Editing Sophocles (section)

==Life==
[[Image:Sophocles CdM Chab3308.jpg|thumb|right|A marble relief of a poet, perhaps Sophocles]]

Sophocles, the son of Sophillus, was a wealthy member of the rural ''[[deme]]'' (small community) of [[Colonus (Attica)|Hippeius Colonus]] in [[Attica]], which was to become a setting for his play [[Oedipus at Colonus]]. He was also probably born there,<ref name=S41/><ref name=Sfrxi>Sommerstein (2007), p. xi.</ref> a few years before the [[Battle of Marathon]] in 490 BC: the exact year is unclear, but 497/6 is most likely.<ref name=S41/><ref>Lloyd-Jones 1994, p. 7.</ref> He was born into a wealthy family (his father was an armour manufacturer) and was highly educated. His first artistic triumph was in 468 BC, when he took first prize in the [[Dionysia]], beating the reigning master of Athenian drama, [[Aeschylus]].<ref name=S41/><ref>Freeman, p. 246.</ref> According to [[Plutarch]], the victory came under unusual circumstances: instead of following the usual custom of choosing judges by lot, the [[archon]] asked [[Cimon]], and the other ''[[strategoi]]'' present, to decide the victor of the contest. Plutarch further contends that, following this loss, Aeschylus soon left for Sicily.<ref>''Life of Cimon'' 8. Plutarch is mistaken about Aeschylus' death during this trip; he went on to produce dramas in Athens for another decade.</ref> Though Plutarch says that this was Sophocles' first production, it is now thought that his first production was probably in 470 BC.<ref name=Sfrxi/> ''Triptolemus'' was perhaps one of the plays that Sophocles presented at this festival.<ref name=Sfrxi/>

In 480 BC, Sophocles was chosen to lead the [[paean]] (a choral chant to a god), celebrating the Greek victory over the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persians]] at the [[Battle of Salamis]].<ref>''McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama: An International Reference Work in 5 Volumes, Volume 1'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=2SrVpFGioFUC&pg=PA487 "Sophocles"].</ref> Early in his career, the politician [[Cimon]] might have been one of his patrons, but if he was, there was no ill will borne by [[Pericles]], Cimon's rival, when Cimon was ostracized in 461 BC.<ref name=S41/> In 443/2, Sophocles served as one of the ''[[Hellenotamiai]]'', or treasurers of Athena, helping to manage the finances of the city during the political ascendancy of Pericles.<ref name=S41/> In 441 BC, according to the ''Vita Sophoclis'', he was elected one of the ten generals, executive officials at Athens, as a junior colleague of Pericles; and he served in the Athenian campaign against [[Samos]]. He was supposed to have been elected to this position due to his production of ''Antigone'',<ref>Beer 2004, p. 69.</ref> but this is "most improbable".<ref>Lloyd-Jones 1994, p. 12.</ref>

In 420 BC, he was chosen to receive the image of [[Asclepius]] in his own house when the cult was being introduced to Athens and lacked a proper place (τέμενος).<ref name="Lloyd-Jones 1994, p. 13">Lloyd-Jones 1994, p. 13.</ref> For this, the Athenians gave him the posthumous epithet ''Dexion'' (receiver).<ref>Clinton, Kevin, "The Epidauria and the Arrival of Asclepius in Athens", in ''Ancient Greek Cult Practice from the Epigraphical Evidence'', edited by R. Hägg, Stockholm, 1994.</ref> But "some doubt attaches to this story".<ref name="Lloyd-Jones 1994, p. 13"/> He was also elected, in 411 BC, one of the commissioners (''[[probouloi]]'') who responded to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary force in [[Sicily]] during the [[Peloponnesian War]].<ref>Lloyd-Jones 1994, pp. 12–13.</ref>

Sophocles died at the age of 90 or 91 in the winter of 406/5 BC, having seen, within his lifetime, both the Greek triumph in the [[Persian Wars]] and the bloodletting of the Peloponnesian War.<ref name=S41/> As with many famous men in classical antiquity, his death inspired a number of apocryphal stories. One claimed that he died from the strain of trying to recite a long sentence from his ''Antigone'' without pausing to take a breath. Another account suggests he choked while eating grapes at the [[Anthesteria]] festival in Athens. A third holds that he died of happiness after winning his final victory at the City Dionysia.<ref>Schultz 1835, pp. 150–51.</ref> A few months later, a comic poet, in a play titled ''The Muses'', wrote this eulogy: "Blessed is Sophocles, who had a long life, was a man both happy and talented, and the writer of many good tragedies; and he ended his life well without suffering any misfortune."<ref>Lucas 1964, p. 128.</ref> According to some accounts, however, his own sons tried to have him declared incompetent near the end of his life, and he refuted their charge in court by reading from his new ''Oedipus at Colonus''.<ref>[[Cicero]] recounts this story in his ''De Senectute'' 7.22.</ref> One of his sons, [[Iophon]], and a grandson, also named Sophocles (son of [[Ariston (son of Sophocles)|Ariston]]), also became playwrights.<ref>Sommerstein (2002), pp. 41–42.</ref>
[[File:Philosophenmosaik köln Sophokles von Athen.jpg|thumb|Sophocles, ancient Roman mosaic]]

