the remains of ancient art, we possess more expressly refers to him. (Aristoph. Ran. 76
several portraits of Sophocles, which, however, like -82, 786-794, 1515-1519). E'KoAhos gtthe other works of the same class, are probably ie0dc', EUKOA\os 8' K5e —i" Even tempered alike in
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