What years did Sophocles live?
Sophocles
Sophocles, the son of Sophilus, was a wealthy member of the rural "deme" (small community) of Hippeios Colonus in Attica, which was to become a setting for one of his plays, and he was probably born there. Sophocles was born a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC: the exact year is unclear, although 497/6 is the most likely. Sophocles was born into a wealthy family (his father was an armour manufacturer) and was highly educated. Sophocles' first artistic triumph was in 468 BC, when he took first prize in the Dionysia theatre competition over the reigning master of Athenian drama, Aeschylus. 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. Although Plutarch says that this was Sophocles' first production, it is now thought that his first production was probably in 470 BC. "Triptolemus" was probably one of the plays that Sophocles presented at this festival.
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.
Crito of Alopece
Crito grew up in the Athenian deme of Alopece alongside Socrates and was of roughly the same age as the philosopher, placing his year of birth around 469 BC. Plato's "Euthydemus" and Xenophon's "Memorabilia" both present him as a wealthy businessman who made his money from agriculture, which scholars speculate was conducted in Alopece itself. He seems to have married a woman with impressive aristocratic pedigree and had at least two sons, including the elder Critobulus (Κριτόβουλος, "Kritóboulos"), one of Socrates' young followers, and the younger Archestratus (Άρχέστρατος, "Archéstratos"), later a successful general. His participation in the events surrounding the trial and death of Socrates of 399 implies that he survived into the 4th century BC.
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.
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.
Sophocles Sophocleous
Sophocleous is a law graduate of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He was the mayor of Pano Lefkara, his hometown, from 1992 to 2006, and he was the vice-president of the Movement for Social Democracy from 2000 to 2012. He was appointed Minister of Justice and Public Order in 2006, and he stayed in post until Tassos Papadopoulos lost the Cypriot presidency at the 2008 presidential election. Sophocleous took the seat of Kyriakos Mavronikolas in the European Parliament following the latter's resignation in 2012.
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.
Euclid
Proclus introduces Euclid only briefly in his "Commentary on the Elements". According to Proclus, Euclid supposedly belonged to Plato's "persuasion" and brought together the "Elements", drawing on prior work of Eudoxus of Cnidus and of several pupils of Plato (particularly Theaetetus and Philip of Opus.) Proclus believes that Euclid is not much younger than these, and that he must have lived during the time of Ptolemy I (c. 367 BC – 282 BC) because he was mentioned by Archimedes. Although the apparent citation of Euclid by Archimedes has been judged to be an interpolation by later editors of his works, it is still believed that Euclid wrote his works before Archimedes wrote his. Proclus later retells a story that, when Ptolemy I asked if there was a shorter path to learning geometry than Euclid's "Elements", "Euclid replied there is no royal road to geometry." This anecdote is questionable since it is similar to a story told about Menaechmus and Alexander the Great.
Euclid died c. 270 BC, presumably in Alexandria. In the only other key reference to Euclid, Pappus of Alexandria (c. 320 AD) briefly mentioned that Apollonius "spent a very long time with the pupils of Euclid at Alexandria, and it was thus that he acquired such a scientific habit of thought" c. 247–222 BC.
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.
Lycophron
He was born at Chalcis in Euboea, and flourished at Alexandria in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus (285–247 BC). According to the "Suda", the massive tenth century Byzantine Greek historical encyclopaedia, he was the son of Socles, but was adopted by Lycus of Rhegium. He was entrusted by Ptolemy with the task of arranging the comedies in the Library of Alexandria; as the result of his labours he composed a treatise "On Comedy". Aristotle describes Lycophron's views on law. Lycophron is also said to have been a skilful writer of anagrams.
Xenophilus
Xenophilus (; 4th century BC) of Chalcidice, was a Pythagorean philosopher and musician, who lived in the first half of the 4th century BC. Aulus Gellius relates that Xenophilus was the intimate friend and teacher of Aristoxenus, and implies that Xenophilus taught him Pythagorean doctrine. He was said to have belonged to the last generation of Pythagoreans, and he is the only Pythagorean known to have lived in Athens in the 4th century BC. We learn from Diogenes Laërtius that Aristoxenus wrote that when Xenophilus was once asked by someone how he could best educate his son, Xenophilus replied, "By making him the citizen of a well-governed state." According to Pseudo-Lucian, Aristoxenus is supposed to have said that Xenophilus lived 105 years. Xenophilus enjoyed considerable fame in the Renaissance, apparently because of Pliny's claim that he lived 105 years without ever being sick.
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.
Misology
Plato’s "Phaedo" tells the story of Phaedo of Elis recalling the death and final hours of Socrates some time afterwards to Echecrates, who had heard tell of Socrates' execution but has no detailed account and is curious to hear of it. Phaedo, being one of those present at Socrates' execution, begins and explains that he and others had gathered early to visit Socrates on the day of his execution. There, Simmias and Cebes had begun a discussion with Socrates on the afterlife, and Cebes in particular had questioned Socrates on his belief that the soul must be immortal. Phaedo recalls that Socrates had just presented an argument to this effect, when both Simmias and Cebes presented excellent objections. Phaedo breaks from his story and says to Echecrates:
Natural science
Later Socratic and Platonic thought focused on ethics, morals and art and did not attempt an investigation of the physical world; Plato criticized pre-Socratic thinkers as materialists and anti-religionists. Aristotle, however, a student of Plato who lived from 384 to 322 BC, paid closer attention to the natural world in his philosophy. In his "History of Animals", he described the inner workings of 110 species, including the stingray, catfish and bee. He investigated chick embryos by breaking open eggs and observing them at various stages of development. Aristotle's works were influential through the 16th century, and he is considered to be the father of biology for his pioneering work in that science. He also presented philosophies about physics, nature and astronomy using inductive reasoning in his works "Physics" and "Meteorology".
Sosipatra
Sosipatra of Ephesus () was a Neoplatonist philosopher and mystic who lived in the first half of the 4th century CE. The story of her life is told in Eunapius' "Lives of the Sophists".
