The Athenian playwright loved to push heroes against each other. Sophocles short biography

other Greek Σοφοκλῆς

famous Athenian playwright, tragedian

497/6 - 406 BC e.

short biography

An outstanding ancient Greek playwright, author of tragedies, one of the three (Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles) famous writers of the ancient era. He was born around 496 BC. e. in Kolon, a small village a few kilometers north of the Acropolis. He happened to be born into a wealthy family, he received an excellent education. Sophocles was a multi-talented person, studied music under the guidance of the famous musician Lampra, and demonstrated excellent results in athletic competitions. Sources testify that the young Sophocles was extremely handsome, perhaps for this reason he led the youth choir after the victory in the Battle of Salamis (480 BC), performing hymns of thanksgiving to the gods.

In 468 BC. e. Sophocles made his debut at the literary competitions of poets, and immediately became the winner, having won the prize from the outstanding Aeschylus. Glory came to Sophocles, which did not leave him until the end of his life. It is known that he regularly took part in the competitions of Athenian playwrights, more than two dozen times became the winner, repeatedly - the "silver medalist", and not once his plays were awarded the third, last, place. It is believed that Sophocles wrote over a hundred plays, and writing tragedies was the main occupation of his life.

Nevertheless, he gained fame among his contemporaries not only as a playwright. Being 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 Union. During the Samian War in 44 BC. e. Sophocles was chosen among the ten strategists who led the punitive expedition. Most likely, as a strategist, he visited two more times; was one of the people close to the Athenian strategist Pericles. In a difficult period for Athens (after an unsuccessful expedition to Sicily in 413 BC), Sophocles entered the top ten proubles, who were entrusted with the fate of the policy. 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, cheerful, although he became famous for composing tragic works.

Seven tragedies have survived to our time, 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 staging of tragedies. In particular, he increased the number of actors to three, improved the sham side of the performance. At the same time, the changes affected not only the technical side: the tragedy of Sophocles in terms of content, the message acquired a more “human” face, even in comparison with the work of Aeschylus.

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

Biography from Wikipedia

Sophocles(ancient Greek Σοφοκλῆς, 496/5 - 406 BC) - Athenian playwright, tragedian.

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

After the Battle of Salamis (480 BC), he participated in the folk festival as a leader of the choir. Twice he was elected to the post of strategist and once acted as a member of the collegium in charge of the union treasury. The Athenians chose Sophocles as a strategist in 440 BC. e. during the Samian War, under the influence of his tragedy "Antigone", the setting of which on the stage, 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 a series of victories won on stage in competitions with other tragedians. The critic Aristophanes of Byzantium attributed 123 tragedies to Sophocles (including Antigone).

Statue of a poet Maybe

Sophocles was distinguished by a cheerful, sociable character, did not shy away from the joys of life, as can be seen from the words of a certain Cephalus in Plato's "State" (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 to him and annually honored him as a hero.

The son of Sophocles - Iophon himself became an Athenian tragedian.

Changes in the statement of action

In accordance with the successes that tragedy owed to Sophocles, he made innovations in the stage production of plays. So, he increased the number of actors to three, and the number of choirs from 12 to 15, at the same time reducing the choral parts of the tragedy, improved the scenery, masks, the sham side of the theater in general, made a change in the staging of tragedies in the form of tetralogy, although it is not known exactly what this change was. Finally, he also introduced painted decorations. All the changes were intended to give more movement to the course of the drama on the stage, to strengthen the illusion of the audience and the impression received from the tragedy. Preserving for the performance the character of honoring the deity, the priesthood, which was the tragedy originally, by its very origin from the cult of Dionysus, Sophocles humanized him much more than Aeschylus. The humanization of the legendary and mythical world of gods and heroes inevitably followed, as soon as the poet focused his attention on a deeper analysis of the mental states of the heroes, who were known to the public until now only from the external vicissitudes of their earthly life. It was possible to depict the spiritual world of the 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 liked to push together heroes with different life principles (Creon and Antigone, Odysseus and Neoptole, etc.) or to oppose people with the same views, but with different characters, to each other - to emphasize the strength of character of one when it collides with another, weak character (Antigone and Ismene, Electra and Chrysothemis). He loves and knows how to portray the mood swings of the characters - the transition from the highest intensity of passions to a state of decline, when a person comes to a bitter realization of his weakness and helplessness. This fracture can be observed in Oedipus in the finale of the tragedy "Oedipus Rex", and in Creon, who learned about the death of his wife and son, and in Ajax who regains consciousness (in the tragedy "Ajax"). The tragedies of Sophocles are characterized by dialogues rare in skill, dynamic action, naturalness in untying complex dramatic knots.

Plots of tragedies

In almost all tragedies that have come down to us, it is not a series of situations or external events that attracts the attention of the audience, but a sequence of mental states experienced by the characters under the influence of relationships that are immediately clearly and finally set in tragedy. The content of "Oedipus" is one moment from the inner life of the hero: the discovery of the crimes he committed before the tragedy.

In Antigone, the action of the tragedy begins from the moment when the royal prohibition to bury Polynices was announced to the Thebans through a herald, and Antigone irrevocably decided to violate this prohibition. In both tragedies, the spectator follows the development of the motives outlined at the very beginning of the drama, and the external denouement of one or the other drama could easily be predicted by the spectator. The author does not introduce any surprises, intricate 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 hesitation, mistakes, crimes, etc. The other persons participating in the action are each endowed with individual features.

In "Eanta" the state of mind of the hero is determined by the event preceding the action of the tragedy, and what constitutes its content is Eant's determination to commit suicide when he felt all the shame of the act committed by him in a state of madness.

A particularly striking example of the poet's manner is Elektra. Matricide is a foregone conclusion by Apollo, and its executor must appear in the person of the son of the criminal Clytemnestra, Orestes; but Elektra is chosen as the heroine of the tragedy; she comes to a decision in accordance with the divine will, regardless of the oracle, deeply offended in her daughter's feelings by the behavior of her mother. We see the same thing in Philoctetes and the Trachinians. 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, which distinguished them in the original legends about them, is almost removed from the legendary heroes. As Socrates brought philosophy from heaven to earth, so the tragedians before him brought down the demigods from their pedestals, and the gods were removed 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 breaks out, the viewer is given to understand that she agrees with the will of the gods, with the requirements of the highest truth, with the divine definition, and followed as an edification to mortals for the guilt of the hero himself, as in "Eanta", or his ancestors, as in "Oedipus" or Antigone. Along with the distance from human fuss, from human passions and clashes, the deities become more spiritualistic, and the person is freer in his decisions and actions and more responsible for them. On the other hand, the verdict of a person's guilt is made dependent 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 judgment of the gods, even if it turns out to be in clear contradiction both with positive law and with primordial beliefs. Oedipus is the son of a criminal father, and he is guilty of suffering punishment for the guilt of the parent; both patricide and incest with the mother are preordained by the deity and predicted to him by the oracle. But he personally, by his own qualities, does not deserve such a heavy share; crimes committed by him in ignorance, and besides, they were atoned for by a series of humiliations and mental trials. And this same Oedipus earns himself the gracious participation of the gods; he receives not only complete forgiveness, but also the glory of a righteous man, worthy to join the assembly of the gods. To the same house, stained with atrocities, belongs Antigone; she violates the royal will and is condemned to death for that. But she broke the law out of pure motive, wanting to alleviate the fate of her dead brother, who was already unfortunate, and convinced that her decision would be pleasing to the gods, that it would be consistent with their institutions, which have existed from time immemorial and are more binding on people than any Whatever the laws, people invented. Antigone perishes, but as a victim of the delusion of Creon, less sensitive to the demands of human nature. She, who died, leaves behind the memory of a worthy woman; her generosity, her rightness were appreciated after death by all Theban citizens, witnessed with their own eyes by the gods and by the repentance of Creon himself. In the eyes of more than one Greek, the death of Antigone is worth the life to which her sister Ismene is doomed, for fear of death, evading participation in the performance of her duty, and even more worth the life that Creon is condemned to lead, finding no support for himself and excuses neither in those around him, nor in his own conscience, who, through his own fault, lost all those close to him and dear, under the burden of the curse of his beloved wife, who died because of him. Thus the poet took advantage of the names and positions created long before him in a different mood, for other purposes, by folk fantasy and poets. In the stories about the high-profile exploits of heroes that 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 powers of observation and artistic genius caused the deepest emotional emotions to active manifestation and aroused new ones in his contemporaries. thoughts and questions.

Just as the novelty and boldness of the questions raised by the author, as well as the Athenians' penchant for dialectics, explains the general feature of Sophocles' tragedies in comparison with the new drama, namely: the main theme of the tragedy develops in a verbal contest between two opponents, with each side bringing the position it defends to its extreme consequences, asserting its right; thanks to this, while the competition lasts, the reader receives the impression, as it were, of the relative justice or fallacy of both positions; usually the parties disagree, having found out many details of the disputed issue, but without offering an outside witness a ready conclusion. This latter must be extracted by the reader or spectator from the whole 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, forbidding the burial of the remains of Polyneices, or the right of Antigonus, in spite of the royal prohibition, performing the burial ceremony over the body of her brother? Is Oedipus guilty or not guilty of the crimes he committed, and therefore deserved the disaster that befalls him? etc. However, the heroes of Sophocles not only compete, they experience severe mental anguish on stage from the disasters that befall them and only find relief from suffering in the consciousness of their rightness, or the fact 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 there is neither pomposity nor rhetoric in these scenes. Such are the magnificent laments of Dejanira, Antigone, Eant before his death, Philoctetes, who fell into the hands of his worst enemies by deceit, Oedipus, who was convinced that he himself was the wicked one who called 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 accomplish a glorious feat, and tender sensitivity to the disaster that has fallen, 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 make them related to ordinary people and cause them more participation.

