When did Sophocles write Antigone?
Antigone (Sophocles play)
Antigone ( ; ) is a tragedy by Sophocles written in or before 441 BC.
History of anarchism
The usage of the words "anarchia" and "anarchos", both meaning "without ruler", can be traced back to Homer's "Iliad" and Herodotus's "Histories". The first known political usage of the word "anarchy" appears in the play "Seven Against Thebes" by Aeschylus, dated at 467 BC. There, Antigone openly refuses to abide by the rulers' decree to leave her brother Polyneices' body unburied as punishment for his participation in the attack on Thebes, saying that "even if no one else is willing to share in burying him I will bury him alone and risk the peril of burying my own brother. Nor am I ashamed to act in defiant opposition to the rulers of the city (Ἒχουσα ἄπιστων τήν ἀναρχίαν πόλει; "Ekhousa apistõn tēn anarkhian polei")". Sophocles used the same theme 50 years later, in his tragedy "Antigone", where the heroin challenges the established order of Thebes, coming in direct clash with Creon, the ruler of the town.
Ancient Greece also saw the first Western instance of anarchism as a philosophical ideal mainly -but not only- by the Cynics and Stoicists. The cynic Diogenes of Sinope and Crates of Thebes are both supposed to have advocated anarchistic forms of society, although little remains of their writings. Their most significant contribution was the radical approach of "Nomos" (law) and "Physis" (nature). Contrary to the rest of Greek philosophy, aiming to blend Nomos and Physis in harmony, Cynics dismissed Nomos (and in consequence: the authorities, hierarchies, establishments and moral code of Polis) while promoting a way of life, based solely on Physis.
Sophocles
Thereafter, Sophocles emerged victorious in dramatic competitions at 18 Dionysia and 6 Lenaia festivals. In addition to innovations in dramatic structure, Sophocles' work is also known for its deeper development of characters than earlier playwrights. His reputation was such that foreign rulers invited him to attend their courts, although unlike Aeschylus who died in Sicily, or Euripides who spent time in Macedon, Sophocles never accepted any of these invitations. Aristotle used Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex" in his "Poetics" (c. 335 BC) as an example of the highest achievement in tragedy, which suggests the high esteem in which his work was held by later Greeks.
Jean Anouilh
Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh (; 23 June 1910 – 3 October 1987) was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play "Antigone", an adaptation of Sophocles' classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's Vichy government. One of France's most prolific writers after World War II, much of Anouilh's work deals with themes of maintaining integrity in a world of moral compromise.
Epigoni (play)
The Epigoni (, "Epigonoi", "progeny") is an ancient Greek tragedy written by the Greek playwright Sophocles in the 5th century BC and based on Greek mythology.
Dream
Antiphon wrote the first known Greek book on dreams in the 5th century BC. In that century, other cultures influenced Greeks to develop the belief that souls left the sleeping body. Hippocrates (469–399 BC) had a simple dream theory: during the day, the soul receives images; during the night, it produces images. Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BC) believed dreams caused physiological activity. He thought dreams could analyze illness and predict diseases. Marcus Tullius Cicero, for his part, believed that all dreams are produced by thoughts and conversations a dreamer had during the preceding days. Cicero's "Somnium Scipionis" described a lengthy dream vision, which in turn was commented on by Macrobius in his "Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis".
Xenophanes
According to biographer Diogenes Laërtius, Xenophanes wrote in hexameters and also composed elegies and iambics against Homer and Hesiod. Laertius also mentions two historical poems concerning the founding of Colophon and Elea, but of these, only the titles have been preserved. There is no good authority that says that Xenophanes wrote a philosophical poem. The Neoplatonist philosopher Simplicius writes that he had never met with the verses about the earth stretching infinitely downwards (fr. 28), even though he had access to many philosophical works. Several of the philosophical fragments are derived from commentators on Homer. It is thus likely that the philosophical remarks of Xenophanes were expressed incidentally in his satires. The satires are called "Silloi" by late writers, and this name may go back to Xenophanes himself, but it may originate in the fact that Timon of Phlius, the "sillographer" (3rd century BC), put much of his own satire upon philosophers into the mouth of Xenophanes.
Socrates on Trial
Socrates on Trial is a play depicting the life and death of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. It tells the story of how Socrates was put on trial for corrupting the youth of Athens and for failing to honour the city’s gods. The play contains adaptations of several classic Greek works: the slapstick comedy, "Clouds", written by Aristophanes and first performed in 423 BCE; the dramatic monologue, "Apology", written by Plato to record the defence speech Socrates gave at his trial; and Plato’s "Crito" and "Phaedo", two dialogues describing the events leading to Socrates’ execution in 399 BCE. The play was written by Andrew David Irvine of the University of British Columbia and premiered by director Joan Bryans of Vital Spark Theatre Company in 2007 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver.
Odysseus Acanthoplex
In "The Lost Sophocles", D. F. Sutton suggests that "Odysseus Acanthoplex" was possibly first produced by about 414 BCE, which Sutton suggests is the same timeframe as Sophocles' "Electra". Webster believes it was produced at a date close to that of "Women of Trachis", which he dates to sometime before 431, due to perceived similarities with the structure of that play.
Diogenes of Athens (tragedian)
Diogenes of Athens () was a writer of Greek tragedy in the late 5th or early 4th century BC. His works are listed by the Suda as "Semele", "Achilles, Helen, Herakles, Thyestes, Medea, Oedipus," and "Chrysippus". He was either born or flourished at the time of the Thirty Tyrants and the suppression of Athenian democracy, around 404–403 BC.
Akrisios
The Akrisios is a tragedy by the 5th-century BCE Athenian playwright Sophocles that survives only in fragments.
Existentialism
Jean Anouilh's "Antigone" also presents arguments founded on existentialist ideas. It is a tragedy inspired by Greek mythology and the play of the same name (Antigone, by Sophocles) from the 5th century BC. In English, it is often distinguished from its antecedent by being pronounced in its original French form, approximately "Ante-GŌN." The play was first performed in Paris on 6 February 1944, during the Nazi occupation of France. Produced under Nazi censorship, the play is purposefully ambiguous with regards to the rejection of authority (represented by Antigone) and the acceptance of it (represented by Creon). The parallels to the French Resistance and the Nazi occupation have been drawn. Antigone rejects life as desperately meaningless but without affirmatively choosing a noble death. The crux of the play is the lengthy dialogue concerning the nature of power, fate, and choice, during which Antigone says that she is, "... disgusted with [the]...promise of a humdrum happiness." She states that she would rather die than live a mediocre existence.
