Huddilston, John H.: The attitude of the Greek tragedians toward art (London, 1898)

Tragedians toward Art 33

Greek literature, unless it be in Euripides'
account of the wildness of Kithairon's Bakchai-
haunted crags. One naturally inquires whether
Sophokles was no admirer of sculpture and
painting, or whether he was simply averse to
bringing this element into his poetry. One
would not suppose that he closed his eyes to
the Acropolis blossoming forth with the Par-
thenon, Propylaia, and Erechtheion. Still the
fact is that Pheidias and his school appear to
have made little impression upon Sophokles. To
be sure, contemporary affairs are very sparingly
introduced in his work, and we are not sur-
prised therefore to meet with few hints con-
cerning painting and plastic. Even with this
characteristic of Sophokles constantly before us
the query is still a puzzling one. Did Sophokles
really possess no greater taste for artistic affairs
than if he had not passed his days in the time
when Pheidias reached the highest perfection
in sculpture?

When he makes mention of Sunion1 it is not
to linger at the Athena temple, but to gain from
that wave-beaten promontory a glimpse of sacred
Athens. He did not, however, fail to leave
a record of the great Heraion at Argos 2, which

1 Ajax, v. 1220. 2 Elekt. v. 8. Cf. also Paus. 2. 17. 3.

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