Seven tragedies of Sophocles have come down to us, of which, according to their content, three belong to the Theban cycle of legends: "Oedipus", "Oedipus in Colon" and "Antigone"; one to the Heracles cycle - "Dejanira", and three to the Trojan: "Eant", the earliest of the tragedies of Sophocles, "Electra" and "Philoctetes". In addition, about 1000 fragments have been preserved by various writers. In addition to tragedies, antiquity attributed to Sophocles elegies, paeans, and a prosaic discussion of the choir.

The Trachinian Women were based on the legend of Dejanira. The languor of a loving woman in anticipation of her husband, the torments of jealousy and the hopeless grief of Dejanira at the news of the suffering of the poisoned Hercules constitute the main content of the Trachinians.

In "Philoctetes", staged in 409 BC. e., the poet with amazing art develops the tragic situation created by the collision of three different characters: Philoctetes, Odysseus and Neoptolemus. The action of the tragedy dates back to the tenth year of the Trojan War, and the scene is the island of Lemnos, where the Greeks, on the way to Troy, left the Thessalian leader Philoctetes after he was bitten by a poisonous snake on Chrys, and the wound received from the bite, spreading the stench, made him incapable of participating in military affairs. He left on the advice of Odysseus. Lonely, forgotten by everyone, unbearably suffering from a wound, Philoctetes earns his miserable livelihood by hunting: he skillfully owns the bow and arrows of Hercules that he got. However, according to the oracle, Troy can be taken by the Greeks only with the help of this wonderful bow. Then only the Greeks remember the unfortunate sufferer, and Odysseus takes it upon himself to deliver Philoctetes near Troy at all costs, or at least take possession of his weapons. 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 need to act by cunning and deceit, and he chooses the young man Neoptolemus, who did not participate, as an instrument of his plan. offended, besides the son of Achilles, the favorite of Philoctetes. The Greek ship had already landed at Lemnos, and the Greeks landed on the shore. Before the viewer opens a cave, a wretched dwelling of a glorious hero, then the hero himself, exhausted by illness, loneliness and deprivation: his bed is tree leaves on bare ground, right there a wooden jug for drinking, flint and rags stained with blood and pus. The noble youth and the accompanying choir of Achilles' companions are deeply touched by the sight of the unfortunate man. But Neoptolemus bound himself by the word given to Odysseus, to take possession of Philoctetes with the help of lies and deceit, and he will fulfill his promise. But if the miserable appearance of the sufferer causes participation in the young man, then the complete trust, love and affection with which the old man Philoctetes treats him from the first moment and gives himself into his hands, expecting the end of his torment from him alone, plunge Neoptolemus into a difficult struggle with himself. yourself. But at the same time, Philoctetes is adamant: he cannot forgive the Greeks for the offense inflicted on him; he will never go under Troy, he will not help the Greeks to end the war victoriously; he will return home, and Neoptolem 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 is indignant against deceitful 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 get the weapons of Hercules, that he bound himself with a promise before Odysseus, that not Philoctetes, but he, Neoptoles, will from now on be the enemy of the Greeks, are inferior in the young man to the voice of his conscience, indignant against deceit 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 under Troy and help the Greeks complete the fight that had begun, persuade the hero (and Neoptolemus with him) to follow the Greeks. The main character of the tragedy is 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 Neoptolem goes further: he breaks this promise and refuses to act in the interests of the entire Greek army by deceit against Philoctetes who trusted him. In none of his tragedies did the poet advocate with such force the right of a person to harmonize his behavior with the concept of the highest truth, even if it contradicted the most cunning reasoning (Greek άλλ ? εί δικαια τών σοφών κρείσσω τάδε). It is important that the sympathy of the poet and the audience for the generous and truthful young man is undeniable, while the insidious and unscrupulous Odysseus is portrayed in the most unattractive way. The rule that the end justifies the means is strongly condemned in this tragedy.

In Eante, the plot of the drama is that the dispute between Eant (Ajax) and Odysseus over the armament of Achilles is decided by the Achaeans in favor of the latter. He swore to take revenge first of all on Odysseus and the Atrids, but Athena, the protector of the Achaeans, deprives him of his mind, and in a frenzy he takes domestic animals for his enemies and beats them. Reason has returned to Eant, and the hero feels deeply 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 flares up between the Atrids and Eant's half-brother Teukrom. Whether to bury the remains of the deceased, or to leave them for sacrifice to the dogs, is a dispute that is decided in favor of burial.

Ethics

As for the religious and ethical views held in the tragedies of Sophocles, they differ little from Aeschylus; their predominant feature is spiritualism, compared with those ideas about the gods that were inherited from the creators of Greek theology and theogony, from the most ancient poets. Zeus is an all-seeing, omnipotent deity, the supreme ruler of the world, the organizer and manager. Fate does not rise above Zeus, rather it is identical with his definitions. The future is in the hands of Zeus alone, but it is not given to man to comprehend divine decisions. The accomplished fact serves as an indicator of divine permission. Man is a weak creature, obliged to humbly endure the disasters sent by the gods. Man's impotence due to the impenetrability of divine predestinations is all the more complete because the sayings of oracles and fortune-tellers are often ambiguous, obscure, sometimes erroneous and deceitful, and besides, man is prone to error. The deity of Sophocles is much more vindictive and punishing than protective or saving. The gods endow a person with reason from birth, but they also allow sin or a crime, sometimes they send clouding of reason on the one they decided to punish, but this does not soften the punishment of the guilty person and his descendants. Although such is the prevailing relationship of the gods to man, there are cases when the gods show their mercy to involuntary sufferers: the whole tragedy of Oedipus at Colon is built on this last idea; in the same way, Orestes, the mother-killer, finds protection from the revenge of Erinyes in Athena and Zeus. Dejanira's intention, when she sent a festive attire to her beloved husband, the chorus calls honest and laudable, and Gill justifies the mother before Hercules. In a word, the difference between voluntary and involuntary transgression is established, the motives of the guilty are taken into account. In this way, often in certain terms, the incongruity of divine vindictiveness, extended to the entire family of the guilty, is noted if the sufferer is not prone to crime by his personal qualities. That is why Zeus is sometimes called compassionate, resolver of sorrows, averter of misfortunes, saving, like other deities. The spiritualistic deity is much more than that of Aeschylus, removed from man; his own inclinations, intentions and goals are given much more scope. Usually the heroes of Sophocles are endowed with such personal properties and placed in such conditions that their every step, every moment of the drama is sufficiently motivated by purely natural causes. 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 more secular than that of Aeschylus, as can be judged by the processing of the same plot by two poets: Sophocles' Electra corresponds to Aeschylus' Girls Carrying Libations (Choephors), and the Philoctetes tragedy was with the same name in Aeschylus; this latter has not come down to us, but we have a comparative assessment of the two tragedies in Dio Chrysostom, who prefers Sophocles to Aeschylus. Not a son, as in Aeschylus, but a daughter - the main character in Sophocles' Electra. She is a constant witness to the abuse of the home of the glorious Agamemnon by a vicious mother; she herself is constantly subjected to insults from her mother and her illegal cohabitant and accomplice in atrocity, she herself expects a violent death from hands stained with the blood of a great parent. All these motives, together with love and reverence for the murdered father, are enough for Elektra to make a firm decision to take revenge on the guilty; nothing is changed or added by the intervention of the deity for the internal development of the drama. Clytemnestra in Aeschylus is justly punishing Agamemnon for Iphigenia, in Sophocles a voluptuous, impudent woman, cruel to the point of mercilessness to her own children, ready to free herself from them by violence. She constantly offends the dear memory of Electra's father, reduces her to the position of a slave in her parents' house, vilifies her for saving Orestes; she prays to Apollo about the death of her son, openly triumphs at the news of his death, and only waits for Aegisthus to put an end to her hated daughter, embarrassing her conscience. The religious element of the drama is significantly weakened; the mythological or legendary plot received the meaning only of the starting point or those limits in which the external event took place; data from personal experience, a relatively rich supply of observations on 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 a dramatic event in the sense of religion and generally accepted morality, was reduced; he is more organic than that of Aeschylus, enters the circle of performers of the tragedy, as if turning into a fourth actor.

Plutarch in the biography of Cimon (ch. 9) reports that the first victory of the young Sophocles, won by him with the support of the archon, caused such displeasure with Aeschylus that he soon left Athens and retired to Sicily. This is indirectly confirmed by Plutarch's instructions in the Morals that Sophocles condemned Aeschylus's excessive pomposity. He condemned Aeschylus for the fact that he allegedly wrote his tragedies in a state of intoxication (VII, p. 125). On the inscription (IG II, 977) containing the lists of winners in the competitions at the feast of Dionysius, the name of Sophocles, who won 18 victories, is restored. The same number of his victories is also indicated by Diodorus (III, 103), while Svid's lexicographer attributes 24 victories to him. This contradiction is eliminated by the assumption that the source of Svyda indicated the total number of victories of the tragedian, while the inscription and Diodorus record his victories only in the city Dionysia. An ancient biography notes that Sophocles never received in competitions below the second award.
The ancients themselves did not know the exact number of Sophocles' plays: some attributed 140 to him, others 130, others 133. The latest researchers consider 86 tragedies and 18 satyr dramas to be unconditionally belonging to him. Of these, about 40 depicted legends from the circle of Trojan legends, 6 - Theban legends; he very diligently processed the legends of his native Attica and Salamis, who was close to her.
The evidence of the ancients that Sophocles was the first to stage not whole tetralogy, but individual dramas, is highly doubtful. The very method of combining several plays into a single whole was due to the difficulty of fitting into the framework of one play that epic material, the processing of which the tragedians from time immemorial laid at the heart of their work. For them, a separate tragedy was only an integral part of a single play, as an act of a new drama.
Wilamowitz-Mellendorff sees the main feature of the Attic tragedy in that it is a complete reproduction of the heroic legend. Nevertheless, it is known that three tragedies constituted the so-called trilogy, and together with the drama of the satyrs that closed them, they formed a tetralogy. Our information about these combinations of tragedies into a more complex whole is so incomplete that it allows doubts: whether tragedies have always been part of a tetralogy, and which particular tragedies constituted separate tetralogy. There is, however, evidence that in the 5th century BC. e. all three great tragedians united in tetralogy, if not all of their tragedies, then at least some of them.
Researchers have noted such a big difference in the three tragedies of Sophocles about Oedipus and his children that have come down to us that they hardly went on the same day. This is hindered at least by the fact that Creon in "Oedipus in Colon" is not at all the same as in "Oedipus Rex", and the Ismene of the first tragedy is not at all like the Ismene of "Antigone". Therefore, many researchers have expressed a plausible conjecture that "Antigone" was not part of a tetralogy of general content about Oedipus; likewise, The Trachinian Women does not need additional plays. "Philoctetes" needs no continuation. On the contrary, Ajax fits comfortably into one trilogy with Tevkrom and Evrysak.
Sophocles entered the history of world literature mainly through the image of Oedipus he created. The ancient Greek tradition about Oedipus in many ways approaches the widespread circle of folk tales, some of which live among modern Greeks.
In Greek poetry, the legends about Oedipus were processed in cyclic poems that have not come down to us - in the "Edipodia", in the "Thebaid", in the "Epigones", etc. The oldest mention of this plot is in that place of Homer's Odyssey (XI, 271 280), where in the underworld Odysseus

