Misplaced Pages

#163836

62-486: The Greek theater dates from between the late 5th and early 4th century BCE. It underwent reconstruction from 2000 to 2004, and in 2010 the first theater play ( Sophocles ' Oedipus Rex ) was played after 2,500 years. The theatre has capacity of 200 people in the main area, and additional 1,000 outside. According to the historian Herodotus , the cities of the island of Lemnos, Hephaestia and Myrina , were inhabited by Pelasgians . These Pelasgians had promised to return

124-479: A childless couple, who adopt him, not knowing his history. Oedipus eventually learns of the Delphic Oracle 's prophecy of him, that he would kill his father, and marry his mother; he attempts to flee his fate without harming those he knows as his parents (at this point, he does not know that he is adopted). Oedipus meets a man at a crossroads accompanied by servants; Oedipus and the man fight, and Oedipus kills

186-517: A complete form: Ajax , Antigone , Women of Trachis , Oedipus Rex , Electra , Philoctetes , and Oedipus at Colonus . For almost fifty years, Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens , which took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia . He competed in thirty competitions, won twenty-four, and

248-472: A grandson, also named Sophocles (son of Ariston ), also became playwrights. A very ancient source, Athenaeus 's work Sophists at Dinner , contains references to Sophocles' sexuality. In that work, a character named Myrtilus claims that Sophocles "was partial to boys, in the same way that Euripides was partial to women" ("φιλομεῖραξ δὲ ἦν ὁ Σοφοκλῆς, ὡς Εὐριπίδης φιλογύνης"), and relates an anecdote, attributed to Ion of Chios , of Sophocles flirting with

310-620: A number of apocryphal stories. One claimed that he died from the strain of trying to recite a long sentence from his Antigone without pausing to take a breath. Another account suggests he choked while eating grapes at the Anthesteria festival in Athens. A third holds that he died of happiness after winning his final victory at the City Dionysia. A few months later, a comic poet, in a play titled The Muses , wrote this eulogy: "Blessed

372-558: A serving-boy at a symposium : βούλει με ἡδέως πίνειν; [...] βραδέως τοίνυν καὶ πρόσφερέ μοι καὶ ἀπόφερε τὴν κύλικα. Do you want me to enjoy my drink? [...] Then hand me the cup nice and slow, and take it back nice and slow too. He also says that Hieronymus of Rhodes , in his Historical Notes , claims that Sophocles once led a boy outside the city walls for sex; and that the boy snatched Sophocles' cloak (χλανίς, khlanis ), leaving his own child-sized robe ("παιδικὸν ἱμάτιον ") for Sophocles. Moreover, when Euripides heard about this (it

434-489: A third actor (attributed to Sophocles by Aristotle; to Aeschylus by Themistius), thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot . He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights. Sophocles, the son of Sophillus, was a wealthy member of the rural deme (small community) of Hippeios Colonus in Attica , which was to become a setting for one of his plays; and he

496-433: A way that was more natural to them and more expressive of their individual character feelings. Antigone In Greek mythology , Antigone ( / æ n ˈ t ɪ ɡ ə n i / ann- TIG -ə-nee ; Ancient Greek : Ἀντιγόνη , romanized :  Antigónē ) is a Theban princess and a character in several ancient Greek tragedies . She is the daughter of Oedipus , king of Thebes; her mother/grandmother

558-401: Is Sophocles, who had a long life, was a man both happy and talented, and the writer of many good tragedies; and he ended his life well without suffering any misfortune." According to some accounts, however, his own sons tried to have him declared incompetent near the end of his life, and he refuted their charge in court by reading from his new Oedipus at Colonus . One of his sons, Iophon , and

620-583: Is a passage of Plutarch 's tract De Profectibus in Virtute 7 in which Sophocles discusses his own growth as a writer. A likely source of this material for Plutarch was the Epidemiae of Ion of Chios, a book that recorded many conversations of Sophocles; but a Hellenistic dialogue about tragedy, in which Sophocles appeared as a character, is also plausible. The former is a likely candidate to have contained Sophocles' discourse on his own development because Ion

