Chapter XIII: Sophocles

The Personal Beauty of Sophocles: his Life; Stories about
him.--Athens in the Age of Pericles.--Antique Criticism
on his Style: its Perfect Harmony.--Aristotle's Respect
for Sophocles.--Character in Greek Tragedy.--Sophocles
and Æschylus.--The Religious Feeling of Sophocles.--His
Ethics.--Exquisite Proportion observed in his Treatment
of the _Dramatis Personæ_.--Power of Using Motives.--The
_Philoctetes_.--Comparison of the _Choëphoroe_ and the
_Electra_.--Climax of the _Oedipus Coloneüs_.--How Sophocles
led onward to Euripides.--The _Trachiniæ_.--Goethe's
Remarks on the _Antigone_.--The Tale of Thebes.--_Oedipus
Tyrannus_, _Oedipus Coloneüs_, and _Antigone_ do not make up
a Trilogy.--Story of Laius.--The Philosophy of Fate contained
in it.--The Oracle.--Analysis of _Oedipus Tyrannus_.--Masterly
Treatment of the Character of Oedipus.--Change of
Situation in the _Coloneüs_.--Emergence of Antigone into
Prominence.--Analysis of the Antigone.--The Character of
Antigone: its Beauty.--Contrast afforded by Ismene and by
Creon.--Fault in the Climax of the _Antigone_.--The Final
Solution of the Laian Curse.--Antigone is not Subject to
Nemesis Page 436

THE GREEK POETS