...Oedipus' mother Epicasta appeared;
Scary-she committed a criminal deed in ignorance,
With his own son, who killed his father, married.
Soon the sacrilegious union was opened by immortal people.
It is disastrous to reign in the house of Cadmus, in beloved Thebes
Oedipus, a bleak sufferer, was condemned by Zeus.
But Epicaste opened the doors of Hades herself,
She attached a fatal loop to the log of the ceiling,
She interrupted her deplorable life; he was left alone
A victim of torment from the terrible Erinyes called by the mother.

It is curious that Homer does not mention any mention of the children born from this marriage, whose fateful fate was depicted in such detail by the tragedians. This was already noticed by Pausanias (IX, 5, 5), who knew a different edition of the legend, according to which these children were adopted by Oedipus from Euryganea, the daughter of Hyperphantus.
The legends about Edchpa were expounded by the Lacedaemonian epic Kineiton, whose lifetime is not exactly known. Of the playwrights, this plot was processed in the tragedies of Aeschylus, Euripides, Achaeus, Theodect, Xenokles, Karkin, Diogenes, Nicomachus, Philokles, Lycophron and Herodotus. Oedipus also appears as a character in Euripides' Phoenician Women. Aeschylus devoted his drama of the satyrs The Sphinx to the processing of this image, which was reflected in many works of artistic craft. Eubulus had a comedy called Oedipus.
The time of the production of "Oedipus Rex" has not been established.
The content of the tragedy "Oedipus Rex" is as follows. According to the myth, the Theban king Lai kidnapped his young son Chrysippus from Pelop, for which Hera curses him; she predicts his death from her own son. Lai is informed about this by the Delphic Apollo. For a long time Laius's marriage to Jocasta remained childless. When their son Oedipus was born, Laius remembered the oracle of Apollo and, having pierced the baby's legs, ordered his shepherd slave to throw the child on Mount Cithaeron to certain death. The shepherd took pity on the child and presented it to a nearby Corinthian shepherd, who took Oedipus to the childless Corinthian king Polybus. King Polybus adopted the boy. When Oedipus grew up, he was once called a foundling. To find out the secret of his origin, Oedipus went to Delphi to the oracle of Apollo. Here he did not receive a direct answer to his question, but he learned that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Then Oedipus decides to leave Corinth forever and goes to Thebes. On the way, he had a quarrel with oncoming travelers. In the fight, Oedipus killed them all, except for one who fled. Among those killed was the real father of Oedipus, Laius, and the very shepherd who once carried the baby Oedipus to Cithaeron fled. The Thebans search in vain for the missing king. Meanwhile, the city suffers a terrible disaster: a winged monster has appeared - the Sphinx throws the Theban citizens one by one into the abyss. Oedipus rids the city of the Sphinx by solving the riddles given to him by the Sphinx, after which the Sphinx had to throw himself off the cliff: Oedipus becomes the king of Thebes and marries his mother Jocasta. They have children - Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone and Ismene. The death of Lai, meanwhile, remains unavenged, and Apollo decides to punish the killer: Thebes is afflicted by a plague. This is where the action of the tragedy of Sophocles begins.
Oedipus sends his brother-in-law Creon to Delphi to ask Apollo about a remedy that would save Thebes from pestilence. Creon brings the answer that the true culprit of the disaster is in the city itself. Gradually, in the course of the tragedy, all the details of Oedipus' unintentional but grave guilt are explained. The tragedy ends with Oedipus' self-blinding and his renunciation of the Theban throne in favor of his sons.
Aristotle (Poetics, ch. II, p. 1452a) especially praises the construction of "Oedipus the king" for the fact that in it the so-called "ups and downs", that is, the change of what is happening into the opposite, coincides with the "recognition" in the scene when the messenger , who came to please Oedipus and relieve the fear of his mother by explaining to him who he really was, had the opposite effect (v. 924 ff.; 1123 ff.). The harmony of the construction of "Oedipus the King" gives a strictly consistent development of the entire action of the tragedy and reveals the character of Oedipus himself, who, under the influence of unfolding events, passes at the end of the tragedy to a mood and state opposite to those that were at the beginning of the tragedy. There are many reviews of the construction of Oedipus the King in Russian literature. The critic and playwright D. V. Averkiev, in his study "On Drama", analyzed in great detail both the tragedy itself and the characters of the main characters, comparing the tragedy with Shakespeare's "King Lear" following the example of English critics, starting with Shelley.
In Oedipus Rex there are several dialogues constructed with rare skill: Oedipus and Creon (vv. 94-131; 543-582, 622-630), Oedipus and Tiresias (vv. 316-379). Here the strictest correspondence is maintained in the volume of speeches of the interlocutors; every word is chosen very skillfully, there is nothing superfluous; and the passions and thoughts of the speakers are continually evolving; each next pair of replicas is caused and prepared by the previous course of the argument. Such a form of dialogue could have arisen only in a city where verbal competitions in popular assemblies and courts developed the art of oratory to its fullest extent and taught listeners to appreciate and understand the beauty and subtlety of word disputes. The meeting of Oedipus with the prophetic old man Tiresias was especially successful: the ardent intemperance of Oedipus, losing ground under him, barely in control of himself in a fit of irritation, breaks like a rock against the calm restraint of the old man, whose wise caution does not reach the king’s consciousness obscured by anger. Here the skill of the word is completely subordinated to an exhaustive depiction of the mutual opposites of the character of the participants in the dialogue. The conversation of Oedipus with the old servant, whose every word undermines the last hopes of the king, is just as well built (st. 1141-1181).
An example of the most complex method of constructing dialogues - verse, is the conversation of Oedipus with a messenger from Corinth (st. 1007-1046). The news of the death of Polybus causes a different mood in Oedipus and his wife (v. 945 ff.): Jocasta, greedily clinging to every opportunity to calm Oedipus, emphasizes that now their worries are dispelled (v. 986); but the news only temporarily relieves their troubled hearts (v. 1004); it is only a respite before the new test that will befall them when the secret of the birth of Oedipus is revealed (v. 1182-1185). Due to the variety and changes of moods, transitions from one feeling to another, the opposite, the role of King Oedipus provides a full opportunity for the performer to show all the richness of his artistic techniques and discover the depth of his feelings in them.
The continuation of "Oedipus the King" is the tragedy "Oedipus in Colon", associated with the birthplace of Sophocles and written by him at an advanced age.
The content of the tragedy "Oedipus in Colon" is devoted to the development of the myth of the death of Oedipus, who was stolen from his native city by his sons and finds an end to his wanderings in the Athenian suburb of Colon. Here Oedipus reconciles with the Delphic god and miraculously disappears from the eyes of people in an underground cave, in order to forever remain the guardian genius of Attica, which hospitably sheltered him.
Even ancient grammarians noted the "wonderful" merits of "Oedipus in Colon", where the poet expressed his love for his homeland, in particular for his native deme. Indeed, the drama in many places contains the glorification of Athens (v. 108, 260 ff., 632 ff., 708 ff., 727, 1013, 1071, 1095, 1125-1127). The song of the choir is beautiful, depicting the nature of Colon with its rich vegetation (v. 668 f.).
One of the ancient grammarians, Salustius, in the preface to Oedipus at Colonus, notes the virtues of constructing a tragedy. Indeed, here the aged playwright showed in a skillfully developing dialogue all the richness of his technique, skillfully weaving the speeches of the characters with the performances of the choir, sensitively responding to everything that happens before him.
At the same time, this tragedy suffers from excessive verbosity of the characters, starting with Oedipus himself, and the action develops in it very slowly, in which they see traces of the playwright's senile decline. Despite the excessive volume of the tragedy, the very death of Oedipus and his farewell had to be presented in the form of a messenger's story (v. 1595-1666). The tragedy closes with a strong and touching scene of the mourning of Oedipus by his daughters (vv. 1670-1750). Here the beautiful soul of Antigone is revealed even more clearly, so deeply experiencing the misfortune that befell her brother (v. 1414, 1443). There is a very significant place in the tragedy where Oedipus insists (v. 978) that he committed his sin with his mother against his will. Here one can see traces of new moral teachings, imputing to a person only deeds committed by him of his own free will and consciously.
"Oedipus at Colon" differs from other plays by Sophocles in that the roles of its performers cannot be distributed among three actors.
The further fate of the children of Oedipus is depicted in Antigone, the content of which is as follows. Creon, to whom after the death of the sons of Oedipus - Eteocles and Polynices - the Theban throne passes, issues an order to deprive the burial of Polynices, who led the Argive troops against his native city. But the sister of Polynices Antigone makes funeral libations over the body of her brother. For this, Creon sentences her to death. Haemon - Creon's son and Antigone's fiance - begs his father to have mercy on his bride. Creon refuses him, and Haemon flees in despair. The blind soothsayer Tiresias appears and informs Creon that the gods are rebelling against him for his inhuman act. Creon decides to give in and goes to the crypt to free the imprisoned Antigone. But she has already committed suicide. Haemon, cursing his father, is stabbed to death with a sword in front of him, and his mother Eurydice, having learned about the death of her son, also commits suicide. Creon remains completely broken morally.
"Antigone" was written before the Samian War of 440-439. Sophocles deviated greatly from the interpretation of the plot given by Aeschylus in The Seven Against Thebes. Sophocles put forward in the first place the relation of the individual to the city-state, with the laws of which the family feeling is in irreconcilable contradiction. If Creon stands guard over the “established” law (νόμοι προκείμενοι, Art. 481, cf. Oedipus Rex, 865), then for Antigone the unwritten immutable laws of the gods are above all (Art. 454). The struggle underlying the entire dramatic action of this tragedy develops because the woman is the heroic guardian of the laws of blood that have not yet been outlived. Ya. P. Polonsky preserved in his memoirs such remarks by I. S. Turgenev about this play: “Developing the theory of the tragic, Ivan Sergeevich cited Antigone Sophocles as an example: “This is a tragic heroine! She is right, because all the people, just like her, consider the work that she did (buried her murdered brother) as a holy deed. And at the same time, the same people consider Creon, to whom he handed power, right, if he demands the exact execution of his laws. This means that Creon is right when he executes Antigone, who violated the law. This collision of two ideas, two rights, two equal motives is what we call tragic.
Although most publishers recognized Art. 904-920 "Antigone" for the later insert, which differs sharply in language from the rest of the tragedy, but Georg Kaibel builds a new interpretation of the tragedy's outset just on these verses. Here Antigone, like the wife of the Persian king in Herodotus (III, 119), considers her brother closest of all her relatives and gives him the highest honor, despite the prohibition of Creon. Here she enters into force of the laws of the clan, the head of which, after the death of Oedipus, was her brother. Creon is from a different kind, and therefore he goes against her. This interpretation was objected to by E. Broke and others, but it must be borne in mind that Aristotle (Rhetoric III, 16, p. 1417a) considered these verses to belong to Sophocles' Antigone. In Antigone, the scene between Creon and the guard (vv. 249-331) shows that Sophocles least of all cares about the exact reproduction of speeches as they should have been in the mood of the participants: Creon is too excited and too eager to know what was the matter, and at the same time he listens patiently to the watchman's long story (v. 249-277). And he himself answers too much (vv. 280-314). Then a verse unfolds between them (vv. 315-323), closed by an exchange of brief speeches by both of them (vv. 324-331). It is clear that in such a construction, the natural and free flow of speeches is changed for the sake of their strictly natural artistic processing.
There are countless attempts to determine what exactly Antigone's so-called "tragic guilt" consisted of. The most common is the one according to which Antigone dies for her ὔβοις - self-confidence, which allowed her not to obey the law. But already Burckhardt strongly condemned these attempts: in his opinion, neither Aeschylus considered his Orestes to be guilty, nor Sophocles his Antigone.
It is very important to establish how Creon's order to leave the body of Polyneices without burial corresponded to Attic laws. Historical examples allowed researchers to point to Creon's violation of the law: a traitor could not be buried in his native land, where contact with his remains would desecrate the country - he had to be buried outside it, but in no way left unburied.
According to Goethe, in "Antigone" Creon's course of action depends only on his hatred for the dead. He says (ibid.) that Creon is introduced into the play "partly for the sake of Antigone, to show her noble nature and the righteousness of her cause, and partly for his own sake, in order to show us his unfortunate error, as something hated."
In the course of the action of Antigone, choral songs are introduced, which, in terms of depth of content and perfection of finish, represent the highest examples of lyrics not only of ancient poetry. Such, first of all, is the song (vv. 332-364), in which, after listing all the victories of man over nature, all the riches of the gifts of the "man of many minds," in conclusion, he speaks of the inevitability of death.
Remarkable is another song that the choir sings after Creon's explanation with his son. The son of Creon, young Haemon, boldly stands up for Antigone, against the will of his father; he does not express his love for Antigone in a single word, but the viewer feels that, not loving her, he would not have attacked his father so strongly (v. 726-765); the father understood this and reproaches his son for being a woman's slave (vv. 740, 746, 750); the choir, after they both have gone, sings (v. 781-790):

