ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Friedrich Schlegel's thesis that Sophocles was the most important author of the Attic Golden Age, which was actualised on the Greek stage in beautiful semblance and free play. The importance of Greek tragedy will demonstrate why the Golden Age in Athens was not based on the i.e. of harmony, but rather, on a struggle between nature and culture. Schlegel's reading of Antigone then introduces the theme of female agency to the problematics of the Golden Age. The chapter deals with an analysis of the contradictions of an organic model of culture resulting in the idea of a decay in history. It also focuses in detail on the classical period of Athens as the age of blossoming. Schlegel's analysis of Sophocles' female characters is important, because it concretises his argument about the perfection of the Greek Golden Age.