Moschion (tragic poet)
Moschion (; 3rd century BC), was an Athenian tragic poet. Nothing is known about his life; he probably lived in the second half of the 3rd century BC. Three titles and a few fragments of his plays are preserved by Stobaeus. He wrote a "Telephus", and two historical plays: "Themistocles", of which we have a three line fragment, and the "Men of Pherae" ("Pheraioi"), which dealt with the death of Jason, the cruel tyrant of Pherae. Also extant are 33 lines of a speech from an anonymous play which deals with the history of human progress. In this fragment, he states that humans originally lived like animals, without houses or technology, law was absent, and cannibalism was rife. In the course of time, agriculture, cooking, wine, houses, and cities were introduced, civilisation was born, and people buried their dead so that people would not be reminded of their earlier cannibalism.
Philostratus
"Lives of the Sophists", written between 231 and 237 AD, is a semi-biographical history of the Greek sophists. The book is dedicated to a consul Antonius Gordianus, perhaps one of the two Gordians who were killed in 238. The work is divided into two parts: the first dealing with the ancient Sophists, e.g. Gorgias, the second with the later school, e.g. Herodes Atticus. The "Lives" are not in the true sense biographical, but rather picturesque impressions of leading representatives of an attitude of mind full of curiosity, alert and versatile, but lacking scientific method, preferring the external excellence of style and manner to the solid achievements of serious writing. The philosopher, as he says, investigates truth; the sophist embellishes it, and takes it for granted.
Greek Heroic Age
The story of Oedipus is the basis of a trilogy of plays by Sophocles, however, similar stories have been traced to cultures all over the world.
"(about a generation before Troy)"
Diocles of Syracuse
Diocles of Syracuse () was a legislator, orator, and political and military leader in the Greek city-state of Syracuse toward the end of the 5th century BC. Only a few years of his life have an historical account, from 413 to 408 BC.
Amycos Satyrykos
The "Amycos" is a satyr play by the 5th century BCE Athenian playwright Sophocles.
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.
The Death of Socrates
The Death of Socrates () is an oil on canvas painted by French painter Jacques-Louis David in 1787. The painting focuses on a classical subject like many of his works from that decade, in this case the story of the execution of Socrates as told by Plato in his "Phaedo". In this story, Socrates has been convicted of corrupting the youth of Athens and introducing strange gods, and has been sentenced to die by drinking poison hemlock. Socrates uses his death as a final lesson for his pupils rather than fleeing when the opportunity arises, and faces it calmly. The "Phaedo" depicts the death of Socrates and is also Plato's fourth and last dialogue to detail the philosopher's final days, which is also detailed in "Euthyphro", "Apology", and "Crito".
Greek tragedy
Plutarch, in the "Life of Cimon", recounts the first triumph of the young talented Sophocles against the famous and hitherto unchallenged Aeschylus. This competition ended in an unusual manner, without the usual draw for the referees, and caused the voluntary exile of Aeschylus to Sicily. Many innovations were introduced by Sophocles, and earned him at least twenty triumphs. He introduced a third actor, increased the number of chorus members to fifteen; he also introduced scenery and the use of scenes.
Rudolph Goclenius
Rudolph Goclenius the Elder (; born "Rudolf Gockel" or "Göckel"; 1 March 1547 – 8 June 1628) was a German scholastic philosopher who lived from March 1, 1547 to June 8, 1628. Gockel is often credited with coining the term "psychology" in 1590, but the term was used by Marko Marulić at least 66 years earlier. Gockel also had extensive backing and significant contributions to the field of ontology. He extended on many ideas from Aristotle, such as both the introduction of ontology and metaphysics. Several of Gockel’s ideas were published and built upon by later philosophers.
Sofoklis Venizelos
Sofoklis Venizelos (, also transliterated as Sophocles Venizelos) (3 November 1894 – 7 February 1964) was a Greek politician, who three times served as Prime Minister of Greece – in 1944 (in exile), 1950 and 1950–1951.
Diocles of Magnesia
Diocles of Magnesia () was an ancient Greek writer from Magnesia ad Sipylum, who probably lived in the 2nd or 1st century BC. The claim that he is the Diocles to whom Meleager of Gadara dedicated his anthology is questionable. He authored works entitled Ἐπιδρομὴ τῶν φιλοσόφων ("Philosophers overview") and Περὶ βίων φιλοσόφων ("On the lives of philosophers"), both important sources for Diogenes Laërtius's work about the lives and opinions of eminent Greek philosophers, especially the Cynics and Stoics (see Diogenes Laërtius 2.82; 6.12, 13, 20, 36, 87, 91, 99, 103; 7.48, 162, 166, 179, 181; 9.61, 65; 10.12). Nothing more is known about his life and works.
Phaedo of Elis
Phaedo of Elis (; also "Phaedon"; , "gen".: Φαίδωνος; fl. 4th century BCE) was a Greek philosopher. A native of Elis, he was captured in war as a boy and sold into slavery. He subsequently came into contact with Socrates at Athens who warmly received him and had him freed. He was present at the death of Socrates, and Plato named one of his dialogues "Phaedo".
Symposium (Xenophon)
The Symposium () is a Socratic dialogue written by Xenophon in the late 360's B.C. In it, Socrates and a few of his companions attend a symposium (a lighthearted dinner party at which Greek aristocrats could have discussions and enjoy entertainment) hosted by Kallias for the young man Autolykos. Xenophon claims that he was present at the symposium, although this is disputed because he would have been too young to attend. The dramatic date for the "Symposium" is 422 B.C.
