52
4. General character of the poems ........................... 56
5. The main images of the poems ........................... 61
6. Features of the epic style ...................... 67
7. Language and verse of poems ........................... 74
8. Nationality and national significance of Homer’s poems ............ 76
Chapter III. Homeric Question Chapter V. The simplest forms of lyric poetry Chapter IX. Aeschylus Chapter X. The Time of Sophocles and Euripides Chapter XVI. The flourishing of oratory Chapter XIX. Hellenistic Literature Chapter XXI. The End of Ancient Greek Literature and Early Christian Literature
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2. WORKS OF SOPHOCLES
Sophocles reportedly wrote 123 dramas, but of these only seven have come down to us, apparently arranged chronologically in the following order: Ajax, The Trachinian Women,
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Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. The dates for the productions have not been established exactly. It is only known that “Philoctetes” was staged in 409, “Oedipus at Colonus” - in 401, after the poet’s death; "Antigone", as stated above, refers, in all likelihood, to 442; there is reason to think that Oedipus the King was staged around 428, since the description of the pestilence in Thebes is similar to the response to what was experienced in 430 and 429. epidemics in Athens. “Ajax,” containing a satire on the Spartans, was apparently staged before the thirty-year peace with the Spartans concluded in 445. In 1911, significant fragments of the satyr drama “The Pathfinders” were found on papyrus in Egypt, which, apparently, belongs to the early ones.The content of all these works is taken from three mythological cycles: from the Trojan - “Ajax”, “Electra” and “Philoctetes”; from Theban - “Oedipus the King”, “Oedipus at Colonus” and “Antigone”; The plot of "The Trachinian Women" is taken from the legend of Hercules. In the future, their content is considered according to the cycles of legends.
The plot of "Ajax" is borrowed from the Cyclical poem "The Little Iliad". After the death of Achilles, Ajax, as the most valiant warrior after him, counted on receiving his armor. But they were given to Odysseus. Then Ajax, seeing this as an intrigue on the part of Agamemnon and Menelaus, planned to kill them. However, the goddess Athena clouded his mind, and instead of his enemies, he killed a herd of sheep and cows. Coming to his senses and seeing what he had done, Ajax, conscious of his shame, decided to commit suicide. His wife Tecmessa and the faithful warriors who make up the choir, fearing for him, closely monitor his actions. But he, having deceived their vigilance, leaves for deserted shore and throws himself on the sword. Agamemnon and Menelaus think of taking revenge on their dead enemy by leaving his body without burial. However, his brother Teucer stands up for the rights of the deceased. He is supported by the noble enemy himself - Odysseus. The matter thus ends with the moral victory of Ajax.
“Electra” is similar in plot to “Choephori” by Aeschylus. But the main character here is not Orestes, but his sister Electra. Orestes, having arrived in Argos, accompanied by his faithful Uncle and friend Pylades, hears the cries of Electra, but God ordered revenge to be taken by cunning, and therefore no one should know about his arrival. Electra tells the women of the choir about her difficult situation in the house, since she cannot tolerate the murderers' mockery of the memory of her father, and reminds them of Orestes' revenge awaiting them. Electra's sister Chrysothemis, sent by her mother to make propitiatory sacrifices at her father's grave, brings the news that her mother and Aegisthus have decided to put Electra in a dungeon. Following this, Clytemnestra comes out and prays to Apollo to avert trouble. At this time, Orestes' Uncle appears under the guise of a messenger from a friendly king and reports the death of Orestes. The news plunges Electra into despair, while Clytemnestra triumphs, freed from the fear of revenge. Meanwhile, Chrysothemis, having returned from her father’s grave, tells Electra that she saw grave victims there, which could not be anyone else.
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brought, except for Orestes. Electra refutes her guesses, conveying to her the news she received about his death, and offers to take revenge with joint forces. Since Chrysothemis refuses, Electra declares that she will do it alone. Orestes, disguised as a messenger from Phocis, brings a funeral urn and, recognizing his sister in the grieving woman, reveals himself to her. After this, he kills his mother and Aegisthus. Unlike the tragedy of Aeschylus, in Sophocles Orestes does not experience any torment, and the tragedy ends with the triumph of victory.Philoctetes is based on a story from the Little Iliad. Philoctetes went on a campaign near Troy with others Greek heroes, but on the way to the island of Lemnos he was bitten by a snake, the bite of which left an unhealed wound that emitted a terrible stench. To get rid of Philoctetes, who had become a burden to the army, the Greeks, on the advice of Odysseus, left him alone on the island. Only with the help of a bow and arrow given to him by Hercules did the sick Philoctetes maintain his existence. But the Greeks received a prediction that without the arrows of Hercules, Troy could not be taken. Odysseus undertook to get them. Going to Lemnos with the young Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, he forces him to go to Philoctetes and, having gained his trust, take possession of his weapon. Neoptolemus does so, but then, seeing the helplessness of the hero who trusted him, he repents of his deception and returns the weapon to Philoctetes, hoping to convince him to voluntarily go to the aid of the Greeks. But Philoctetes, having learned about Odysseus’s new deception, flatly refuses. However, according to myth, he still took part in the capture of Troy. Sophocles resolves this contradiction by special welcome, which was often used by Euripides: while Philoctetes is about to go home with the help of Neoptolemus, the deified Hercules (the so-called “god from the machine” - deus ex machina) appears in front of them in the heights and conveys to Philoctetes the command of the gods that he must go under Troy, and as a reward he was promised healing from his illness. The plot was previously processed by Aeschylus and Euripides.
The plot of the tragedy “The Trakhinyanka” is taken from the cycle of myths about Hercules. This tragedy is named after the choir of women in the city of Trakhina, where Deianira, the wife of Hercules, lives. It has already been fifteen months since Hercules left her, assigning her this period of waiting. She sends her son Gill to search, but then a messenger comes from Hercules with the news of his imminent return and with the booty he has sent, and among this booty is the captive Iola. Dejanira learns by chance that Iola is the king's daughter and that for her sake Hercules undertook a campaign and ravaged the city of Ehalia. Wanting to return her husband's lost love, Deianira sends him a shirt soaked in the blood of the centaur Nessus; many years earlier, Nessus, dying from the arrow of Hercules, told her that his blood had such power. But suddenly she receives news that Hercules is dying, since the Shirt stuck to his body and began to burn him. In despair, she takes her own life. When they then bring the suffering Hercules, he wants to execute his murderous wife, but learns that she has already died and that his death is the revenge of the centaur he once killed. Then he orders himself to be taken to
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the top of Mount Eta and burnt there. At the heart of the tragedy, therefore, lies a fatal misunderstanding.The most famous are the tragedies of the Theban cycle. The tragedy “Oedipus the King” should be placed first in the order of plot development. Oedipus, without suspecting it, committed terrible crimes - he killed his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta. The gradual disclosure of these crimes is the content of the tragedy. Having become the king of Thebes, Oedipus reigned safely for a number of years. But suddenly a pestilence began in the country, and the oracle said that the reason for this was the presence in the country of the killer of the former king Laius. Oedipus begins the search. It turns out that the only witness to the murder was a slave who now grazes the royal flocks in the mountains. Oedipus gives orders to bring him. Meanwhile, the soothsayer Tiresias announces to Oedipus that he himself is the murderer. But this seems so incredible to Oedipus that he sees it as an intrigue on the part of his brother-in-law Creon. Jocasta, wanting to calm Oedipus and show the falsity of the prophecies, tells how she had a son from Laius, whom they, fearing the fulfillment of terrible predictions, decided to destroy, and how many years later his father was killed by some robbers at the crossroads of three roads. With these words, Oedipus remembers that he himself once killed some respectable husband in the same place. He begins to suspect whether the man he killed was the Theban king. But Jocasta calms him down, referring to the shepherd’s words that there were several robbers. At this time, the Messenger, who came from Corinth, reports the death of King Polybus, whom Oedipus considered his father, and then it turns out that Oedipus was only his adopted son. And then, from the interrogation of the Theban shepherd, it is revealed that Oedipus was the very child whom Laius ordered to kill, and that, therefore, he, Oedipus, is the murderer of his father and is married to his mother. In despair, Jocasta takes her own life, and Oedipus blinds himself and condemns himself to exile.