Antisthenes
Antisthenes was born c. 445 BC and was the son of Antisthenes, an Athenian. His mother was a Thracian. In his youth he fought at Tanagra (426 BC), and was a disciple first of Gorgias, and then of Socrates; so eager was he to hear the words of Socrates that he used to walk daily from Peiraeus to Athens, and persuaded his friends to accompany him. Eventually he was present at Socrates's death. He never forgave his master's persecutors, and is said to have been instrumental in procuring their punishment. He survived the Battle of Leuctra (371 BC), as he is reported to have compared the victory of the Thebans to a set of schoolboys beating their master. Although Eudokia Makrembolitissa supposedly tells us that he died at the age of 70, he was apparently still alive in 366 BC, and he must have been nearer to 80 years old when he died at Athens, c. 365 BC. He is said to have lectured at the Cynosarges, a gymnasium for the use of Athenians born of foreign mothers, near the temple of Heracles. Filled with enthusiasm for the Socratic idea of virtue, he founded a school of his own in the Cynosarges, where he attracted the poorer classes by the simplicity of his life and teaching. He wore a cloak and carried a staff and a wallet, and this costume became the uniform of his followers.
Atheism
The Athenian public associated Socrates (c. 470–399 BCE) with the trends in pre-Socratic philosophy towards naturalistic inquiry and the rejection of divine explanations for phenomena. Aristophanes' comic play "The Clouds" (performed 423 BCE) portrays Socrates as teaching his students that the traditional Greek deities do not exist. Socrates was later tried and executed under the charge of not believing in the gods of the state and instead worshipping foreign gods. Socrates himself vehemently denied the charges of atheism at his trial and all the surviving sources about him indicate that he was a very devout man, who prayed to the rising sun and believed that the oracle at Delphi spoke the word of Apollo. Euhemerus ( 300 BCE) published his view that the gods were only the deified rulers, conquerors and founders of the past, and that their cults and religions were in essence the continuation of vanished kingdoms and earlier political structures. Although not strictly an atheist, Euhemerus was later criticized for having "spread atheism over the whole inhabited earth by obliterating the gods".
Sophocles
Among Sophocles' earliest innovations was the addition of a third actor, which further reduced the role of the chorus and created greater opportunity for character development and conflict between characters. Aeschylus, who dominated Athenian playwriting during Sophocles' early career, followed suit and adopted the third character into his own work towards the end of his life. Aristotle credits Sophocles with the introduction of "skenographia", or scenery-painting. It was not until after the death of the old master Aeschylus in 456 BC that Sophocles became the pre-eminent playwright in Athens.
Johann Jakob Christian Donner
His main work was a translation of the plays by Sophocles, which he published in 1838–1839 (8th edition, 1875). This translation formed the basis for Felix Mendelssohn's incidental music "Antigone" (1841). Donner was also responsible for providing translations of works by Euripides, Aeschylus, Pindar, Aristophanes, Terence, Plautus and Homer ("Iliad" and "Odyssey").
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus (; "Diodoros Sikeliotes") ( 1st century BC) or Diodorus of Sicily was a Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history "Bibliotheca historica", much of which survives, between 60 and 30 BC. It is arranged in three parts. The first covers mythic history up to the destruction of Troy, arranged geographically, describing regions around the world from Egypt, India and Arabia to Greece and Europe. The second covers the Trojan War to the death of Alexander the Great. The third covers the period to about 60 BC. "Bibliotheca", meaning 'library', acknowledges that he was drawing on the work of many other authors.
Antigone (Sophocles play)
Of the three Theban plays "Antigone" is the third in order of the events depicted in the plays, but it is the first that was written. The play expands on the Theban legend that predates it, and it picks up where Aeschylus' "Seven Against Thebes" ends.
Creon
Creon figures prominently in the plays "Oedipus Rex" and "Antigone", written by Sophocles.
Sophocles
In 420 BC, he welcomed and set up an altar for the image of Asclepius at his house, when the deity was introduced to Athens. For this, he was given the posthumous epithet "Dexion" (receiver) by the Athenians. He was also elected, in 413 BC, one of the commissioners ("probouloi") who responded to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary force in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War.
Antigone (Sophocles play)
"Antigone at the Barbican" was a 2015 filmed-for-TV version of a production at the Barbican directed by Ivo van Hove; the translation was by Anne Carson and the film starred Juliette Binoche as Antigone and Patrick O'Kane as Kreon.
Hermann Lotze
Lotze was born in Bautzen (Budziszyn), Saxony, Germany, the son of a physician. He was educated at the grammar school of Zittau; he had an enduring love of the classical authors, publishing a translation of Sophocles' "Antigone" into Latin verse in his middle age.
Ambryon
Ambryon (Gr. ) was an ancient Greek writer who wrote a work on the poet Theocritus, from which Diogenes Laërtius quotes an epigram of Theocritus against Aristotle. His date can only be fixed between the 3rd century BC and the 3rd century AD, and his work itself, "On Theocritus", is no longer extant.
Tereus (play)
Tereus (, "Tēreus") is a Greek play by the Athenian poet Sophocles. Although the play has been lost, several fragments have been recovered. Although the date that the play was first produced is not known, it is known that it was produced before 414 BCE, because the Greek comedic playwright Aristophanes referenced "Tereus" in his play "The Birds", which was first performed in 414. Thomas B. L. Webster dates the play to near but before 431 BCE, based on circumstantial evidence from a comment Thucydides made in 431 about the need to distinguish between Tereus and the King of Thrace, Teres, which Webster believes was made necessary by the popularity of Sophocles play around this time causing confusion between the two names. Based on references in "The Birds" it is also known that another Greek playwright, Philocles, had also written a play on the subject of Tereus, and there is evidence both from "The Birds" and from a scholiast that Sophocles' play came first.
Xenophon of Ephesus
Xenophon of Ephesus (; fl. 2nd century – 3rd century AD) was a Greek writer. His surviving work is the "Ephesian Tale of Anthia and Habrocomes", one of the earliest novels as well as one of the sources for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Antigone (Euripides play)
Sophocles' "Antigone" (ca. 441 BCE) told the story of how Oedipus' daughter Antigone buried the body of her brother Polynices who had led an invasion of Thebes, defying the order of her uncle Creon who was ruling Thebes. As a result, Creon condemned her to death, and although Creon rescinded the death sentence, Antigone and her lover Haemon, Creon's son, killed themselves.
Electra (Sophocles play)
Electra or Elektra (, "Ēlektra") is a Greek tragedy by Sophocles. Its date is not known, but various stylistic similarities with the "Philoctetes" (409 BC) and the "Oedipus at Colonus" (401 BC) lead scholars to suppose that it was written towards the end of Sophocles' career.
Chion of Heraclea
Seventeen surviving letters are ascribed to Chion, but they are no doubt spurious and may have been written by one of the later Platonists whose intention was to write an epistolary novel based on Chion's life. It has been very difficult to date them, but they are generally presumed to have been written in the 1st or 2nd century of our era. Some scholars are more cautious and prefer the 4th century. They were first printed in Greek in the Aldine collection of Greek Letters (Venice, 1499), then in Greek and Latin, in the 1606 reprint of that collection. The first separate edition was by Johannes Caselius in 1583 at Rostock. There was also a Latin translation published in the same volume with a Latin version of the fourth book of Xenophon's Cyropaedia by the same editor and printer the following year. An expanded edition of the Greek text, based on a new recension of some manuscripts in the Medicean collection, with notes and indices, was published by J. T. Coberus (Leipzig & Dresden, 1765). The best edition, containing all that is valuable in the preceding ones, is that of Johann Conrad Orelli in the same volume with his edition of Memnon (Leipzig, 1816). It contains the Greek text, the Latin version of Caselius, the introduction by Andreas Gottlieb Hoffmann, the preface of Coberus, and the notes of Coberus, Hoffmann, and Orelli. It was first translated into English by I. During (Gothenburg, 1951).