Sossianus Hierocles
Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 263–339) wrote a book titled "Against Hierocles" ("Contra Hieroclem") at some time in the early 4th century. Its date is disputed. Adolf von Harnack, writing early in the 20th century, argued that it should be dated to before 303, since it does not contain any reference to the persecution that began in that year. As it would have strengthened his argument if it had, this makes a later date unlikely. Ernst Schwartz, however, writing at about the same time, believed that "Against Hierocles" contained a reference to the death of Galerius, which happened in April or May 311. Schwartz consequently dated the work to between that event and the death of Maximinus in summer 313. J. Stevenson, in his "Studies in Eusebius" (1929), argued for a date of 306/07, on the grounds that Eusebius appears to refer to Hierocles as prefect of Egypt. His dating proved less popular in the literature than the dates of Harnack and Schwartz. Most mid-20th century scholars followed Schwartz.
Agathocles (grandson of Agathocles of Syracuse)
Agathocles was a second child born to Theoxena of Egypt; the names of his father and older sibling are unknown. He was named after his maternal grandfather, Agathocles of Syracuse, who had been tyrant and then king of Syracuse from 317 to 289 BC. His maternal grandmother was Theoxena of Syracuse, a Greek Macedonian noblewoman; she was the second older maternal, half-sister of the Greek Egyptian Pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus, who reigned 283–246BC.
Hippias
Hippias of Elis (; ; late 5th century BC) was a Greek sophist, and a contemporary of Socrates. With an assurance characteristic of the later sophists, he claimed to be regarded as an authority on all subjects, and lectured on poetry, grammar, history, politics, mathematics, and much else. Most of our knowledge of him is derived from Plato, who characterizes him as vain and arrogant.
Ecclesiastical history of the Catholic Church
During the 6th century these historians found other continuators. Theodorus Lector compiled a brief compendium from the works of the above-mentioned three continuators of Eusebius: Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. He then wrote in two books an independent continuation of this summary as far as the reign of Emperor Justin I (518-27); only fragments of this work have reached us. Zacharias Rhetor, at first an advocate at Berytus in Phoenicia and then (at least from 536) Bishop of Mitylene in the Island of Lesbos, composed, while yet a layman, an ecclesiastical history, which describes the period from 450 to 491, but is mostly taken up with personal experiences of the author in Egypt and Palestine. A Syriac version of this work is extant as books III-VI of a Syriac universal history, while there are also extant some chapters in a Latin version. Apart from this history, his inclination towards Monophysitism is also apparent from his biography of the Monophysite patriarch, Severus of Antioch, and from his biography of the monk Isaias, two works extant in a Syriac version. More important still is the "Church History" of Evagrius Scholasticus, who died about the end of the 6th century. His work is a continuation of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret, and treats in six books the period from 431 to 594. It is based on good sources, and borrows from profane historians but occasionally Evagrius is too credulous. For Nestorianism and Monophysitism, however, his work deserves careful attention.
Bion of Smyrna
Almost nothing is known of Bion's life. The account formerly given of him, that he was the contemporary of Theocritus and a friend and teacher of Moschus, and lived about 280 BC, is now regarded as incorrect: it rests on a misreading of the "Epitaph of Bion", a poem commemorating his death, which in early modern times was erroneously attributed to Moschus. The Suda lists the ancient canon of Greek bucolic poets as Theocritus, Moschus, and Bion, which should reflect chronological order, and Moschus flourished in the mid-2nd century BC. Probable and certain imitations of Bion by Greek and Latin poets begin to be seen in the early 1st century. Some information concerning Bion's life comes from the "Epitaph on Bion". Its anonymous author calls himself Bion's heir and an "Ausonian" (= Italian), which may mean that Bion traveled to Italy at some point, perhaps for patronage in Rome (as Greek poets were beginning to do in his lifetime). It may, however, mean only that the author considered himself Bion's poetic heir. The poem also asserts that Bion was poisoned, which may or may not be a poetic metaphor.
Socrates the Younger
Socrates the Younger (Greek: Σωκράτης ὁ νεώτερος, "Sōkrátēs ho neōteros", c. 415 – 4th century BCE) was an ancient Athenian philosopher. Ancient texts suggest that he was a young student of the elder Socrates and later a cohort of Plato. He is best remembered for his depiction in Plato's "Statesman", and scholars have suggested that he had ties to Academic and Pythagorean philosophy.
Apology (Plato)
Among the primary sources about the trial and death of the philosopher Socrates (469–399 BC), the "Apology of Socrates" is the dialogue that depicts the trial, and is one of four Socratic dialogues, along with "Euthyphro", "Phaedo", and "Crito", through which Plato details the final days of the philosopher Socrates.
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.
Greek tragedy
According to Aristophanes of Byzantium, Sophocles wrote 130 plays, 17 of which are spurious; the Suda lexicon counted 123. Of all Sophocles's tragedies, only seven remain intact:
Philosophy
Western philosophy is the philosophical tradition of the Western world and dates to Pre-Socratic thinkers who were active in Ancient Greece in the 6th century BCE such as Thales (c. 624–546 BCE) and Pythagoras (c. 570–495 BCE) who practiced a "love of wisdom" ("philosophia") and were also termed "physiologoi" (students of "physis", or nature). Socrates was a very influential philosopher, who insisted that he possessed no "wisdom" but was a "pursuer of" wisdom. Western philosophy can be divided into three eras: Ancient (Greco-Roman), Medieval philosophy (Christian European), and Modern philosophy.
The Death of Empedocles
The play is about the final days of pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Empedocles, who, according to legend, threw himself into Mount Etna. Hölderlin's main source of the story was Diogenes Laërtius's "Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers". The first act sees Empedocles take leave of Agrigentum, and the second is set entirely at Etna.
Trial of Socrates
Before the philosopher Socrates was tried for moral corruption and impiety, the citizens of Athens knew him as an intellectual and moral gadfly of their society. In the comic play, "The Clouds" (423 BC), Aristophanes represents Socrates as a sophistic philosopher who teaches the young man Pheidippides how to formulate arguments that justify striking and beating his father. Despite Socrates denying he had any relation with the Sophists, the playwright indicates that Athenians associated the philosophic teachings of Socrates with Sophism. As philosophers, the Sophists were men of ambiguous reputation, “they were a set of charlatans that appeared in Greece in the fifth century BC, and earned ample livelihood by imposing on public credulity: professing to teach virtue, they really taught the art of fallacious discourse, and meanwhile propagated immoral practical doctrines.”