In “Oedipus at Colonus” it is presented how the blind Oedipus, traveling accompanied by his daughter Antigone, comes to Colonus and here finds protection from the Athenian king Theseus. Meanwhile, the Theban king Creon, having learned the prediction that after death Oedipus will be the patron of the country where he will find his end, tries to force him back to Thebes. However, Theseus does not allow such violence. Then his son Polyneices comes to Oedipus. Going on a campaign against his brother Eteocles, he wants to receive a blessing from his father, but he curses them both. After his son leaves, Oedipus hears the call of the gods and, accompanied by Theseus, goes to the sacred grove of the Eumenides, where he finds peace, taken by the gods into the bowels of the earth. Sophocles used the Colonian legend here.
The plot of "Antigone" is planned in the final part of the tragedy "Seven against Thebes" by Aeschylus. When both brothers - Eteocles and Polyneices - fell in single combat, Creon, taking over the government, forbade, on pain of death, the body of Polyneices to be buried. However, his sister Antigone, despite this, performs the burial ceremony. During interrogation, she explains that she did this in the name of a higher, not
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written law. Creon condemns her to execution. His son Haemon, Antigone's fiancé, tries in vain to stop him. She is walled up in an underground crypt. The soothsayer Tiresias tries to reason with Creon and, due to his persistence, predicts the loss of his closest people as punishment. Alarmed Creon comes to his senses and decides to free Antigone, but, arriving at the crypt, he does not find her alive. Haemon is stabbed to death over her corpse. Creon's wife Eurydice, having learned about the death of her son, also commits suicide. Creon, left alone and morally broken, curses his foolishness and the joyless life awaiting him.The satyr drama "The Pathfinders" is based on a plot from Homer's hymn to Hermes. It tells how he stole his wonderful cows from Apollo. Apollo turns to a choir of satyrs for help in his quest. And those, attracted by the sounds of the lyre invented by Hermes, guess who the kidnapper is and find the stolen herd in the cave.
Prepared according to the edition:
Radzig S.I.R 15 History ancient Greek literature: Textbook. - 5th ed. - M.: Higher. school, 1982, 487 p.
© Publishing house " graduate School", 1977.
© Publishing House "Higher School", 1982.
"The Theban Maiden"
It is such a bliss to touch an imperishable classic, especially after a bad experience with modern literature.
"Antigone" is a small tragedy created by the "golden boy" of his time. Yes, Sophocles, as they say, was a winner in life: rich parents, a clear literary talent for tragedies, a prestigious political position as a strategist, and even sporting achievements (he was an excellent wrestler). The girls probably hanged themselves that way.
Hey Sophocles, hello from the 2000s! Here we have Timati, Stas Mikhailov... tragedies are difficult, but there are rumors about the famous Russian comedies. Eh... I hope in a thousand years we won't have to hand over clay tablets from all this.
When the unknown citizen of the Universe had not yet reincarnated into Shakespeare - all the passions took place on the territory Ancient Hellas. The Greeks loved beautiful stories, so that passions boil, blood or wine flows. In this regard, twice a year the descendants of the Achaeans held theatrical performances at a festival in honor of Dionysus, the god of wine. In the spring, in March, tragedies were usually staged. Comedy in December. But comedies had a strict 18+ qualification and no women. The Greek consumer watchdog did not sleep.
Now let's rotate the mood switch 180 degrees.
