In 323 B. C., Aristotle received word of Alexander's death in Babylon. He feared that there might be an anti-Macedonian
Sophocles introduced a number of important techniques such as scenery. Before his time, the stage in Greek plays had been bare. He also introduced a third actor on the stage: up to then, there had only been two actors, along with a chorus of twelve people who provided a sort of voice-over narration.
Aristotle's tragedies were modeled after the work of Sophocles. Archive Photos. Reproduced by permission.
As an Athenian aristocrat, Sophocles was also active in political affairs. He served as treasurer of the Athenian Empire in 442 B. C. and later as a general under Pericles (see entry). In 413 b. c., after the defeat at Syracuse during the Peloponnesian War, he was appointed to a council of ten statesmen who provided advice on making an economic recovery from the defeat.
Reaction in Athens. Remembering how the Athenians had killed his teacher's teacher, the great Socrates, he announced that he would not let the city “sin twice against philosophy.” Therefore he left.
Aristotle moved to the city of Chalcis (KAL-suhs) on a nearby island. It had been the home of his mother, and he died there a year later, in 322 b. c. Some time after the death of his wife, Pythias, he had taken up with Herpyllis (HUHR-puh-lis), who like Praxiteles's (see entry) girlfriend Phryne was a high-class call girl; but when he died, he requested that he be buried beside his first love, Pythias.
World History