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."
Ichneutae
The Ichneutae (, "Ichneutai", "trackers"), also known as the Searchers, Trackers or Tracking Satyrs, is a fragmentary satyr play by the fifth-century BC Athenian dramatist Sophocles. Three nondescript quotations in ancient authors were all that was known of the play until 1912, when the extensive remains of a second-century CE papyrus roll of the "Ichneutae" were published among the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. With more than four hundred lines surviving in their entirety or in part, the "Ichneutae" is now the best preserved ancient satyr play after Euripides' "Cyclops", the only fully extant example of the genre.
Greece
Of the hundreds of tragedies written and performed during the classical age, only a limited number of plays by three authors have survived: those of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The surviving plays by Aristophanes are also a treasure trove of comic presentation, while Herodotus and Thucydides are two of the most influential historians in this period. The greatest prose achievement of the 4th century was in philosophy with the works of the three great philosophers.
Water (classical element)
Water was one of many "archai" proposed by the Pre-socratics, most of whom tried to reduce all things to a single substance. However, Empedocles of Acragas (c. 495 – c. 435 BC) selected four archai for his four roots: air, fire, water and earth. Empedocles roots became the four classical elements of Greek philosophy. Plato (427–347 BC) took over the four elements of Empedocles. In the Timaeus, his major cosmological dialogue, the Platonic solid associated with water is the icosahedron which is formed from twenty equilateral triangles. This makes water the element with the greatest number of sides, which Plato regarded as appropriate because water flows out of one's hand when picked up, as if it is made of tiny little balls.
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.
Triptolemos (play)
Triptolemos (Ancient Greek: Τριπτόλεμος) is a lost play of Sophocles. It was one of the plays which he produced in 468 BC for the City Dionysia, the year he first won the prize for tragedy at the festival. Though the play is usually assumed to have been a tragedy, this is not certain, and it might instead have been a satyr play. The plot of the play is not known, though it probably centered around Triptolemos' mission to bring the art of agriculture to Greece.
Fragments of the lost play still remain.
Western philosophy
A key figure in Greek philosophy is Socrates. Socrates studied under several Sophists but transformed Greek philosophy into a branch of philosophy that is still pursued today. It is said that following a visit to the Oracle of Delphi he spent much of his life questioning anyone in Athens who would engage him, in order to disprove the oracular prophecy that there would be no man wiser than Socrates. Socrates used a critical approach called the "elenchus" or Socratic method to examine people's views. He aimed to study human things: the good life, justice, beauty, and virtue. Although Socrates wrote nothing himself, some of his many disciples wrote down his conversations. He was tried for corrupting the youth and impiety by the Greek democracy. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. Although his friends offered to help him escape from prison, he chose to remain in Athens and abide by his principles. His execution consisted of drinking the poison hemlock and he died in 399 BC.
Aeschines of Sphettus
Diogenes Laërtius, in his brief "Life" of Aeschines, reports that Aeschines, having fallen into dire financial straits, went to the court of Dionysius the Younger in Syracuse and then returned to Athens after Dionysius was deposed by Dion. (If this is true, Aeschines must have lived at least until 356, which would mean that he probably died of old age in Athens, as he was likely not less than 18 at the time of Socrates' trial in 399.) He is also said to have practised rhetoric, writing speeches for litigants.
Euclid
Very few original references to Euclid survive, so little is known about his life. He was likely born c. 325 BC, although the place and circumstances of both his birth and death are unknown and may only be estimated roughly relative to other people mentioned with him. He is rarely mentioned by name by other Greek mathematicians from Archimedes (c. 287 BC – c. 212 BC) onward, and is usually referred to as "ὁ στοιχειώτης" ("the author of Elements"). The few historical references to Euclid were written centuries after he lived, namely by Proclus c. 450 AD.
Evangelinos Apostolides Sophocles
Evangelinos Apostolides Sophocles (; March8, 1807December17, 1883) was a Greek Orthodox monk, professor of classics and Modern Greek at Harvard University, and lexicographer. He was born in Tsangarada, Thessaly, Ottoman Empire, and he died in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is considered to be a pioneer of Modern Greek studies.
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.
Philoctetes (Sophocles play)
Philoctetes (, "Philoktētēs"; English pronunciation: , stressed on the third syllable, "-tet-") is a play by Sophocles (Aeschylus and Euripides also each wrote a "Philoctetes" but theirs have not survived). The play was written during the Peloponnesian War. It is one of the seven extant tragedies by Sophocles. It was first performed at the City Dionysia in 409 BC, where it won first prize. The story takes place during the Trojan War (after the majority of the events of the "Iliad", but before the Trojan Horse). It describes the attempt by Neoptolemus and Odysseus to bring the disabled Philoctetes, the master archer, back to Troy from the island of Lemnos.
Philoctetes
Philoctetes was the subject of four different plays of ancient Greece, each written by one of the three major Greek tragedians. Of the four plays, Sophocles' "Philoctetes" is the only one that has survived. Sophocles' "Philoctetes at Troy", Aeschylus' "Philoctetes" and Euripides' "Philoctetes" have all been lost, with the exception of some fragments. Philoctetes is also mentioned in Homer's "Iliad", Book 2, which describes his exile on the island of Lemnos, his being wounded by snake-bite, and his eventual recall by the Greeks. The recall of Philoctetes is told in the lost epic "Little Iliad", where his retrieval was accomplished by Diomedes. Philoctetes killed three men at Troy.
Laches (general)
His date of birth is unknown, but Plato asserts that he was distinctly older than Socrates, who was born around 470 BCE. In 427 BCE, Laches and Charoeades were sent to Sicily with a fleet of 20 ships in order to support Athenian allies against Syracuse. When Charoeades died in 426 BCE, Laches took over the supreme command of the fleet and forced the cities of Mylae and Messana to yield. However, due to the annual reappointment of generals, at the beginning of 425 BCE he was replaced by Pythodoros as supreme commander. The first Athenian expedition to Sicily ended badly. Upon Laches' return to Athens he was prosecuted by Cleon, but was acquitted of any wrongdoing. His trial was satirized by Aristophanes in his play "The Wasps", which is the main source for its historicity.