682-597: Is also depicted on a sarcophagus in the Villa Doria Pamphili in Rome . And in Hyginus's version of the legend, apparently founded on a tragedy by a follower of Euripides, Antigone, on being handed over by Creon to her lover Hæmon to be slain, is secretly carried off by him and concealed in a shepherd's hut, where she bears him a son, Maeon . When the boy grows up, he attends some funeral games at Thebes, and

SECTION 10

#1732783984164

744-438: Is also instructed to look after Oedipus' daughters Antigone and Ismene at the end of Oedipus Rex . By contrast, in the other plays there is some struggle with Oedipus' sons Eteocles and Polynices in regard to the succession. In Oedipus at Colonus , Sophocles attempts to work these inconsistencies into a coherent whole: Ismene explains that, in light of their tainted family lineage, her brothers were at first willing to cede

806-508: Is also largely unknown how the plays were grouped. It is, however, known that the three plays referred to in the modern era as the "Theban plays" were never performed together in Sophocles' own lifetime, and are therefore not a trilogy (which they are sometimes erroneously seen as). Fragments of Ichneutae ( Tracking Satyrs ) were discovered in Egypt in 1907. These amount to about half of

868-462: Is brought before Creon, and admits that she knew of Creon's law forbidding mourning for Polynices but chose to break it, claiming the superiority of divine over human law, and she defies Creon's cruelty with courage, passion, and determination. Creon orders Antigone buried alive in a tomb. Although Creon has a change of heart, due to a visit from soothsayer Tiresias , and tries to release Antigone, he finds she has hanged herself. Creon's son Haemon , who

930-408: Is either Jocasta or, in another variation of the myth, Euryganeia . She is a sister of Polynices , Eteocles , and Ismene . The meaning of the name is, as in the case of the masculine equivalent Antigonus , "in place of one's parents" or "worthy of one's parents". Antigone appears in the three 5th century BC tragic plays written by Sophocles , known collectively as the three Theban plays , being

992-458: Is followed by the marriage of Antigone and Hæmon. Antigone also plays a role in the Phoenissae. Different elements of the legend appear in other places. The 4th century tragedian Astydamas wrote a play about Antigone that is now lost. A description of an ancient painting by Philostratus ( Imagines ii. 29) refers to Antigone placing the body of Polynices on the funeral pyre , and this

1054-437: Is marked by "Aeschylean pomp in the language". Sophocles' second stage was entirely his own. He introduced new ways of evoking feeling out of an audience, as in his Ajax , when Ajax is mocked by Athene, then the stage is emptied so that he may commit suicide alone. Sophocles mentions a third stage, distinct from the other two, in his discussion of his development. The third stage pays more heed to diction. His characters spoke in

1116-464: Is named after Antigone. The story of Antigone has been a popular subject for books, plays, and other works, including: In the works of Hegel , in particular in his discussion of Sittlichkeit in his Phenomenology of Spirit and his Elements of the Philosophy of Right , Antigone is figured as exposing a tragic rift between the so-called feminine "Divine Law," which Antigone represents, and

1178-447: Is persuaded to free Antigone from her punishment, but his decision comes too late and Antigone commits suicide. Her suicide triggers the suicide of two others close to King Creon: his son, Haemon, who was to wed Antigone, and his wife, Eurydice, who commits suicide after losing her only surviving son. The plays were written across thirty-six years of Sophocles' career and were not composed in chronological order, but instead were written in

1240-451: Is put in a middle period. Most of Sophocles' plays show an undercurrent of early fatalism , and the beginnings of Socratic logic as a mainstay for the long tradition of Greek tragedy. The Theban plays comprise three plays: Oedipus Rex (also called Oedipus Tyrannus or Oedipus the King ), Oedipus at Colonus , and Antigone . All three concern the fate of Thebes during and after

1302-513: Is recognized by the mark of a dragon on his body. This leads to the discovery that Antigone is still alive. The demi-god Heracles then intercedes and unsuccessfully pleads with Creon to forgive Hæmon. Hæmon then kills Antigone and himself. The intercession by Heracles is also represented on a painted vase (circa 380–300 BC). In modern times, Antigone is invoked as a symbol of heroism. The character of 'Ani' in True Detective season 2

