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

872 S PIIOCLES. SOPHOCLES.
gistic form, in so fitr at least as the continuity of who eneer at it as if it ascribed to the great poets
subject was concerned. In obedience to the esta- of antiquity moral and artistic purposes of which
blished custom at the Dionysiac festivals, Sopho- they themselves never dreamt. It is quite true
cles appears generally to have brought forward that the earliest and some of the mightiest efforts of
three tragedies and a satyric drama together; but genius are to a great extent (though never, we
the subjects of these four plays were entirely dis- believe, entirely) unconscious; and even such protinct, and each was complete in itself. ductions are governed by laws, written in the
Among the merely mechanical improvements human mind and instinctively followed by the poet,
introduced by Sophocles, the most important is laws which it is the task and glory of aesthetic
that of scene-pnaitizg, the invention of which is science to trace out in the works of those writers
ascribed to him. (See AGATHARCHUS.) who followed them unconsciously; but such proAll these external and formal arrangements had ductions, however magnificent they may be, are
necessarily the most important influence on the never so perfect, in every respect, as the works of
whole spirit and character of the tragedies of So- the poet who, possessing equal genius, consciously
phocles; as, in the works of every-first rate artist, and laboriously works out the great principles of
the form is a part of the substance. But it remains his art. It is in this respect that Sophocles surto notice the most essential features of the art of passes Aeschylus; his works are perhaps not
the great tragedian, namely, his choice of subjects, greater, nay, in native sublimity and spontaneous
and the spirit in which he treated them. genius they are perlaps inferior, but they are more
The subjects and style of Aeschylus are essenti- pe:fect; and that for the very reason now stated,
ally heroic; those of Sophocles are human. The and which Sophocles himself explained, when he
former excite terror, pity, and admiration, as we said, "Aeschylus does what is right, but without
view them at a distance; the latter bring those knowing it." The faults in Aeschylus, which
same feelings home to the heart, with the addition Sophocles perceived and endeavoured to avoid, are
of sympathy and self-application. No individual pointed out in a valuable passage preserved by
human being can imagine himself in the position Plutarch (de Prof. Virt. p. 79, b.). The limits of
of Prometheus, or derive a personal warning from this article will not permit us to enlarge any fsirthe crimes and fate of Clytemnestra; but every one ther on the ethical character of Sophocles, which is
can, in feeling, share the self-devotion of Antigone discussed and illustrated at great length in some of
in giving up her life at the call of fraternal piety, the works referred to above, and also in Schlegel's
and the calmness which comes over the spirit of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Criticisne, where the
Oedipus when he is reconciled to the gods. In reader will find an elaborate comparison between
Aeschylus, the sufferers are the victims of an in- the three great tragic poets (Lect. 5). We will
exorable destiny; but Sophocles brings more pro- only add, in conclusion, that if asked for the most
minently into view those faults of their own, which perfect illustration of Aristotle's definition of the
form one element of the aT-7 of which they are the end of tragedy as Vs' Ekou Kaal (pofov 7repalvouac
victims, and is more isntent upon inculcating, as the T'vy 7Tcr T70o10VoTw, raS177adrwor KcreapuCv (Poet. 6.
lesson taught by their woes, that wise calmness ~ 2), we would point to the Oedipus at Colonus of
and moderation, in desires and actions, in pro- Sophocles, and we would recommend, as one of the
sperityand adversity, which the Greek poets and most useful exercises in the study of aesthetic
philosophers celebrate under the name of Haippo- criticism, the comparison of that tragedy with the
eu'rev. On the other hand, he never descends to Eumenides of Aeschylus and the Lear of our own
that level to which Euripides brought down the Shakspere.
art, the exhibition of human passion and suffering iv. Thle Works of Sop7hocles. - The number of
for the mere purpose of exciting emotion in the plays ascribed to Sophocles was 130, of which,
spectators, apart from a moral end. The great dis- however, according to Aristophanes of Byzantium,
tinction between the two poets is defined by Aris- seventeen were spurious. He contended not only
totle, in that passage of the Po'tic (6. ~~ 12, foll.) with Aeschylus and Euripides, but also Choerilus
which may be called the great text of aesthetic Aristias, Agathon, and other poets, amonost
philosophy, and in which, though the names of whom was his own son Iophon; and he carried
Sophocles and Euripides are not mentioned, there off the first prize twenty or twenty-four times
can be no doubt that the statement that "the tra- frequently the second, and never the third. (Vii.
gedies of most of the more recent poets are unethical" Anon.; Suid. s. v.) It is remarkable, as proving
is meant to apply to Euripides, and that the con- his growing activity and success, that, of his
trast, which he proceeds to illustrate by a compari- 113 dramas, eighty-one were brought out in the
son of Polygnotus and Zesuxis in the art of painting, second of the two periods into which his career is
is intended to describe the difference between the divided by the exhibition of the Azntione, which
two poets, for in another passage of the Poetic (26. was his thirty second play (Aristoph. Byz. Asrgusm.
~ 11) he quotes with approbation the saying of ad Anltig.); ind also that all his extant dramas,
Sophocles, that "he himself represented men as which of course in the judgment of the grammariamls
they ought to be, but Euripides exhibited them as were his best, belong to the latter of these two
they are;" a remark, by the bye, which as coming periods. By comparing the number of his plays
from the mouth of Sophocles himself, exposes the with the sixty-two years over which his career exabsurdity of those opponents of aesthetic science, tended, and also the number belonging to each of
the two periods, Muller obtains the result that he
No blunder can be more gross than to speak at first brought out a tetralogy every three or four
of the Oedipus TYyrannums, the Oedipus at Colonus, years, but afterwards every two years at least; and
and the Arntigone as a trilogy. They have no dra- also that in several of the tetralogies the satyric
mar.tic continuity whatever; they were composed at drama must have been lost, or never existed, aRld
three different and distinct periods, and the last that, among those 113 plays there could only have
was the first exhibited. been, at the lmost, 23 satyric dramas to 90 trage