Philebus
The Philebus (; occasionally given as Philebos; Greek: ), is a Socratic dialogue written in the 4th century BC by Plato. Besides Socrates (the main speaker) the other interlocutors are Philebus and Protarchus. Philebus, who advocates the life of physical pleasure (hedonism), hardly participates, and his position is instead defended by Protarchus, who learnt argumentation from Sophists. Socrates proposes there are "higher pleasures" (such as those of the mind) as well as lower ones, and asks if the best life isn't one that optimally mixes both.
Philocles, King of Sidon
Philocles () was King of the Sidonians and a senior commander under the Ptolemaic dynasty in the late 4th and early 3rd century BC, and one of the architects of Ptolemaic imperialism in the coasts of Asia Minor and the Aegean Sea.
Agathocles of Syracuse
Agathocles (, "Agathoklḗs"; 361–289 BC) was a Greek tyrant of Syracuse (317–289 BC) and king of Sicily (304–289 BC).
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.
Zoroaster
Classical scholarship in the 6th to 4th century BCE believed he existed six thousand years before Xerxes I invasion of Greece in 480 BCE (Xanthus, Eudoxus, Aristotle, Hermippus), which is a possible misunderstanding of the Zoroastrian four cycles of 3000 years i.e. 12,000 years. This belief is recorded by Diogenes Laërtius, and variant readings could place it six hundred years before Xerxes I, somewhere before 1000 BCE. However, Diogenes also mentions Hermodorus's belief that Zoroaster lived five thousand years before the Trojan War, which would mean he lived around 6200 BCE. The 10th-century Suda, provides a date of "500 years before Plato" in the late 10th century BCE. Pliny the Elder cited Eudoxus who also placed his death six thousand years before Plato, c. 6300 BCE. Other pseudo-historical constructions are those of Aristoxenus who recorded Zaratas the Chaldeaean to have taught Pythagoras in Babylon, or lived at the time of mythological Ninus and Semiramis. According to Pliny the Elder, there were two Zoroasters. The first lived thousands of years ago, while the second accompanied Xerxes I in the invasion of Greece in 480 BCE. Some scholars propose that the chronological calculation for Zoroaster was developed by Persian magi in the 4th century BCE, and as the early Greeks learned about him from the Achaemenids, this indicates they did not regard him as a contemporary of Cyrus the Great, but as a remote figure.
Alopece
Hermogenes (c.445 to after 392 BCE), was credited by Xenophon as being the source of much information about the latter part Socrates' life. In addition he is a participant in Cratylus, and is mentioned in Phaedo.
Diocles of Carystus
Diocles of Carystus (; ; ; also known by the Latin name Diocles Medicus, i.e. "Diocles the physician"; c. 375 BC – c. 295 BC) was a well regarded Greek physician, born in Carystus, a city on Euboea, Greece. Diocles lived not long after the time of Hippocrates, to whom Pliny says he was next in age and fame. Not much is known of his life, other that he lived and worked in Athens, where he wrote what may be the first medical treatise in Attic (not in Ionic as was customary in Greek medical writings). His most important work was in practical medicine, especially diet and nutrition, but he also wrote the first systematic textbook on animal anatomy. According to a number of sources, he was the first to use the word "anatomy" to describe the study. He belonged to the medical sect of the "Dogmatici", and wrote several medical works, of which only the titles and some fragments remain, preserved by Galen, Caelius Aurelianus, Oribasius, Athenaeus (in the "Deipnosophistae"), and other ancient writers.
Antigone (Sophocles play)
Creon enters, carrying Haemon's body. He understands that his own actions have caused these events and blames himself. A second messenger arrives to tell Creon and the chorus that Eurydice has killed herself. With her last breath, she cursed her husband. Creon blames himself for everything that has happened, and, a broken man, he asks his servants to help him inside. The order he valued so much has been protected, and he is still the king, but he has acted against the gods and lost his children and his wife as a result. After Creon condemns himself, the leader of the chorus closes by saying that although the gods punish the proud, punishment brings wisdom."Antigone" was written at a time of national fervor. In 441 BC, shortly after the play was performed, Sophocles was appointed as one of the ten generals to lead a military expedition against Samos. It is striking that a prominent play in a time of such imperialism contains little political propaganda, no impassioned apostrophe, and, with the exception of the epiklerate (the right of the daughter to continue her dead father's lineage), and arguments against anarchy, makes no contemporary allusion or passing reference to Athens. Rather than become sidetracked with the issues of the time, "Antigone" remains focused on the characters and themes within the play. It does, however, expose the dangers of the absolute ruler, or tyrant, in the person of Creon, a king to whom few will speak freely and openly their true opinions, and who therefore makes the grievous error of condemning Antigone, an act which he pitifully regrets in the play's final lines. Athenians, proud of their democratic tradition, would have identified his error in the many lines of dialogue which emphasize that the people of Thebes believe he is wrong, but have no voice to tell him so. Athenians would identify the folly of tyranny.
Heraclides (physician)
Heracleides () was a physician of ancient Greece who was said to have been the sixteenth in descent from Aesculapius, the son of Hippocrates I, who lived probably in the fifth century BCE. He married a woman named Phaeniarete, or, according to others, Praxithea, by whom he had two sons, Sosander and the renowned ancient physician Hippocrates.
Theophilos (emperor)
Theophilos (; sometimes Latinized or Anglicized as Theophilus; 800-805 20 January 842 AD) was the Byzantine Emperor from 829 until his death in 842. He was the second emperor of the Amorian dynasty and the last emperor to support iconoclasm. Theophilos personally led the armies in his lifelong war against the Arabs, beginning in 831.
