Ζεύς ἐστιν αἰθήρ, Ζεὺς δὲ γῆ, Ζεὺς δ' οὐρανός,
Ζεύς τοι τὰ πάντα, χὤ τι τῶνδ' ὑπέρτερον.[20]
The fragments of Sophocles are, perhaps, in even a stricter sense than those of Æschylus, a bare anthology, and the best way of dealing with them is to select those which illustrate the beauty of his style or the ripeness of his wisdom. Few, indeed, are full enough to afford materials for reconstructing the plot of a lost play. What, for instance, can be more tantalizing to the student of Greek manners and sentiments than to know that Sophocles wrote a drama with the title Lovers of Achilles, and yet to have no means of judging of its fable better than is given in this pretty simile?
νόσημ' ἔρωτος τοῦτ' ἐφίμερον κακόν·
ἔχοιμ' ἂν αὐτὸ μὴ κακῶς ἀπεικάσαι,
ὅταν πάγου φανέντος αἰθρίου χεροῖν
κρύσταλλον ἁρπάσωσι παῖδες ἀσταγῆ.
τὰ πρῶτ' ἔχουσιν ἡδονὰς ποταινίους,
τέλος δ' ὁ χυμὸς οὔθ' ὅπως ἀφῇ θέλει
οὔτ' ἐν χεροῖν τὸ κτῆμα σύμφορον μένειν.
οὕτω γε τοὺς ἐρῶντας αὑτὸς ἵμερος
δρᾶν καὶ τὸ μὴ δρᾶν πολλάκις προΐεται.[21]
A whole series of plays were written by Sophocles on the tale of Helen, and all of them have passed, "like shapes of clouds we form, to nothing." There was, again, a drama of the Epigoni, which might, perhaps, have carried the tale of Thebes still further than the climax reached in the Antigone. Yet Stobæus has only thought fit to treat us to two excerpts from it, whereof the following, spoken by Alcmæon to Eriphyle, is the fullest:
ὦ πᾶν σὺ τολμήσασα καὶ πέρα γύναι·
κάκιον ἄλλ' οὐκ ἔστιν οὔδ' ἔσται ποτὲ
γυναικὸς εἴ τι πῆμα γίγνεται βροτοῖς.[22]
The sententious philosophy of life that endeared Euripides to the compilers of commonplace-books was expressed by Sophocles also, with sufficient independence of the context to make his speeches valuable as quarries for quotation. To this accident of his art is probably due the large number of fragments we possess upon general topics of morality and conduct. In the following fine passage the poet discusses the apparent injustice in the apportionment of good and evil fortune to virtuous and vicious men:
δεινόν γε τοὺς μὲν δυσσεβεῖς κακῶν τ' ἄπο
βλάστοντας, εἶτα τούσδε μὲν πράσσειν καλῶς,
τοὺς δ' ὄντας ἐσθλοὺς ἔκ τε γενναίων ἅμα
γεγῶτας εἶτα δυστυχεῖς πεφυκέναι.
οὐ χρῆν τάδ' οὕτω δαίμονας θνητῶν πέρι
πράσσειν· ἐχρῆν γὰρ τοὺς μὲν εὐσεβεῖς βροτῶν
ἔχειν τι κέρδος ἐμφανὲς θεῶν πάρα,
τοὺς δ' ὄντας ἀδίκους τοῖσδε τὴν ἐναντίαν
δίκην κακῶν τιμωρὸν ἐμφανῆ τίνειν.
κοὐδεὶς ἂν οὕτως εὐτύχει κακὸς γεγώς.[23]
The same play furnished Stobæus with an excellent observation on garrulity:
ἀνὴρ γὰρ ὅστις ἥδεται λέγων ἀεὶ
λέληθεν αὑτὸν τοῖς ξυνοῦσιν ὢν βαρύς.[24]
Also with a good remark upon the value of sound common-sense: