(c. 496/5 BC, Athenian suburb of Colon - 406 BC, Athens)

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Biography

Born in February 495 BC. e., in the Athenian suburb of Colon. The poet sang the place of his birth, long since glorified by the shrines and altars of Poseidon, Athena, Eumenides, Demeter, Prometheus, in the tragedy “Oedipus at Colonus”. He came from a wealthy Sofill family and received a good education.

After the Battle of Salamis (480 BC) he participated in the national festival as the leader of the choir. He was twice elected to the position of military commander and once served as a member of the board in charge of the union treasury. The Athenians chose Sophocles as their military leader in 440 BC. e. during the Samian War, under the influence of his tragedy "Antigone", the production of which, therefore, dates back to 441 BC. e.

His main occupation was composing tragedies for the Athenian theater. The first tetralogy, staged by Sophocles in 469 BC. e., brought him victory over Aeschylus and opened up a number of victories won on stage in competitions with other tragedians. The critic Aristophanes of Byzantium attributed 123 tragedies to Sophocles.

Sophocles was distinguished by a cheerful, sociable character, and did not shy away from the joys of life, as can be seen from the words of a certain Cephalus in Plato’s “Republic” (I, 3). He was closely acquainted with the historian Herodotus. Sophocles died at the age of 90, in 405 BC. e. in the city of Athens. The townspeople built an altar for him and annually honored him as a hero.

Changes in the setting of the action

In accordance with the successes that the tragedy owed to Sophocles, he made innovations in the stage production of plays. Thus, he increased the number of actors to three, and the number of choreographers from 12 to 15, while at the same time reducing the choral parts of the tragedy, improved the scenery, masks, and generally the prop side of the theater, made a change in the production of tragedies in the form of tetralogies, although it is not known exactly what this change consisted of. Finally, he introduced painted decorations into use. All the changes were intended to give more movement to the course of the drama on stage, to enhance the illusion of the audience and the impression received from the tragedy. While preserving the character of the performance of honoring the deity, the sacred service, which the tragedy was originally, by its very origin from the cult of Dionysus, Sophocles humanized it much more than Aeschylus. The humanization of the legendary and mythical world of gods and heroes followed inevitably as soon as the poet focused his attention on a deeper analysis of the mental states of the heroes, which were hitherto known to the public only from the external vicissitudes of their earthly life. It was possible to depict the spiritual world of demigods only with the features of mere mortals. The beginning of such treatment of legendary material was laid by the father of tragedy, Aeschylus: it is enough to recall the images of Prometheus or Orestes created by him; Sophocles followed in the footsteps of his predecessor.

Characteristic features of dramaturgy

Sophocles loves to pit heroes with different life principles(Creon and Antigone, Odysseus and Neoptolemus, etc.) or contrast people with the same views, but with different characters- to emphasize the strength of character of one when he collides with another, weak-willed (Antigone and Ismene, Electra and Chrysothemis). He loves and knows how to depict changes in the mood of the heroes - the transition from the highest intensity of passions to a state of breakdown, when a person comes to the bitter realization of his weakness and helplessness. This turning point can be observed in Oedipus at the end of the tragedy “Oedipus the King,” and in Creon, who learned about the death of his wife and son, and in Ajax, who regains consciousness (in the tragedy “Ajax”). Sophocles' tragedies are characterized by dialogues of rare skill, dynamic action, and naturalness in untying complex dramatic knots.

Plots of tragedies

In almost all the tragedies that have come down to us, it is not a series of situations or external events that attract the attention of the audience, but a sequence of mental states experienced by the heroes under the influence of relationships that are immediately clearly and definitively posed in the tragedy. The content of “Oedipus” is one moment from the hero’s inner life: the discovery of the crimes he committed before the tragedy began.

In Antigone, the action of the tragedy begins from the moment when the royal prohibition to bury Polyneices was announced to the Thebans through a herald, and Antigone irrevocably decided to violate this prohibition. In both tragedies, the viewer follows the development of the motives outlined at the very beginning of the drama, and the external outcome of one or another drama could be easily predicted by the viewer. The author does not introduce any surprises or complicated complications into the tragedy. But at the same time, Sophocles does not give us abstract embodiments of this or that passion or inclination; its heroes are living people with weaknesses inherent in human nature, with feelings familiar to everyone, hence the inevitable hesitations, mistakes, crimes, etc. Other persons participating in the action are each endowed with individual traits.

In “Eante,” the hero’s state of mind is determined by the event preceding the action of the tragedy, and what constitutes its content is Eante’s determination to commit suicide, when he felt all the shame of the act he committed in a state of madness.

“Electra” serves as a particularly striking example of the poet’s manner. Matricide is predetermined by Apollo, and its executor must appear in the person of the son of the criminal Clytemnestra, Orestes; but Electra was chosen as the heroine of the tragedy; she comes to a decision in agreement with the divine will, regardless of the oracle, deeply offended in her daughterly feelings by the behavior of her mother. We see the same thing in Philoctetes and the Trachinian Women. The choice of such plots and such development of the main themes reduced the role of supernatural factors, deities or fate: there is little room for them; The stamp of superhumanity that distinguished them in the original legends about them is almost removed from the legendary heroes. Just as Socrates brought philosophy from heaven to earth, so the tragedians before him brought down the demigods from their pedestals, and removed the gods from direct interference in human relations, leaving behind them the role of the supreme leaders of human destinies. The catastrophe that befalls the hero is sufficiently prepared by his personal qualities, depending on the surrounding conditions; but when the catastrophe broke out, the viewer is given to understand that it agrees with the will of the gods, with the demands of the highest truth, with the divine determination, and followed as an edification to mortals for the guilt of the hero himself, as in “Eantes,” or his ancestors, as in “Oedipus” or "Antigone". Along with the distance from human vanity, from human passions and clashes, the deities become more spiritualistic, and man becomes freer in his decisions and actions and more responsible for them. On the other hand, a verdict on a person’s guilt depends on his motives, on the degree of his consciousness and intentionality. In himself, in his own consciousness and conscience, the hero bears either condemnation or justification for himself, and the demand of conscience coincides with the verdict of the gods, even if it turns out to be in clear contradiction with both the positive law and the primordial beliefs. Oedipus is the son of a criminal father, and he is forced to endure punishment for the guilt of his parent; both parricide and incest with the mother were predetermined by the deity and predicted to him by the oracle. But he personally, by his own qualities, does not deserve such a difficult fate; the crimes were committed by him in ignorance, and, moreover, atoned for by a series of humiliations and mental trials. And this same Oedipus earns the merciful participation of the gods; he receives not only complete forgiveness, but also the glory of a righteous person, honored to join the host of gods. To the same house, stained with atrocities, Antigone belongs; She violates the royal will and is sentenced to execution for this. But she broke the law out of pure motive, wanting to ease the lot of her dead brother, already unfortunate, and convinced that her decision would be pleasing to the gods, that it would be consistent with their regulations, which have existed since time immemorial and are more binding on people than any whatever the laws were invented by people. Antigone dies, but as a victim of the delusion of Creon, who is less sensitive to the demands of human nature. She, who died, leaves behind the memory of a most worthy woman; her generosity and rightness were appreciated after death by all Theban citizens, witnessed firsthand by the gods and by the repentance of Creon himself. In the eyes of many Greeks, the death of Antigone is worth the life to which her sister Ismene is doomed, who, out of fear of death, avoided participating in the fulfillment of her duty, and even more worth the life that Creon, who cannot find support for himself, is condemned to drag out. justification neither in those around him, nor in his own conscience, who, through his own fault, lost everyone close and dear to him, under the burden of the curse of his beloved wife, who died because of him. Thus the poet took advantage of names and positions created long before him in a different mood, for other purposes, by popular imagination and poets. In stories about the great exploits of heroes, which influenced the imagination of many generations, about wonderful adventures with demigods, he breathed new life, understandable to his contemporaries and subsequent generations, by the power of his observation and artistic genius he aroused the deepest emotional emotions to active manifestation and aroused new thoughts and questions in his contemporaries.