Antigone is one of Sophocles' seven surviving tragedies. In total, the author wrote about 120 of them.
Now the plot may seem simple and not catchy. We already have "Titanic", "Hurry to Love". "Memory Diary". But if you go back to the 5th century BC - the apogee of the heyday of Ancient Greece - you can see the impression Antigone made on people. Once you've read it, do a little literary archeology and you'll unearth tragedy of love, poignant social themes, decadence.
The ending is on par with Romeo and Juliet. Moreover, throughout the reading it will constantly seem that Shakespeare is standing behind him and writing down every word of the ancient tragedian for the future manuscript. There are a lot of intersections. But the Englishman will put love at the forefront, and the Greek - the law!
The main problem of "Antigone" is the question that worried contemporaries - the confrontation between earthly laws and divine ones. Despite the fact that there are several characters in the work, there are only three main ones: Antigone, Creon (king) and Teresius (prophet). The king's decree contradicts the will of the ancestors, and here Antigone manifests herself in the form of an unyielding maiden who, sacrificing herself, dares to disobey Creon, because this goes against the cult of the ancestors.
Sophocles himself can be discerned behind these dialogues: No king has the right to violate the will of the gods. Man is mortal and subjective - but the gods never make mistakes, and not a single tyrant can stand against them.
The Greek tragedian adhered to this principle. Because of this, Sophocles had to go against the ideas of his friend Protagoras, who owns the famous phrase: “MAN IS THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS.”
“No, Protagoras is my friend - but man is nothing against the will of ROCK,” says Sophocles.
Rock acts as a third party in this tragedy. He is higher than the gods and man, no one can hide from him and he makes things equal... But you can’t do without spoilers here, so -
(A book that is over 100 years old)
Sophocles (496-406 BC) - ancient tragedian playwright.
Major works: "Ajax" (442 BC), "Antigone" (441 BC), "The Trachinian Women" (date of writing unknown), "Philoctetes". In the short biography of Sophocles, which is presented on this page, we have collected basic facts about the life and work of the playwright Sophocles.
Born on the outskirts of Athens - Kolone in a wealthy family. Got a good one music education, with which his creative innovations are connected (the use of choirs, solo songs, and the like; a treatise on the choir). This largely influenced how Sophocles’ biography developed. He is known as a reformer ancient Greek theater. Sophocles was not only interested in theater, but was also an active politician and a patriot of his homeland. He held government and military positions. Was close to the circles of Pericles. How the playwright acted in 468 BC. e. During his life, Sophocles created more than 100 tragedies. At the beginning of the 20th century, an excerpt from the satyr drama “The Pathfinders” was found. Sophocles took the plots for his tragedies from mythology.
In his tragedies, Sophocles raised pressing social and moral issues, the main place among which was occupied by the problem of the relationship between the individual and state power. The playwright showed truthfully inner world their heroes, who embody integral, somewhat idealized characters. His tragedies inspire faith in her strength. Continuing the traditions of Aeschylus, Sophocles developed the genre of tragedy. Increased the number to three characters, abandoned the plot-related tetralogy, introduced monodies - solo songs, improved scenery, masks, etc.
Speaking about the biography of Sophocles, it is important to note that his work had a significant influence on the development of new drama in Europe, starting from the Renaissance. In Greece, the name of Sophocles was extremely popular and authoritative, so after his death he was revered as a hero.
If you have already read the short biography of Sophocles, you can rate this writer at the top of the page. In addition, we invite you to visit the Biographies section to read about other popular and famous writers.
(around 496-406 BC) ancient Greek playwright
Along with Aeschylus and Euripides, Sophocles is considered the great playwright of Ancient Greece, a master of classical tragedy. His fame and glory were so great that even after his death the playwright was called heros dexion (“right husband”).