Another Antigone
Another Antigone is a play by A. R. Gurney. It was first produced in March 1987 at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California. The play opened at Playwrights Horizons in New York City in January, 1988. It is dedicated by the playwright to John Tillinger. It was published by the Dramatists Play Service in January 1988. The play is based on the Greek tragedy, "Antigone" by Sophocles, which is a classic tale of how unbending hubris destroys all who fall prey to its spell. "Another Antigone" is the same story, with some modern twists.
Oedipus at Colonus
Oedipus at Colonus (also Oedipus Coloneus, , "Oidipous epi Kolōnōi") is one of the three Theban plays of the Athenian tragedian Sophocles. It was written shortly before Sophocles' death in 406 BC and produced by his grandson (also called Sophocles) at the Festival of Dionysus in 401 BC.
Socrates
The sources are thought to have in part or wholly made use of the factual information of the life of Socrates available to each of them, to give their own interpretation of the nature of his teaching, giving rise to differing versions in each case. For example, in Aristophanes's play "The Clouds", Socrates is made into a clown of sorts, particularly inclined toward "sophistry", who teaches his students how to bamboozle their way out of debt. However, since most of Aristophanes's works function as parodies, it is presumed that his characterization in this play was also not literal. In "Phaedo", which is the only attested source describing the death of Socrates, Plato is thought to have selected and omitted details to provide material for his argument for the existence of the liberation of the soul from the body, an argument he possessed from learning of the ideas of Pythagoras (born sometime after 606 and died sometime after 510 BC).
Anaxagoras
Anaxagoras wrote a book of philosophy, but only fragments of the first part of this have survived, through preservation in work of Simplicius of Cilicia in the 6th century AD.
Against Aristogeiton
The first speech was generally accepted as authentic by ancient authorities – Dionysius of Halicarnassus is the only ancient author to dispute that Demosthenes wrote it. Other ancient authors, including Pliny the Younger and the author of "On the Sublime", accept it as Demosthenic. Since the 19th century, however, the authorship has been questioned, primarily on the basis that it makes mistakes about Athenian law which Demosthenes would not have. Additionally, Raphael Sealey challenges the speech on the grounds that it contradicts other sources on Aristogeiton at a number of points. Sealey therefore concludes that the speech was a later rhetorical exercise. Friedrich Blass attributed the speech to Demosthenes, but considered it "repetitive, confused and disorderly" and therefore suggested that it was drafted, but never delivered, by him. More recently, Douglas MacDowell has argued that "Against Aristogeiton I" is correctly attributed to Demosthenes.
Antigone (Euripides play)
The date for "Antigone" has not been definitively established. However, metrical analysis on the extant fragments, particularly the incidence of resolutions, by Cropp and Fick indicates that the play was likely written in the latter part of Euripides' life, between 420 BCE and 406 BCE. In addition, a scholiast remark indicates that another play of Euripides, "Antiope", was produced after 412. However, metrical analysis of the extant fragments of "Antiope" indicate a much earlier date. This leaves open the possibility that the scholium erroneously referred to "Antiope" but meant "Antigone", or originally named "Antigone" but this became corrupted over time. If so, that would indicate that "Antigone" was produced between 411 and 406 BCE.
Antigone (Sophocles play)
An important issue still debated regarding Sophocles' "Antigone" is the problem of the second burial. When she poured dust over her brother's body, Antigone completed the burial rituals and thus fulfilled her duty to him. Having been properly buried, Polyneices' soul could proceed to the underworld whether or not the dust was removed from his body. However, Antigone went back after his body was uncovered and performed the ritual again, an act that seems to be completely unmotivated by anything other than a plot necessity so that she could be caught in the act of disobedience, leaving no doubt of her guilt. More than one commentator has suggested that it was the gods, not Antigone, who performed the first burial, citing both the guard's description of the scene and the chorus's observation.
Niobe
Niobe is also mentioned in Sophocles's "Antigone" where, as Antigone is marched toward her death, she compares her own loneliness to that of Niobe. Sophocles is said to have also contributed a play titled "Niobe" that is lost.
Eupolis
Based on the primary sources above, modern historians conclude that Eupolis debuted in the 420s BC, probably in 429 BC. His first production was probably at the Lenaia, the lesser theatrical festival of his time. The Lenaia are thought to have allowed novices to compete, so they could prove themselves before presenting plays at the Dionysia festival. His first known play was either "Prospaltioi" or "Heilotes". Surviving fragments from the "Prospaltioi" include allusions to, and near-quotations of, Sophocles' "Antigone" (442 BC). Scholars are convinced the play targeted Pericles, due to a famous reference to Aspasia. This makes it likely that Pericles, who died in 429 BC, was still alive when Eupolis was working on the text.
Antigone (Euripides play)
Zimmerman has suggested that the likely theme of the play involving Polynices as a traitor who was denied burial mirrored events of the Peloponnesian War in 411 BCE, which may be a further clue to the date of "Antigone".
Antigone (Sophocles play)
Liliana Cavani's 1970 "I Cannibali" is a contemporary political fantasy based upon the Sophocles play, with Britt Ekland as Antigone and Pierre Clémenti as Tiresias.
Sophocles
Only two of the seven surviving plays can be dated securely: "Philoctetes" (409 BC) and "Oedipus at Colonus" (401 BC, staged after Sophocles' death by his grandson). Of the others, "Electra" shows stylistic similarities to these two plays, which suggests that it was probably written in the latter part of his career. "Ajax", "Antigone" and "The Trachiniae" are generally thought to be among his early works, again based on stylistic elements, with "Oedipus Rex" coming in Sophocles' middle period. Most of Sophocles' plays show an undercurrent of early fatalism and the beginnings of Socratic logic as a mainstay for the long tradition of Greek tragedy.
Oedipus (Dryden play)
Sophocles's "Oedipus" is praised and considered "the most celebrated piece of all Antiquity" by Dryden. The Greek author, who was
Antigone (Sophocles play)
Prior to the beginning of the play, brothers Eteocles and Polyneices, leading opposite sides in Thebes' civil war, died fighting each other for the throne. Creon, the new ruler of Thebes and brother of the former Queen Jocasta, has decided that Eteocles will be honored and Polyneices will be in public shame. The rebel brother's body will not be sanctified by holy rites and will lie unburied on the battlefield, prey for carrion animals like worms and vultures, the harshest punishment at the time. Antigone and Ismene are the sisters of the dead Polyneices and Eteocles. In the opening of the play, Antigone brings Ismene outside the palace gates late at night for a secret meeting: Antigone wants to bury Polyneices' body, in defiance of Creon's edict. Ismene refuses to help her, not believing that it will actually be possible to bury their brother, who is under guard, but she is unable to stop Antigone from going to bury her brother herself.