Both the novelty and boldness of the questions raised by the author, and even more so the inclination of the Athenians to dialectics, explains general feature Sophoclean tragedies in comparison with the new drama, namely: the main theme of the tragedy develops in a verbal competition between two opponents, with each side bringing the position it defends to its extreme consequences, defending its right; thanks to this, while the competition lasts, the reader receives the impression of the relative justice or fallacy of both positions; Usually the parties disagree, having clarified many details of the controversial issue, but without offering a ready-made conclusion to an outside witness. This last must be extracted by the reader or spectator from the entire course of the drama. That is why in the new philological literature there are numerous and contradictory attempts to answer the question: how does the poet himself look at the subject of the dispute, which of the competing parties should, together with the poet, recognize the preponderance of the truth or the whole truth; Is Creon right in prohibiting the burial of the remains of Polyneices, or is Antigone right in despising the royal prohibition in performing the burial rite over the body of her brother? Is Oedipus guilty or not guilty of the crimes he has committed, and therefore is the disaster that befalls him deserved? etc. However, Sophocles’ heroes not only compete, they experience on stage severe mental anguish from the disasters that befall them and only find relief from suffering in the consciousness of their rightness, or that their crime was committed out of ignorance or predetermined by the gods. Scenes filled with deep pathos, exciting even a new reader, are found in all the surviving tragedies of Sophocles, and in these scenes there is neither pomposity nor rhetoric. Such are the magnificent laments of Deianeira, Antigone, Eantes before death, Philoctetes, who fell into the hands of his worst enemies by deception, Oedipus, who was convinced that he himself was the wicked one who had brought the wrath of the gods on the Theban land. By this combination in one and the same person of high heroism, when it is necessary to defend the trampled truth or perform a glorious feat, and tender sensitivity to the disaster that has befallen, when the duty has already been fulfilled or the fatal mistake is irreparable, with this combination Sophocles achieves the highest effect, revealing features in his majestic images , which relates them to ordinary people and generate more participation in them.

Tragedies

Seven tragedies of Sophocles have come down to us, of which, in content, three belong to the Theban cycle of legends: “Oedipus”, “Oedipus at Colonus” and “Antigone”; one to the Hercules cycle - "Dejanira", and three to the Trojan cycle: "Eant", the earliest of the tragedies of Sophocles, "Electra" and "Philoctetes". In addition, about 1000 fragments have been preserved by different writers. In addition to tragedies, antiquity attributed to Sophocles elegies, paeans and prosaic discourse on the choir.

The Trachinian Women is based on the legend of Deianira. Languor loving woman while waiting for her husband, the pangs of jealousy and the hopeless grief of Dejanira at the news of the suffering of the poisoned Hercules constitute the main content of “The Trachinian Women.”

In Philoctetes, staged in 409 BC. e., the poet with amazing skill develops the tragic situation created by the collision of three different characters: Philoctetes, Odysseus and Neoptolemus. The tragedy dates back to the tenth year of the Trojan War, and the setting is the island of Lemnos, where the Greeks, on the way to Troy, abandoned the Thessalian leader Philoctetes after he was bitten by a poisonous snake on Chris, and the wound received from the bite, spreading a stench, made him incapable of participating in military affairs. He was abandoned on the advice of Odysseus. Lonely, forgotten by everyone, unbearably suffering from a wound, Philoctetes earns his miserable livelihood by hunting: he skillfully wields the bow and arrows of Hercules that he received. However, according to the oracle, Troy can only be taken by the Greeks with the help of this wonderful bow. Then only the Greeks remember the unfortunate sufferer, and Odysseus takes it upon himself to deliver Philoctetes to Troy at any cost, or at least take possession of his weapon. But he knows that Philoctetes hates him as his worst enemy, that he himself will never be able to persuade Philoctetes to reconcile with the Greeks or take possession of him by force, that he will have to act with cunning and deception, and the instrument of his plan he chooses the young man Neoptolemus, who did not participate offended, moreover, the son of Achilles, the favorite of Philoctetes. The Greek ship had already landed at Lemnos, and the Greeks landed on shore. A cave opens before the viewer, the wretched dwelling of the glorious hero, then the hero himself, exhausted by illness, loneliness and deprivation: his bed is tree leaves on bare ground, there is also a wooden drinking jug, flint and rags stained with blood and pus. The noble young man and the accompanying choir of Achilles’ companions are deeply moved by the sight of the unfortunate man. But Neoptolemus bound himself with the word given to Odysseus to take possession of Philoctetes with the help of lies and deception, and he will fulfill his promise. But if the pitiful appearance of the sufferer evokes sympathy in the young man, then the complete trust, love and affection with which the old man Philoctetes treats him from the first moment and puts himself in his hands, expecting from him alone the end of his torment, plunges Neoptolemus into a difficult struggle with himself yourself. But at the same time, Philoctetes is adamant: he cannot forgive the Greeks for the insult inflicted on him; he will never go to Troy, he will not help the Greeks victoriously end the war; he will return home, and Neoptolemus will take him to his dear native land. Only the thought of his homeland gave him the strength to bear the burden of life. The nature of Neoptolemus rebels against the deceptive, insidious actions, and only the personal intervention of Odysseus makes him the owner of the weapon of Philoctetes: the young man uses the trust of the old man in order to destroy him. Finally, all considerations about the need for the glory of the Greeks to obtain the weapons of Hercules, that he bound himself with a promise to Odysseus, that not Philoctetes, but he, Neoptolemus, will from now on be the enemy of the Greeks, give way in the young man to the voice of his conscience, indignant against deception and violence. He returns the bow, gains confidence again and is ready to accompany Philoctetes to his homeland. Only the appearance of Hercules on the stage (deus ex machina) and his reminder that Zeus and Fate command Philoctetes to go to Troy and help the Greeks complete the struggle that had begun, persuade the hero and with him Neoptolemus to follow the Greeks. Main character tragedy - Neoptolemus. If Antigone, at the request of her conscience, considers it obligatory for herself to violate the will of the king, then by the same impulse Neoptolemus goes further: he breaks this promise and refuses, through treachery against Philoctetes, who trusted him, to act in the interests of the entire Greek army. In none of his tragedies did the poet speak so forcefully for the right of man to harmonize his behavior with the concept of the highest truth, even if it contradicted the most cunning reasoning (Greek: ??? ? ?? ?????? ??? ?? ??? ??????? ????). It is important that the sympathy of the poet and the audience for the generous and truthful young man is undeniable, while the treacherous and unscrupulous Odysseus is depicted in the most unattractive form. The rule that the ends justify the means is strongly condemned in this tragedy.

In “Eantes,” the plot of the drama is that the dispute between Eantes (Ajax) and Odysseus over the weapons of Achilles was resolved by the Achaeans in favor of the latter. He swore to take revenge first of all on Odysseus and the Atrides, but Athena, the protector of the Achaeans, deprives him of his reason, and in a frenzy he mistakes domestic animals for his enemies and beats them. Reason has returned to Eant, and the hero feels gravely disgraced. From this moment the tragedy begins, ending with the suicide of the hero, which is preceded by the famous monologue of Eant, his farewell to life and its joys. A dispute breaks out between the Atrids and Eant's half-brother Teucer. Whether to bury the remains of the deceased or leave them to be sacrificed to dogs is a dispute that is resolved in favor of burial.