Sophocles was born in the Athenian city of Colonus into the family of a wealthy gunsmith owner. High social status predetermined the fate of the future playwright. He received an excellent general and artistic education and already in his youth became famous as one of the best Athenian choreuts - choir leaders during dramatic performances. Later, Sophocles was entrusted with the most important position in Athens - the keeper of the treasury of the Athenian Maritime League, and, in addition, he was one of the strategists.
Thanks to his friendship with Pericles, the ruler of Athens, as well as with the famous historian Herodotus and the sculptor Phidias, Sophocles combined literary studies with active political activities.
Like other Greek playwrights, he regularly participated in poetry competitions. Scientists estimate that in total he competed more than thirty times, and won twenty-four victories and only took second place six times. Sophocles first defeated Aeschylus at the age of 27.
According to contemporaries, he wrote 123 tragedies, of which only seven have survived to our time. They are all story based. ancient greek mythology. Basically, Sophocles' heroes are strong and uncompromising individuals. Such is Ajax, the hero tragedy of the same name, offended by the unjust decision of the leaders. The wife of Hercules, Deianira, suffering from love and jealousy, who inadvertently became the culprit of his death, also has a similar character (“Trakhinyanki”, 409 BC).
The most significant tragedies of Sophocles are “Oedipus the King” (429) and “Antigone” (443). Expelled from his kingdom, Oedipus tries to understand the reasons for such a harsh decision of the elders and dies upon learning that he has become the husband of his mother. Such acute dramatic conflicts would later become the basis of the aesthetics of plays of the classical period, the basis of plots in the works of P. Corneille and J. Racine.
Sophocles sought to make his tragedies more dynamic and expressive. For this he came up with painted theater scenery, which helped the audience feel the drama of what was happening. Before this, the entire action was explained by the choir, who appeared with the appropriate signs (“forest”, “house”, “temple”).
In addition, Sophocles for the first time brought onto the stage not two, but three characters, which made their dialogue more lively and deep. In his works, actors sometimes even portrayed abstract concepts: for example, in the tragedy “Oedipus the King,” a special actor played the role of Rock, the personification of merciless fate.
Sophocles also simplified the language of his plays, reserving the slow hexameter for the chorus only. Now the speech of the heroes was constantly changing, approaching natural human conversation. Sophocles believed that a playwright should portray people as they should be, and not as they actually are. He outlined his views in a treatise on the theory of drama and choral singing that has not reached us. Even during the author's lifetime, his tragedies were recognized as exemplary, and they were studied in schools. Even at sunset ancient times, already in Ancient Rome, Sophocles was considered an unattainable role model.
Apparently, this is why other playwrights often used his tragedies as a source for their works. They were much more dynamic and believable than the plays of his contemporaries. Of course, the authors different eras they shortened their text, but always preserved the main thing - its courageous and fair heroes.
In addition to tragedies, Sophocles also wrote satirical dramas. A fragment of one of them called “Pathfinder” is known.
Years of life: 496 - 406 BC
State: Ancient Greece
Scope of activity: Dramaturgy
Greatest Achievement: Creation of tragedies on the stage of Athenian theaters
Sophocles was ancient Greek poet and a playwright, one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His works belonged to the period after Aeschylus and before Euripides. Sophocles wrote 123 plays during his life, of which only seven survive in complete form. These plays are: Ajax, Antigone, The Women of Trachin, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus.
He was considered to remain the most celebrated playwright in the drama competitions of the city-state of Athens, held during the religious festivals of Lenaea and Dionysia. Sophocles participated in thirty competitions, of which he won 24 and never fell below second place in the rest. Among his plays, two of the most famous tragedy - Oedipus and Antigone. Sophocles was a major influence on drama. His main contribution was the addition of a third actor, which reduced the importance of the chorus in presenting the plot.
Biography
Sophocles was born in Attica around 496 BC in the city of Colon (now a district of Athens). He received his first artistic achievement in 468 BC. e., when he won first prize in the theater competition “Dionysia” and defeated the master of Athenian drama Aeschylus. According to the Greek historian, this victory was quite unusual. In contrast to the custom of choosing judges by lot, the archon-ruler of Athens asked the strategists present to determine the winner of the competition. According to him, after the defeat, Aeschylus left for Sicily.
