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

876 SOPHRON. SOPlRONIUS
that these mimes were not acted, is to divest them guishes the mimes which existed ini his time into
of their essential feature, the exhibition by mimetic two classes, in a manner which throws an imporgestures, to which the words'were entirely sub- tant light both on the character and the form of
ordinate; and it is hardly credible that the Greeks these compositions. (Quaest. Conriv. vii. 8. ~ 4.)
of that age, who lived in public, and who could He calls the two classes of mimes uro0e-etLs and
witness the masterpieces of the old Doric and the 7raiyvLa, and considers neither species suitable for
new Attic drama in their theatres, would be con- performance at a banquet; the former on account
tent to sit down and pore over so dull a jest book of their length and the difficulty of commandas the mimes of Sophron must have been when the ing the proper scenic apparatus (T'd avorXopqy7saction was left out. To these arguments from the Top7, another proof, by the way, that they were
nature of the case may be added the express intended for public performance, and not for
statement of Solinus (Polyhlist. 5), that in Sicily private reading), the latter on account of their
"cavillatio misnica in scena stetit." scurrility and obscenity. Although neither here,
The dialect of Sophron is the old Doric, inter- nor in the description given by Xenophon of a
spersed with Sicilian peculiarities; and it appears very licentious mime (I. c.), is the name of Sophron
to have been chiefly as a specimen of the Doric mentioned, yet it would be too much to assume
dialect that the ancient grammarians made his that his compositions were all of the better kind.
works a particular object of study. Apollodorus, for Lastly, Aristotle ranks Sophron as among those
example, wrote commentaries on Sophron, consist- who are to be considered poets, on account of their
ing of at least four books, the fragments of which subject and style, in spite of the absence of metre.
are preserved in Heyne's edition. The fragments (Po't. i. 8, and more fully in his 7repl 7rolrsOT/v, ap.
of Sophron frequently exhibit anomalous forms, Ath. xi. p. 505, c.)
which are evidently imitations of vulgar provin- It has been asserted that Sophron was an imicialisms or personal peculiarities of speech (see an tator of Epicharmus; but there is no proof of the
example in the Ftynz. Tllag. s.v. V-iyLs). There fact, although it can hardly be doubted that the
are also many words coined in jest, such as odis elder poet had some considerable influence on his
o/irepoV, (Fr. 96). Further information on the later fellow-countryman. It is, however, certain
dialect of Sophron will be found in the work of that Sophron was closely imitated by Theocritus,
Ahrens, who has collected the Fragments. (Ahrens, and that the Idyls of the latter were, in many rede Graecae Lin2guae Dialectis, lib. ii., de Dialecto spects, developments of the mimes of the former.
Dorica, vol. ii. pp. 464, &c.) (Argum. ad Theocr. Id. ii. xv.)
With regard to the substance of these compo- The admiration of Plato for Sophron has been
sitions, their character, so far as it can be ascer- already referred to. The philosopher is said to
tained, appears, as we have said above, to have have been the first who made the mimes known at
been ethical; that is, the scenes represented were Athens, to have been largely indebted to them in
those of ordinary life, and the language employed his delineations of character, and to have had them
was intended to bring out more clearly the cha- so constantly at hand, that he slept with them
racters of the persons exhibited in those scenes, under his pillow, and actually had his head resting
not only for the amusement, but also for the in- upon them at the moment of his death (Suid.
struction of the spectators. There must have been s. v.; Diog. iii. 8; Quintil. i. 10. 17.)
something of sound philosophy in his works to have The fragments of Sophron have been collected
inspired Plato with that profound admiration for by Blomfield, in the Classical Journal for 1811,
their author which will presently be mentioned; No. 8, pp. 380-390, and more fully in the Musomething, probably, of that same sound practical seam Criticum, vol. ii. pp. 340-558, 559, 560,
wisdom which, in Aristophanes, produced the same Camb. 1826; and by Ahrens, as above quoted.
effect on Plato's mind. Unfortunately, however, The titles will also be found in Fabricius. (Fabric.
we know nothing of the philosophical complexion Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 493-495; Muller, Dorier,
of Sophron's mimes, except that they abounded in bk. iv. c. 7. ~ 5; Hermann and Ritter, ad Aristot.
the most pithy proverbs, thrown together often two Poet. i. 8; Grysar, de Sophrone Minzographo,
or three at a time, and worked into the composition Colon. 1838; Bernhardy, Grundriss d. Griech. Lit.
with an exuberance of fancy and wit which the vol. ii. pp. 908-911.) [P. S.]
ancients compared with the spirit of the Attic SOPHRONISCUS (:ecxpoYviOKos), of Athens,
Comedy. (Demetr. de Eloc. 156, 127, 128.) In the father of the celebrated Socrates, is described
fact, we think it would not be far wrong to speak by the ancient Greek writers as ALOovp-y's, Xhloof the mimes of Sophron as being, among the edos, A0o0yAvdpos, 4ppoyAJpos, terms which unDorians, a closely kindred fruit of the same in- doubtedly signify a sculptor in marble, and not, as
tellectual impulse which, among the Athenians, Hemsterhusius and others have supposed, merely a
produced the Old Comedy; although we do not mason. (Diog. Laert. ii. 18; Lucian, Somn. 12,
mean to place the two on any thing like the same vol. i. p. 18; comp. Hemsterh. ad loc.; Schol. ad
footing as to their degrees of excellence. Aristoph. Nub. 773; Val. Max. iii. 4, ext. 1;
The serious purpose which was aimed at in the Thiersch, Epoclzen, p. 125.) He must have flouworks of Sophron was always, as in the Attic rished about B. c. 470, and have belonged to the
Comedy, clothed under a sportive form; and it can old Attic school, which preceded that of Pheidias,
easily be imagined that sometimes the latter ele- and to a family of Athenian artists, for Socrates is
ment prevailed, even to the extent of obscenity, as frequently represented, both by Xenophon and
the extant fragments and the parallel of the Attic Plato, as tracing his descent from Daedalus. (Comp.
Comedy combine to prove. Hence the division, SOCRATES, p. 847, b, p. 856, a; DAEDALUS, p.
which the ancients made of these compositions, 928, b.) No works of Sophroniscus are meninto tCAuoL a7rouvaeo and yeAhoo, though most of tioned. [P. S.]
Sophron's works were of the former character SOPHRO'NIUS (2wq+pJ/os). Among the nu(Ulpian. ad Demosth. 01. p. 30) Plutarch distin- merous ecclesiastical writers of this name, treated