Ethics

As for the religious and ethical views held in the tragedies of Sophocles, they differ little from those of Aeschylus; their predominant feature is spiritualism, in comparison with those ideas about the gods that were inherited from the creators of Greek theology and theogony, from ancient poets . Zeus is an all-seeing, all-powerful deity, the supreme ruler of the world, organizer and manager. Fate does not rise above Zeus; rather, it is identical with his determinations. The future is in the hands of Zeus alone, but man is not given the power to comprehend divine decisions. The accomplished fact serves as an indicator of divine assent. Man is a weak creature, obliged to humbly endure the disasters sent by the gods. Man's powerlessness due to the impenetrability of divine predestination is all the more complete because the sayings of oracles and fortune-tellers are often ambiguous, dark, sometimes erroneous and deceitful, and in addition, man is prone to error. Sophocles' deity is much more vengeful and punitive than protective or saving. The gods endow a person with reason from birth, but they also allow sin or crime, sometimes they send a cloud of reason to the one they decide to punish, but this does not mitigate the punishment of the guilty person and his descendants. Although these are the prevailing attitudes of the gods towards man, there are cases when the gods show their mercy to involuntary sufferers: the entire tragedy “Oedipus at Colonus” is built on this last idea; in the same way, Orestes, the matricide, finds protection from the revenge of the Erinyes in Athena and Zeus. The chorus calls Dejanira's intention when she sent a festive robe to her beloved husband honest and commendable, and Gill justifies his mother before Hercules. In a word, the difference between a voluntary and an involuntary sin is established, and the motives of the perpetrator are taken into account. In this way, often in certain expressions, the incongruity of divine vengeance, extended to the entire family of the guilty person, is noted if the sufferer, due to his personal qualities, is not inclined to crime. That is why Zeus is sometimes called compassionate, the resolver of sorrows, the averter of misfortunes, the salutary, like other deities. The spiritualistic deity is much more distant from man than in Aeschylus; his own inclinations, intentions and goals receive much greater scope. Usually Sophocles' heroes are endowed with such personal properties and placed in such conditions that every step of them, every moment of the drama is sufficiently motivated by purely natural reasons. Everything that happens to the heroes is depicted by Sophocles as a series of law-like phenomena that are in a causal relationship with each other or at least in a possible, quite probable sequence. The tragedy of Sophocles is of a more secular nature than that of Aeschylus, as can be judged by the treatment of the same plot by the two poets: Sophocles’ Electra corresponds to Aeschylus’s “Girls Carrying Libations” (“Choephori”), and the tragedy “Philoctetes” was with the same name in Aeschylus; this latter has not reached us, but we have a comparative assessment of the two tragedies by Dion Chrysostom, who gives preference to Sophocles over Aeschylus. Not a son, like Aeschylus, but a daughter is the main character in Sophocles' Electra. She is a constant witness to the desecration of the home of the glorious Agamemnon by her vicious mother; She herself is constantly subjected to insults from her mother and her illegal partner and accomplice in the crime; she herself expects a violent death from the hands stained with the blood of her great parent. All these motives, together with love and reverence for the murdered father, are enough for Electra to make a firm decision to take revenge on the perpetrators; by the intervention of the deity nothing is changed or added for the internal development of the drama. In Aeschylus, Clytemnestra is justly punishing Agamemnon for Iphigenia; in Sophocles, she is a voluptuous, insolent woman, cruel to the point of mercilessness towards her own children, ready to free herself from them by violence. She constantly insults the dear memory of Electra’s father, reduces her to the position of a slave in her parents’ house, and blasphemes her for saving Orestes; she prays to Apollo for the death of her son, openly triumphs at the news of his death, and is only waiting for Aegisthus to put an end to the hated daughter who is disturbing her conscience. The religious element of the drama is significantly weakened; the mythological or legendary plot received the significance only of the starting point or those limits within which the external event took place; data personal experience, a relatively rich stock of observations of human nature enriched the tragedy with psychic motives and brought it closer to real life. In accordance with all this, the role of the choir, the spokesman for general judgments about the course of dramatic event in the sense of religion and generally accepted morality; He, more organically than in Aeschylus, enters the circle of tragedy performers, as if turning into a fourth actor.

Literature

The main source for the biography of Sophocles is the untitled biography, usually included in editions of his tragedies. The most important list of Sophocles' tragedies is kept in the Laurentian library in Florence: S. Laurentianus, XXXII, 9, dates back to the 10th or 11th century; all other lists available in various libraries are copies of this list, with the possible exception of another Florentine list of the 14th century. No. 2725, in the same library. Since the time of W. Dindorff, the first list has been designated by the letter L, the second by G. The best scholia have also been extracted from the list L. The best editions of the scholia belong to Dindorff (Oxford, 1852) and Papageorgios (1888). The tragedies were first published by Alda in Venice, 1502. From the middle of the 16th century. and until the end of the 18th century. the dominant edition was the Paris edition of Tourneba. Brunck (1786-1789) restored the advantage of the Aldov editorial staff. The greatest services to criticism of the text and explanation of tragedies were provided by W. Dindorf (Oxford, 1832-1849, 1860), Wunder (L., 1831-78), Schneidewin, Tournier, Nauk, as well as Campbell, Linwood, Jeb.

A crater on Mercury is named after Sophocles (Latitude: -6.5; Longitude: 146.5; Diameter (km): 145).

Literature

Texts and translations

The works were published in the “Loeb classical library”: surviving plays in volumes 1-2 (No. 20, 21), fragments under No. 483.
Vol. I Oedipus the King. Oedipus at Colonus. Antigone.
Vol. II Ajax. Electra. Fucking women. Philoctetes.
In the “Collection Bude” series, 7 tragedies were published in 3 volumes (see).

Russian translations (here are only collections; for individual tragedies, see articles about them)
Tragedies of Sophocles. / Per. I. Martynova. St. Petersburg, 1823-1825.
Part 1. Oedipus the King. Oedipus at Colonus. 1823. 244 pp.
Part 2. Antigone. Fucking women. 1823. 194 pp.
Part 3. Ajax furious. Philoctetes. 1825. 201 pp.
Part 4. Electra. 1825. 200 pp.
Sophocles Dramas. / Per. and entry essay. F. F. Zelinsky. T. 1-3. M.: Sabashnikovs, 1914-1915.
T. 1. Ayant-Scourgebearer. Philoctetes. Electra. 1914. 423 pp.
T. 2. Oedipus the King. Oedipus at Colonus. Antigone. 1915. 435 pp.
T. 3. Trakhinyanki. Pathfinders. Excerpts. 1914. 439 pp.
Sophocles Tragedies. / Per. V. O. Nylender and S. V. Shervinsky. M.-L.: Academia. (only part 1 published)
Part 1. Oedipus the King. Oedipus at Colonus. Antigone. 1936. 231 pp. 5300 copies.
Sophocles Tragedies. / Per. S. V. Shervinsky, ed. and note. F.A. Petrovsky. M.: Goslitizdat, 1954. 472 pp. 10,000 copies.
reprint: (Series “Ancient Drama”). M.: Art, 1979. 456 pp. 60,000 copies.
reprint: (Series “Library ancient literature"). M.: Artist. lit., 1988. 493 pp. 100,000 copies.
Sophocles Antigone. / Per. A. Parina, afterword. V. Yarkho. M.: Art, 1986. 119 pp. 25,000 copies.
Sophocles Dramas. / Per. F. F. Zelinsky, ed. M. G. Gasparova and V. N. Yarkho. (Attached: Fragments [p. 381-435]. / Translated by F. F. Zelinsky, O. V. Smyki and V. N. Yarkho. Ancient evidence about the life and work of Sophocles [p. 440-464]. / Translated by V. N. Chemberdzhi). / Art. and approx. M. L. Gasparova and V. N. Yarkho. Rep. ed. M. L. Gasparov. (Series " Literary monuments"). M.: Nauka, 1990. 608 pp.

