H.M.    INSPECTOR   OF  SCHOOLS


WILLIAM     BLACKWOOD    AND    SONS

EDINBURGH    AND    LONDON

MDCCCLXXI


The  tVriter  desires  to  express  his  acknowledgments
to  Professor  Plumptre  for  permission  to  make  use  of
his  translation  of  these  tragedies ;  and  to  Mr  D'Arcy
Thompson  for  a  similar  courtesy  in  the  case  of  his
*  Sales  Attici.'

Use  has  also  heen  made  of  M.  Patin's  *  Studies  on
Sophocles,'  Mr  Jebb's  edition  of  the  'Ajax  and  Electra,'
and  the  last  chapter  of  Lord  Lytton's  '  Athens.'

Of  the  translations,  those  marked  (A.)  are  by  the
late  Professor  Anstice;  those  marked  (D.)  are  by
Dale ;  and  those  distinguished  by  (P.)  are  from  Pro-
fessor Plumptre's  translation,  to  which  reference  has
been  made  above.
CONTENTS.
CHAP.      I.    INTRODUCTION,

II.    OEDIPUS   THE    KING,

III.  CEDIPUS   AT  COLONUS,

IV.  ANTIGONE,.
V.    THE   DEATH    OF    AJAX,

VI.    THE   MAIDENS    OF   TRACHI.S,
VII.    PHILOCTETES,
VIII.    ELECTRA,


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SOPHOCLES.
CHAPTEE    I.
INTRODUCTION.
The  materials  for  our  poet's  life  are  few  and  untrust-
worthy. The  real  biographies  have  perished ;  and  all  that
we  have  in  their  place  is  a  brief  anonymous  memoir,
some  notices  in  Suidas,  and  a  few  anecdotes  retailed  to
us  from  different  sources  by  Athenseus,  the  great  col-
lector of  the  scandal  and  gossip  of  his  day — and  these
last  probably  belong  to  the  mock  pearls  of  history.
The  mere  attempt,  then,  to  compile  a  detailed  life  of
Sophocles  out  of  this  "  rubbish  heap  of  tradition,"  is
(to  use  Professor  Plumptre's  illustration)  like  "  making
bricks  without  straw."  As  in  the  case  of  Shakspeare,
we  know  little  of  the  man  except  what  we  can  glean
from  his  writings.  Some  few  facts,  however,  rest  on
higher  testimony;  and  these  may  be  shortly  noticed.