Eros, the all-conquering god,
God of love, you are above the great
Celebrate and then
Lulled, rest in peace
On the cheeks of a slumbering virgin.
Flying across the seas
You enter the poor hut.
Not a single one in a mortal tribe,
None of the gods
Alien death, not saved,
But they suffer and rage,
Defeated by you.
(Transl. D. Merezhkovsky)

This charming sample of love lyrics shows all the variety and richness of Sophocles' poetic colors.
Looking at Creon, who lost everything that was dear to him, and who knew in the death of his loved ones that a terrible punishment of the gods befell him, the chorus ends the tragedy like this:

Do you strive for happiness - you first of all
Be wise and the will of the immortals,
O mortal, never dare to transgress
And believe what a daring speech
Great sorrow will befall the madman
And teach wisdom later.
(Transl. D. Merezhkovsky)

The poetic merits of Sophocles were appreciated by the composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847), who wrote music for Oedipus Rex and Antigone, and the classical severity of his forms, combined with the tenderness of a romantic mood, was especially happily revealed in the music for Antigone.
The latest critics consider "Antigone" very close to the mood of the new time. Otto Ludwig finds that Sophocles portrayed in tragedy the power of fate over a person in Shakespearean style. Like Shakespeare, Sophocles derives it not from supernatural predestination, but from the misdeeds of the man himself, who perishes under her blows: out of stubbornness, Creon dooms his son's beloved to death. Not having the strength to save her, the young man dies with her; his death causes the death of his mother, and these two deaths are retribution for Creon, who acted consciously, unlike Oedipus, Ajax, Dejanira. Recognizing "Oedipus" as the most theatrical of all ancient plays, Ludwig sees the difference between this tragedy and Shakespeare's in that the fate of Oedipus does not depend on his moral properties, but on the whim of the gods and on fate.
Hegel considered Antigone to be the most perfect example of the tragic clash between the state and the family.
In Antigone, Creon says (v. 295-301) that there is no greater evil for people than money:

...money is evil
Great for mortals: because of money
Doomed to the death of the city,
And the exile leaves the father's shelter;
And, corrupt· innocent hearts,
Shameful deeds are taught by money,
And thoughts of insidious, and wickedness.
(Transl. D. Merezhkovsky).