Research

Mishchenko F. G. The relationship of Sophocles' tragedies to the contemporary poet's real life in Athens. Part 1. Kyiv, 1874. 186 pp.
Shultz G.F. On the question of the main idea of Sophocles’ tragedy “Oedipus the King.” Kharkov, 1887. 100 pp.
Shultz G.F. Critical notes to the text of Sophocles’ tragedy “Oedipus the King.” Kharkov, 1891. 118 pp.
Yarkho V.N. The tragedy of Sophocles “Antigone”: Study. allowance. M.: Higher. school, 1986. 109 pp. 12000 copies.
Surikov I. E. The evolution of the religious consciousness of the Athenians in Tue. floor. V century BC: Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes in their relation to traditional religion. M.: Publishing house IVI RAS, 2002. 304 pp. ISBN 5-94067-072-5
Markantonatos, Andreas Tragic narrative: A narratological study of Sophocles" Oedipus at Colonus. Berlin; New York: De Gruyter, 2002 - XIV, 296 pp.; 24 cm. - (Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur und Geschichte Bd. 63). - Decree .. - Bibliography: pp. 227-289. - ISBN 3-11-017401-4

Scholium to Sophocles

Scholium to Sophocles according to Brunk's edition (1801)
Sophocles' tragedies with scholia: volume I (1825) volume II (1852)

Biography

Sophocles was born in the village of Kolone near Athens in the family of a wealthy businessman. He was the keeper of the treasury of the Athenian Maritime League, a strategist (there was such a position under Pericles); after his death, Sophocles was revered as a righteous man.

For the world, Sophocles is valuable, first of all, as one of the three great ancient tragedians - Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides.

Sophocles wrote 123 dramas, only seven of which have reached us in their entirety. Of particular interest to us are Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Electra.

The plot of “Antigone” is simple: Antigone buries the body of her murdered brother Polyneices, whom the ruler of Thebes Creon forbade to be buried on pain of death - as a traitor to his homeland. Antigone is executed for disobedience, after which her fiancé, Creon's son, and the groom's mother, Creon's wife, commit suicide.

Some interpreted Sophocles' tragedy as a conflict between the law of conscience and the law of the state, others saw in it a conflict between the clan and the state. Goethe believed that Creon banned funerals out of personal hatred.

Antigone accuses Creon of violating the law of the gods, and Creon replies that the power of the sovereign must be unshakable, otherwise anarchy will destroy everything.

The ruler must be obeyed
In everything - legal and illegal.

Events show that Creon is wrong. The soothsayer Tiresias warns him: “Respect death, do not touch the dead. Or to finish off the dead valiantly.” The king persists. Then Tiresias predicts the vengeance of the gods on him. And indeed, one misfortune after another befalls the ruler of Thebes, Creon; he suffers both political and moral defeat.

Creon
Alas!
Aida is an abyss, why me?
You are ruining. Irreconcilable
O messenger of former terrible troubles,
What news do you bring us?
You will kill the deceased a second time!
What, my son, will you tell me something new?
Death after death, alas!
After my son, my wife died!
Choir
You can see they carried her out. Creon
Alas!
Now, wretch, I see the second disaster!
What kind of misfortune is still in store for me?
Now I held my son in my arms -
And I see another corpse in front of me!
Alas, oh unfortunate mother, oh son!
Herald
The slain woman lies at the altars;
Her eyes grew dark and closed;
Having mourned the glorious death of Megareus,
Behind him is another son - on you
She brought trouble, a child killer.
Creon
Alas! Alas!
I'm shaking with fear. What about my chest?
No one pierced with a two-edged sword
I'm unhappy, alas!
And I am struck with cruel grief!
Herald
You are exposed as a dead woman
You are to blame for both this and this death.

Greek tragedy is called the "tragedy of fate." Everyone's life is predetermined by fate. Running away from her, a person only goes to meet her. This is exactly what happened to Oedipus (“Oedipus the King”).

According to myth, Oedipus kills his father, not knowing that it is his father, takes the throne, marries a widow, that is, his mother. Sophocles followed the myth, but special attention drew attention to the psychological side of the characters’ relationships. It shows the omnipotence of fate - Oedipus himself is not to blame for what happened. In Sophocles, it is not man who is to blame, but the gods. In the case of Oedipus, the culprit is Hera, the wife of Zeus, who sent a curse on the family from which Oedipus comes.

But Oedipus does not relieve himself of guilt - he blinds himself and through suffering wants to atone for his guilt.

Here is the king's last monologue

Oedipus
Oh, be blessed! May he protect
There is a demon on all your roads, the best,
Than mine! O children, where are you? Come...
So... Touch your hands... brother, - he is guilty,
What do you see that once shone
His plaza... like this... his father's face,
Who, neither seeing nor knowing,
He begat you... from his mother.
I don't see you... but I cry for you,
Imagining the rest of the bitter days,
Which you will have to live with people.
Which fellow citizen should you sit with in meetings?
Where are the celebrations from which you go home?
Would return with fun, not with tears
When you reach marriageable age,
Oh, who will agree at that time, daughters,
Accept the shame that marked me
Both you and your destined offspring
What other troubles do you lack?
Father killed father; he loved his mother
Who gave birth to him, and from her
He gave birth to you, he himself was conceived by her...
So they will defame you... Who do you want?
Appropriates There is no such thing.
You will fade away unmarried, orphans.
Son of Menoeceus! You're alone now
For them, a father. And me and mother, both of us
Died. Don't let them wander -
Husbandless, poor and homeless,
Don't let them become unhappy like me
Have pity on them - they are so young! -
You are their only support. Take an oath
O noble one, touch me with your hand!..
And to you, O children, be mature in mind,
I would give a lot of advice... I wish you
Live as fate allows... but so that fate
You got it luckier than your father.
Choir
O fellow Thebans! Here is an example for you Oedipus,
And the solver of riddles, and the mighty king,
The one at whose lot everyone used to look with envy,
He was cast into the sea of disasters, he fell into a terrible abyss!
This means that mortals must remember our last day,
And, obviously, only one can be called happy
Who has reached the limit of life without experiencing misfortune.

A.F. Losev notes the unbending resilience of Sophocles' heroes. They hold on to their self, their true nature, against all odds. The real misfortune for them is not what fate brings them, but abandonment of their moral path.

Yes, everything is disgusting if you change yourself
And you do it against your heart.
No, even in a miserable life
A pure heart will not want to stain
Your good name.

Thanks to willpower, a person emerges from the historical order of things and lives forever.

It's sweet for me to die having fulfilled my duty...
After all, I will have to
Serve the dead longer than the living,
I'll stay there forever.

This is the difference between Sophocles and Aeschylus. In Aeschylus, the tragic quality of action came from the fact that people were aware that they were blindly obeying the inevitable divine plan leading to the triumph of justice. For Sophocles, the source of tragedy is that they consciously and courageously refuse to adapt to changing life circumstances.