A very ancient source, [[Athenaeus]]'s work ''[[Deipnosophistae|Sophists at Dinner]]'', contains references to Sophocles' sexuality. In that work, a character named Myrtilus claims that Sophocles "was partial to boys, in the same way that Euripides was partial to women"<ref name="Athenaeus 2011 53">{{cite book |last=Athenaeus |others=Douglas Olson, S. (ed. and trans.) |date=2011 |title=The Learned Banqueters, Volume VII |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press |pages=53
 |isbn=9780674996731}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Deipnosophists |author=Athenaeus |author-link=Athenaeus |series=XIII |pages=603–4 |translator-last=Yonge |translator-first=Charles Duke |publisher=Henry G. Bohn |location=London |publication-date=1854 |lccn=2002554451
 |url=http://www.attalus.org/old/athenaeus13d.html |access-date=24 April 2021}}</ref> ("φιλομεῖραξ δὲ ἦν ὁ Σοφοκλῆς, ὡς Εὐριπίδης φιλογύνης"),<ref name="Athenaeus 2011 52">{{cite book |last=Athenaeus |others=Douglas Olson, S. (ed. and trans.) |date=2011 |title=The Learned Banqueters, Volume VII |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press |pages=52 |isbn=9780674996731}}</ref> and relates an anecdote, attributed to [[Ion of Chios]], of Sophocles flirting with a serving-boy at a [[symposium]]:{{quote|βούλει με ἡδέως πίνειν; [...] βραδέως τοίνυν καὶ πρόσφερέ μοι καὶ ἀπόφερε τὴν κύλικα.<ref name="Athenaeus 2011 52" /><br>Do you want me to enjoy my drink? [...] Then hand me the cup nice and slow, and take it back nice and slow too.<ref name="Athenaeus 2011 53" />}} He also says that [[Hieronymus of Rhodes]], in his ''Historical Notes'', claims that Sophocles once led a boy outside the city walls for sex; and that the boy snatched Sophocles' cloak (χλανίς, ''khlanis''), leaving his own child-sized robe ("παιδικὸν [[himation|ἱμάτιον]]") for Sophocles.<ref>{{cite book |last=Athenaeus |others=Douglas Olson, S. (ed. and trans.) |date=2011
 |title=The Learned Banqueters, Volume VII |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press |pages=56–57 |isbn=9780674996731}}</ref><ref>Fortenbaugh, William Wall. ''Lyco and Traos and Hieronymus of Rhodes: Text, Translation, and Discussion.'' Transaction Publishers (2004). {{ISBN|978-1-4128-2773-7}}. p. 161.</ref> Moreover, when Euripides heard about this (it was much discussed), he mocked the disdainful treatment, saying that he had himself had sex with the boy, "but had not given him anything more than his usual fee"<ref>{{cite book |last=Athenaeus |others=Douglas Olson, S. (ed. and trans.) |date=2011 |title=The Learned Banqueters, Volume VII |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press |page=57 |isbn=9780674996731}}</ref> ("ἀλλὰ μηδὲν προσθεῖναι"),<ref>{{cite book |last=Athenaeus |others=Douglas Olson, S. (ed. and trans.) |date=2011 |title=The Learned Banqueters, Volume VII |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press |page=56 |isbn=9780674996731}}</ref> or, "but that nothing had been taken off"<ref>{{cite book |last=Sophocles |others=Campbell, D. A. (ed. and trans.) |date=1992 |title=Greek Lyric, Volume IV: Bacchylides, Corinna, and Others |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press |page=333 |isbn=9780674995086}}</ref> ("ἀλλὰ μηδὲν προεθῆναι").<ref>{{cite book |last=Sophocles |others=Campbell, D. A. (ed. and trans.) |date=1992 |title=Greek Lyric, Volume IV: Bacchylides, Corinna, and Others
 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press |page=332 |isbn=9780674995086}}</ref> In response, Sophocles composed this elegy: {{quote|[[The North Wind and the Sun|Ἥλιος ἦν]], οὐ παῖς, Εὐριπίδη, ὅς με χλιαίνων<br>γυμνὸν ἐποίησεν· σοὶ δὲ φιλοῦντι † ἑταίραν †<br>Βορρᾶς ὡμίλησε. σὺ δ᾿ οὐ σοφός, ὃς τὸν Ἔρωτα,<br>ἀλλοτρίαν σπείρων, λωποδύτην ἀπάγεις.<ref>{{cite book |last=Athenaeus |others=Douglas Olson, S. (ed. and trans.) |date=2011 |title=The Learned Banqueters, Volume VII |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press
 |page=58 |isbn=9780674996731}}</ref><br>[[The North Wind and the Sun|It was the Sun]], Euripides, and not a boy, that got me hot<br>and stripped me naked. But the North Wind was with you<br>when you were kissing † a courtesan †. You're not so clever, if you arrest<br>Eros for stealing clothes while you're sowing another man's field.<ref>{{cite book |last=Athenaeus |others=Douglas Olson, S. (ed. and trans.) |date=2011 |title=The Learned Banqueters, Volume VII |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England
 |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press |page=59 |isbn=9780674996731}}</ref>}}