Classics
The earliest surviving philosophy from ancient Greece dates back to the 6th century BC, when according to Aristotle Thales of Miletus was considered to have been the first Greek philosopher. Other influential pre-Socratic philosophers include Pythagoras and Heraclitus. The most famous and significant figures in classical Athenian philosophy, from the 5th to the 3rd centuries BC, are Socrates, his student Plato, and Aristotle, who studied at Plato's Academy before founding his own school, known as the Lyceum. Later Greek schools of philosophy, including the Cynics, Stoics, and Epicureans, continued to be influential after the Roman annexation of Greece, and into the post-Classical world.
Aristocles (sculptors)
There is some difficulty in determining the age of these artists; but, supposing the date of Canachus to be fixed at about 540—508 BC, we have the date of his brother, the younger Aristocles, and allowing 30 years to a generation, the elder Aristocles must have lived about 600—568 BC. Some scholars place him immediately before the period when Zancle was first called Messene, but there is nothing in the words of Pausanias to require such a restriction. By extending the calculation to the other artists mentioned above, we get the following table of dates:These dates are found to agree very well with all that we know of the artists. Karl Julius Sillig gives a table which does not materially differ from the above. He calculates the dates at 564, 536, 508, 480, 452, 424, and 396 BC respectively. In this computation, it has been assumed that the elder Canachus was the brother of the younger Aristocles, and that Pantias was the seventh in order from the elder Aristocles. Any other supposition would throw the whole matter into confusion.
Sophonias (commentator)
Sophonias (; fl. 13th–14th century) was a Byzantine monk who wrote commentaries or paraphrases of the works of Aristotle including "De Anima", "Sophistici Elenchi", "Prior Analytics", and the "Parva Naturalia", which are still extant. Little is known about Sophonias, except that he was probably the monk sent by Michael IX Palaiologos on an abortive mission to arrange a marriage between Michael and a western princess around 1295.
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".
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.
Sappho
Sappho (; Aeolic Greek "Psapphô"; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by a lyre. In ancient times, Sappho was widely regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets and was given names such as the "Tenth Muse" and "The Poetess". Most of Sappho's poetry is now lost, and what is extant has survived only in fragmentary form, except for one complete poem: the "Ode to Aphrodite". As well as lyric poetry, ancient commentators claimed that Sappho wrote elegiac and iambic poetry. Three epigrams attributed to Sappho are extant, but these are actually Hellenistic imitations of Sappho's style.
Narcissus in culture
Other Greek authors making reference to the narcissus include Sophocles (, c. 497 – 406 BC) and Plutarch (, c. 46 AD – 120 AD). Sophocles, in his "Oedipus at Colonus" ("Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ") utilises narcissus in a highly symbolic manner, implying fertility, and allying it with the cults of Demeter and her daughter Kore (Persephone) (μεγάλαιν θεαίν, the Great Goddesses), but by extension through the Persephone association, a symbol of death. Jebb comments here that "νάρκισσος" is "the flower of imminent death" with its fragrance being "νάρκη" or narcotic, emphasised by its pale white colour. Just as Persephone reaching for the flower heralded her doom, the youth Narcissus gazing at his own reflection portended his death.
Plato
The trial of Socrates is the central, unifying event of Plato's dialogues. Because of this, "Apology" is among the most frequently read of his works. In the "Apology", Socrates tries to dismiss rumors that he is a sophist and defends himself against charges of disbelief in the gods and corruption of the young. Socrates insists that long-standing slander will be the real cause of his demise, and says the legal charges are essentially false. Socrates famously denies being wise, and explains how his life as a philosopher was launched by the Oracle at Delphi. He says that his quest to resolve the riddle of the oracle put him at odds with his fellow man, and that this is the reason he has been mistaken for a menace to the city-state of Athens.
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.
Seven Against Thebes
Due to the popularity of Sophocles' play "Antigone", the ending of "Seven against Thebes" was rewritten about fifty years after Aeschylus' death. While Aeschylus wrote his play to end with somber mourning for the dead brothers, it now contains an ending that serves as a lead-in of sorts to Sophocles' play: a messenger appears, announcing a prohibition against burying Polynices; his sister Antigone, however, announces her intention to defy this edict.
Xenophon
Xenophon’s works includes a selection of Socratic dialogues; these writings are completely preserved. Except for the dialogues of Plato, they are the only surviving representatives of the genre of Socratic dialogue. These works include Xenophon's "Apology, Memorabilia, Symposium," and "Oeconomicus". The "Symposium" outlines the character of Socrates as he and his companions discuss what attribute they take pride in. In "Oeconomicus", Socrates explains how to manage a household. Both the "Apology" and "Memorabilia" defend Socrates’ character and teachings. The former is set during the trial of Socrates, essentially defending Socrates’ loss and death, while the latter is a defence of Socrates, explaining his moral principles and that he was not a corrupter of the youth.
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.
Ion of Chios
Ion of Chios (; ; c. 490/480 – c. 420 BC) was a Greek writer, dramatist, lyric poet and philosopher. He was a contemporary of Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles. Of his many plays and poems only a few titles and fragments have survived. He also wrote some prose works, including a Pythagorean text, the "Triagmos", of which a few fragments survive.
Sosicles (poet)
Sosicles was mentioned by Fabricius, on the authority of the "Suda" and Eudocia, as a tragic poet of the time of Philip and Alexander the Great. It appears, however, from the best manuscripts of the "Suda", that the name is erroneously introduced, owing to the text of Suidas being misread by some of his copyists, as well as by Eudocia. According to the true reading of Suidas, Sosicles is simply mentioned as the father of the tragic poet Sosiphanes. (Suda, under "Sosiphanes", ed. Kuster; Eudoc. p. 384; Westermann, Vitarum Script. Graec. Min. p. 152, n. 65; Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 322.)
Sophocles Sophocleous (academic)
Sophocles Sophocleous was born and educated in Lefkosia. He then studied at the University of Human Sciences of Strasbourg and Paris-X-Nanterre and at ICCROM in Rome.
Iophon
Iophon (, fl. 428 BC – 405 BC) was a Greek tragic poet and son of Sophocles.