SOPHOCLES - Athenian playwright, considered along with Aeschylus and Euripides one of the three greatest tragic poets of classical antiquity. Sophocles was born in the village of Colon (the setting of his last drama), located about 2.5 km north of the Acropolis. His father, Sofill, was a wealthy man. Sophocles studied music with Lampre, an outstanding representative of the high school, and also won prizes in athletic competitions. In his youth Sophocles was distinguished extraordinary beauty This is probably why he was assigned to lead a choir of young men who sang hymns of thanks to the gods after the victory over the Persians at Salamis (480 BC). Twelve years later (468 BC) Sophocles took part in theatrical festivals for the first time and won first prize, surpassing his great predecessor Aeschylus. The competition between the two poets aroused keen interest among the public. From this moment until his death, Sophocles remained the most popular of the Athenian playwrights: more than 20 times he was first in the competition, many times second, and never took third place (there were always three participants). He had no equal in terms of the volume of writing: it is reported that Sophocles wrote 123 dramas. Sophocles enjoyed success not only as a playwright, he was generally a popular personality in Athens. Sophocles, like all Athenians in the 5th century, actively participated in public life. He may have been a member of the important college of treasurers of the Athenian League in 443–442 BC, and it is certain that Sophocles was chosen as one of the ten generals who commanded the punitive expedition against Samos in 440 BC. Perhaps Sophocles was elected strategos twice more. Already at a very old age, when Athens was going through an era of defeat and despair, Sophocles was elected one of the ten “probuli” (Greek “advisor”), who were entrusted with the fate of Athens after the disaster that befell the expedition to Sicily (413 BC. ). Thus, Sophocles’ successes in the public sphere are not inferior to his poetic achievements, which is quite typical both for Athens in the 5th century and for Sophocles himself.

Sophocles was famous not only for his devotion to Athens, but also for his piety. It is reported that he founded the sanctuary of Hercules and was a priest of one of the minor healing deities, Chalon or Alcon, associated with the cult of Asclepius, and that he took part in own home god Asclepius until his temple in Athens was completed. (The cult of Asclepius was established in Athens in 420 BC; the deity that Sophocles hosted was almost certainly the sacred serpent.) After his death, Sophocles was deified under the name "hero Dexion" (a name derived from the root "dex- ", in Greek "to receive", perhaps recalls how he "received" Asclepius).

There is a widely known anecdote about how Sophocles was summoned to court by his son Jophon, who wanted to prove that his elderly father was no longer able to manage the family’s property. And then Sophocles convinced the judges of his mental competence by reciting an ode in honor of Athens from Oedipus at Colonus. This story is certainly fictitious, since reports from contemporaries confirm that Sophocles’s last years passed as serenely as the beginning of his life, and he preserved to the end best relations with Iofon. The last thing we know about Sophocles is his action upon receiving news of the death of Euripides (in the spring of 406 BC). Then Sophocles dressed the choir members in mourning and led them to the “proagon” (a kind of dress rehearsal before the tragedian competition) without festive wreaths. In January 405 BC, when Aristophanes' comedy The Frog was staged, Sophocles was no longer alive.

Contemporaries saw in his life a continuous series of successes. “Blessed Sophocles,” exclaims the comedian Phrynichus in the Muses (staged in January 405 BC). - He died after living long life“He was happy, smart, composed many beautiful tragedies and died safely, without experiencing any troubles.”

The seven tragedies that have come down to us, by all accounts, belong to the late period of Sophocles’ work. (In addition, a papyrus was published in 1912, preserving more than 300 complete lines from the amusing satyr drama The Pathfinders.) Based on ancient sources, the dates for the production of the tragedies Philoctetes (409 BC), Oedipus at Colonus (posthumous production 401 BC) were reliably established ..) and Antigone (a year or two before 440 BC). The tragedy of Oedipus Rex is usually dated to 429 BC, since the mention of the sea may be associated with a similar disaster in Athens. The tragedy of Ajax, according to stylistic characteristics, should be classified as more early period than Antigone, philologists have not come to a consensus regarding the two remaining plays, although most suggest a fairly early date for the tragedy of the Trachinian woman (before 431 BC) and a later date for Electra (c. 431 BC). So the seven surviving plays can be arranged roughly in this order: Ajax, Antigone, The Trachinian Women, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes, Oedipus at Colonus. It is known that Sophocles received the first prize for Philoctetes and the second for Oedipus the King. Probably Antigone was awarded first place, since it is known that it was thanks to this tragedy that Sophocles was elected strategos in 440 BC. There is no information about other tragedies; it is only known that all of them were awarded either first or second place.

Technique.

Sophocles' most striking innovation in the genre of Attic tragedy was the reduction in the scope of drama by abandoning the trilogy form. As far as we know, the three tragedies that Sophocles presented at the annual competition were always three independent works, without any plot connections between them (therefore, to speak of the tragedies Antigone, Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus as the “Theban Trilogy” means making a grave mistake) . The tragedies of Aeschylus (with the exception of the trilogy that included the Persians) were invariably united into a trilogy in the literal sense of the word - in dramatic work in three parts, connected by a common plot, common characters and motives. Sophocles' drama takes us from the cosmic perspective of action (the will of the deity is carried out in the actions and sufferings of people from generation to generation) to a condensed representation at this moment crisis and revelation. It is enough to compare Aeschylus's Oresteia, where the central event, matricide, is preceded by a depiction of its causes (Agamemnon), and then its consequences are shown (Eumenides), with Sophocles' mysterious Electra, a tragedy in which the dramatic presentation of the main event turns out to be self-sufficient. The new technology made the divine will, which in Aeschylus interferes with the action, overcoming the human motives of the heroes, not so significant, and especially emphasized the importance of the human will. The consequences of this shift in emphasis were twofold. On the one hand, Sophocles could concentrate entirely on the character of his heroes, bringing to the stage a whole series of surprisingly original characters (for example, in Electra we are dealing with a spectacular move when the character of a character who takes almost no part in the action is subjected to a full-scale and subtle analysis) . On the other hand, in terms of unprecedented savings in plot development, Sophocles in his best examples (for example, Oedipus the King) has no equal in the entire history of Western literature.

It was to be expected that the abandonment of the trilogy would entail a reduction in the role of the chorus, which in Aeschylus’s dramas invariably correlates the actions and sufferings of the individual with the whole picture of divine providence, connecting the present with the past and the future. And in fact, the lyrical part of the chorus in Sophocles is much smaller than in Aeschylus. In Philoctetes (to take an extreme example) the chorus is fully involved in the action as full-fledged characters, and almost everything that is said to them revolves around the specific situation of the drama. However, in most tragedies Sophocles still skillfully and carefully uses the chorus to give greater dimension to the moral and theological dilemma posed by the action.

But most of all, Sophocles was glorified by another technical innovation: the appearance of a third actor. This happened earlier than 458 BC, since in this year Aeschylus already uses a third actor in the Oresteia, albeit in his own, Aeschylus’ way. The goal that Sophocles pursued by introducing a third actor becomes obvious when reading the brilliant scenes with three participants, which are perhaps the pinnacle of Sophocles' drama. Such, for example, is the conversation between Oedipus, the Messenger from Corinth and the shepherd (Oedipus the King), as well as an earlier scene in the same tragedy - while Oedipus questions the Messenger, Jocasta already begins to see the terrible truth. The same applies to the cross-examination of Likh in Trakhinyanki, which is arranged by the Messenger and Deianira. Aristotle’s indication that Sophocles also introduced “scenography”, i.e. literally translated from Greek as “painting the stage,” still gives rise to disputes between specialists, which can hardly be resolved due to the extreme paucity of information about the technical side of theatrical productions in the 5th century.

