Tragedies were based on traditional stories that were embedded in a broader mythical history, and many tales existed in many variants. In the epic, Haemon was killed by the Sphinx before Antigone was born; in the poet Mimnermus (and on some vase-paintings) Ismene was the lover of one of the attackers of Thebes, and was killed by Tydeus on the order of Athena; in a dithyramb by Sophocles’ contemporary Ion, Antigone and Ismene were burned to death in the temple of Hera by Eteocles’ son. Aeschylus had already dramatized a story that the Thebans forbade the Seven against Thebes to be buried, but were convinced by Athens. Sophocles may have invented the story of Antigone’s burial of her brother; but even if he did not, his original audience would have found little to take for granted in his version.
The poet could invent within the main outlines of the inherited stories, and was free to select focal characters and distribute sympathy exactly as he liked. It is likely that Oedipus the dedicated investigator into the murder of Laius was Sophocles’ idea. Earlier versions of the story of Philoctetes had Odysseus approach the hero directly (in Euripides he was disguised by Athena). Sophocles had him bring Neoptolemus as an intermediary, and thereby introduced a new element in the plot, the conflict within the son of Achilles, and a new theme, that of moral education. Sophocles may have taken an Athenian story that connected Oedipus with the Dread Goddesses of the Areopagus and transferred it to the grove at Colonus. Electra follows the basic outline of a familiar story, but Sophocles himself probably thought of having Electra herself be deceived by Orestes’ false story of his own death.
Selecting an episode from an ongoing but varying story presents special narrative difficulties and opportunities. Aeschylus composed trilogies, where the later plays could build on what the audience had already seen. In Agamemnon, which is the first play in its trilogy, the playwright provides extended and authoritative accounts of earlier events - though he also complicates audience response by introducing some parts of the backstory late in the play. Euripides typically has a prologue that locates the present action precisely, and his conclusions often specify exactly what will happen next. In contrast, it is striking how indefinite Sophocles can be about events outside the drama. In Ajax, for example, it is clear that the Judgment of the Arms, a story with many variants, was decided by some kind of panel of judges (1136); Teucer claims Menelaus somehow manipulated the vote (1135, 1137). We do not find out what the procedure was, or whether Teucer is right. In Electra, Clytemnestra and Electra tell very different stories about the sacrifice of Iphigenia (516-609). Of the murder of Agamemnon there is no account at all. In Antigone, Ismene specifies that Jocasta hanged herself, and that Oedipus, having blinded himself, perished ‘‘hated and ill-famed because of crimes made manifest’’ (50-51). The Iliad refers to Oedipus’ funeral games (that is, an honorable burial at Thebes), while Oedipus at Colonus has him die in exile; Antigone''s version seems to be different from any other that we know, but the allusion is too brief to be expanded into a real story. Creon’s opening speech gives the impression that he has never held political power before, but in the Tiresias-scene he implies that he has had occasion to take Tiresias’ wise advice in matters of state before. Oedipus the King provides no information about the reasons or occasion for the oracle that told Laius he would be killed by his own son. It just ‘‘came’’ (711). In Women of Trachis, the tangle of lies and truth in Lichas’ two versions of the events leading to the sack of Oechalia cannot entirely be resolved. In Philoctetes, we never learn the true story of Achilles’ arms. At 442-45, Philoctetes asks Neoptolemus whether Thersites is still alive; Neoptolemus answers that he has heard that Thersites lived. In epic, Achilles killed Thersites and was purified by Odysseus. Is Neoptolemus lying, in order to make Philoctetes as desperate as possible, or should we assume, since his other responses have followed traditional ‘‘truth,’’ that Sophocles has changed this story, removing an instance of cooperation between Achilles and Odysseus?
Sophocles can be even more evasive about what will happen after the drama ends. In Oedipus the King, Creon insists on consulting the Delphic oracle again before deciding what to do with Oedipus. Since Tiresias has predicted that he will be a blind beggar (454-56), so that the audience thinks it knows where the play is going, this is curiously frustrating. In Women of Trachis, Heracles demands that his son Hyllus marry Iole, his own concubine, and insists on being placed, alive, on a pyre on Mount Oeta, though he agrees that Hyllus need not light the fire (traditionally, Philoctetes did). Hyllus and Iole were the ancestors of the kings of Sparta, and Heracles, at least in later mythology, ascended to an eternally blessed life on Olympus from the pyre. Yet we do not exactly have a happy ending. When Heracles insists that his son perform what seem to be utterly impious actions, the strangeness invites the audience to suspect that a divine plan is at work, and so to remember the rest of the story. Yet these hints do not go far enough to specify what will happen (cf. Stinton 1986). After all, in the Iliad, Heracles is said to have died like other men (18.117-18). To what extent would having glorious progeny mitigate the horror of a sexual relationship with a woman who had been a father’s concubine and the cause of a mother’s death?
While he can be vague about specifics from outside the play, Sophocles often gives the impression that the action the audience actually sees is a recapitulation of earlier events. In Ajax, we do not find out exactly what happened in the Judgment of the Arms, but when Agamemnon and Menelaus try to prevent Teucer from burying Ajax, they again seek to deprive the hero of honor he deserves. It does not matter exactly what happened before, since we see just what all these characters are like here and now. Deianira opens Women of Trachis by claiming that, despite the old advice to judge no life until it is over, she is already certain that hers had been bad. She then narrates how, in her life, a threatening situation has appeared to have a happy ending (Achelous wanted to marry her, but Heracles defeated him). Her life with Heracles, however, has been a life of endless loneliness and worry. The pattern of the drama is much the same. Apparent good news (Heracles is safe and victorious) becomes bad news (Heracles has made war for a woman, whom he has sent home). A possible solution to this crisis (the love-potion) turns out to be calamitous (it poisons Heracles).
Sophocles can also imply that the action on stage is a foreshadowing of what will happen. This is clearest in Oedipus at Colonus. Oedipus predicts that someday, when Thebes and Athens are at war, the Thebans will be defeated near his burial-place, through his power. (Sophocles must refer here to a skirmish during the Peloponnesian War, but the event is not certain.) Theseus is perplexed, since he is on good terms with Thebes, and Oedipus delivers a moving speech about time and change (60715). Yet within the play itself, Creon has his Theban troops kidnap Antigone and Ismene, and Theseus leads the Athenian cavalry to recover them. The transformation takes place within the play, as an image of what will someday happen. Similarly, in Ajax, during the argument with Agamemnon, Tecmessa and Eurysaces arrange themselves as if they were suppliants of the dead hero. The tableau prefigures the contemporary cult of Ajax as one of the protective heroes of Athens (Henrichs 1993b). Each Sophoclean drama displays an exemplary section of a life that displays larger patterns, so that past and future show themselves in the present of the action.
World History