SECTION 20

#1732783984164

1364-513: The Trojan War without Philoctetes' bow, the Greeks send Odysseus and Neoptolemus to retrieve him; due to the Greeks' earlier treachery, however, Philoctetes refuses to rejoin the army. It is only Heracles' deus ex machina appearance that persuades Philoctetes to go to Troy. Although more than 120 titles of plays associated with Sophocles are known and presented below, little is known of

1426-460: The "Human Law," represented by Creon. The Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain considers Antigone as the "heroine of the natural law:" The psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan writes about the ethical dimension of Antigone in his Seminar VII, The Ethics of Psychoanalysis. Others who have written on Antigone include theorist Judith Butler , in their book Antigone's Claim , as well as philosopher Slavoj Žižek , in various works, including Interrogating

1488-559: The "shame" and "sorrow" he is leaving his daughters to. He then begs Creon to watch over them, but in his grief reaches to take them with him as he is led away. Creon prevents him from taking the girls out of the city with him. Neither of them is named in the play. Antigone serves as her father's guide in Oedipus at Colonus , as she leads him into the city where the play takes place. Antigone resembles her father in her stubbornness and doomed existence. She stays with her father for most of

1550-575: The Real (Bloomsbury: London, 2005) and The Metastases of Enjoyment (Verso: London, 1994). A new translation of Antigone into English by the Canadian poet Anne Carson has been used in a production of the play (March 2015) at the Barbican directed by Ivo van Hove and featuring Juliette Binoche as Antigone. This production was broadcast as a TV movie on April 26, 2015. The play was transferred to

1612-524: The addition of a third actor, which further reduced the role of the chorus , and increased opportunities for development and conflict. Aeschylus, who dominated Athenian playwriting during Sophocles' early career, adopted the third actor into his own work. Besides the third actor, Aristotle credits Sophocles with the introduction of skenographia , or scenery-painting; but this too is attributed elsewhere to someone else (by Vitruvius, to Agatharchus of Samos ). After Aeschylus died, in 456 BC, Sophocles became

1674-762: The earliest attested refer to Lemnos is the Mycenaean Greek ra-mi-ni-ja , "Lemnian woman", written in Linear B syllabic script. 39°57′53″N 25°19′06″E  /  39.964606°N 25.318311°E  / 39.964606; 25.318311 Sophocles Sophocles ( c. 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least one play has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those of Aeschylus and earlier than, or contemporary with, those of Euripides . Sophocles wrote more than 120 plays, but only seven have survived in

1736-619: The end of the play, order is restored. This restoration is seen when Creon, brother of Jocasta, becomes king, and also when Oedipus, before going off to exile, asks Creon to take care of his children. Oedipus's children will always bear the weight of shame and humiliation because of their father's actions. In Oedipus at Colonus , the banished Oedipus and his daughter Antigone arrive at the town of Colonus , where they encounter Theseus , King of Athens . Oedipus dies and strife begins between his sons Polyneices and Eteocles . They fight, and simultaneously run each other through. In Antigone ,

1798-624: The full the bigness of Aeschylus, then the painful ingenuity of my own invention, now in the third stage I am changing to the kind of diction which is most expressive of character and best." Here Sophocles says that he has completed a stage of Aeschylus' work, meaning that he went through a phase of imitating Aeschylus' style but is finished with that. Sophocles' opinion of Aeschylus was mixed. He certainly respected him enough to imitate his work early on in his career, but he had reservations about Aeschylus' style, and thus did not keep his imitation up. Sophocles' first stage, in which he imitated Aeschylus,

1860-523: The gold objects contained spirals of Mycenaean origin, but had no Geometric forms. According to their ornamentation, the pots discovered at the site were from the Geometric period. However, the pots also preserved spirals indicative of Mycenaean art. The results of the excavations indicate that the Early Iron Age inhabitants of Lemnos could be a remnant of a Mycenaean population and, in addition,