Worldview.

The fact that the playwright's attention is focused on the actions of people, and the divine will is relegated to the background, i.e. it tends to appear in the play as a prophecy rather than a root cause or direct intervention in the action, suggesting that the author took a "humanistic" point of view (however, an elegant attempt has recently been made to characterize Sophocles' worldview as "heroic heroism"). However, Sophocles makes a different impression on most readers. The few details of his life that we know indicate deep religiosity, and the tragedies confirm this. In many of them, we are presented with a person who, during the crisis he is experiencing, is faced with the riddle of the universe, and this riddle, disgracing all human cunning and insight, inevitably brings upon him defeat, suffering and death. The typical hero of Sophocles completely relies on his knowledge at the beginning of the tragedy, and ends with an admission of complete ignorance or doubt.

Human ignorance is a recurring theme of Sophocles. It finds its classic and most terrifying expression in Oedipus the King, but is also present in other plays; even Antigone’s heroic enthusiasm is poisoned by doubt in her final monologue. Human ignorance and suffering are opposed by the mystery of a deity who has full knowledge (his prophecies invariably come true). This deity represents a certain image of perfect order and, perhaps, even justice, incomprehensible to the human mind. The underlying motive of Sophocles' tragedies is humility before the incomprehensible forces that guide the fate of man in all its secrecy, grandeur and mystery.

With such a world order, the human will to action should weaken, if not completely disappear, but Sophocles’ heroes are distinguished by a stubborn focus on action or knowledge, and they are characterized by a fierce assertion of their independence. Oedipus the King persistently and adamantly seeks the truth about himself, despite the fact that he will have to pay for the truth with his reputation, power and, ultimately, his eyesight. Ajax, finally realizing the precariousness of human existence, abandons it and fearlessly throws himself on the sword. Philoctetes, despising the persuasion of his friends, the implicit command of the oracle and the promise of healing from a painful illness, stubbornly rejects his heroic destiny; to convince him, the appearance of the deified Hercules is required. Likewise, Antigone despises public opinion and the threat of the death penalty from the state. No playwright has been able to so heroize the power of the human spirit. The precarious balance between the omniscient providence of the gods and the heroic onslaught of human will becomes a source of dramatic tension, thanks to which Sophocles' plays are still full of life, not only when read, but also on the theater stage.

TRAGEDIES

Ajax.

The action of the tragedy begins from the moment when Ajax, bypassed by the award (intended to the bravest hero the armor of the deceased Achilles was awarded to Odysseus) decided to put an end to both Atrid kings and Odysseus, but in the madness sent by the goddess Athena, he destroyed the cattle captured from the Trojans. In the prologue, Athena demonstrates Ajax's madness to his enemy, Odysseus. Odysseus regrets Ajax, but the goddess knows no compassion. In the next scene, Ajax’s reason returns and, with the help of the captive concubine Tecmessa, the hero becomes aware of what he has done. Realizing the truth, Ajax decides to commit suicide, despite Tecmessa's touching entreaties. There follows a famous scene in which Ajax is presented reflecting on a plan with himself, his speech is full of ambiguities, and at the end of it the choir, believing that Ajax has abandoned the idea of suicide, sings a joyful song. However, in the very next scene (which has no parallels in the Attic tragedy), Ajax is stabbed to death in front of the audience. His brother Teucer appears too late to save Ajax’s life, but he manages to defend the body of the deceased from the Atrides, who wanted to leave their enemy without burial. Two scenes of a furious argument lead the opponents to a dead end, but with the appearance of Odysseus the situation is resolved: he manages to convince Agamemnon to allow an honorable burial.

Antigone.

Antigone decides to bury her brother Polyneices, who died while trying to conquer his hometown. She does this despite the order of Creon, the new ruler of Thebes, according to which Polyneices' body should be thrown to the birds and dogs. The guards grab the girl and bring her to Creon; Antigone despises the ruler's threats, and he sentences her to death. Creon's son Haemon (Antigone's fiancé) tries in vain to soften his father. Antigone is taken away and imprisoned in an underground dungeon (Creon commuted his original sentence - stoning), and in her remarkable monologue, which, however, some publishers do not recognize as truly Sophoclean, Antigone tries to analyze the motives of her action, ultimately reducing them to purely personal affection to her brother and forgetting about the religious and family duty to which she referred initially. The prophet Tiresias orders Creon to bury Polyneices, Creon tries to object, but in the end gives up and goes to bury the deceased, as well as free Antigone, but the messenger sent reports that when he arrived in prison, Antigone had already hanged herself. Haemon draws his sword to threaten his father, but then turns the weapon against himself. Having learned about this, Creon's wife Eurydice leaves the house in grief and also commits suicide. The tragedy ends with the incoherent lamentations of Creon, who carried the body of his son onto the stage.

Oedipus the King.

The people of Thebes come to Oedipus with a plea to save the city from the plague. Creon announces that first it is necessary to punish the murderer of Laius, who was king before Oedipus. Oedipus begins searching for the criminal. Tiresias, summoned on the advice of Creon, accuses Oedipus himself of the murder. Oedipus sees in all this a conspiracy inspired by Creon and sentences him to death, but reverses his decision, succumbing to the persuasion of Jocasta. The complex plots that follow are difficult to retell. Oedipus brings the search for the murderer and the truth hidden from him to the sad conclusion that the murderer of Laius is himself, that Laius was his father, and his wife Jocasta is his mother. In a terrifying scene, Jocasta, having guessed the truth before Oedipus, tries to stop his persistent search, and when she fails, she retires to the royal palace to hang herself there. In the next scene, Oedipus also realizes the truth; he also runs into the palace, after which the Messenger comes out to report: the king has lost his sight. Soon Oedipus himself appears before the audience with his face covered in blood. What follows is the most heartbreaking scene in the entire tragedy. In his final dialogue with Creon, the new ruler of Thebes, Oedipus copes with himself and partially regains his former self-confidence.

Electra.

Orestes returns to his native Argos along with the Mentor, who accompanied him in exile. The young man intends to enter the palace under the guise of a stranger who brought an urn with the ashes of Orestes, who allegedly died in a chariot race. From this moment on, Electra becomes the dominant person on the stage, who, since the killers dealt with her father, has lived in poverty and humiliation, nurturing hatred in her soul. In dialogues with her sister Chrysothemis and mother Clytemnestra, Electra reveals the full extent of her hatred and determination to take revenge. The Mentor appears with a message about the death of Orestes. Electra is deprived of her last hope, but still tries to persuade Chrysothemis to join her and attack Clytemnestra and Aegisthus together, but when her sister refuses, Electra swears that she will do everything herself. Here Orestes enters the scene with a funeral urn. Electra makes a touching farewell speech over her, and Orestes, who recognized his sister in this embittered, aged woman dressed in rags, loses his restraint, forgets his original plan and reveals the truth to her. The joyful embrace of brother and sister is interrupted by the arrival of the Mentor, who returns Orestes to reality: it is time for him to go kill his mother. Orestes obeys, and after leaving the palace, he answers all Electra’s questions with dark, ambiguous speeches. The tragedy ends in an extremely dramatic scene when Aegisthus, bending over the body of Clytemnestra and believing that it is the corpse of Orestes, reveals the face of the murdered woman and recognizes her. Spurred on by Orestes, he goes into the house to meet his death.