This place, together with an extract from Timon of Athens, is referred to by Karl Marx in Capital (vol. I) in a footnote to the words: “Ancient society, therefore, vilifies money as a coin for which the entire economic and moral way of life is exchanged.”
In "Antigone" the language is especially good, and Sophocles found a different style for Creon and Antigone, quite corresponding to the way of thinking and character of each of them.
The further fate of the daughters of Oedipus, other than Sophocles, was described by Statius in his Thebaid (XI, 560 ff.; XII, 371-463). He emphasizes that they neglected legitimate authority (XII, 453), sees in their fate the victory of Creon (XII, 443), and then, based on the image created by Sophocles in Oedipus in Colon, paints the generosity of the king with the most sympathetic colors. Theseus (XII, 778-795). It is possible that here it depends on the processing of these faces, which is now not amenable to exact determination, in some later tragedy.
"Electra" was probably written between 419 and 415.
The plot of "Electra" coincides with the "Choephors" by Aeschylus. Orestes, saved by his sister Elektra from imminent death, after many years, becoming a young man, comes to Mycenae and kills his mother Clytemester because she once killed his father, Agamemnon.
The plot of revenge for the murder of Agamemnon was based on a legend, processed in a kyklic poem about the return of heroes from under Troy. This tradition is indicated by the place in the Odyssey (III, 304), where it is said that in the seventh year of his reign in Mycenae, Orestes came there from Athens and killed the murderer of his father. The Odyssey repeatedly (I, 29; III, 198; IV, 546) speaks of the murder of Aegisthus by Orestes and indicates that he buried "the criminal mother together with Aegisthus the contemptible" (III, 310).
Sophocles built his "Electra" very simply. He retained two details of Aeschylus's trilogy: the dream and the discovery of the curl at the grave of his father. However, Sophocles turned this main spring of action in Aeschylus into a means for developing only two dialogues between the sisters.
In Aeschylus' Oresteia, Electra is only an auxiliary figure needed for the development of the action. This restrained, humiliated girl, estranged from her mother, lives in love for her brother, who is far away, and in hopes of divine help. The advice of the choir made her pray to the gods to send down an avenger for her murdered father. Her prayer was heard. The arrival of her brother supported and encouraged her; with her worries, she helped her brother cope with his task.
Sophocles was able to make full use of the abundant rudiments of the artistic image that Aeschylus lurks in his sketch. Developing his material, Sophocles created his Electra. Sophocles' Electra is almost all the time in front of the viewer, leaving only for the duration of the performance of a short song of the choir (st. 1383-1397). It serves as a kind of mirror for the poet, in which the entire course of the tragedy is continuously reflected.
In order to show the personal characteristics of Electra's character, which made her experience events in a completely different way than any other daughter would have done in her place, Sophocles placed her own sister Chrysothemis next to her, using the same method of opposing characters that he used in Antigone. Elektra's sister is able to understand all the evil that has befallen their family and hate its perpetrators, but is too weak to risk her life for the sake of revenge on the villains. This is what creates the abyss that separates the two sisters. Electra is incapable of seeing in justice only a beautiful but abstract concept. She must turn her thought into a certain act, no matter what it costs her. Her sister is aware of her impotence. By emphasizing the weakness of Chrysothemis, Sophocles took away from the viewer the opportunity to be angry with the girl, who is so sincerely aware of her shortcoming (v. 338), and thereby gave her character life-like truthfulness. Just as vital to the smallest detail, the truthful image of Elektra herself. In depicting her character, Sophocles was able to look deeply into the soul of a person: the actor Paul, who played her role shortly after the death of his son, managed to give such truth to his plan that the audience, looking at his game, saw, according to the ancients, genuine suffering.
In the "Electra" of Sophocles and Euripides, the teacher and the elder appear, representing the development of the model of Talphibius of ancient tradition. Neither one nor the other has a personal name, according to the original custom of the tragedians to leave nameless all the minor participants in the play. With Euripides, he raised Agamemnon and Electra, and then rescues Orestes and helps him carry out his work of revenge. Chrysothemis was introduced by Sophocles into the drama based on the Iliad (XI, 143), and then he reworked the story of his friend Herodotus (1, 108) about Mandana's prophetic dream. Homer does not yet have Electra herself.
The content of "Trachinyanki" is as follows: Hercules successfully completed his last feat, destroying the city of Echalia. He returns to his wife Dejanira, who lives in a foreign land with the Trakhian king. Unexpectedly, Dejanira learns that among the captives sent to her by Hercules is the Echalian princess Iola, the beloved of Hercules. Desiring to regain her husband's disposition, Dejanioa recalls the love remedy bequeathed to her by the centaur Ness, hoping by this to return her husband's lost love. But Ness deceived Dejanira, and in fact she sends a cloak soaked in the poisonous blood of Ness as a gift to Hercules. The poison hits Hercules. Unable to endure the torment, he decides to burn himself at the stake, and Deianira, convinced of his mistake, commits suicide. Dying, Hercules tells his son Gill to take Iola as his wife.
The question of the time of composition of "Trachinyanok" - controversial. Webster, based on the peculiarities of composition and style, places them shortly after Antigone. But others think that the "Trachinian Women" were written after the "Mad Heracles" by Euripides, but the second half of the Peloponnesian War. Their content is based on a legend, which Bakchilids also processed. The basis of the content of Sophocles' Trachinian Women - the murder of a husband by his wife - resembles the plot of Agamemnon by Aeschylus. The reason for the murder in both tragedies is jealousy of the captive - Iola in Sophocles, Cassandra in Aeschylus. But the characters of husbands and wives in both tragedies are different. However, Webster showed that, despite these digressions, Sophocles has examples of direct dependence on "Agamemnon" - not only in individual expressions, but also in the very construction of some scenes. Sophocles approached similar phenomena, however, in a completely different way, introducing Ionian thoughts into their coverage philosophies alien to Aeschylus.In the Trachinians, Sophocles gave Dejanira too many long speeches, which the participants in his other tragedies do not have, Hercules makes the same long speeches (v. the protagonist, who at first portrayed Dejanira. From the speeches, the viewer also learns about the events that direct the course of action (vv. 740 ff., 900 ff.), and this weakens the impression of the whole tragedy. selection of very successful, vivid and touching images (art. 950-970). At the same time, Dejanira's deep feelings, her jealousy (v. 584), despair at the news of her husband's suffering (v. 740 ff.) are given only in the form of hints, with weak colors, perhaps in order to save all the strength of the actor for that the final scene where Hercules learns of the death of his wife (v. 1129 ff.). All the construction of the roles of Hercules and Dejanira seems to have been done by a poet, taking into account the peculiarities of the talent of the actor-protagonist who was supposed to play both of these roles.
"Philoctetes" was written in the archonship of Glaucus in 409 BC. e. "Iliad" calls (II, 720-725) Philoctetes "excellent archer", who brought under Troy from his land on seven ships

...Strong rowers and skilful arrows to fight fiercely.
But the leader lay on the sacred island of Lemna
In severe suffering, where he was left by the sons of the Achaeans,
Tormented by an evil ulcer, inflicted by a pernicious hydra.
There he lay, the sufferer. But soon the Achaean men,
Soon, during the black courts, King Philoctetes will be remembered.

The content of "Philoctetes" gave Sophocles the opportunity to show great mastery of characterization and subtlety of psychological analysis. For the capture of Troy, the weapon of Hercules, belonging to Philoktetus, was suddenly needed, whom the Achaeans once treacherously left on the island of Lemnos alone, with excruciating pain from an incurable wound. Odysseus and Achilles' son Neoptolem undertake to obtain this weapon. The first one prefers to achieve his goal by deceit and cunning and manages to persuade his younger comrade, a straightforward and noble person, to do the same. Against his will, Neoptolemus yields to Odysseus, but his moral sense is indignant at this unworthy role, forcibly imposed on him, and in the end he still turns out to be unable to endure it to the end. In the young man's struggle between the suggestions of calculation and moral impulses, this is the main interest of the drama. The true hero of "Philoctetes" is the son of Achilles - Neoptolem, a truthful and noble young man. After a painful struggle, he frees himself from the promise he made to Odysseus and returns the helpless Philoctetes his weapons, despite the persuasion and threats of the cunning Odysseus. For Neoptolemus, an honest defeat is better than a victory bought at the cost of deceit. The sympathy of Sophocles is on the side of Neoptolemus and Philoctetes, and their adversary Odysseus, for whom there are no bad means, if only they lead to a goal and benefit, is outlined in the most negative colors. The plan of Odysseus, so cunningly conceived and so subtly carried out, collapses in the end, and Odysseus remains disgraced.
Goethe spoke very approvingly of Sophocles' Philoctetes and rejoiced that this tragedy was preserved in its entirety. In this tragedy, he shows precisely that no one, like Sophocles, "knew the stage and his craft like that."
In "Ajax", one of the early dramas of Sophocles, the consequences of the unsuccessful struggle of Ajax with Odysseus for the possession of the weapons left after the death of Achilles, which were made by the god Hephaestus, are presented. Having failed in his claims to a precious inheritance, Ajax loses his mind and in a fit of frenzy beats a herd of Achaean bulls and sheep. When consciousness returns to him again, he experiences repentance, shame, feelings of impotent anger and fear that he will be ridiculed by everyone. These feelings take possession of his soul more and more and drive the unfortunate man to suicide. Atris, hostile to the deceased, want to deprive his body of the honor of burial. Then Teucer, brother of Ajax, takes up arms in defense of the divine law, trampled on by this order of self-willed leaders. After much squabbling, thanks to the support of Odysseus, Teucer remains the winner and honorably buries the precious remains.
In Homer (Od. XI, 549) Ajax is a hero, "and in his appearance and in his deeds he surpasses all Argives after Achilles."
The prologue of Ajax opens with Athena's speech, which then turns into a lengthy dialogue with Odysseus (vv. 36-133), interrupted in the middle by her dialogue with Ajax (vv. 97-117).
"Ajax" in mood is still close to the tragedies of Aeschylus. It is based on the legends of the "Small Iliad" and "Odyssey" (XI, 547).
A touching image of the unfortunate girlfriend of Ajax was created by Sophocles in Tekmessa: Ajax destroyed her hometown, both her father and mother died (Art. 513 f.), and Tekmessa herself became his slave (Art. 489). His love replaced the unfortunate motherland and wealth, and in him alone is her whole salvation (v. 518-519). His madness, about which Tecmessa tells in detail (v. 201 ff.), deeply disturbs her because for her "there is no life without Ajax" (v. 393); she foresees what awaits her and their son after Ajax's death. She says to Ajax (v. 498 ff.):

...on the same day me
By violence the Argives will kidnap
And your son for a slave share.
And the new master will turn to us
hello offensive...
(Transl. D. I. Shestakova)

After the death of Ajax, Tekmessa's grief is expressed only in a mournful cry: "I died, disappeared, my death!" (p. 898), but then, having mastered herself, she is indignant at the attitude of the Atrids towards Ajax (v. 961-969):

Let, laughing, gloat over our
trouble; let them not love the living.
The dead will be mourned in their hour of need.
To the bad heart of a good fighter
And do not understand until they lose.
He died to me in sorrow, and to them in sweetness,
To his own delight: he wanted what he wanted.
He reached himself, reached the desired death;
Why are they laughing at Ajax?
(Transl. D. I. Shestakova)

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

en.wikipedia.org

Biography

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

After the Battle of Salamis (480 BC), he participated in a folk festival as a leader of the choir. Twice he was elected to the post of military commander and once acted as a member of the collegium in charge of the allied treasury. The Athenians chose Sophocles as their commander in 440 BC. e. during the Samian War, under the impression of his tragedy "Antigone", the setting of which on the stage, therefore, dates back to 441 BC. e.

Changes in the statement of action

Characteristic features of dramaturgy

Sophocles likes to push heroes with different life principles together (Creon and Antigone, Odysseus and Neoptole, etc.) or oppose people with the same views, but with different characters, to each other - to emphasize the strength of character of one when it collides with another, weak character (Antigone and Ismene, Electra and Chrysothemis). He loves and knows how to portray the mood swings of the characters - the transition from the highest intensity of passions to a state of decline, when a person comes to a bitter realization of his weakness and helplessness. This fracture can be observed in Oedipus in the finale of the tragedy "Oedipus Rex", and in Creon, who learned about the death of his wife and son, and in Ajax who regains consciousness (in the tragedy "Ajax"). The tragedies of Sophocles are characterized by dialogues rare in skill, dynamic action, naturalness in untying complex dramatic knots.