Creon enters, along with the chorus of Theban elders. He seeks their support in the days to come and in particular, wants them to back his edict regarding the disposal of Polyneices' body. The leader of the chorus pledges his support out of deference to Creon. A sentry enters, fearfully reporting that the body has been given funeral rites and a symbolic burial with a thin covering of earth, though no one sees who actually committed the crime. Creon, furious, orders the sentry to find the culprit or face death himself. The sentry leaves, and the chorus sings about honouring the gods, but after a short absence, he returns, bringing Antigone with him. The sentry explains that the watchmen uncovered Polyneices' body and then caught Antigone as she did the funeral rituals. Creon questions her after sending the sentry away, and she does not deny what she has done. She argues unflinchingly with Creon about the immorality of the edict and the morality of her actions. Creon becomes furious, and seeing Ismene upset, thinks she must have known of Antigone's plan. He summons her. Ismene tries to confess falsely to the crime, wishing to die alongside her sister, but Antigone will not have it. Creon orders that the two women be temporarily imprisoned.
Women of Trachis
The date of the first performance of "Women of Trachis" is unknown, and scholars have speculated a wide range of dates for its initial performance. Scholars such as T.F. Hoey believe the play was written relatively early in Sophocles' career, around 450 BC. Often cited as evidence for an early date is the fact that the dramatic form of "Women of Trachis" is not as developed as those of Sophocles' other surviving works, advancing the belief that the play comes from a younger and less skilled Sophocles. Additionally, the plot of the play is similar to a story related by Bacchylides in Bacchylides XVI, but in some respects significantly different from earlier known versions of Bacchylides' story. From this, Hoey and others have argued that Sophocles' interpretation was more likely to have influenced Bacchylides than vice versa. Serving as further evidence is the relationship between the character of Deianeira and that of Clytemnestra in Aeschylus' "Oresteia", first produced in 458. In earlier known versions of this story, Deianeira has several masculine qualities, similar to those of Clytemnestra – who, in the "Oresteia", purposely kills her husband Agamemnon. In "Women of Trachis", however, Deianeira's character is softer and more feminine, and she is only inadvertently responsible for her husband's death. According to some scholars, Deianeira's character in "Women of Trachis" is intended as a commentary on Aeschylus' treatment of Clytemnestra; if so, "Women of Trachis" was probably produced reasonably soon after the "Oresteia", although it is also possible that such commentary was triggered by a later revival of Aeschylus' trilogy. Hoey also sees echoes of Aeschylus' "Prometheus Bound", particularly in the relevance of "Women of Trachis" to debates that were occurring during the 450s on the "relationship between knowledge and responsibility."
Antiope of Thebes
Euripides' "Antiope", presented about 408 BCE, was widely quoted, in Plato's "Gorgias" and many other authors, resulting in a large array of fragments. In 1890 Flinders Petrie discovered further papyrus fragments, which had been reused in constructing a 3rd-century BCE Ptolemaic mummy case found in the Fayoum; the palaeography suggested that the scroll was old before it was reused as waste, making these fragments the earliest surviving text of any Greek play; the discovery occasioned a rash of new readings of the existing fragments. The modern comprehensive reconstruction of all the fragments is that of Jean Kambitsis, ed. and commentator, "L'Antiope d'Euripide" (Athens, 1972).
Antigona Furiosa
Antígona Furiosa, written in the period of 1985-86 by Griselda Gambaro, is an Argentinian drama heavily influenced by Antigone by Sophocles, and comments on an era of government terrorism that later transformed into the Dirty War of Argentina."Antígona Furiosa" was first published 1989 in "Griselda Gambaro: Teatro 3" in Buenos Aires, after it stayed many years hidden while Gambaro was in exile in Barcelona. The play premiered September 24, 1986 at the Goethe Institute in Buenos Aires under the direction of Laura Yusem.
The Antiphon
Barnes started writing the play in the early 1950s and, unlike her other major works, many of the early manuscript drafts still exist. They can be consulted in her archives at The University of Maryland. In 1954, once Barnes had completed writing the play, she sent it to T. S. Eliot at Faber & Faber, who had previously published "Nightwood" and with whom she had developed a strong friendship. Eliot was initially very uncertain of the play's merits, indeed in a letter responding to it he explained that he had struggled to fully comprehend it. Nonetheless, he enlisted the poet and critic Edwin Muir to read the manuscript, who claimed the play "a work of genius and utterly absurd." Muir did, however, suggest some editorial changes, especially to the first act, and Barnes produced a new draft of the play. In November 1956, with Muir and Eliot's recommendation, Faber & Faber agreed to publish the play and Eliot agreed to write the preface for it, as he had done for Nightwood. However, the draft preface he sent to Barnes ahead of the publication described the play as quixotic and Barnes as a writer with too much genius and not enough talent. Barnes was hurt and Eliot withdrew the preface, but their friendship had been soured.
Greek literature
Ancient Greek literature was written in an Ancient Greek dialect. This literature ranges from the oldest surviving written works until works from approximately the fifth century AD. This time period is divided into the Preclassical, Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. Preclassical Greek literature primarily revolved around myths and include the works of Homer; the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey". The Classical period saw the dawn of drama and history. Three philosophers are especially notable: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. During the Roman era, significant contributions were made in a variety of subjects, including history, philosophy, and the sciences.
Attic Greek
The first extensive works of literature in Attic are the plays of the dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes dating from the 5th century BC. The military exploits of the Athenians led to some universally read and admired history, as found in the works of Thucydides and Xenophon. Slightly less known because they are more technical and legal are the orations by Antiphon, Demosthenes, Lysias, Isocrates, and many others. The Attic Greek of the philosophers Plato (427–347 BC) and his student Aristotle (384–322 BC) dates to the period of transition between Classical Attic and Koine.
Ancient Greek literature
A third historian of ancient Greece, Xenophon of Athens, began his "Hellenica" where Thucydides ended his work about 411 BC and carried his history to 362 BC. Xenophon's most famous work is his book "The Anabasis", a detailed, first-hand account of his participation in a Greek mercenary army that tried to help the Persian Cyrus expel his brother from the throne. Xenophon also wrote three works in praise of the philosopher Socrates: "The Apology of Socrates to the Jury", "The Symposium", and "Memorabilia". Although both Xenophon and Plato knew Socrates, their accounts are very different. Many comparisons have been made between the account of the military historian and the account of the poet-philosopher.