Philoctetes.

On the way to Troy, the Greeks left Philoctetes, suffering from the consequences of a snake bite, on the island of Lemnos. In the last year of the siege, the Greeks learn that Troy will submit only to Philoctetes, who wields the bow of Hercules. Odysseus and Neoptolemus, the young son of Achilles, travel to Lemnos to deliver Philoctetes to Troy. Of the three ways to master a hero - force, persuasion, deception - they choose the latter. The intrigue turns out to be perhaps the most confusing in Greek tragedy, and therefore it is not easy to summarize it. However, we see how, through all the intricacies of the plot, Neoptolemus gradually abandons the lies in which he has become entangled, so that the character of his father speaks in him with increasing force. In the end, Neoptolemus reveals the truth to Philoctetes, but Odysseus intervenes, and Philoctetes is left alone, having his bow taken away. However, Neoptolemus returns and, despite Odysseus' threats, returns the bow to Philoctetes. Neoptolemus then tries to persuade Philoctetes to go to Troy with him. But Philoctetes manages to be convinced only when the deified Hercules appears to him and says that the bow was given to him to accomplish a heroic feat.

Oedipus at Colonus.

Oedipus, expelled from Thebes by his sons and Creon, leaning on the hand of Antigone, comes to Colon. When he is told the name of this place, some unusual confidence is instilled in him: he believes that this is where he will die. Ismene comes to her father to warn him: the gods have declared that his grave will make the land in which he will lie invincible. Oedipus decides to provide this benefit to Athens by placing a curse on Creon and his own sons. Creon, having tried in vain to convince Oedipus, takes Antigone away by force, but King Theseus comes to the aid of Oedipus and returns his daughter to him. Polyneices comes to ask for his father's help against his brother, who has seized power in Thebes, but Oedipus renounces him and curses both sons. There is a clap of thunder and Oedipus runs off to his death. He mysteriously disappears, and only Theseus knows where Oedipus is buried.

This unusual play, which was written towards the end of the war lost by Athens, is filled with a poetic sense of patriotism towards Athens and is evidence of Sophocles' confidence in immortality hometown. The death of Oedipus is a religious mystery, hardly comprehensible to modern mind: the closer Oedipus comes to divinity, the tougher, embittered and furious he becomes. So, unlike King Lear, with whom this tragedy has often been compared, Oedipus in Colonus shows the path from the humble acceptance of fate in the prologue to the righteous but almost superhuman rage and majestic self-confidence that the hero experiences in last minutes earthly life.

(496-406 BC)

Sophocles was born in the village of Kolone near Athens in the family of a wealthy businessman.
He was the keeper of the treasury of the Athens Maritime Union, a strategist (there was such a position
under Pericles), after his death Sophocles was revered as a righteous man.
For the world, Sophocles is valuable primarily as one of the three great tragedians of antiquity -
Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides.
Sophocles wrote 123 dramas, only seven of them have reached us in their entirety. Special
Of interest to us are "Antigone", "Oedipus the King", "Electra".
The plot of "Antigone" is simple: Antigone buries the body of her murdered brother.
Polyneices, whom the ruler of Thebes Creont forbade to be buried on pain of death -
as a traitor to the motherland. For disobedience, Antigone is executed, after which her fiancé, son
Creon and the groom's mother, Creon's wife, commit suicide
Some interpreted Sophocles' tragedy as a conflict between the law of conscience and
law of the state, others saw in it a conflict between the clan and the state. Goethe
believed that Creon banned funerals out of personal hatred
Antigone accuses Creon of violating the law of the gods, and Creon replies that power
The sovereign's rule must be unshakable, otherwise anarchy will destroy everything.
The ruler must be obeyed
In everything - legal and illegal.
Events show that Creon is wrong. The soothsayer Tiresias warns him:
“Respect death, do not touch the dead. Or finish off the valiantly dead.” Tsar
persists. Then Tiresias predicts the vengeance of the gods on him. And indeed, on
The ruler of Thebes, Creon, is beset by misfortunes one after another, he endures and
political defeat, and moral.
C re o n t
Alas!
Aida is an abyss, why me?
You are ruining. Irreconcilable?
O messenger of former terrible troubles,
What news do you bring us?
You will kill the deceased a second time/
What, my son, will you tell me something new?
Death after death, alas!
After my son, my wife died!
Choir
You can see: they took her out. C re o n t
Alas!
Now, wretch, I see the second disaster!
What kind of misfortune is still in store for me?
Now I held my son in my arms -
And I see another corpse in front of me!
Alas, oh unfortunate mother, oh son!
Herald
The slain woman lies at the altars; Her eyes grew dark and closed; Megareus's glorious death
Having mourned, Behind him another son, - the child killer called trouble on you.
C re o n t
Alas! Alas!
I'm shaking with fear. What about my chest?
Has anyone been pierced by a two-edged sword?
I'm unhappy, alas!
And I am struck with cruel grief!
Herald
You are exposed by the deceased:
You are to blame for both this and this death.
(Translation by S. Shervinsky and N. Poznyakov)
Greek tragedy is called the "tragedy of fate." Everyone's life is predetermined
fate. Running away from her, a person only goes to meet her. That's exactly what happened with
Oedipus ("Oedipus the King").
According to myth, Oedipus kills his father, not knowing that it is his father, takes the throne,
marries a widow, that is, his mother. Sophocles followed the myth, but special
drew attention to the psychological side of the characters’ relationships. He shows
the omnipotence of fate - Oedipus himself is not to blame for what happened. In Sophocles
It is not man who is to blame, but the gods. In the case of Oedipus, Hera, the wife of Zeus, is guilty,
who sent a curse to the family from which Oedipus comes.
But Oedipus does not relieve himself of guilt - he blinds himself and through suffering wants
atone for guilt.

Here is the king's last monologue:
Oedipus
Oh, be blessed! May he protect
There is a demon on all your roads, the best,
Than mine! O children, where are you? Come...
So... Touch your hands... brother, - he is guilty,
What do you see that once shone
His eyes... are like... the face of a father,
Who, neither seeing nor knowing,
He begat you... from his mother.
I don't see you... but I cry for you,
Imagining the rest of the bitter days,
Which you will have to live with people.
Which of your fellow citizens should you sit in meetings with?
Where are the celebrations from which you go home?
Would you return with fun, and not with tears?
When you reach marriageable age,
Oh, who will agree at that time, daughters,
Accept the shame that marked me
Both you and your destined offspring?
What other troubles do you lack?
Father killed father; he loved his mother
Who gave birth to him, and from her
He gave birth to you, he himself was conceived by her...
So they will defame you... Who do you want?
Will he take over? There is no such thing.
You will fade away unmarried, orphans.
Son of Menoeceus! You're alone now
For them, a father. And me and mother, both of us
Died. Don't let them wander -
Husbandless, poor and homeless,
Don't let them become unhappy like me
Have pity on them - they are so young! -
You are their only support. Take an oath
O noble one, touch me with your hand!..
And to you, O children, be mature in mind,
I would give a lot of advice... I wish you
Live as fate allows... but so that fate
You got it luckier than your father.
Choir
O fellow Thebans! Here's an example for you: Oedipus,
And the solver of riddles, and the mighty king,
The one at whose lot everyone used to look with envy,
He was cast into the sea of disasters, he fell into a terrible abyss!
This means that mortals must remember our last day,
And, obviously, only one can be called happy
Who has reached the limit of life without experiencing misfortune.
(Translation by S. Shervinsky)
A.F. Losev notes the unbending resilience of Sophocles' heroes. They hold their own
"I", my true nature in spite of everything. True misfortune for them is not
which fate brings them, but abandonment of their moral path.
Yes, everything is disgusting if you change yourself and do it against your soul.
("Philoctetes", translation by S. Shervinsky)
No, even in a disastrous life, the Pure in Heart will not want to stain his good name.
("Electra", translation from Shervinsky)
Thanks to willpower, a person emerges from the historical order of things and lives
forever.