Plots of tragedies

tragedy

In Philoctetes, staged in 409 BC. e., the poet with amazing art develops the tragic situation created by the collision of three different characters: Philoctetes, Odysseus and Neoptolemus. The action of the tragedy dates back to the tenth year of the Trojan War, and the scene is the island of Lemnos, where the Greeks, on the way to Troy, left the Thessalian leader Philoctetes after he was bitten by a poisonous snake on Chrys, and the wound received from the bite, spreading the stench, made him incapable of participating in military affairs. He left on the advice of Odysseus. Lonely, forgotten by everyone, unbearably suffering from a wound, Philoctetes earns his miserable livelihood by hunting: he skillfully owns the bow and arrows of Hercules that he got. However, according to the oracle, Troy can be taken by the Greeks only with the help of this wonderful bow. Then only the Greeks remember the unfortunate sufferer, and Odysseus takes it upon himself to deliver Philoctetes near Troy at all costs, or at least take possession of his weapons. 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 need to act by cunning and deceit, and he chooses the young man Neoptolemus, who did not participate, as an instrument of his plan. offended, besides the son of Achilles, the favorite of Philoctetes. The Greek ship had already landed at Lemnos, and the Greeks landed on the shore. Before the viewer opens a cave, a wretched dwelling of a glorious hero, then the hero himself, exhausted by illness, loneliness and deprivation: his bed is tree leaves on bare ground, right there a wooden jug for drinking, flint and rags stained with blood and pus. The noble youth and the accompanying choir of Achilles' companions are deeply touched by the sight of the unfortunate man. But Neoptolemus bound himself by the word given to Odysseus, to take possession of Philoctetes with the help of lies and deceit, and he will fulfill his promise. But if the miserable appearance of the sufferer causes participation in the young man, then the complete trust, love and affection with which the old man Philoctetes treats him from the first moment and gives himself into his hands, expecting the end of his torment from him alone, plunge Neoptolemus into a difficult struggle with himself. yourself. But at the same time, Philoctetes is adamant: he cannot forgive the Greeks for the offense inflicted on him; he will never go under Troy, he will not help the Greeks to end the war victoriously; he will return home, and Neoptolem 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 is indignant against deceitful 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 get the weapons of Hercules, that he bound himself with a promise before Odysseus, that not Philoctetes, but he, Neoptoles, will from now on be the enemy of the Greeks, are inferior in the young man to the voice of his conscience, indignant against deceit 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 under Troy and help the Greeks complete the fight that had begun, persuade the hero and Neoptolemus to follow the Greeks with him. The main character of the tragedy is 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 Neoptolem goes further: he breaks this promise and refuses to act in the interests of the entire Greek army by deceit against Philoctetes who trusted him. In none of his tragedies did the poet speak with such force for the right of a person to coordinate his behavior with the concept of the highest truth, even if it contradicted the most cunning philosophies (Greek ??? ? ?? ?????? ??? ?? ????????????????). It is important that the sympathy of the poet and the audience for the generous and truthful young man is undeniable, while the insidious and unscrupulous Odysseus is portrayed in the most unattractive way. The rule that the end justifies the means is strongly condemned in this tragedy.

Ethics

Literature

The main source for the biography of Sophocles is an unnamed biography, usually placed in editions of his tragedies. The most important list of Sophocles' tragedies is kept in the Laurentian library in Florence: C. Laurentianus, XXXII, 9, refers to the tenth or eleventh century; all other lists available in various libraries are copies from this list, with the possible exception of another Florentine list of the XIV century. No. 2725, in the same library. Since the time of V. Dindorf, the first list is denoted by the letter L, the second - G. The best scholia are also extracted from the L list. The best editions of the scholia belong to Dindorf (Oxford, 1852) and Papageorgios (1888). The tragedies were first published by Aldami in Venice, 1502. From the middle of the 16th century. and until the end of the XVIII century. the dominant edition was the Parisian edition of Tourneba. Brunk (1786-1789) restored the Aldov editorial advantage. W. Dindorf (Oxford, 1832-1849, 1860), Wunder (L., 1831-78), Schneidevin, Tournier, Science, as well as Campbell, Linwood, Jeb rendered the greatest services to text criticism and explanation of tragedies.

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

Literature

Texts and translations

Works published in the Loeb classical library: extant plays in vols. 1-2 (No. 20, 21), fragments under No. 483.
Vol. I Oedipus the king. Oedipus in Colon. Antigone.
Vol. II Ajax. Elektra. Trachinyanki. Philoctetes.
In the series "Collection Bude" 7 tragedies were published in 3 volumes (see).

Russian translations (only collections here, for individual tragedies see articles about them)
Tragedies of Sophocles. / Per. I. Martynova. SPb., 1823-1825.
Part 1. Oedipus the king. Oedipus in Colon. 1823. 244 pages.
Part 2. Antigone. Trachinyanki. 1823. 194 pages.
Part 3. Ajax furious. Philoctetes. 1825. 201 pp.
Part 4. Elektra. 1825. 200 pages.
Sophocles. Drama. / Per. and intro. feature article. F. F. Zelinsky. T. 1-3. Moscow: Sabashnikovs, 1914-1915.
T. 1. Ayant-Bichenosets. Philoctetes. Elektra. 1914. 423 pages.
T. 2. Oedipus Rex. Oedipus in Colon. Antigone. 1915. 435 pages.
T. 3. Trachinyanki. Pathfinders. Fragments. 1914. 439 pages.
Sophocles. Tragedy. / Per. V. O. Nilender and S. V. Shervinsky. M.-L.: Academia. (published only part 1)
Part 1. Oedipus the king. Oedipus in Colon. Antigone. 1936. 231 pages, 5300 copies.
Sophocles. Tragedy. / Per. S. V. Shervinsky, ed. and note. F. A. Petrovsky. M.: Goslitizdat, 1954. 472 pages. 10,000 copies.
republished: (Series "Antique Dramaturgy"). M.: Art, 1979. 456 pages. 60,000 copies.
republished: (Series "Library of ancient literature"). M.: Artist. lit., 1988. 493 pages. 100,000 copies.
Sophocles. Antigone. / Per. A. Parina, after the last. V. Yarkho. M.: Art, 1986. 119 pages. 25000 copies.
Sophocles. Drama. / Per. F. F. Zelinsky, ed. M. G. Gasparova and V. N. Yarkho. (In the appendix: Fragments [p. 381-435]. / Translated by F. F. Zelinsky, O. V. Smyka and V. N. Yarkho. Ancient evidence of 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 pages.

Research

Mishchenko FG The relation of Sophocles' tragedies to the contemporary poet's real life in Athens. Part 1. Kyiv, 1874. 186 p.
Schultz G.F. To the question of the main idea of Sophocles' tragedy "Oedipus Rex". Kharkov, 1887. 100 pages.
Schultz G. F. Critical notes to the text of the tragedy of Sophocles "Oedipus Rex". Kharkov, 1891. 118 pages.
Yarkho V.N. The tragedy of Sophocles "Antigone": Uch. allowance. M.: Higher. school, 1986. 109 pages, 12000 copies.
Surikov I. E. The evolution of the religious consciousness of the Athenians in Tue. floor. 5th century BC: Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes in their relation to traditional religion. M.: Publishing house of IVI RAN, 2002. 304 pages. 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

Scholia to Sophocles

Scholia to Sophocles according to the edition of Brunck (1801)
The tragedies of Sophocles with scholia: volume I (1825) volume II (1852)

Biography

Sophocles was born in the village of Kolon near Athens in the family of a wealthy businessman. Howled as the keeper of the treasury of the Athenian Maritime Union, a strategist (there was such a position under Pericles), after the death of Sophocles, he was revered as a right husband.

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

Sophocles wrote 123 dramas, only seven of them have come down to us in full. Of particular interest to us are "Antigone", "Oedipus Rex", "Electra".

The plot of "Antigone" is simple Antigone buries the body of his murdered brother Polynices, whom the ruler of Thebes Creon forbade to bury on pain of death - as a traitor to the motherland. For disobedience, Antigone is executed, after which her fiancé, Creon's son, and the groom's mother, Creon's wife, commit suicide.

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

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, as well as illegal.

Events show that Creon is wrong. The soothsayer Tiresias warns him: “Respect death, do not touch the dead. Or valiantly finish off the dead. The king persists. Then Tiresias predicts to him the vengeance of the gods. Indeed, misfortunes fall upon the ruler of Thebes, Creon, one after another, he suffers both a political defeat and a moral one.

Creon
Alas!
Aida abyss, why me
You are ruining. Irreconcilable
O messenger of former terrible troubles,
What news do you bring us?
You will kill the dead again!
What, my son, will you tell me something new
Death after death, alas!
After the son, the wife died!
choir
You can see they took her out. Creon
Alas!
The second disaster now, ill-fated, I see!
What misfortune is still preparing for me
Now I held my son in my arms -
And I see another corpse in front of me!
Alas, O unfortunate mother, O son!
Herald
The slain lies at the altars;
Her eyes dimmed and closed;
The glorious death of Megareus mourned,
Behind him another son - on you
Called trouble, baby killer.
Creon
Alas! Alas!
I tremble with fear. What about my chest
No one pierced with a two-edged sword
I'm unhappy, alas!
And I am stricken with cruel grief!
Herald
You are exposed by the deceased
You are to blame for this and that death.

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

According to the myth, Oedipus kills his father, not knowing that this is his father, takes the throne, marries a widow, that is, his mother. Sophocles followed the myth, but paid special attention to the psychological side of the relationship between the characters. 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 is guilty, 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 guilt.

Here is the king's last monologue

Oedipus
Oh be blessed! Yes, save
You are on all roads a demon, the best,
Than mine! O children, where do you come...
So ... Touch your hands ... brother, - he is guilty,
What do you see shining once
His plaza... such... the face of a father,
Who, neither seeing nor knowing,
He begot you... from his mother.
I don't see you... but I cry for you,
Imagining the rest of the bitter days,
Which you have to live with people.
Which of your fellow citizens will you sit in meetings with?
Where are the festivities from which you come home
Would return with fun, not crying
When you enter marriageable age,
Oh, who will agree at that time, daughters,
Accept the shame that I marked
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, conceived by her himself ...
So they will defame you ... Who are you
Accepts There is no such thing.
You will fade celibate, orphans.
Son of Menekey! You are 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 get miserable like me
Have pity on them, they are so young! -
You alone are their support. Take an oath
O noble one, and touch with your hand! ..
And 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 happier than your father.
choir
O fellow citizens of Theban! Here is an example for you Oedipus,
And the solver of riddles, and the mighty king,
The one on whose lot, it happened, everyone looked with envy,
He was thrown into the sea of disasters, he fell into the terrible abyss!
So, mortals need to remember our last day,
And one can, obviously, only be called happy
Who has reached the limit of life without knowing misfortunes in it.

