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28-567: Contributors included Thomas Broughton and John Campbell , compiler of Lives of the Admirals (1742). This article about a non-fiction book on history of the United Kingdom or its predecessor states is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a biographical dictionary is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Thomas Broughton (biographer) Thomas Broughton (1704–1774),

56-547: A colony in Trachis called Heraclea . The colony alarmed Athens, who feared the colony could be used to attack Euboea , and in Women of Trachis Heracles is said to be either waging war or planning to do so against Euboea. Vickers believes that the link to current events and to Sparta accounts for why Heracles is portrayed so coldly in the play. Vickers also argues that Sophocles chose the name " Lichas " for Heracles' messenger as

84-501: A date. Other scholars, including Michael Vickers, argue for a date around 424 or 425, later than the generally accepted date range for the first performance of Oedipus Rex . Arguments in favor of such a date include the fact that events of the play seem to reflect events that occurred during the Peloponnesian War around that time. The Spartans believed they were descended from Heracles, and in 427 or 426, Sparta founded

112-459: A herald of Heracles, brings in a procession of captives. He tells Deianeira a false story of why Heracles had laid siege to the city of Oechalia (in Euboea ). He claimed Eurytus , the city's king, was responsible for Heracles being enslaved, and therefore Heracles vowed revenge against him and his people. As a response to this capture, Heracles enslaved the women of Eurytus. Among the captured girls

140-483: A libretto based on Sophocles' Women of Trachis and the ninth book of Ovid's Metamophises for the drama Hercules , first performed at the Haymarket in 1745. Handel's biographer, Paul Henry Lang , praises Broughton's libretto for its "good theatrical sense" and the way in which it peels away any extraneous elements of the narrative to concentrate on the central drama of jealousy. In private life, Broughton

168-589: A love charm on him, a magic potion that will win him back. When she was younger, she had been carried across the river Evenus by the centaur , Nessus . Halfway through he tried to assault her, but Heracles heard her cries and came to her rescue, quickly shooting him with an arrow. As he died, he told her his blood, now mixed with the poison of the Lernaean Hydra , in which Heracles' arrow had been dipped, would keep Heracles from loving any other woman more than her, if she follows his instructions. Deianeira dyes

196-476: A robe with the blood and has Lichas carry it to Heracles with strict instructions that no one else is to wear it, and that it is to be kept in the dark until he puts it on. After the gift is sent, she begins to have a bad feeling about it. She throws some of the left-over material into sunlight and it reacts like boiling acid. Nessus had lied about the love charm, it was actually a poison . Hyllus soon arrives to inform her that Heracles lies dying due to her gift. He

224-508: Is Iole , daughter of Eurytus. Deianeira soon learns that, from a messenger, the truth is Heracles laid siege to the city just to obtain Iole, after the king denied allowing Heracles to take Iole as a secret lover. He then attacked the city so that he could have Iole anyways. Deianeira is distraught and questions Lichas, who soon tells the truth to her. Unable to cope with the thought of her husband falling for this younger woman, she decides to use

252-431: Is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles . Women of Trachis is generally considered to be less developed than Sophocles' other works, and its dating has been a subject of disagreement among critics and scholars. The story begins with Deianeira , the wife of Heracles , relating the story of her early life and her plight adjusting to married life. She discusses how Heracles was not her first suitor, and her first suitor

280-417: Is carried to his home in horrible pain and furious over what he believes was a murder attempt by his wife. Hyllus explains the truth, and Heracles realizes that the prophecies about his death have come to pass: He was to be killed by someone who was already dead, and it turned out to be Nessus. In the end, he is in so much pain that he is begging for someone to finish him off. In this weakened state, he says he

308-418: Is concerned over prophecies about Heracles and the land he is currently in claiming that it could result in the death of Heracles. After Hyllus sets off, a messenger arrives with word that Heracles, victorious in his recent battle, is making offerings on Cape Cenaeum and coming home soon to Trachis . The messenger also states that his delay home was due to everyone wanting to hear of his victories. Lichas ,

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336-437: Is like a woman. He makes Hyllus promise him two things, which Hyllus promises to obey (under protest), that Hyllus is to marry Iole and Hyllus is to take Heracles to the highest peak of Zeus' peak and to burn him alive on a pillar. He also makes Hyllus promise that he will not cry while this takes place. The play concludes with Heracles being carried off where he will be killed as an act of mercy, to end his suffering. The date of

364-522: Is only inadvertently responsible for her husband's death. According to some scholars, Deianeira's character in Women of Trachis is intended as a commentary on Aeschylus' treatment of Clytemnestra; if so, Women of Trachis was probably produced reasonably soon after the Oresteia , although it is also possible that such commentary was triggered by a later revival of Aeschylus' trilogy. Hoey also sees echoes of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound , particularly in

392-466: Is the relationship between the character of Deianeira and that of Clytemnestra in Aeschylus ' Oresteia , first produced in 458. In earlier known versions of this story, Deianeira has several masculine qualities, similar to those of Clytemnestra – who, in the Oresteia , purposely kills her husband Agamemnon . In Women of Trachis , however, Deianeira's character is softer and more feminine, and she