Oedipus (Seneca)
Oedipus is a "fabula crepidata" (Roman tragic play with Greek subject) of c. 1061 lines of verse that was written by Lucius Annaeus Seneca at some time during the 1st century AD. It is a retelling of the story of Oedipus, which is better known through the play "Oedipus Rex" by the Athenian playwright, Sophocles. It is written in Latin. The play is generally considered one of Seneca's weaker works.The play opens with a fearful Oedipus lamenting a vicious plague which is affecting Thebes, the city over which he rules. People are dying in such huge numbers that there are not enough of the living to ensure that each of the victims is cremated. He also mentions a prophecy that he had received from Apollo before he came to Thebes that he would kill his father and marry his mother. He had thus fled the kingdom of his father Polybus. However, Oedipus is so disturbed by what is occurring in Thebes that he even considers returning to his home city. Jocasta makes him more resolute though, and he stays.
Antigone (Brecht play)
Antigone, also known as "The Antigone of Sophocles", is an adaptation by the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht of Hölderlin's translation of Sophocles' tragedy. It was first performed at the Chur Stadttheater in Switzerland in 1948, with Brecht's second wife Helene Weigel, in the lead role. This was Brecht's first directorial collaboration with Caspar Neher.
Antigone (Euripides play)
A fable by Gaius Julius Hyginus is consistent with these vase paintings and was historically attributed to Euripides' play, but modern scholars believe that this too relates to Astydamas' play rather than Euripides'. Per Hyginus, Creon had delegated the task of executing Antigone to his son Haemon, not knowing that they were secretly betrothed. Haemon deceived Creon and spared Antigone, who later bore Haemon a son. The son came to Thebes as an adult, and Creon recognized him, realizing Haemon's deception. Creon refused Heracles' request to pardon Haemon, who then killed Antigone and himself.
Ancient Greek literature
The lyric poets Sappho, Alcaeus, and Pindar were highly influential during the early development of the Greek poetic tradition. Aeschylus is the earliest Greek tragic playwright for whom any plays have survived complete. Sophocles is famous for his tragedies about Oedipus, particularly "Oedipus the King" and "Antigone". Euripides is known for his plays which often pushed the boundaries of the tragic genre. The comedic playwright Aristophanes wrote in the genre of Old Comedy, while the later playwright Menander was an early pioneer of New Comedy. The historians Herodotus of Halicarnassus and Thucydides, who both lived during the fifth century BC, wrote accounts of events that happened shortly before and during their own lifetimes. The philosopher Plato wrote dialogues, usually centered around his teacher Socrates, dealing with various philosophical subjects, whereas his student Aristotle wrote numerous treatises, which later became highly influential.
Antigone (Sophocles play)
In 2017 Kamila Shamsie published Home Fire, which transposés some of the moral and political questions in Antigone into the context of Islam, ISIS and modern-day Britain.
Iša Krejčí
He wrote the operas "Antigone" ("Antigona", after Sophocles, 1934) and "An Uproar in Efes" ("Pozdvižení v Efesu", after Shakespeare, 1943) as well as four symphonies. He died in Prague.
Literature
In ancient Greece, the epics of Homer, who wrote the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey", and Hesiod, who wrote "Works and Days" and "Theogony", are some of the earliest, and most influential, of Ancient Greek literature. Classical Greek genres included philosophy, poetry, historiography, comedies and dramas. Plato and Aristotle authored philosophical texts that are the foundation of Western philosophy, Sappho and Pindar were influential lyric poets, and Herodotus and Thucydides were early Greek historians. Although drama was popular in Ancient Greece, of the hundreds of tragedies written and performed during the classical age, only a limited number of plays by three authors still exist: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The plays of Aristophanes provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, the earliest form of Greek Comedy, and are in fact used to define the genre.
Roman histories and biographies anticipated the extensive mediaeval literature of lives of saints and miraculous chronicles, but the most characteristic form of the Middle Ages was the romance, an adventurous and sometimes magical narrative with strong popular appeal. Controversial, religious, political and instructional literature proliferated during the Renaissance as a result of the invention of printing, while the mediaeval romance developed into a more character-based and psychological form of narrative, the novel, of which early and important examples are the Chinese Monkey and the German Faust books.
Xenophon
As one of the Ten Thousand (Greek mercenaries), Xenophon participated in Cyrus the Younger's failed campaign to claim the Persian throne from his brother Artaxerxes II of Persia and recounted the events in "Anabasis", his most notable history. Like Plato (427–347 BC), Xenophon is an authority on Socrates, about whom he wrote several books of dialogues (the "Memorabilia") and an "Apology of Socrates to the Jury", which recounts the philosopher's trial in 399 BC.
Sophocles
The Theban plays consist of three plays: "Oedipus Rex" (also called "Oedipus Tyrannus" or "Oedipus the King"), "Oedipus at Colonus" and "Antigone". All three plays concern the fate of Thebes during and after the reign of King Oedipus. They have often been published under a single cover. Sophocles, however, wrote the three plays for separate festival competitions, many years apart. Not only are the Theban plays not a true trilogy (three plays presented as a continuous narrative) but they are not even an intentional series and contain some inconsistencies among them. He also wrote other plays having to do with Thebes, such as the "Epigoni", of which only fragments have survived.
Antiphon Painter
The Antiphon painter was an Athenian vase painter of the early 5th century BC. He owes his name to a double Kalos inscription of Antiphon on the dinos stand in the Antique collection of Berlin (Inventory number F 2325). He was active between 500 and 475 BC in Athens as a painter of the red-figure style in the largest workshop of the 5th century. He learned his handicraft in the workshop of Euphronios and Onesimos. There he worked closely with them, the Kalmarer painter and other painters.
Antigono
Antigono is an 18th-century Italian opera in 3 acts by the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček composed to a libretto by the Italian poet Metastasio first produced in 1744 with music of Johann Adolf Hasse. This opera (and all the rest of Mysliveček's operas) belong to the serious type in Italian language referred to as "opera seria". For a performance in the 1780s, it would only be expected that a libretto by Metastasio would be abbreviated and altered to suit contemporary operatic taste. The cuts and changes in the text made for the performance of Mysliveček's version are not attributable.
Antigone (Sophocles play)
Martin Heidegger, in his essay, "The Ode on Man in Sophocles’ Antigone", focusses on the chorus’ sequence of stophe and antistrophe that begins on line 278. His interpretation is in three phases: first to consider the essential meaning of the verse, and then to move through the sequence with that understanding, and finally to discern what was nature of humankind that Sophocles was expressing in this poem. In the first two lines of the first strophe, in the translation Heidegger used, the chorus says that there are many strange things on earth, but there is nothing stranger than man. Beginnings are important to Heidegger, and he considered those two lines to describe primary trait of the essence of humanity within which all other aspects must find their essence. Those two lines are so fundamental that the rest of the verse is spent catching up with them. The authentic Greek definition of humankind is the one who is strangest of all. Heidegger’s interpretation of the text describes humankind in one word that captures the extremes — "deinotaton". Man is "deinon" in the sense that he is the terrible, violent one, and also in the sense that he uses violence against the overpowering. Man is twice "deinon". In a series of lectures in 1942, "Hölderlin’s Hymn, The Ister", Heidegger goes further in interpreting this play, and considers that Antigone takes on the destiny she has been given, but does not follow a path that is opposed to that of the humankind described in the choral ode. When Antigone opposes Creon, her suffering the uncanny, is her supreme action.