Aspasia
Aspasia (; ; c. 470–c. 400 BC) was an influential immigrant to Classical-era Athens who was the lover and partner of the statesman Pericles. The couple had a son, Pericles the Younger, but the full details of the couple's marital status are unknown. According to Plutarch, her house became an intellectual centre in Athens, attracting the most prominent writers and thinkers, including the philosopher Socrates. There are also suggestions in ancient sources that the teachings of Aspasia influenced Socrates. Aspasia is mentioned in the writings of Plato, Aristophanes, Xenophon, and others.
Socrates
Socrates (; , ; – 399 BC) was a classical Greek (Athenian) philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, and as being the first moral philosopher, of the Western ethical tradition of thought.
An enigmatic figure, he made no writings, and is known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers writing after his lifetime, particularly his students Plato and Xenophon. Other sources include the contemporaneous Antisthenes, Aristippus, and Aeschines of Sphettos. Aristophanes, a playwright, is the only source to have written during his lifetime.
Heraclitus
The main source for the life of Heraclitus is Diogenes Laërtius, although some have questioned the validity of his account as "a tissue of Hellenistic anecdotes, most of them obviously fabricated on the basis of statements in the preserved fragments". Diogenes said that Heraclitus flourished in the 69th Olympiad, 504–501 BCE. All the rest of the evidence—the people Heraclitus is said to have known, or the people who were familiar with his work—confirms the "floruit". His dates of birth and death are based on a life span of 60 years, the age at which Diogenes says he died, with the floruit in the middle.
Sappho
Little is known about Sappho's life for certain. She was from Mytilene on the island of Lesbos and was probably born around 630 BC.
Tradition names her mother as Cleïs, though ancient scholars may simply have guessed this name, assuming that Sappho's daughter Cleïs was named after her. Sappho's father's name is less certain. Ten names are known for Sappho's father from the ancient "testimonia"; this proliferation of possible names suggests that he was not explicitly named in any of Sappho's poetry. The earliest and most commonly attested name for Sappho's father is Scamandronymus. In Ovid's "Heroides", Sappho's father died when she was seven. Sappho's father is not mentioned in any of her surviving works, but Campbell suggests that this detail may have been based on a now-lost poem. Sappho's own name is found in numerous variant spellings, even in her own Aeolian dialect; the form that appears in her own extant poetry is Psappho.
Early life of Plato
The specific birthdate of Plato is not known. Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars estimate that Plato was born between 428 and 427 BC. The grammarian Apollodorus of Athens argues in his "Chronicles" that Plato was born in the first year of the eighty-eighth Olympiad (427 BC), on the seventh day of the month Thargelion; according to this tradition the god Apollo was born this day. According to another biographer of him, Neanthes, Plato was eighty-four years of age at his death. If we accept Neanthes' version, Plato was younger than Isocrates by six years, and therefore he was born in the second year of the 87th Olympiad, the year Pericles died (429 BC).
Pre-Socratic philosophy
Empedocles of Agrigentum (490-430 BC) was from the ancient Greek city of Akragas (Ἀκράγας), Agrigentum in Latin, modern Agrigento, in Sicily. He appears to have been partly in agreement with the Eleatic School, partly in opposition to it. On the one hand, he maintained the unchangeable nature of substance; on the other, he supposes a plurality of such substances - i.e. four classical elements, earth, water, air, and fire. Of these the world is built up, by the agency of two ideal motive forces - love as the cause of union, strife as the cause of separation. Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (500-428 BC) in Asia Minor also maintained the existence of an ordering principle as well as a material substance, and while regarding the latter as an infinite multitude of imperishable primary elements, he conceived divine reason or Mind ("nous") as ordering them. He referred all generation and disappearance to mixture and resolution respectively. To him belongs the credit of first establishing philosophy at Athens.
Phocylides
Phocylides of Miletus was once credited with writing Pseudo-Phocylides, a complete didactic poem (230 hexameters). However, that text is now considered to be the work of an Alexandrian Christian of Jewish origin who lived between 170 BC and AD 50. The Jewish element is shown in verbal agreement with passages of the Old Testament (especially the Wisdom of Sirach); the Christian by the doctrine of the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body. Some Jewish authorities, however, maintain that there are in reality no traces of Christian doctrine to be found in the poem, and that the author was a Jew. The poem was first printed at Venice in 1495, and was a favourite school textbook during the Reformation period.
Attribution
Early life of Plato
Plato (, "Plátōn", "wide, broad-shouldered"; c. 428/427 – c. 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, the second of the trio of ancient Greeks including Socrates and Aristotle said to have laid the philosophical foundations of Western culture.
Isocrates
Isocrates (; ; 436–338 BC), an ancient Greek rhetorician, was one of the ten Attic orators. Among the most influential Greek rhetoricians of his time, Isocrates made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and written works.
Sophocles
Fragments of "Ichneutae" ("Tracking Satyrs") were discovered in Egypt in 1907. These amount to about half of the play, making it the best preserved satyr play after Euripides' "Cyclops", which survives in its entirety. Fragments of the "Epigoni" were discovered in April 2005 by classicists at Oxford University with the help of infrared technology previously used for satellite imaging. The tragedy tells the story of the second siege of Thebes. A number of other Sophoclean works have survived only in fragments, including:
There is a passage of Plutarch's tract "De Profectibus in Virtute 7 " in which Sophocles discusses his own growth as a writer. A likely source of this material for Plutarch was the "Epidemiae" of Ion of Chios, a book that recorded many conversations of Sophocles. This book is a likely candidate to have contained Sophocles' discourse on his own development because Ion was a friend of Sophocles, and the book is known to have been used by Plutarch. Though some interpretations of Plutarch's words suggest that Sophocles says that he imitated Aeschylus, the translation does not fit grammatically, nor does the interpretation that Sophocles said that he was making fun of Aeschylus' works. C. M. Bowra argues for the following translation of the line:
"After practising to the full the bigness of Aeschylus, then the painful ingenuity of my own invention, now in the third stage I am changing to the kind of diction which is most expressive of character and best."
