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

SOPHOCLES. SOPHOCLES. 873
dies (HIist. Lit. pp. 339, 340). The attempt has cause of piety towards the gods, brings down Jutadbeen made to divide the extant plays and titles of Xas 7rAmryds as a retribution.
Sophocles into trilogies; but, as might have been The titles and fragments of the lost plays of
expected from what has been said above respecting Sophocles will be found collected in the chief edithe nature of his trilogies, it has signally failed. A tions, and in Welcker's Griechischen Tragydien.
much more important arrangement has been very In addition to his tragedies, Sophocles is said to
elaboratelyattempted byWelcker(Griech. Tragyd.), have written an elegy, paeans, and other poems, and
namely, the classification of the extant plays and a prose work on the Chorus, in opposition to Thespis
fragments according to the poems of the Epic Cycle and Choerilus. (Suid. s. v.)
on which they were founded. v. Ancient Commentators on Sophocles.- In the
The following is most probably the chronological Scholia, the commentators are quoted by the general
order in which the seven extant tragedies of So- title of or' aVrov7r/ucaTv'rLat, or ot 67ro/uv7Jua'Ti-daeoL.
phocles were brought out: - Antigone, Electra, Among those cited by name, or to whom commenTrachiniae, Oedipus Tyi-annus, Ajax, Pkiloctetes, taries on Sophocles are ascribed by other authoriOedipus at Colonus. It is unnecessary to attempt ties, are Aristarchus, Praxiphanes, Didymus, Hean analysis of these plays, partly because every rodian, Horapollon, Androtion, and Aristophanes
scholar has read or will read them for himself, and of Byzantium. The question of the value of the
partly because they are admirably analysed in Scholia is discussed by Wunder, de Schol. in Soph.
works so generally read as MUller's History oftlhe Auctoritate, Grimae, 1838, 4to., and Wolff, de
Literature of Ancient Greece, and Schlegel's Lec- Sophoclis Scholiorunm Laur. Variis Lectionibus, Lips.
tares. Neither will our space permit us toyield to the 1843, 8vo.
temptation of entering fully into the much disputed vi. Editions of the Plays of Sophocles. -The
question of the object and meaning of the Antigone; Editio Princeps is that of Aldus, 1502, 8vo., and
respecting which the reader may consult the edi- there were numerous other editions printed in the
tions of the Antigone by B6ckh, Wex, Hermann, 16th century, the best of which are those of
and Donaldson; articles by Mr. Dyer, in the H. Stephanus, Paris, 1568, 4to., and of G. Canterus
Classical Museum, vol. ii. pp. 69, foll., vol. iii. pp. Antwerp, 1579, 12mo., both founded on the text
176, foll.; and articles by G. Wolff, in the Zeits- of Turnebus. None of the subsequent editions dechsrifi fur Alterthumswissenc/haft for 1846, review- serve any particular notice, until we come to those
ing the recent works upon the Antigone. It must of Brunck, in 4 vols. 8vo., Argentor. 1786-1789,
suffice here to remark that we believe both the and in 2 vols. 4to., Argentor. 1786; both editions
extreme views to be equally remote from the truth; containing the Greek text with a Latin version,
that the play is not intended to support exclusively and the Scholia and Indices. The text of Brunck,
the rights of law in the person of Creon or those of which was founded on that of Aldus, has formed
liberty in the person of Antigone, but to exhibit the foundation of all the subsequent editions, of
the claims of both, to show them brought into col- which the following are the most important: that
lision when each is forced beyond the bounds of of Musgrave, with Scholia, Notes, and Indices,
moderation; or, to speak more properly, the colli- Oxon. 1800, 1801, 2 vols. 8vo., reprinted Oxon.
sion is not between law and liberty, but be- 1809-1810, 3 vols. 8vo.; that of Erfurdt, with
tween the two laws of the family and the state, Scholia, Notes, and Indices, Lips. 1802-1825,
of religious duty and civil obedience. Neither 7 vols. 8vo.; (the valuable notes of Erfurdt to all
party is entirely in the right or entirely in the the tragedies, except the Oedipus at Colonus, wvere
wrong. The fault of Creon is in the issuing of reprinted in a separate volume, in London, 1824,
a harsh and impious decree, that of Antigone in 8vo.); that of Bothe, who re-edited Brunck's edirashly and obstinately refusing to submit to it; tion, but with many rash changes in the text,
and therefore each falls a victim to a conflict of the Lips, 1806, 2 vols. 8vo., last edition, 1827, 1828
two laws for and against which they strive; while that of Hermann, who completed a new edition,
both, as well as Haemon, are involved by their which Erfurdt commenced, but only lived to publish
individual acts in the more general and antecedent the first two volumes, Lips. 1809-1 825, 7 vols.
a'T- which rests upon the royal family of Thebes. sm. 8vo.; Hermann's entirely new revision of
At the same time, this does not appear to be all Brunck's edition, with additional Notes, &c., Lips.
that is contained in the drama. The greater fault 1823-1 825, 7 vols. 8vo.; the edition of Schneider,
is on the side of Creon. Antigone would have with German Notes and a Lexicon, Weimar,
been perfectly in the right to disobey his edict, if 1823-1830, 10 vols. 8vo.; the London reprint of
all means of obtaining its repeal had been ex- Brunck's edition, with the Notes of Burney and
hausted, although even then strict law might per- Schaefer, 1824, 3 vols. 8vo.; the edition of
haps have required her martyrdom as the price of Elmsley, with the Notes of Brunck and Schaefer,
her fraternal piety; and perhaps, on the other Lexicon Sophocleum, &c. Oxon. 1826, 2 vols. 8vo.;
hand, the poet meant to teach that there are cases reprinted, Lips. 1827, 8 vols. 8vo.; that of the
in which law must give way, to avert the fearful text alone by Dindorf, in the Poetae Scenici Graeci,
consequences arising from its strict enforcement. Lips. 1830, 8vo.*, reprinted at Oxford, 1832, with
At all events, it is clear that the sympathy of the the addition of a volume of Notes, 1836, 8vo.;
poet and of the spectators is with Antigone, though that of Ahrens, containing the text, after Dindorf,
they are constrained to confess that she is not en- with a revised Latin version, by L. Benloew, the
tirely guiltless, nor Creon altogether guilty. But Fragments after Welcker, and new Indices, in
still we think that this sympathy with Antigone Didot's Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum, Paris,
is only secondary to the lesson taught by the faults 1842-1844, imp. 8vo.; and lastly, by far the
and ruin of both, a lesson which the poet has himself distinctly pointed out in the final words of the * An entirely new edition of this invaluable
chorus, —od eppoverv, as opposed to the eycaXooi hAo'yot work has been for some time announced as forthof self-will, an indulgence in which, even in the coming.