1922-482: The highest achievement in tragedy . Only two of the seven surviving plays can be dated securely: Philoctetes to 409 BC, and Oedipus at Colonus to 401 BC (staged after his death, by his grandson). Of the others, Electra shows stylistic similarities to these two, suggesting that it was probably written in the later part of his career; Ajax , Antigone , and The Trachiniae , are generally thought early, again based on stylistic elements; and Oedipus Rex

Hephaestia - Misplaced Pages Continue

1984-590: The island to the Athenians if on any occasion Athenian ships, pushed by the north winds, managed to arrive in less than nine days from Athens to the island. Many years later, the Athenians under Miltiades the Younger made the crossing in eight days. The Pelasgian inhabitants of Hephaestia left the island but those of Myrina resisted and were besieged until they surrendered, around the year 500 BCE. The town

2046-453: The kingdom, gathered an army and attacked the city of Thebes in the war of the Seven against Thebes . Both brothers were killed in the battle. King Creon , who has ascended to the throne of Thebes after the death of the brothers, decrees that Polynices is not to be buried or even mourned, on pain of death by stoning. Antigone, Polynices' sister, defies the king's order and is caught. Antigone

2108-498: The kings Menelaus and Agamemnon to grant Ajax a proper burial. The Women of Trachis (named for the Trachinian women who make up the chorus) dramatizes Deianeira 's accidentally killing Heracles after he had completed his famous twelve labors. Tricked into thinking it is a love charm, Deianeira applies poison to an article of Heracles' clothing; this poisoned robe causes Heracles to die an excruciating death. Upon learning

2170-457: The man (who was his father, Laius, although neither knew at the time). He becomes the ruler of Thebes after solving the riddle of the Sphinx and in the process, marries the widowed queen, his mother Jocasta. Thus the stage is set for horror. When the truth comes out, following from another true but confusing prophecy from Delphi, Jocasta commits suicide, Oedipus blinds himself and leaves Thebes. At

2232-433: The order Antigone , Oedipus Rex , and Oedipus at Colonus . Nor were they composed as a trilogy – a group of plays to be performed together, but are the remaining parts of three different groups of plays. As a result, there are some inconsistencies: notably, Creon is the undisputed king at the end of Oedipus Rex and, in consultation with Apollo, single-handedly makes the decision to expel Oedipus from Thebes. Creon

2294-545: The play, making it the best preserved satyr play after Euripides' Cyclops , which survives in its entirety. Fragments of the Epigoni were discovered in April 2005 by classicists at Oxford University with the help of infrared technology previously used for satellite imaging. The tragedy tells the story of the second siege of Thebes . A number of other Sophoclean works have survived only in fragments, including: There

2356-419: The play, until she is taken away by Creon in an attempt to blackmail Oedipus into returning to Thebes. However, Theseus defends Oedipus and rescues both Antigone and her sister who was also taken prisoner. At the end of the play, both Antigone and her sister mourn the death of their father. Theseus offers them the comfort of knowing that Oedipus has received a proper burial, but by his wishes, they cannot go to

2418-544: The pre-eminent playwright in Athens, winning competitions at eighteen Dionysia , and six Lenaia festivals. His reputation was such that foreign rulers invited him to attend their courts; but, unlike Aeschylus, who died in Sicily , or Euripides, who spent time in Macedon , Sophocles never accepted any of these invitations. Aristotle , in his Poetics ( c.  335 BC ), used Sophocles' Oedipus Rex as an example of

2480-488: The precise dating of most of them. Philoctetes is known to have been written in 409 BC, and Oedipus at Colonus is known to have only been performed in 401 BC, posthumously, at the initiation of Sophocles' grandson. The convention on writing plays for the Greek festivals was to submit them in tetralogies of three tragedies along with one satyr play . Along with the unknown dating of the vast majority of more than 120 plays, it

2542-458: The protagonist is Oedipus' daughter, Antigone. She is faced with the choice of allowing her brother Polyneices' body to remain unburied, outside the city walls, exposed to the ravages of wild animals, or to bury him and face death. The king of the land, Creon, has forbidden the burial of Polyneices for he was a traitor to the city. Antigone decides to bury his body and face the consequences of her actions. Creon sentences her to death. Eventually, Creon