A.F. Losev notes the unbending steadfastness of Sophocles' heroes. They keep their "I", their true nature in spite of everything. The real misfortune for them is not that which fate brings them, but the abandonment of their moral path.

Yes, everything is sickening, if you change yourself
And you do it against your heart.
No, and in a life of misery
The pure in heart will not want to stain
Your good name.

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

It is sweet for me to die, fulfilling my duty ...
'Cause I'll have to
Serve the dead longer than the living
I will 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 boldly refuse to adapt to changing life circumstances.

Sophocles is an Athenian playwright who, along with Aeschylus and Euripides, is considered one of the three greatest tragic poets of classical antiquity. Sophocles was born in the village of Kolon (the setting of his last drama), about 2.5 kilometers north of the Acropolis. His father, Sophill, was a wealthy man. Sophocles studied music with Lampr, an outstanding representative of the high school, and in addition, he took prizes in athletic competitions. In his youth, Sophocles was distinguished by his extraordinary beauty, which is probably why he was assigned to lead the choir of young men who sang thanksgiving hymns to the gods after the victory over the Persians at Salamis (480 BC). Twelve years later (468 BC) Sophocles took part in the theatrical festivities for the first time and won the first prize, surpassing his great predecessor Aeschylus. The competition between the two poets aroused the liveliest interest in the public. From that moment until his death, Sophocles remained the most popular of the Athenian playwrights: more than 20 times he was the first in the competition, many times the second and never took the third place (there were always three participants). He was not equal in terms of the volume of writing: it is reported that Sophocles owned 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 board 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 twice more Sophocles was elected strategist. Already at a very advanced age, when Athens was going through an era of defeat and despair, Sophocles was chosen as one of the ten "proboules" (Greek "advisor"), who were entrusted with the fate of Athens after the disaster that befell the expedition to Sicily (413 BC). ). Thus, the successes of Sophocles in the state field 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 the priest of one of the minor healing deities, Halon or Alcon, associated with the cult of Asclepius, and that he hosted the god Asclepius in his own house until his temple in Athens was completed. (The cult of Asclepius is established in Athens in 420 BC; the deity hosted by Sophocles was almost certainly the sacred serpent.) After his death, Sophocles was deified under the name "hero Dexion" (this name is 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 Iophon, who wanted to prove that the aged father was no longer able to manage the family's property. And then Sophocles convinced the judges of his mental usefulness by reciting an ode in honor of Athens from Oedipus in Colon. This story is certainly fictitious, since the reports of contemporaries confirm that the last years of Sophocles passed as serenely as the beginning of his life, and he maintained the best relations with Jophon to the end. The last thing we know about Sophocles is his act upon receiving the news of the death of Euripides (in the spring of 406 BC). Then Sophocles dressed the members of the choir in mourning and led them to the “proagon” (a kind of dress rehearsal before the competition of tragedians) without celebratory wreaths. In January 405 BC, when the comedy of Aristophanes 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 having lived a 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, in 1912 a papyrus was published that preserved more than 300 complete lines from the amusing satyr drama The Pathfinders.) On the basis of ancient sources, the dates of the staging of the tragedies Philoctetes (409 BC), Oedipus at Colon (posthumous staging of 401 BC) are reliably established. .e.) and Antigone (a year or two before 440 BC). The tragedy of Oedipus Rex is usually attributed to 429 BC, since the mention of the sea may be associated with a similar disaster in Athens. The tragedy of Ajax, by stylistic features, should be attributed to an earlier 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 Trakhinyanka (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 in Colon. Sophocles is known to have won first prize for Philoctetes and second prize for Oedipus Rex. Probably the first place was awarded to Antigone, since it is known that it was thanks to this tragedy that Sophocles was elected strategist in 440 BC. There is no information about other tragedies, it is only known that they were all 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 of Antigone, Oedipus Rex and Oedipus in Colon as a "Theban trilogy" is to commit a gross mistake) . The tragedies of Aeschylus (with the exception of the trilogy, which included the Persians) were invariably combined into a trilogy in the literal sense of the word - into a dramatic work in three parts, connected by a common plot, common characters and motives. The drama of Sophocles 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 presentation of this moment of crisis and revelation. It suffices to compare Aeschylus's Oresteia, where the central event, matricide, is preceded by a depiction of its causes (Agamemnon), and then its consequences (Eumenides) are shown, with the mysterious Elektra of Sophocles, a tragedy in which the dramatic presentation of the main event turns out to be self-sufficient. The new technique made the divine will less significant, which in Aeschylus interferes with the action, overcoming the human motives of the heroes, and emphasized the importance of the human will. The consequences of this shift in emphasis were twofold. On the one hand, Sophocles could completely focus on the character of his heroes, bringing to the stage a whole series of surprisingly peculiar characters (for example, in Electra we are dealing with a spectacular move when the character of a character who almost does not take part in the action is subjected to a full-scale and subtle analysis) . On the other hand, Sophocles in his best examples (for example, Oedipus Rex) has no equal in the entire history of Western literature in terms of unprecedented cost savings for the development of the plot.

It was to be expected that the rejection of the trilogy would entail a reduction in the role of the choir, which in the dramas of Aeschylus 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. Indeed, the lyrical part of the choir in Sophocles is much less than that of Aeschylus. In Philoctetes (to take an extreme case), the choir is fully involved in the action as a full-fledged character, and almost everything that is said to them revolves around a specific situation in the drama. Nevertheless, in most tragedies, Sophocles still uses the chorus skillfully and carefully to give greater scope to the moral and theological dilemma that arises in connection with the action.

But Sophocles was most famous for another technical innovation: the appearance of a third actor. This happened earlier than 458 BC, since this year Aeschylus already uses a third actor in the Oresteia, although in his own, Aeschylean, way. The goal pursued by Sophocles, introducing a third actor, becomes obvious when reading the brilliant scenes with three participants, which are almost the pinnacle of Sophocles' drama. Such, for example, is the conversation between Oedipus, the Messenger from Corinth, and the shepherd (Oedipus Rex), as well as an earlier scene in the same tragedy - while Oedipus questions the Messenger, Jocasta already sees the terrible truth. The same applies to Lich's cross-examination in Trachinyanki, which is arranged by the Herald and Dejanira. Aristotle's indication that Sophocles also introduced "scenography", i.e. Literally translated from Greek as “painting the stage”, it still gives rise to disputes between specialists, which can hardly be resolved due to the extreme scarcity of information about the technical side of theatrical performances 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, incl. it, as a rule, appears in the play as a prophecy, and not a root cause or direct intervention in action, suggests that the author adhered to 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 known to us indicate a deep religiosity, and the tragedies confirm this. In many of them, we see a person who, during the crisis he is experiencing, encounters the mystery of the universe, and this mystery, shaming all human tricks and insight, inevitably brings defeat, suffering and death to him. The typical hero of Sophocles relies entirely on his knowledge at the beginning of the tragedy, and ends with the admission of complete ignorance or doubt.

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

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

TRAGEDIES

Ajax.

The action of the tragedy begins from the moment when Ajax, who was bypassed by the award (the armor of the deceased Achilles intended for the bravest hero, was awarded to Odysseus), decided to do away with both Atridian kings and Odysseus, but in the madness sent by the goddess Athena, he exterminated the cattle captured from the Trojans. In the prologue, Athena demonstrates Ajax's madness to his enemy, Odysseus. Odysseus regrets Ajax, but the goddess does not know compassion. In the next scene, the mind returns to Ajax and with the help of the captive concubine Tekmessa, the hero becomes aware of what he has done. Realizing the truth, Ajax decides to commit suicide, despite Tekmessa's touching persuasions. A famous scene follows, in which Ajax is presented thinking about what he has conceived with himself, his speech is full of ambiguities, and at the end of her chorus, believing that Ajax has abandoned the idea of \u200b\u200bsuicide, sings a joyful song. However, in the very next scene (which has no parallel in the Attic tragedy), Ajax is stabbed to death in front of the audience. His brother Teucer appears too late to save the life of Ajax, but he manages to defend the body of the deceased from the Atrids, who wanted to leave their enemy without burial. Two scenes of a furious argument lead 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 Polynices, who died while trying to conquer his native city. She goes to this contrary to the order of Creon, the new ruler of Thebes, according to which the body of Polynices should be thrown to birds and dogs. The guard seizes the girl and brings 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 initial sentence - stoning), and in her wonderful monologue, which, however, some publishers do not recognize as truly Sophocles, Antigone tries to analyze the motives of her act, reducing them to a purely personal attachment. to her brother and forgetting about the religious and family duty to which she referred initially. The prophet Tiresias orders Creon to bury Polynices, Creon tries to object, but in the end he gives up and goes to bury the deceased, and also to release Antigone, but the messenger sent reports that when he arrived in the dungeon, Antigone had already hanged herself. Haemon draws his sword, threatening his father, but then turns the weapon against himself. Upon learning of this, Creon's wife Eurydice leaves the house in grief and also commits suicide. The tragedy ends with the incoherent lamentations of Creon, who brought the body of his son onto the stage.

King Oedipus.

The people of Thebes come to Oedipus with a plea to save the city from the plague. Creon announces that it is first necessary to punish the murderer of Laius, who was king before Oedipus. Oedipus begins searching for the perpetrator. Tiresias, summoned on the advice of Creon, accuses Oedipus of the murder. Oedipus sees in all this a conspiracy inspired by Creon, and sentences him to death, but cancels his decision, succumbing to the persuasion of Jocasta. The subsequent complex plot is difficult to retell. Oedipus brings the search for the killer and the truth hidden from him to the sad conclusion that the killer of Laius is himself, that Laius was his father, and his wife Jocasta is his mother. In a terrifying scene, Jocasta, having figured out 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 deprived himself of his sight. Soon, Oedipus himself appears before the audience with a face covered in blood. The most heartbreaking scene in the whole tragedy follows. In his final dialogue with Creon, the new ruler of Thebes, Oedipus gets over himself and somewhat regains his former self-confidence.