420-417: Is unknown which poet borrowed from the other. A stronger reason Webster gives for this dating is that he believes that the structure of Woman of Trachis is similar to that of Sophocles' lost play Tereus , which Webster dates to this time period based largely on circumstantial evidence from Thucydides . Finally, Webster believes that the language and structure of Women of Trachis are consistent with such

448-406: The metaphysics of evil, to which Sophocles devoted his life." Thomas B. L. Webster also estimates a date in the 430s, close to 431, for a variety of reasons. One reason Webster gives for this dating is that there are a number of similarities between Women of Trachis and plays by Euripides that were known to be written between 438 and 417, and so may help narrow the range of dates, although it

476-649: The Creation of the World to the Present Times (1742), a huge work in two volumes folio; he translated Voltaire 's Temple of Taste and part of Pierre Bayle 's Dictionary ; vindicated orthodox Christianity against Matthew Tindal ; converted a Roman Catholic book ( Dorrel on the Epistles and Gospels ) to Protestant uses; edited John Dryden ; wrote in defence of the immortality of the soul ; and contributed

504-501: The belief that the play comes from a younger and less skilled Sophocles. Additionally, the plot of the play is similar to a story related by Bacchylides in Bacchylides XVI, but in some respects significantly different from earlier known versions of Bacchylides' story. From this, Hoey and others have argued that Sophocles' interpretation was more likely to have influenced Bacchylides than vice versa. Serving as further evidence

532-479: The first performance of Women of Trachis is unknown, and scholars have speculated a wide range of dates for its initial performance. Scholars such as T.F. Hoey believe the play was written relatively early in Sophocles' career, around 450 BC. Often cited as evidence for an early date is the fact that the dramatic form of Women of Trachis is not as developed as those of Sophocles' other surviving works, advancing

560-506: The lives marked 'T' in the original edition of the Biographia Britannica . John Hawkins , in his Life of Johnson , credits Broughton with being the real translator of Jarvis 's Don Quixote : The fact is that Jarvis laboured at it many years, but could make but little progress, for being a painter by profession, he had not been accustomed to write, and had no style. Mr. Tonson, the bookseller, seeing this, suggested

588-439: The relevance of Women of Trachis to debates that were occurring during the 450s on the "relationship between knowledge and responsibility." Other scholars, such as Cedric H. Whitman , argue for a production date during the 430s, close to but probably before Oedipus Rex . Evidence for a date near Oedipus Rex include a thematic similarity between the two plays. Whitman believes the two plays represent "another large step in

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616-467: The thought of employing Mr. Broughton . . . who sat himself down to study the Spanish language, and in a few months acquired, as was pretended, sufficient knowledge thereof to give to the world a translation of "Don Quixote" in the true spirit of the original, and to which is prefixed the name of Jarvis. Broughton, a lover of music, knew Handel , and supplied words for some of his compositions, including

644-490: The vicarage of Bedminster , near Bristol , with the chapels of St. Mary Redcliffe , St. Thomas, and Abbot's Leigh annexed. It was also to Sherlock's influence he owed a prebend in Salisbury Cathedral , on receiving which he moved from London to Bristol, where he died on 21 December 1774. He was an industrious writer in many kinds of composition. He published an Historical Dictionary of all Religions from

672-410: Was actually the river god Aheloos . Deianeira tells how with Zeus' intervention, Heracles defeated Aheloos and took her as a wife. She is now distraught over her husband's neglect of her family. Often involved in some adventure, he rarely visits them. It has been fifteen months since she has last heard from Heracles, and Deianeira does not know where he is. She sends their son Hyllus to find him, as she

700-557: Was admitted to deacon's orders, and in 1728 he was ordained priest, and proceeded to the M.A. He served for several years as curate of Offley , Hertfordshire , and in 1739 became rector of Stepington , Huntingdonshire ; the patron, the Duke of Bedford , also appointing him one of his chaplains. As reader to the Temple , to which he was chosen soon afterwards, he won the favour of the master, Bishop Sherlock , who in 1744 presented him to

728-470: Was an English clergyman , biographer, and miscellaneous writer, whose works include the libretto to Handel 's Hercules . Broughton was born in London on 5 July 1704, the son of the rector of St. Andrew's, Holborn . He was educated at Eton , before going up to Cambridge in about 1723. There "for the sake of a scholarship he entered himself of Gonville and Caius College ." In 1727, after taking B.A., he

756-452: Was in such pain and fury that he killed Lichas, the deliverer of the gift: "he made the white brain to ooze from the hair, as the skull was dashed to splinters, and blood scattered therewith" (as translated by Sir Richard C. Jebb ). Deianeira feels enormous shame for what she has done, amplified by her son's harsh words, and kills herself. Hyllus discovers soon after that it wasn't actually her intention to kill her husband. The dying Heracles

784-415: Was of a mild and amiable disposition, but in controversy, though not discourteous according to the standard of his time, he was very economical in his concessions to his opponents, and he has been characterised in some respects as a weak and credulous writer. Attribution: Women of Trachis Women of Trachis or The Trachiniae ( Ancient Greek : Τραχίνιαι , Trachiniai ) c. 450–425 BC,

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