Sophocles

Born in 496 B.C. near Athens, Sophocles was the last one of the three great tragic poets. His plays were greatly influenced by Aeschylus. When competing with other playwrights, Aeschylus had never lost until he competed against a young Sophocles. Sophocles also showed great respect towards Euripides and upon hearing about his death, Sophocles had his chorus dress up in black in mourning for Euripides. He was often viewed as the most charming one of the three tragedians and his charm alone made him win over many admirers.
Sophocles’ tragedies started out as imitations of the ones written by Aeschylus but as he continued writing he started writing his plays in such a way that allowed him to express human character in a suitable manner. This meant that he tried to have the audience satisfied with how his characters were portrayed rather than creating characters in a way that satisfied himself. He is also described as infrequently introducing mental images in his audience so that when he does create imagery it becomes powerful and memorable. During his career as a tragic poet, Sophocles got the nickname “the Bee” because the ancient Greeks thought his words were so sweet that they his lips must have been “smeared with honey.”(Haigh 161). I thought that this was surprising because as a tragic poet, his plays had to deal with a lot of negatively-perceived emotions like pain, suffering and misery. His most famous tragedy Oedipus Rex has a lot of dark elements that it just added to my surprise.

Aeschylus

Often called the father of tragedy, Aeschylus is one of the most influential tragedists in history. He was born in the year 525 B.C in the town of Eleusis, located in West Attica. Before he got into Greek theater, he served in the Athenian army and fought in the Persian War. Aeschylus is the oldest one of the three great tragic poets, the other two being the younger Sophocles and Euripides.
Aeschylus is said to have written over ninety plays during his lifetime although only seven of them are preserved today. His play The Persiae, a tragedy about the Persian War, is considered to be the first tragedy that was based on an actual historical event. He is the first known playwright to have more than one character in his play thus creating the concept of dialogue within Greek plays. Before he had done this plays consisted of only the chorus and one actor. It is for this reason that he is regarded as the first tragedian. It is clear that, like Thespis, he had a big impact on both Greek tragedy and on Greek theater.
Although we have learned to associate Oedipus with Sophocles, Aeschylus wrote a play about the same character nearly forty years before Oedipus Rex was written. One of the seven plays that are preserved is Seven Against Thebes. This play is split into two parts; the first focusing on Laius and the second focusing on Oedipus. While Sophocles focuses on Oedipus’ life, Aeschylus’ play focuses more about the aftermath that resulted from the fall of Oedipus.
Aeschylus eventually passed away in 456 B.C. and his death is believed to have been caused by traumatic brain injury. There are some historical sources that state that an eagle dropped a tortoise on his head and killed him. The Roman philosopher Pliny states in his book Naturalis Historia that Aeschylus was outdoors when this happened because he was attempting to avoid a prophecy that said he would be killed by a falling object. If this is true and not just a myth, then, like Oedipus, he attempted to avoid having his prophecy become true but eventually could not prevent it from being realized.

Works Cited

Works Cited

“Aeschylus.” Google, www.google.com/amp/s/www.ancient.eu/amp/1-11058/. Accessed Apr. 15 2019

Broggiato, Maria1, maria.broggiato@uniroma1. i. “Eratosthenes, Icaria and the Origins of Tragedy.” Mnemosyne, vol. 67, no. 6, Nov. 2014, pp. 885–899. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1163/1568525X-12341419, pg 893

Euripides, https://www.theatredatabase.com/ancient/euripides_001.html. Accessed Apr.17 2019

Euripides, The Bacchae. http://www.kleal.com/Honors%209%20member%20area/The%20Bacchae.pdf. Accessed Apr. 17 2019

Freer, Ian. “Star Wars Archive: George Lucas 1999 Interview.” Empire, Bauer Media Group., 15 Mar. 2016, www.empireonline.com/movies/features/star-wars-archive-george-lucas-1999-interview/.

Horace, “Ars Poetica”. Horace, Ars Poetica, https://www.loebclassics.com/view/horace-ars_poetica/1926/pb_LCL194.447.xml. Accessed Apr. 16 2019

Fyodor Gostoyevsky, http://www.columbia.edu/~ey2172/dostoevsky.html. Accessed Apr. 17 2019

Greek & Roman Mythology-Greek Tragedy, http://www.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/tragedy/index.php?page=aeschylus. Accessed Apr. 16 2019

Karasavvas, Theodoros. “Eagle Mistakes Bald Head for a Rock: The Bizarre Circumstances Surrounding the Death of Aeschylus.” Ancient Origins, Ancient Origins, 1 Jan. 2018, www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/eagle-mistakes-bald-head-rock-bizarre-circumstances-surrounding-death-021785. Accessed Apr.17 2019

Rotstein, Andrea. 2016. Literary History in the Parian Marble. Hellenic Studies Series 68. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_RotsteinA.Literary_History_in_the_Parian_Marble.2016. Accessed Apr. 15 2019.

The Language of Sophocles, www.theatredatabase.com/ancient/sophocles_004.html. Accessed Apr. 16 2019
“Thespis”. Life of Thespis, 2010 http://www.ancientathens.org/people/thespis. Accessed Apr. 16 2019

Oedipus Rex

Sophocles’ most well known tragedy is without a doubt Oedipus Rex. It is often regarded as the best tragedy that has ever been written.
This tragedy follows the story about a man named Oedipus who is cursed with a great prophecy that states that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Upon learning about this prophecy, his father, King Laius decides to pierce Oedipus’ ankles and leave him to die. Oedipus is rescued and taken to Corinth where he is adopted by the king and queen. Oedipus himself learns about his prophecy and flees Corinth in order to avoid it from becoming true. On his journey Oedipus encounters King Laius and a few other men at a crossroads and he proceeds to kill all of them except one. He later encounters a Sphinx that has the city of Thebes captive and will only leave if someone answers its riddle correctly. Oedipus correctly answers its riddle to save the city of Thebes. As a reward for his heroics, Oedipus gets crowned as the new king and marries the queen Jocasta. It is after this chain of events that the prophecy, unbeknownst to any of the characters but not to the audience, is fulfilled. This is an example of dramatic irony.
The climax of the story occurs when Oedipus realizes that he was the one that killed Laius because everything that occurs from then on is a part of his downfall. The play ends in Oedipus gouging his own eye, the death of Jocasta, the exile of Oedipus, and Creon, Jocasta’s brother, becoming king.