Sophocles
The plays were written across thirty-six years of Sophocles' career and were not composed in chronological order, but instead were written in the order "Antigone", "Oedipus Rex", and "Oedipus at Colonus". Nor were they composed as a "trilogy" – a group of plays to be performed together, but are the remaining parts of three different groups of plays. As a result, there are some inconsistencies: notably, Creon is the undisputed king at the end of "Oedipus Rex" and, in consultation with Apollo, single-handedly makes the decision to expel Oedipus from Thebes. Creon is also instructed to look after Oedipus' daughters Antigone and Ismene at the end of "Oedipus Rex". By contrast, in the other plays there is some struggle with Oedipus' sons Eteocles and Polynices in regard to the succession. In "Oedipus at Colonus", Sophocles attempts to work these inconsistencies into a coherent whole: Ismene explains that, in light of their tainted family lineage, her brothers were at first willing to cede the throne to Creon. Nevertheless, they eventually decided to take charge of the monarchy, with each brother disputing the other's right to succeed. In addition to being in a clearly more powerful position in "Oedipus at Colonus", Eteocles and Polynices are also culpable: they consent (l. 429, Theodoridis, tr.) to their father's going to exile, which is one of his bitterest charges against them.
Dominik Smole
His main plays include "Potovanje v Koromandijo" (Travels to Neverland), "Igre in igrice" (Plays and Games), and "Zlata čeveljčka" (Little Golden Shoes). One of his most important plays is "Krst pri Savici" (adaptation of Prešeren's epic-lyric poem "The Baptism on the Savica"), a paraphrase of France Prešeren's major work with the same title, in which he used the setting of the Christianisation of the predecessors of the Slovenes in the 8th century to deliver a clear yet subtle metaphor of the political conditions in Slovenia after the Second World War. He employed the same scheme in his most important poetic play, "Antigona" (Antigone), written in 1961. The play is conceived as a remake of Sophocles' famous play, where everything revolves around an Antigone who never appears on the stage. Smole's Antigone thus uses the reference to one of the greatest myths of Ancient Greek literature as a clear allusion to the contemporary Slovene political and social situation and its main concealed secret, the summary killings of 12,000 Slovenian Home Guard members in May and June 1945, perpetrated by the Communist authorities. The play has also been translated into English.
Sophocles
Although the list of over 120 titles of plays associated with Sophocles are known and presented below, little is known of the precise dating of most of them. "Philoctetes" is known to have been written in 409 BC, and "Oedipus at Colonus" is known to have only been performed in 401 BC, posthumously, at the initiation of Sophocles' grandson. The convention on writing plays for the Greek festivals was to submit them in tetralogies of three tragedies along with one satyr play. Along with the unknown dating of the vast majority of over 120 play titles, it is also largely unknown how the plays were grouped. It is, however, known that the three plays referred to in the modern era as the "Theban plays" were never performed together in Sophocles' own lifetime, and are therefore not a trilogy (which they are sometimes erroneously seen as).
Antigone (Cocteau play)
Antigone is a play by Jean Cocteau, written in Paris in 1922.
Oedipus
Due to the popularity of Sophocles's "Antigone" (c. 442 BC), the ending (lines 1005–78) of "Seven against Thebes" was added some fifty years after Aeschylus' death. Whereas the play (and the trilogy of which it is the last play) was meant to end with somber mourning for the dead brothers, the spurious ending features a herald announcing the prohibition against burying Polyneices, and Antigone's declaration that she will defy that edict.
August Böckh
Besides his edition of Pindar, Böckh published an edition of the "Antigone" of Sophocles (1843) with a poetical translation and essays. An early and important work on the Greek tragedians is his "Graecae Tragoediae Principum ... num ea quae supersunt et genuine omnia sint et forma primitive servata" (1808).
Oedipus Rex
Oedipus Rex, also known by its Greek title, Oedipus Tyrannus ( IPA: [oidípuːs týranːos]), or Oedipus the King, is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Greeks, the title was simply "Oedipus" (), as it is referred to by Aristotle in the "Poetics". It is thought to have been renamed "Oedipus Tyrannus" to distinguish it from another of Sophocles' plays, "Oedipus at Colonus". In antiquity, the term “tyrant” referred to a ruler, but it did not necessarily have a negative connotation.
Robert Fagles
Between 1961 and 1996, Fagles translated many ancient Greek works. His first translation was of the poetry of Bacchylides, publishing a complete set in 1961. In the 1970s, Fagles began translating much Greek drama, beginning with Aeschylus's "The Oresteia". He went on to publish translations of Sophocles's three Theban plays (1982), Homer's "Iliad" (1990) and "Odyssey" (1996), and Virgil's "Aeneid" (2006). In these last four, Bernard Knox authored the introduction and notes. Fagles' translations generally emphasize contemporary English phrasing and idiom but are faithful to the original as much as possible.
Apology (Xenophon)
In the year 399, Xenophon was soldiering with the Greek mercenary army of the Ten Thousand (cf. "Anabasis"); hence he was not in Athens for the trial of Socrates. As an author, Xenophon’s primary source for the Socratic dialogue is the philosopher Hermogenes, who attended the trial. Nonetheless, in the literature of the trial of Socrates, Plato features Hermogenes in "Phaedo" (as a witness to the death of Socrates) but not in the "Apology of Socrates". In literary comparison, Xenophon’s interpretation of Socrates’s "megalēgoria" (boastful speaking-manner) as defence-at-trial is compared and contrasted with the interpretation of the legal defence presented the "Apology of Socrates", by Plato.
Aristophanes
The tragic dramatists, Sophocles and Euripides, died near the end of the Peloponnesian War and the art of tragedy thereafter ceased to develop, yet comedy did continue to evolve after the defeat of Athens and it is possible that it did so because, in Aristophanes, it had a master craftsman who lived long enough to help usher it into a new age. Indeed, according to one ancient source (Platonius, c.9th Century AD), one of Aristophanes's last plays, "Aioliskon", had neither a parabasis nor any choral lyrics (making it a type of Middle Comedy), while "Kolakos" anticipated all the elements of New Comedy, including a rape and a recognition scene. Aristophanes seems to have had some appreciation of his formative role in the development of comedy, as indicated by his comment in "Clouds" that his audience would be judged by other times according to its reception of his plays. "Clouds" was awarded third (i.e. last) place after its original performance and the text that has come down to the modern age was a subsequent draft that Aristophanes intended to be read rather than acted. The circulation of his plays in manuscript extended their influence beyond the original audience, over whom in fact they seem to have had little or no practical influence: they did not affect the career of Cleon, they failed to persuade the Athenians to pursue an honourable peace with Sparta and it is not clear that they were instrumental in the trial and execution of Socrates, whose death probably resulted from public animosity towards the philosopher's disgraced associates (such as Alcibiades), exacerbated of course by his own intransigence during the trial. The plays, in manuscript form, have been put to some surprising uses—as indicated earlier, they were used in the study of rhetoric on the recommendation of Quintilian and by students of the Attic dialect in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries AD. It is possible that Plato sent copies of the plays to Dionysius of Syracuse so that he might learn about Athenian life and government.
