The Greek dramatist Sophocles, born to a wealthy family at Colonus, near Athens, was admired as a boy for his personal beauty and musical skill. He served faithfully as a treasurer and general for Athens when it was expanding its empire and influence. In the dramatic contests, he defeated Aeschylus in 468 b.c. for first prize in tragedy, wrote a poem to Herodotus (see Vol. 3), and led his chorus and actors in mourning for Euripides just a few months before his own death. He wrote approximately 123 plays, of which 7 tragedies are extant, as well as a fragment of his satiric play, Ichneutae (Hunters). His plays were produced in the following order: Ajax (c.450 b.c.), Antigone (441 b.c.), Oedipus Tyrannus (c.430 b.c.), Trachiniae (c.430 b.c.), Electra (between 418 and 410 b.c.), Philoctetes (409 b.c.), and Oedipus at Colonus (posthumously in 401 b.c.). With Sophocles, Greek tragedy reached its most characteristic form. He added a third actor, made each play independent---that is, not dependent on others in a trilogy---increased the numbers of the chorus, introduced the use of scenery, shifted the focus from religious to more philosophical issues, and brought language and characters, though still majestic, nearer to everyday life. His finely delineated characters are responsible for the tragedy that befalls them, and they accept it heroically. Aristotle (see Vols. 3, 4, and 5) states that Sophocles said he portrayed people as they ought to be; Euripides, as they are. His utter command of tragic speech in the simple grandeur of his choral odes, dialogues, and monologues encourages the English reader to compare him to Shakespeare (see Vol. 1).
David Slavitt, born in White Plains, N.Y. in 1935, is a prolific writer, poet, translator of classical works, and contributor to edited works. He has an AB from Columbia University and an MA from Columbia University and he has lectured at numerous colleges and universities. Slavitt began writing poetry while he was still at Phillips Andover. After graduating from college and beginning a Ph.D., he began working as a writer at Newsweek. During the seven years he worked there, he published his first book of poetry, Suits for the Dead. Slavitt is considered by critics to be a "minor" novelist. He considers himself to be first and foremost a poet who writes novels in order to support himself as a poet. His first novel, Rochelle, or Virtue Rewarded, was published in 1966. Among his better-known works is Alice at 80, a fictionalized account of the elderly Alice of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Slavitt also writes under the names David Benjamin, Henry Lazarus, Lynn Meyer, and Henry Sutton. As Henry Sutton, Slavitt has written works less "literary" works that have sold well such as The Exhibitionist and The Sacrifice: A Novel of the Occult.
