dies (Hist. Lit. pp. 339, 340). The attempt has been made to divide the extant plays and titles of Sophocles into trilogies; but, as might have been expected from what has been said above respecting the nature of his trilogies, it has signally failed. A much more important arrangement has been very elaborately attempted by Welcker (Griech. Tragöd.), namely, the classification of the extant plays and fragments according to the poems of the Epic Cycle on which they were founded.
The following is most probably the chronological order in which the seven extant tragedies of Sophocles were brought out:—Antigone, Electra, Trachiniae, Oedipus Tyrannus, Ajax, Philoctetes, Oedipus at Colonus. It is unnecessary to attempt an analysis of these plays, partly because every scholar has read or will read them for himself, and partly because they are admirably analysed in works so generally read as Müller's History of the Literature of Ancient Greece, and Schlegel's Lectures. Neither will our space permit us to yield to the temptation of entering fully into the much disputed question of the object and meaning of the Antigone; respecting which the reader may consult the editions of the Antigone by Böckh, Wex, Hermann, and Donaldson; articles by Mr. Dyer, in the Classical Museum, vol. ii. pp. 69, foll., vol. iii. pp. 176, foll.; and articles by G. Wolff, in the Zeitschift fur Alterthumswissenchaft for 1846, reviewing the recent works upon the Antigone. It must suffice here to remark that we believe both the extreme views to be equally remote from the truth; that the play is not intended to support exclusively the rights of law in the person of Creon or those of liberty in the person of Antigone, but to exhibit the claims of both, to show them brought into collision when each is forced beyond the bounds of moderation; or, to speak more properly, the collision is not between law and liberty, but between the two laws of the family and the state, of religious duty and civil obedience. Neither party is entirely in the right or entirely in the wrong. The fault of Creon is in the issuing of a harsh and impious decree, that of Antigone in rashly and obstinately refusing to submit to it; and therefore each falls a victim to a conflict of the two laws for and against which they strive; while both, as well as Haemon, are involved by their individual acts in the more general and antecedent ἄτη which rests upon the royal family of Thebes. At the same time, this does not appear to be all that is contained in the drama. The greater fault is on the side of Creon. Antigone would have been perfectly in the right to disobey his edict, if all means of obtaining its repeal had been exhausted, although even then strict law might perhaps have required her martyrdom as the price of her fraternal piety; and perhaps, on the other hand, the poet meant to teach that there are cases in which law must give way, to avert the fearful consequences arising from its strict enforcement. At all events, it is clear that the sympathy of the poet and of the spectators is with Antigone, though they are constrained to confess that she is not entirely guiltless, nor Creon altogether guilty. But still we think that this sympathy with Antigone is only secondary to the lesson taught by the faults and ruin of both, a lesson which the poet has himself distinctly pointed out in the final words of the chorus,—τὸ φρονεῖν, as opposed to the μεγάλοι λόγοι of self-will, an indulgence in which, even in the cause of piety towards the gods, brings down μεγάλας πληγάς as a retribution.
The titles and fragments of the lost plays of Sophocles will be found collected in the chief editions, and in Welcker's Griechischen Tragödien.
In addition to his tragedies, Sophocles is said to have written an elegy, paeans, and other poems, and a prose work on the Chorus, in opposition to Thespis and Choerilus. (Suid. s. v.)
v. Ancient Commentators on Sophocles.—In the Scholia, the commentators are quoted by the general title of οἱ ὑπομνηματισταί, or οἱ ὑπομνηματισάμενοι. Among those cited by name, or to whom commentaries on Sophocles are ascribed by other authorities, are Aristarchus, Praxiphanes, Didymus, Herodian, Horapollon, Androtion, and Aristophanes of Byzantium. The question of the value of the Scholia is discussed by Wunder, de Schol. in Soph. Auctoritate, Grimae, 1838, 4to., and Wolff, de Sophoclis Scholiorum Laur. Variis Lectionibus, Lips. 1843, 8vo.
vi. Editions of the Plays of Sophocles.—The Editio Princeps is that of Aldus, 1502, 8vo., and there were numerous other editions printed in the 16th century, the best of which are those of H. Stephanus, Paris, 1568, 4to,, and of G. Canterus Antwerp, 1579, 12mo., both founded on the text of Turnebus. None of the subsequent editions deserve any particular notice, until we come to those of Brunck, in 4 vols. 8vo., Argentor. 1786—1789, and in 2 vols. 4to., Argentor. 1786; both editions containing the Greek text with a Latin version, and the Scholia and Indices. The text of Brunck, which was founded on that of Aldus, has formed the foundation of all the subsequent editions, of which the following are the most important: that of Musgrave, with Scholia, Notes, and Indices, Oxon. 1800, 1801, 2 vols. 8vo., reprinted Oxon. 1809—1810, 3 vols. 8vo.; that of Erfurdt, with Scholia, Notes, and Indices, Lips. 1802—1825, 7 vols. 8vo.; (the valuable notes of Erfurdt to all the tragedies, except the Oedipus at Colonus, were reprinted in a separate volume, in London, 1824, 8vo.); that of Bothe, who re-edited Brunck's edition, but with many rash changes in the text, Lips, 1806, 2 vols. 8vo., last edition, 1827, 1828; that of Hermann, who completed a new edition, which Erfurdt commenced, but only lived to publish the first two volumes. Lips. 1809—1825, 7 vols. sm. 8vo.; Hermann's entirely new revision of Brunck's edition, with additional Notes, &c.. Lips. 1823—1825, 7 vols. 8vo.; the edition of Schneider, with German Notes and a Lexicon, Weimar, 1823—1830, 10 vols. 8vo.; the London reprint of Brunck's edition, with the Notes of Burney and Schaefer, 1824, 3 vols. 8vo.; the edition of Elmsley, with the Notes of Brunck and Schaefer, Lexicon Sophocleum, &c. Oxon. 1826, 2 vols. 8vo.; reprinted, Lips. 1827, 8 vols. 8vo.; that of the text alone by Dindorf, in the Poetae Scenici Graeci, Lips. 1830, 8vo.[1], reprinted at Oxford, 1832, with the addition of a volume of Notes, 1836, 8vo.; that of Ahrens, containing the text, after Dindorf, with a revised Latin version, by L. Benloew, the Fragments after Welcker, and new Indices, in Didot's Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum, Paris, 1842—1844, imp. 8vo.; and lastly, by far the
- ↑ An entirely new edition of this invaluable work has been for some time announced as forthcoming.