Elektra.

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 that moment on, Elektra becomes the dominant person on the stage, who, since the murderers dealt with her father, has been living in poverty and humiliation, harboring hatred in her soul. In dialogues with her sister Chrysothemis and mother Clytemnestra, Electra reveals the full measure of her hatred and determination to take revenge. The Mentor appears with a message about the death of Orestes. Electra loses her last hope, but still tries to persuade Chrysothemis to join her and attack Clytemnestra and Aegisthus together, when her sister refuses, Electra swears that she will do everything herself. Here Orestes enters the stage with a funeral urn. Elektra delivers a touching farewell speech over her, and Orestes, who recognizes her sister in this embittered, aged woman dressed in tatters, loses his temper, 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 brings Orestes back to reality: it's time for him to go kill his mother. Orestes obeys, leaving the palace, he answers all the questions of Electra with dark, ambiguous speeches. The tragedy ends with an extremely dramatic scene when Aegisthus, bending over the body of Clytemnestra and believing that this is the corpse of Orestes, opens the face of the murdered woman and recognizes her. Urged 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 effects 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, go to Lemnos to bring Philoctetes to Troy. Of the three ways to possess a hero - force, persuasion, deceit - they choose the latter. Intrigue turns out to be perhaps the most intricate thing 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 ever greater force. In the end, Neoptolemus reveals the truth to Philoctetes, but then Odysseus intervenes, and Philoctetes is left alone, taking away his bow. However, Neoptolemus returns and, defying Odysseus's threats, returns the bow to Philoctetes. Then Neoptolemus tries to persuade Philoctetes to go under Troy with him. But Philoctetes can only be convinced when the deified Hercules appears to him and says that the bow was given to him to accomplish a heroic feat.

Oedipus in Colon.

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 it is here that he will die. Ismena comes to his father to warn him: the gods have announced that his grave will make invincible the land in which he will lie. Oedipus decides to provide this benefit to Athens by placing a curse on Creon and his own sons. Creon, vainly trying to convince Oedipus, takes Antigone by force, but King Theseus comes to the aid of Oedipus and returns his daughter to him. Polyneices is to ask for help from his father against his brother, who seized power in Thebes, but Oedipus renounces him and curses both sons. There is a thunderclap, and Oedipus retires to meet his death. He mysteriously disappears, and only Theseus knows where Oedipus is buried.

This unusual play, which was written at the end of the war lost by Athens, is filled with a poetic sense of patriotism towards Athens and is a testament to Sophocles' confidence in the immortality of his native city. The death of Oedipus is a religious mystery, hardly comprehensible to the modern mind: the closer Oedipus comes to divinity, the tougher, embittered and furious he becomes. So unlike King Lear, with whom this tragedy was often compared, Oedipus in Colon 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 the last moments of earthly life.

Sophocles (May 496 BC, Colon - 406 BC) - the second great tragedian of Greece after Aeschylus. The first tetralogy, staged by Sophocles in 469 BC, captivated the audience and delivered him a victory over the sixty-two-year-old Aeschylus, opening a series of victories won on stage in competitions with other tragedians. The critic Aristophanes of Byzantium attributed 123 tragedies to Sophocles. His works won first place 20 times.

Sophocles was born in Kolon near Athens. Back in 480 BC, when he was only 16 years old, he participated in the choir of ephebes, who performed in honor of the victory at Salamis. Thanks to his father, who, most likely, was a man of average means, Sophocles received a compulsory musical and gymnasium education. This helped the poet in the future, since he himself subsequently composed music for the metrical parts of his tragedies.

Sophocles was handsome, a trendsetter, a poet and even a doctor. It is important to note that Sophocles was not only a playwright. In his youth, he was close to the aristocrat Cimon, the leader of the agricultural party, who won a number of victories over the Persians. When Pericles replaced Cimon, Sophocles took the position of treasurer of the state fund, and then strategist. Together with Pericles, he took part in the campaign against Samos. In 411 BC Sophocles participated in the revision of the Athenian constitution after the anti-democratic coup. It is well known that Sophocles was a friend of Pericles. It is believed that the poet reflected his fall in his most famous tragedy, Oedipus Rex, staged in 429 BC.

The historian Herodotus, the philosopher Archelaus, with whom Sophocles was close, also belonged to the circle of Pericles. It is also assumed that he communicated with the sophists, whose teaching he then criticized in some of his tragedies.

Sophocles lived 90 years. In the year of his death, he wrote the tragedy "Oedipus in Colon".

The merits of Sophocles in the field of theater were very great. He introduced decorative painting, wrote a treatise on the choir, in which he talks about its significance in drama, increased the number of choirs from 12 to 15, added a third to two actors, and increased the dialogic part. The action of the drama began to focus strictly around the first person. The composition of the tragedies has become much more complicated than that of, and the denouement is well prepared.

In the tragedies, Sophocles poses problems that are urgent for his time: attitude to religion ("Electra"), divine, unwritten laws and written laws ("Antigone"), the free will of man and the will of the gods ("Oedipus the King", "Trachinyanki"), the interests of the individual and the state ("Philoctetes"), the problem of honor and nobility ("Ajax"). In his works, the spiritual world of the ideal person-citizen is revealed. It depicts people doing great things. Sophocles takes plots for his tragedies from myths, but chooses those nodes of myth that are more in line with his tasks, and explains what is happening in accordance with the moral images of his time.

According to the ancients, Sophocles wrote over 120 tragedies, but only seven of them have come down to us: Ajax, The Trachinian Women, Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes, Oedipus in Colon and large excerpts from the satyr drama "Pathfinders", the plot for which was the motives of the Homeric hymn to Hermes.

Sophocles created the greatest tragic image - a man alien to compromises, who himself takes the blow and chooses a heroic death. Sophocles faced a dilemma: faith in the infinite possibilities of man and the tragedy of man, who is in ignorance. There are many unknowns in the world. According to Sophocles, the meaning of life is not revealed, the smarter a person is, the more difficult it is for him to curb himself in measure. A person does not know the boundaries assigned to him in the world.

The biography of the three great tragedians was united by the Battle of Salamis: he participated in it, Sophocles glorified it, and Euripides was born at that time.

Bibliography

Screen adaptations of works, theatrical performances

Oedipus Rex (Oedipus Rex; Italy, 1909), dir. D. Di Ligoro
Oedipus Rex (Oedipus Rex; UK, 1911), dir. T. Frenkel
Antigone (Antigone; Sweden, 1960), dir. H. Dalin
Antigone (Antigoni; Antigone; Greece, 1966), dir. D. Katsourides, G. Zavellas
Oedipus Rex (Edipo re; Italy, 1967), dir. P. Paolo Pasolini
Oedipus the King (UK, 1967), dir. F. Saville
Antigone (USA, 1974), dir. D. Friedman
Antigone (Antigone; France, 1974), dir. S. Lorenzi
Antigone (Great Britain, 1984), dir. D. Taylor
Oedipus the King (Oedipus the King; UK, 1984), dir. D. Taylor
Oedipus at Colonus (UK, 1984), dir. D. Taylor
Antigone (Antigone; Germany - France, 1992), dir. D. Huye, J.-M. Straub
Oedipus Rex (Oedipus Rex; Japan, 1992), dir. D. Taymor
Oedipus Rex (Edipo alcalde; Oedipus Mayor; Colombia - Spain - Mexico, 1996), dir. H.Ali Triana

Sophocles (c. 496 - 406 BC). Ancient Greek playwright

One of the three great masters of ancient tragedy, occupying a place between Aeschylus and Euripides in terms of the time of his life and the nature of his work.

The worldview and skill of Sophocles are marked by a desire to balance the new and the old: glorifying the power of a free person, he warned against violating "divine laws", that is, traditional religious and civil norms of life; complicating psychological characteristics, while maintaining the overall monumentality of images and composition. The tragedies of Sophocles "Oedipus Rex", "Antigone", "Electra" and others are classic examples of the genre.

Sophocles was elected to important government positions, was close to the circle of Pericles. According to ancient testimonies, he wrote over 120 dramas. The tragedies "Ajax", "Antigone", "Oedipus Rex", "Philoctetes", "Trachinian Women", "Electra", "Oedipus in Colon" have come down to us in their entirety.

The philosopher's worldview reflects the complexity and inconsistency of Athenian democracy during its peak. On the one hand, democratic ideology, which grew up on the basis of "the joint private property of active citizens of the state," saw its stronghold in the omnipotence of divine providence, in the inviolability of traditional institutions; on the other hand, in the conditions of the most free development of the personality for that time, the tendency to release it from polis ties became more and more persistent.

The trials that fall to the lot of man could not find a satisfactory explanation in the divine will, and Sophocles, preoccupied with maintaining the unity of the city, did not try to justify the divine control of the world by any ethical considerations.

At the same time, he was attracted to an active, responsible person, which was reflected in Ajax.

In Oedipus Rex, the hero's relentless investigation of the secrets of his past makes him responsible for involuntary crimes, although it does not give grounds to interpret the tragedy in terms of guilt and divine retribution.

Antigone, with her heroic defense of "unwritten" laws from the arbitrariness of an individual, hiding behind the authority of the state, appears as an integral, unshakable person in her decision. The heroes of Sophocles are free from everything secondary and too personal, they have a strong ideal beginning.

The plots and images of Sophocles were used both in subsequent ancient and in modern European literature from the era of classicism until the 20th century. A deep interest in the work of the playwright was manifested in studies on the theory of tragedy (G.E. Lessing, I.V. Goethe, the Schlegel brothers, F. Schiller, V.G. Belinsky). From the middle of the XIX century. Sophocles' tragedies are staged in theaters all over the world.