ABSTRACT
Sophocles, the son of Sophilus an Athenian, was born at Colonus, and educated with great attention. Superior vigour and address in the exercises of the Palestra, and skill in Music, were the great accomplishments of young men in the states of Greece; in these Sophocles excelled; nor was he less distinguished by the beauty of his person. He was also instructed in the noblest of all sciences, Civil Polity and Religion; from the first of these he derived an unshaken love of his country, which he served in some embassies, and in high military command with Pericles; from the latter he was impressed with a pious reverence for the gods, manifested by the inviolable integrity of his life. But his studies were early devoted to the Tragic Muse; the spirit of Æschylus lent a fire to his genius, and excited that noble emulation which led him to contend with, and sometimes to bear away the prize from his great master. He wrote one hundred and thirteen tragedies, of which seven only have escaped the ravages of time; and having testified his love of his country by refusing to leave it, though invited by many kings, and having enjoyed the uninterrupted esteem and affection of his fellow citizens, which neither the gallant actions and sublime genius of Æschylus, nor the tender spirit and philosophic virtue of Euripides could secure to them, he died in the ninety first year of his age. The burial-place of his ancestors was at Decelia, which the Lacedemonians had at that time seized and fortified; but Lysander, the Spartan Chief, permitted the Athenians to interr their deceased Poet; and they paid him all the honours due to his love of his country, his integrity of life, and his high poetic excellence.