Hephaestia - Misplaced Pages Continue

2604-430: The protagonist of the eponymous tragedy Antigone . She makes a brief appearance at the end of Aeschylus ' Seven against Thebes , while her story was also the subject of Euripides ' now lost play with the same name . The story of Antigone was addressed by the fifth-century BC Greek playwright Sophocles in his Theban plays: Antigone and her sister Ismene are seen at the end of Oedipus Rex as Oedipus laments

2666-463: The reign of King Oedipus . They have often been published under a single cover; but Sophocles wrote them for separate festival competitions , many years apart. The Theban plays are not a proper trilogy (i.e. three plays presented as a continuous narrative), nor an intentional series; they contain inconsistencies. Sophocles also wrote other plays pertaining to Thebes, such as the Epigoni , but only fragments have survived. The three plays involve

2728-572: The site of the city of Hephaistia (i.e. Palaiopolis) where the Pelasgians, according to Herodotus, surrendered to Miltiades of Athens. There, a necropolis ( c.  9th–8th centuries BCE ) was discovered, revealing bronze objects, pots, and over 130 ossuaries . The ossuaries contained distinctly male and female funeral ornaments. Male ossuaries contained knives and axes whereas female ossuaries contained earrings, bronze pins, necklaces, gold-diadems, and bracelets. The decorations on some of

2790-456: The site. Antigone then decides to return to Thebes. In her own namesake play, Antigone attempts to secure a respectable burial for her brother Polynices . Oedipus's sons, Eteocles and Polynices, had shared rule jointly until they quarreled, and Eteocles expelled his brother. In Sophocles' account, the two brothers agreed to alternate rule each year, but Eteocles decided not to share power with his brother after his tenure expired. Polynices left

2852-405: The tale of Oedipus , who kills his father and marries his mother, not knowing they are his parents. His family is cursed for three generations. In Oedipus Rex , Oedipus is the protagonist . His infanticide is planned by his parents, Laius and Jocasta, to prevent him fulfilling a prophecy; but the servant entrusted with the infanticide passes the infant on, through a series of intermediaries, to

2914-512: The three Theban plays, there are four surviving plays by Sophocles: Ajax , Women of Trachis , Electra , and Philoctetes , the last of which won first prize in 409 BC. Ajax focuses on the proud hero of the Trojan War, Telamonian Ajax , who is driven to treachery and eventually suicide. Ajax becomes gravely upset when Achilles ’ armor is presented to Odysseus instead of himself. Despite their enmity toward him, Odysseus persuades

2976-470: The throne to Creon. Nevertheless, they eventually decided to take charge of the monarchy, with each brother disputing the other's right to succeed. In addition to being in a clearly more powerful position in Oedipus at Colonus , Eteocles and Polynices are also culpable: they consent (l. 429, Theodoridis, tr.) to their father's going to exile, which is one of his bitterest charges against them. In addition to

3038-476: The truth, Deianeira commits suicide. Electra corresponds roughly to the plot of Aeschylus' Libation Bearers . It details how Electra and Orestes avenge their father Agamemnon 's murder by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus . Philoctetes retells the story of Philoctetes , an archer who had been abandoned on Lemnos by the rest of the Greek fleet while on the way to Troy . After learning that they cannot win

3100-406: The victory came under unusual circumstances: instead of following the usual custom of choosing judges by lot, the archon asked Cimon , and the other strategoi present, to decide the victor of the contest. Plutarch further contends that, following this loss, Aeschylus soon left for Sicily. Though Plutarch says that this was Sophocles' first production, it is now thought that his first production

3162-466: The years after the banishment and death of Oedipus and Antigone's struggles against Creon. Antigone appears briefly in Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes . The dramatist Euripides also wrote a play called Antigone , which is lost, but some of the text was preserved by later writers and in passages in his Phoenissae . In Euripides, the calamity is averted by the intercession of Dionysus and

SECTION 50

#1732783984164

3224-405: Was a friend of Sophocles, and the book is known to have been used by Plutarch. Though some interpretations of Plutarch's words suggest that Sophocles says that he imitated Aeschylus, the translation does not fit grammatically, nor does the interpretation that Sophocles said that he was making fun of Aeschylus' works. C. M. Bowra argues for the following translation of the line: "After practising to