Sophocles
The most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature Oedipus and also Antigone: they are generally known as the Theban plays, although each play was actually a part of a different tetralogy, the other members of which are now lost. Sophocles influenced the development of drama, most importantly by adding a third actor, thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights such as Aeschylus.
Sinfonía de Antígona
The "Sinfonía de Antígona" originated from the incidental music Chávez composed for a production of Jean Cocteau's adaptation of Sophocles' tragedy "Antigone", given by the group Teatro Orientación at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City in 1932. Chávez re-shaped some of the musical materials and orchestrated the result as his First Symphony. It was premiered in Mexico City under the composer's baton on 15 December 1933 (; ). Two movements of the original theatre music, for a chamber ensemble of seven players, was eventually published by the composer's estate as "Antígona, apuntes para la Sinfonía" (Antigone, sketches for the Symphony) .
Ancient Greek literature
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who lived in the 1st century BC, around the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus. He wrote a universal history, "Bibliotheca Historica", in 40 books. Of these, the first five and the 11th through the 20th remain. The first two parts covered history through the early Hellenistic era. The third part takes the story to the beginning of Caesar's wars in Gaul, now France. Dionysius of Halicarnassus lived late in the first century BC. His history of Rome from its origins to the First Punic War (264 to 241 BC) is written from a Roman point of view, but it is carefully researched. He also wrote a number of other treatises, including "On Imitation", "Commentaries on the Ancient Orators", and "On the Arrangement of Words".
Nichomachus
Nichomachus () was a playwright who lived in Athens in the 5th century BC. He was a younger contemporary of Sophocles. Only the following titles and associated fragments of Nichomachus's plays have survived: "Alcmaeon", "Aletides", "Alexander", "Geryones", "Eriphyle", "Mysians", "Neoptolemus", "Polyxena", "Teucer", and "Tyndareos". He also wrote a play titled "Oedipus".
Antiochus of Athens
Antiochus of Athens () was an influential Hellenistic astrologer who flourished sometime between the late 1st and mid 2nd century AD. There is some disagreement as to when he lived and wrote. Franz Cumont and others have argued that he lived as early as the 1st century BC, while David Pingree placed him as late as the end of the 2nd century AD. The one agreed datum is that Antiochus is referenced by Porphyry (234-c. 305 AD), and so Antiochus must have lived before the death of Porphyry.
Oedipus
At least three other 5th century BC authors who were younger than Sophocles wrote plays about Oedipus. These include Achaeus of Eretria, Nichomachus and the elder Xenocles.
Antiphon (writer)
Antiphon () was an author of ancient Greece who wrote an account of men distinguished for virtue (περὶ τῶν ἐν ἀρετή πρωτευσάντων), one of whom was Pythagoras.
Caligula (play)
Caligula is a play written by Albert Camus, begun in 1938 (the date of the first manuscript 1939) and published for the first time in May 1944 by Éditions Gallimard. The play was later the subject of numerous revisions. It was part of what the author called the "Cycle of the Absurd", with the novel "The Stranger" (1942) and the essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" (1942). A number of critics have reported the piece to be existentialist; however, Camus always denied belonging to this philosophy. Its plot revolves around the historical figure of Caligula, a Roman Emperor famed for his cruelty and seemingly insane behavior.
Sophistic works of Antiphon
The name Antiphon the Sophist (; ) is used to refer to the writer of several Sophistic treatises. He probably lived in Athens in the last two decades of the 5th century BC, but almost nothing is known of his life.
Ajax (play)
Sophocles' Ajax, or Aias ( or ; , gen. ), is a Greek tragedy written in the 5th century BCE. "Ajax" may be the earliest of Sophocles' seven tragedies to have survived, though it is probable that he had been composing plays for a quarter of a century already when it was first staged. It appears to belong to the same period as his "Antigone", which was probably performed in 442 or 441 BCE, when he was 55 years old. The play depicts the fate of the warrior Ajax, after the events of the "Iliad" but before the end of the Trojan War.
Antigone (Sophocles play)
A 2011 Hungarian film version starred Kamilla Fátyol as Antigone, Zoltán Mucsi as Creon and Emil Keres as Tiresias.
Civil disobedience
One of the oldest depictions of civil disobedience is in Sophocles' play "Antigone", in which Antigone, one of the daughters of former King of Thebes, Oedipus, defies Creon, the current King of Thebes, who is trying to stop her from giving her brother Polynices a proper burial. She gives a stirring speech in which she tells him that she must obey her conscience rather than human law. She is not at all afraid of the death he threatens her with (and eventually carries out), but she is afraid of how her conscience will smite her if she does not do this.
Antigone (Honegger)
Honegger had a passionate interest in theatre. Prior to "Antigone", he had composed film scores and incidental music for plays as well as an oratorio, "Le roi David", which he called a "dramatic psalm" and premiered in 1921. From 1922 Honegger began thinking about adapting the Greek tragedy "Antigone" by Sophocles as his first opera. He wrote that the plot is "not the standard anecdote of love which is the base of nearly all lyric theatre". The decade between 1920 and 1930 saw several new operas based on works or themes from the past. Like "Antigone", Satie's "Socrates" and Stravinsky's "Oedipus rex" were based on ancient Greek subjects while both Hindemith's "Cardillac" and Berg's "Wozzeck" were based on early 19th century German literature.
Philocles
According to the Suda, Philocles wrote 100 tragedies. Philocles is best known for winning first prize in the competition against Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex". Philocles also wrote a play on the subject of Tereus, which was parodied in Aristophanes' "The Birds" along with Sophocles' treatment of the same subject. A scholiast has noted that Philocles' "Tereus" was part of his "Pandionis" tetralogy. An extant fragment shows that Philocles wrote a play covering the story of Hermione, Neoptolemus and Orestes, a story also addressed by Euripides in his play "Andromache" and by Sophocles in his "Hermione". In Pholocles' version of the Hermione myth, Hermione is betrothed to Neoptolemus by her father Menelaus while she is pregnant with Orestes' child. Philocles also wrote plays entitled "Oedipus" and "Philoctetes". The Suda also names the following as plays of Philocles: "Erigone", "Nauplius", "Oineus", "Priam", and "Penelope".
Sophocles
Sophocles (; "Sophoklēs", ; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC) is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than or contemporary with those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides. Sophocles wrote over 120 plays during the course of his life, but only seven have survived in a complete form: "Ajax", "Antigone", "Women of Trachis", "Oedipus Rex", "Electra", "Philoctetes" and "Oedipus at Colonus". For almost 50 years, Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens that took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. He competed in 30 competitions, won 24, and was never judged lower than second place. Aeschylus won 13 competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles, while Euripides won four competitions.
