The Oxford Companion to English Literature | Sophocles
Sophocles
(
496
–
406
BC
),
Greek tragedian who wrote c.120 plays, of which seven survive, including Ajax, The Women of Trachis, Electra, and Philoctetes. The group known as the Theban plays, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone, have long been influential in English literature, either directly or in versions by
Seneca
.
T.
Watson
's translation of the Antigone into Latin (
1581
) was widely read, and both
Milton's
Samson Agonistes
and
Dryden
's Oedipus draw on Sophocles, though Dryden is chiefly indebted to
Seneca
. It was in the 19th cent. that Sophocles really came into favour.
Shelley
read him on his last and fatal sailing trip.
Bulwer-Lytton
adapted his Oedipus the King (
1846
).
M.
Arnold
produced his Sophoclean play Merope (
1858
) and two Sophoclean fragments, an Antigone (
1849
) and a...
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