3286-708: Was also elected, in 411 BC, one of the commissioners ( probouloi ) who responded to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary force in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War . Sophocles died at the age of 90 or 91 in the winter of 406/5 BC, having seen, within his lifetime, both the Greek triumph in the Persian Wars and the bloodletting of the Peloponnesian War. As with many famous men in classical antiquity, his death inspired

3348-634: Was engaged to Antigone, commits suicide with a knife, and his mother Queen Eurydice also kills herself in despair over her son's death. She had been forced to weave throughout the entire story, and her death alludes to The Fates . By her death Antigone ends up destroying the household of her adversary, Creon. In the oldest version of the story, the burial of Polynices takes place during Oedipus' reign in Thebes, before Oedipus marries his mother, Jocasta. However, in other versions such as Sophocles ' tragedies Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone , it occurs in

3410-498: Was much discussed), he mocked the disdainful treatment, saying that he had himself had sex with the boy, "but had not given him anything more than his usual fee" ("ἀλλὰ μηδὲν προσθεῖναι"), or, "but that nothing had been taken off" ("ἀλλὰ μηδὲν προεθῆναι"). In response, Sophocles composed this elegy: Ἥλιος ἦν , οὐ παῖς, Εὐριπίδη, ὅς με χλιαίνων γυμνὸν ἐποίησεν· σοὶ δὲ φιλοῦντι † ἑταίραν † Βορρᾶς ὡμίλησε. σὺ δ᾿ οὐ σοφός, ὃς τὸν Ἔρωτα, ἀλλοτρίαν σπείρων, λωποδύτην ἀπάγεις. It

3472-481: Was never judged lower than second place. Aeschylus won thirteen competitions and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles; Euripides won four. The most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature Oedipus and Antigone : they are generally known as the Theban plays , though each was part of a different tetralogy (the other members of which are now lost). Sophocles influenced the development of drama , most importantly by adding

3534-535: Was ostracized in 461 BC. In 443/2, Sophocles served as one of the Hellenotamiai , or treasurers of Athena, helping to manage the finances of the city during the political ascendancy of Pericles. In 441 BC, according to the Vita Sophoclis , he was elected one of the ten generals, executive officials at Athens, as a junior colleague of Pericles; and he served in the Athenian campaign against Samos . He

3596-460: Was probably born there, a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC: the exact year is unclear, but 497/6 is most likely. He was born into a wealthy family (his father was an armour manufacturer) and was highly educated. His first artistic triumph was in 468 BC, when he took first prize in the Dionysia , beating the reigning master of Athenian drama, Aeschylus . According to Plutarch ,

3658-490: Was probably in 470 BC. Triptolemus was perhaps one of the plays that Sophocles presented at this festival. In 480 BC, Sophocles was chosen to lead the paean (a choral chant to a god), celebrating the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis . Early in his career, the politician Cimon might have been one of his patrons, but if he was, there was no ill will borne by Pericles , Cimon's rival, when Cimon

3720-519: Was recorded by later writers, including Pliny the Elder , Ptolemy , and Stephanus of Byzantium . Coins of Hephaestia survive. In August and September 1926, members of the Italian School of Archaeology at Athens conducted trial excavations on the island. The overall purpose of the excavations was to shed light on the island's "Etrusco-Pelasgian" civilization. The excavations were conducted on

3782-406: Was supposed to have been elected to this position due to his production of Antigone , but this is "most improbable". In 420 BC, he was chosen to receive the image of Asclepius in his own house when the cult was being introduced to Athens and lacked a proper place (τέμενος). For this, the Athenians gave him the posthumous epithet Dexion (receiver). But "some doubt attaches to this story". He

SECTION 60

#1732783984164

3844-518: Was the Sun , Euripides, and not a boy, that got me hot and stripped me naked. But the North Wind was with you when you were kissing † a courtesan †. You're not so clever, if you arrest Eros for stealing clothes while you're sowing another man's field. Sophocles is known for innovations in dramatic structure ; deeper development of characters than earlier playwrights; and, if it was not Aeschylus,

#163836