Francesco Angiolini
Angiolini was born on Piscenza, Italy, and entered the Society of Jesus in 1765, and after the suppression of the Jesuits, retired to Polotsk. Angiolini has left after him many works that attest to his scholarship. He is author of a Polish grammar for the use of Italians; he wrote original poems in Italian, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and several comedies in Polish, and a translation from the Greek into Italian in three octavo volumes of Josephus Flavius (Florence, Paolo Fumagalli, 1840–44). Angiolini also translated into his mother tongue the Electra, Oedipus, and Antigone of Sophocles (Rome, 1782). Other works of Angiolini are an Italian translation of Thucydides, incomplete, and a Polish translation of Sophocles.
Thomas Watson (poet)
Watson's "De remedio amoris", perhaps his earliest important composition, is lost, as is his "piece of work written in the commendation of women-kind", which was also in Latin verse. His earliest surviving work is a 1581 Latin version of "Antigone (Sophocles)|Antigone" dedicated to Philip Howard, 20th Earl of Arundel. It also contains an appendix of Latin allegorical poems and experiments in classical metres.
Antigone (album)
The title was inspired by the female character of the play Antigone by Sophocles. The play is about a passionate young woman, that does what she knows is right, even though it is against the law. She makes sure that all of the town's people know what she did and she is punished by the king.
Against the Sophists
"Against the Sophists" ends with Isocrates’ claim that while he cannot teach ethics and create virtuous character (arete), the study of discourse has the nearest potential to develop this capacity in its students. While this is not a particularly conclusive ending to the speech, Isocrates did go on to write the "Antidosis" in 353 BC, which is a significantly longer speech that expands Isocrates’ thoughts on discourse and its instruction.
Antigone (Euripides play)
Antigone ( ; ) is a play by the Attic dramatist Euripides, which is now lost except for a number of fragments. According to Aristophanes of Byzantium, the plot was similar to that of Sophocles' play "Antigone", with three differences. The date of the play is uncertain, but there is evidence that it was written late in Euripides' career, between 420 BCE and 406 BCE.
Odysseus
In 5th century BC Athens, tales of the Trojan War were popular subjects for tragedies. Odysseus figures centrally or indirectly in a number of the extant plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles ("Ajax", "Philoctetes") and Euripides, ("Hecuba", "Rhesus", "Cyclops") and figured in still more that have not survived. In his "Ajax", Sophocles portrays Odysseus as a modern voice of reasoning compared to the title character's rigid antiquity.
Antidosis
Antidosis (Ancient Greek ), is the title of a speech treatise by the ancient Greek rhetorician, Isocrates. The "Antidosis" can be viewed as a defense, an autobiography, or rhetorical treatise. However, since Isocrates wrote it when he was 82 years old, it is generally seen by some people as an autobiography. The title literally translates as “an exchange,” and was applied in ancient Greek courts as a peculiar law pertaining to an exchange of estates between two parties. If one of the 1200 wealthiest Athenians eligible was tasked with the performance of a public liturgy and financing one of the many public concerns of Athens, then he could avoid the duty by nominating a richer man who was more qualified than himself to perform it. If the supposedly richer man disagreed with the terms, then the entirety of their estates would be exchanged and the now more wealthy man would have to perform the liturgy, as originally planned. The law inspired Isocrates' "Antidosis", which was written in the form of a court case where Isocrates had to defend himself from a charge of corrupting the youth by teaching them how to speak well in order for them to gain an unfair advantage over their peers. Although this work is put forward by Isocrates as his imagined defense in a legal case, it is more a treatise on morality and teaching.
Eupolis
Cyril of Alexandria placed the debut of Eupolis at some point between 428 and 424 BC, placing the debuts of Aristophanes and Plato the comic poet within the same period. George Syncellus gives the same dates, but merely states that Eupolis and Aristophanes were becoming prominent, not when they debuted. Syncellus extends the phrase to include Sophocles. Sophocles had actually become the pre-eminent playwright in Athens c. 456 BC, when Aeschylus died.
Antigone (Honegger)
Antigone is an opera ("tragédie musicale") in three acts by Arthur Honegger to a French libretto by Jean Cocteau based on the tragedy "Antigone" by Sophocles. Honegger composed the opera between 1924 and 1927. It premiered on 28 December 1927 at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie with sets designed by Pablo Picasso and costumes by Coco Chanel.
Antigone (Mendelssohn)
Sophocles' play includes an initial choral ode and five stasima. Mendelssohn added an additional ode at the end, drawing on the final dialogue between the chorus and Creon for the text.
Cynicism (philosophy)
The story of Cynicism traditionally begins with Antisthenes (c. 445–365 BC), who was an older contemporary of Plato and a pupil of Socrates. About 25 years his junior, Antisthenes was one of the most important of Socrates' disciples. Although later classical authors had little doubt about labelling him as the founder of Cynicism, his philosophical views seem to be more complex than the later simplicities of pure Cynicism. In the list of works ascribed to Antisthenes by Diogenes Laërtius, writings on language, dialogue and literature far outnumber those on ethics or politics, although they may reflect how his philosophical interests changed with time. It is certainly true that Antisthenes preached a life of poverty:
I have enough to eat till my hunger is stayed, to drink till my thirst is sated; to clothe myself as well; and out of doors not [even] Callias there, with all his riches, is more safe than I from shivering; and when I find myself indoors, what warmer shirting do I need than my bare walls?
Sophocles
In addition to the three Theban plays, there are four surviving plays by Sophocles: "Ajax", "Women of Trachis", "Electra", and "Philoctetes", the last of which won first prize in 409 BC in which it competed.
Creon
The Roman poet Statius recounts a differing version of Creon's assumption of power from that followed by Sophocles, in his first-century epic, the "Thebaid". This alternate narrative may have been based on a previous epic of the Theban cycle written by the Greek poet Antimachus in the 4th or 5th century BC. Antimachus' work has been lost, but in any case, the classic myths often had more than one variation, and playwrights and poets had some freedom to choose or even innovate for dramatic effect.
Sophocles
In 480 BC Sophocles was chosen to lead the paean (a choral chant to a god), celebrating the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis. Early in his career, the politician Cimon might have been one of his patrons, although if he was, there was no ill will borne by Pericles, Cimon's rival, when Cimon was ostracized in 461 BC. In 443/2 he served as one of the "Hellenotamiai", or treasurers of Athena, helping to manage the finances of the city during the political ascendancy of Pericles. According to the "Vita Sophoclis", in 441 BC 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 as the result of his production of "Antigone".
The Burial at Thebes
The Burial at Thebes: A version of Sophocles' Antigone is a play by Irish Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, based on the fifth century BC tragedy "Antigone" by Sophocles. It is also an opera by Dominique Le Gendre