It is sweet for me to die having fulfilled my duty... After all, I will have to
To serve the dead longer than the living, I will remain there forever.
("Antigone", translation by S. Shervinsky)
This is the difference between Sophocles and Aeschylus. Aeschylus has a tragic quality
action stemmed from the fact that people were aware that they were blindly obeying
the inevitable divine plan leading to the triumph of justice. U
Sophocles, the source of tragedy is that they consciously and boldly refuse
adapt to changing life circumstances.

Sophocles short biography Athenian playwright, tragic writer is described in this article.

Sophocles short biography

Sophocles was born around 496 BC. e. in Colon, a small village a few kilometers north of the Acropolis.

Sophocles came from a wealthy family and received a good education. He had a cheerful, sociable character and did not shy away from the joys of life.

After the Battle of Salamis (480 BC) he participated in the national festival as the leader of the choir. He was twice elected to the position of strategist and once served as a member of the board in charge of the union treasury. The Athenians chose Sophocles as strategos in 440 BC. e.

His main occupation was composing tragedies for the Athenian theater. Ancient literary scholars attributed about 130 tragedies.

Seven tragedies have survived to this day, including the famous Oedipus, Antigone, Electra, Dejanira, and others.

Ancient Greek playwright The credit goes to the introduction of a number of innovations in the production of tragedies:

he increased the number of actors playing to three,
improved the prop side of the performance.
At the same time, the changes affected not only the technical side: the tragedies of Sophocles, in terms of content and message, acquired a more “human” face, even in comparison with the work of Aeschylus.

Sophocles died at the age of 90 (406 BC).

Sophocles) famous writers ancient times. Born around 496 BC. e. in Colon, a small village a few kilometers north of the Acropolis. He happened to be born into a wealthy family and received an excellent education. Sophocles was a multi-talented person, he studied music under the guidance of the famous musician Lampra, and demonstrated excellent results in athletic competitions. Sources indicate that young Sophocles was extremely handsome, perhaps for this reason he led the youth choir after the victory in the Battle of Salamis (480 BC), singing hymns of thanks to the gods.

In 468 BC. e. Sophocles made his debut at literary competitions of poets, and immediately became the winner, winning the prize from the outstanding Aeschylus. Fame came to Sophocles, which did not leave him until the end of his life. It is known that he regularly took part in competitions for Athenian playwrights, became a winner more than two dozen times, a “silver medalist” many times, and never once did his plays receive third and last place. It is believed that Sophocles wrote more than hundreds of plays, and writing tragedies was the main occupation of his life.

Nevertheless, he gained fame among his contemporaries not only as a playwright. An active participant in the public life of Athens, he held various positions. It is possible that in 1443-1442. BC e. was a member of the board of treasurers of the Athenian League. During the Samian War in 44 BC. e. Sophocles was elected one of the ten strategists who led the punitive expedition. Most likely, he served as a strategist two more times; was one of the people close to the Athenian strategist Pericles. During a difficult period for Athens (after an unsuccessful expedition to Sicily in 413 BC), Sophocles became one of the ten probulians who were entrusted with the fate of the polis. In the memoirs of his contemporaries, Sophocles remained a very pious man who founded the sanctuary of Hercules. At the same time, he was sociable and cheerful, although he became famous for composing tragic works.

A total of seven tragedies have survived to this day, which experts attribute to the late period of Sophocles’ biography; among them are the famous “Oedipus”, “Antigone”, “Electra”, “Dejanira”, etc. The ancient Greek playwright is credited with introducing a number of innovations in the production of tragedies. In particular, he increased the number of actors playing to three and improved the prop side of the performance. At the same time, the changes affected not only the technical side: the tragedies of Sophocles, in terms of content and message, acquired a more “human” face, even in comparison with the work of Aeschylus.

Died at an old age around 406 BC. e. Sophocles was deified after his death, and an altar was built in Athens as a sign of his memory.

) participated in the folk festival as a choir leader. He was twice elected to the position of strategist and once served as a member of the board in charge of the union treasury. The Athenians chose Sophocles as strategos in 440 BC. e. during the Samian War, under the influence of his tragedy "Antigone", the production of which dates back to 441 BC. e.

His main occupation was composing tragedies for the Athenian theater. The first tetralogy, staged by Sophocles in 469 BC. e. , gave him victory over Aeschylus and opened up a number of victories won on stage in competitions with other tragedians. The Byzantine critic Aristophanes attributed 123 tragedies to Sophocles (including Antigone).

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In accordance with the successes that the tragedy owed to Sophocles, he made innovations in the stage production of plays. Thus, he increased the number of actors to three, and the number of choreographers from 12 to 15, while at the same time reducing the choral parts of the tragedy, improved the scenery, masks, and generally the prop side of the theater, made a change in the production of tragedies in the form of tetralogies, although it is not known exactly what this change consisted of. Finally, he introduced painted decorations into use. All the changes were intended to give more movement to the course of the drama on stage, to enhance the illusion of the audience and the impression received from the tragedy. While preserving the nature of the performance of honoring the deity, the sacred service, which the tragedy was originally, by its very origin from the cult of Dionysus, Sophocles humanized it much more than Aeschylus. The humanization of the legendary and mythical world of gods and heroes followed inevitably as soon as the poet focused his attention on a deeper analysis of the mental states of the heroes, which were hitherto known to the public only from the external vicissitudes of their earthly life. It was possible to depict the spiritual world of demigods only with the features of mere mortals. The beginning of such treatment of legendary material was laid by the father of tragedy, Aeschylus: it is enough to recall the images of Prometheus or Orestes created by him; Sophocles followed in the footsteps of his predecessor.

Characteristic features of dramaturgy

Sophocles loved to pit heroes with different life principles against each other (Creon and Antigone, Odysseus and Neoptolemus, etc.) or contrast people with the same views, but with different characters, to emphasize the strength of character of one when he collided with another, weak-willed (Antigone and Ismene, Electra and Chrysothemis). He loves and knows how to depict changes in the mood of the heroes - the transition from the highest intensity of passions to a state of breakdown, when a person comes to the bitter realization of his weakness and helplessness. This turning point can be observed in Oedipus at the end of the tragedy “Oedipus the King,” and in Creon, who learned about the death of his wife and son, and in Ajax, who regains consciousness (in the tragedy “Ajax”). Sophocles' tragedies are characterized by dialogues of rare skill, dynamic action, and naturalness in untying complex dramatic knots.

Plots of tragedies

In almost all the tragedies that have come down to us, it is not a series of situations or external events that attract the attention of the audience, but a sequence of mental states experienced by the heroes under the influence of relationships that are immediately clearly and definitively posed in the tragedy. The content of “Oedipus” is one moment from the hero’s inner life: the discovery of the crimes he committed before the tragedy began.

Surviving plays
- "Trakhinyanki" (c. 450-435 BC)
- “Ajax” (“Eant”, “Scourgebearer”) (between mid-450s and mid-440s BC)
- "Antigone" (c. 442-441 BC)
- “Oedipus Rex” (“Oedipus the Tyrant”) (c. 429-426 BC)