The Ajax, that tragedy of wounded honour, still bears some traces of Aeschylean influence, and may be even earlier than the Antigone. The construction of the Ajax has been adversely crit icized, but without sufficient reason. If it has not the concentra tion of the Antigone, or of the Oedipus Tyrannus, it has a continu ous movement which culminates in the hero's suicide, and develops a fine depth of sympathetic emotion in the sequel.
In the King Oedipus the poet attains to the supreme height of dramatic concentration and tragic intensity. The drama seems to have been produced soon after the outbreak of the Pelopon nesian War. The worship of the Delphic Apollo is associated with a profound sense of the value and sacredness of domestic purity, and in the command to drive out pollution there is possibly an implied reference to the expulsion of the Alcmaeonidae.
The Electra, a less powerful drama, is shown by the metrical indications to be somewhat later than the Oedipus Rex. Electra's heroic impulse, the offspring of filial love, through long endurance hardened into a "fixed idea," is irrepressible, and Orestes, sup ported by Pylades, goes directly to his aim in obedience to Apollo.
But nothing can exceed the tenderness of the recognition scene— lines 1o98-1321, and the description of the falsely reported chariot race (681-763) is full of spirit.
But in her treatment of her rival, Iole, there are modern touches reminding one of Shakespeare. The play may have been produced at a time not far removed from the peace of Nicias. The "modern" note is even more conspicuous in the Philoctetes, where the inward conflict in the mind of Neoptolemus, between ambition and friend ship, is delineated with equal subtlety and force, and the contrast of the ingenuous youth with the aged solitary, in whom just re sentment has become a dominant idea, shows great depth of psychological insight. The contending interests are reconciled by the intervention of the deified Heracles. The Philoctetes is known to have been produced in the year 408 B.C., when Sophocles was 87 years old. The Oedipus Coloneus is said to have been brought out after the death of Sophocles by his grandson in the archonship of Micon, 402 B.C. Theseus in Euripides (Supplices) is the first
citizen of a republic. In this drama he is the king whose word is law, and he is warned by Oedipus to avoid the madness of revo lutionary change (lines 15,361-538). The tragic story of Oedipus is resumed, but in a later and deeper strain of thoughtful emotion. Once more the noble spirit, rejected by man, is accepted by the gods. The eternal laws have been vindicated. Their decrees are irreversible, but the involuntary unconscious criminal is not finally condemned. He has no more hope in this world, but is in mys terious communion with unseen powers. The sufferer is now a holy person and an author of blessing.
The spectator of a Sophoclean tragedy was invited to witness the supreme crisis of an individual destiny, and was possessed at the outset with the circumstances of the decisive moment. Ex cept in the Trachiniae, where the retrospective soliloquy of Deianira is intended to emphasize her lonely position, this ex position is effected through a brief dialogue, in which the pro tagonist may or may not take part. In the Oedipus Tyrannus the king's entrance and his colloquy with the aged priest intro duce the audience at once to the action and to the chief person. In the Ajax and Philoctetes the entrance or discovery of the hero is made more impressive by being delayed. Immediately after the prologos the chorus enter, numbering i 5, either chanting in procession as in the Antigone and Oedipus Tyrannus, or dis persedly as in the Oedipus Coloneus and Philoctetes, or, thirdly, as in the Electra, where, after entering silently during the monody of the heroine, and taking up their position in the orchestra, they address her one by one. With one exception, the chorus, having once entered, remain to the end. They always stand in some care fully adjusted relation to the principal figure. The elders of Thebes, whose age and coldness throw into relief the fervour and the desolation of Antigone, are the very men to realize the calamity of Oedipus, and, while horror-stricken, to lament his fall. The rude Salaminian mariners are loyal to Ajax, but cannot enter into his grief. The Trachinian maidens would gladly support Deianira, who has won their hearts, but they are too young and inexperienced for the task. The noble Argive women can sym pathize with the sorrows of Electra, but no sympathy can soothe her distress.