Socrates the Younger
Little is known of Socrates the Younger's life, although several clues from the writing of Plato have led scholars to posit his significance in the later circle of the elder Socrates and the early Academy. Socrates the Younger is depicted as a youth in the "Statesman", as well as the "Theaetetus" and "Sophist" dialogues in which he is also present, the 399 BCE dramatic dates of which place his birth less than two decades prior. In the "Theaetetus", his character is a student of the mathematician Theodorus of Cyrene and interested in algebraic and geometric theory.
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".
Heraclides Ponticus
A punning on his name, dubbing him Heraclides "Pompicus," suggests he may have been a rather vain and pompous man and the target of much ridicule. According to Diogenes Laërtius, Heraclides forged plays under the name of Thespis, this time drawing from a different source, Dionysius the Deserter, composed plays and forged them under the name of Sophocles. Heraclides was deceived by this easily and cited from them as the words of Aeschylus and Sophocles. However, Heraclides seems to have been a versatile and prolific writer on philosophy, mathematics, music, grammar, physics, history and rhetoric, notwithstanding doubts about attribution of many of the works. It appears that he composed various works in dialogue form.
Amphiaraus (play)
One fragment of the play is known to be extant, and was translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones as "The sentinel crab of this prophetic chorus..." A one-sentence fragment of Sophocles (fragment 958) telling of the death of Amphiaraus – that the ground of Thebes opened up to receive him and his arms and his horses and chariot – is possibly from "Amphiaraus" also, but may belong to one of several other plays Sophocles wrote about Amphiaraus and his son Alcmaeon. In addition, second century Greek rhetorician Athenaeus noted that within "the satyr play "Amphiaraus"," Sophocles had a character who "dances the letters." This comment by Athenaeus came after he had noted a number of instances within other plays in which an illiterate character described the letters of a word that he could not read himself, and that the dance by the Sophocles character was "similar."
Ancient Greek literature
Seven works of Sophocles have survived, the most acclaimed of which are the three Theban plays, which center around the story of Oedipus and his offspring. The Theban Trilogy consists of "Oedipus the King", "Oedipus at Colonus", and "Antigone". Although the plays are often called a "trilogy," they were actually written many years apart. "Antigone", the last of the three plays sequentially, was actually first to be written, having been composed in 441 BC, towards the beginning of Sophocles's career. "Oedipus the King", the most famous of the three, was written around 429 BC at the midpoint of Sophocles's career. "Oedipus at Colonus", the second of the three plays chronologically, was actually Sophocles's last play and was performed in 401 BC, after Sophocles's death.
Sophocles Papas
Sophocles Papas (1893 or 1894 – 26 February 1986) was an internationally renowned classical guitar pedagogue and music publisher.
Xenophanes
Xenophanes of Colophon (; ; c. 570 – c. 475 BC) was a Greek philosopher, theologian, poet, and social and religious critic. Xenophanes lived a life of travel, having left Ionia at the age of 25 and continuing to travel throughout the Greek world for another 67 years. Some scholars say he lived in exile in Sicily. Knowledge of his views comes from fragments of his poetry, surviving as quotations by later Greek writers. To judge from these, his elegiac and iambic poetry criticized and satirized a wide range of ideas, including Homer and Hesiod, the belief in the pantheon of anthropomorphic gods and the Greeks' veneration of athleticism. He is the earliest Greek poet who claims explicitly to be writing for future generations, creating "fame that will reach all of Greece, and never die while the Greek kind of songs survives."
Secret history
Paul Levinson's "The Plot to Save Socrates" asserts (as its title suggests), that the philosopher Socrates did not drink hemlock, as history tells. Rather, a clone died in his place and the true Socrates lived some more years in Twenty First Century America. Also according to the same book, the politician and general Alcibiades had a long life and many adventures after the moment when history records his death; Alcibiades' mistress Timandra and the famous fourth-century mathematician Hypatia of Alexandria were one and the same person, a time-traveling American woman; the inventor Hero of Alexandria was also an American time traveler; and finally, according to the same book, the nineteenth-century publisher William Henry Appleton had an extensive secret life as a time traveler, had visited Classical Greece and met some of the famous ancient Greek writers and philosophers whose works he published, and also several times visited the twenty-first century – but always found his own nineteenth-century milieu to be the most congenial.
Cleophon (poet)
Cleophon (Greek: , "Kleophōn") was an Athenian tragic poet who flourished in the 4th century BC. The titles of eleven of his plays are given by the Suda: "Acteon", "Amphiaraos", "Achilles", "The Bacchantes", "Dexamenus", "Erigone", "Thyestes", "Leucippus", "Mandroboulos", "Persis", and "Telephus". None of these plays are extant today; no fragments or quotations have come down to us.
Euripides
Euripides (; "Eurīpídēs", ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom a significant number of plays have survived. Some ancient scholars attributed 95 plays to him but, according to the "Suda", it was 92 at most. Of these, 18 or 19 have survived more or less complete (there has been debate about his authorship of "Rhesus", largely on stylistic grounds) and there are also fragments, some substantial, of most of the other plays. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly because his popularity grew as theirs declinedhe became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education, along with Homer, Demosthenes, and Menander.
Odysseus Acanthoplex
Odysseus Acanthoplex (, "Odysseus Akanthoplēx", "Odysseus wounded by a spine"; also known as "Odysseus Wounded", "Odysseus Spine-struck" and "Odysseus Wounded by the Spine") is a lost play by the Athenian dramatist Sophocles. Several fragments are extant. The plot told of Odysseus' death, accidentally killed by his son Telegonus. Some scholars believe that another Sophocles' title, Niptra (Νιπτρα, "The Footwashing", "The Washing"), is the same play as "Odysseus Acanthoplex". Dana Sutton, however, disputes this, suggesting that "Niptra" was a separate play dealing with Odysseus' return to Ithaca but not with his death.