Triptolemus was one of the plays that Sophocles presented at this festival. When Sophocles was sixteen years old, he was chosen to lead a song dedicated to the Gods, celebrating the victory of the Greeks over the Persians in . He was one of the ten strategoi, the highest officials in command of the armed forces, and a junior colleague of Pericles.
Early in his career, Sophocles received patronage from the politician Cimon. Even when in 461 BC. e. Cimon was banished by Pericles. Sophocles continued to work on his plays. In 443 he became one of the Hellenothami, or Treasurers of Athens, and played an assistant role in managing the city's finances during the political reign of Pericles. In 413, Sophocles was chosen as one of the commissioners who responded most quickly to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary force in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War.
Sophocles also did not ignore the female gender. He was married twice, from his marriages he had sons (some sources claim that there were five of them). But it is not the poet’s personal life that deserves more attention, but his creations.
Works of Sophocles
Sophocles' works were influential and significant to Greek culture. Two of his seven plays have an exact date of composition: Philoctetes (409 BC) and Oedipus at Colonus (401 BC, staged after his death by the playwright’s grandson). Of his other plays, Electra bore a striking resemblance to these two plays, which brought to the fore the fact that it was written at a later time in his career.
Again, based on the stylistic characteristics of Oedipus Rex that came in its middle period, Ajax, Antigone and Trachinia belonged to its early days. Sophocles wrote these plays in separate festival competitions several years apart. They cannot be called a trilogy due to the inconsistencies between them. In addition, Sophocles is believed to have written several more Theban plays, such as "The Posterity", which survive in fragments. Most of his plays depicted the undercurrent of early fatalism and the displacement of Socratic logic, which is cornerstone long tradition of Greek tragedy.
Antigone
Most famous play Sophocles is "Antigone".
It was first staged in 442 BC. The work is one of the parts of the Theban cycle, along with “King Oedipus”. The plot is quite twisted and tragic - in the style of Sophocles. Oedipus's daughter, Antigone, loses both brothers - they went to war against each other.
Only one of them defended Thebes, the other betrayed. The king of Thebes, Creon, forbade the burial ceremony of the traitor, but Antigone, bypassing the order, buried her brother humanly.
Creon ordered the girl to be arrested and walled up in a cave.
Antigone committed suicide, but the matter did not end there - her fiancé, the son of Creon, not surviving the death of his beloved, also took his own life, followed by his mother.
Creon was left alone and admitted that he was wrong.
Oedipus the King
Another famous play is Oedipus the King. The plot is even more twisted than in Antigone. Oedipus's father, having learned about the prophecy that his son would be his killer, gave the order to kill the baby, but the soldier who was entrusted with this matter gave the child to be raised by the peasants. Having matured, Oedipus learns about the prophecy and leaves home. Near the city of Thebes, a chariot ran into him. A conflict broke out, as a result of which Oedipus killed the old man and his companions.
The old man turned out to be his real father. Oedipus becomes king of the city and marries his mother. However, 15 years later, as a result of a new prophecy of the Delphic oracle, the truth is revealed to Oedipus - his wife is actually his mother, and the old man he killed many years ago is his father. Unable to bear the heavy burden of shame, he gouges out his eyes so as not to see the bitter truth.
Sophocles is recognized as a true master of tragedy - his plays were a huge success in Athenian theaters. He even died in 406 while working on his works. Sophocles died at the age of ninety or ninety-one. One story says that he died from the strain of trying to deliver a long sentence from his play Antigone without stopping to catch his breath. While another story suggests that he suffocated while eating grapes at a festival in Athens. Whatever the truth, Sophocles remains one of the most popular masters of tragedy even today, whose plays we can see in theaters.
