The library of Sophocles

Each of these stands at a single passage, named once and not held by the library. The work that names it carries the anchor.

Antigone

Established laws concerning the gods and the dead · Prophecy of Teiresias

Ajax

Prophecy of Calchas concerning Ajax · Proverb about gifts of enemies

Oedipus Tyrannus

Divine pronouncement requiring the parricide's removal · Oracle of Apollo concerning Laius' murderer · Oracle of Loxias concerning Laius' death · Oracle of Loxias concerning Oedipus' mother and father · Oracle to Laius ¶ · Oracle to Oedipus · Prophecy that Laius' child would slay his father · Pythian oracle concerning Oedipus' parricide · Teiresias' prophecy against Oedipus

Electra

Oracle of Apollo · Pythian oracle

Philoctetes

Prophecy of Helenus · Prophecy of Helenus concerning Troy and Philoctetes · Purposes of Zeus

Oedipus at Colonus

Delphic oracle about Thebes desiring Oedipus · Older prophecies remembered by Oedipus · Oracle of Apollo concerning Oedipus' final resting place · oracle concerning Laius' death · oracles about Oedipus' alliance · rumor about the Watcher of Hades · soothsayers' interpretation of the curse on Oedipus' house

12 works in the library quote Sophocles — 24 citations, each anchored to a verbatim passage in the work that does the quoting.

through Sophocles 14 citations · Antigone 3 citations · Ajax 2 citations · Trachiniae 2 citations · Electra 1 citation · Philoctetes 1 citation · Oedipus at Colonus 1 citation

Clement of Alexandria 9 citations · Cicero, Marcus Tullius 4 citations · Dio Chrysostom 3 citations · Hugo Grotius 3 citations · Aristophanes 1 citation · Aristotle 1 citation · Demosthenes 1 citation · Henry Sumner Maine 1 citation · Plato 1 citation

The harvest records where a citation is made: the paragraph in the citing book, and the chapter that paragraph stands in. It does not record which page of Sophocles is meant. Where the citing text names a locus, you will find it in the quotation.

1. Stromata Clement of Alexandria 1 authority · 4 neutral · 1 extended · 1 endorsed 7 citations · 15 passages

   book 2 · book 4 6 passages anchored here · book 5 5 passages anchored here · book 6 3 passages anchored here

   Sophocles is named as author of both quoted passages, used descriptively and approvingly.

   It is not, then, only white silver or gold that is currency, but virtue too for mortals,

2. Orations Dio Chrysostom 2 refuted · 1 endorsed 3 citations

   oration 7 · oration 52 · oration 60

   Sophocles's verses on wealth are explicitly said to have been spoken against by a philosopher, indicating a refuting stance

   since even against these very verses one of the very philosophers has spoken in opposition — one whom no one, it seems to me, would ever say spoke against these out of contentiousness, and against what was said by Sophocles about wealth — against the former a little, against those of Sophocles more — yet not, as we now, at length, since he was not expounding offhand with great licence, but writing in books.

3. On Moral Ends Cicero, Marcus Tullius 1 neutral · 1 endorsed 2 citations

   book 1 · book 5

   Explicitly named and praised as written 'with the utmost excellence.'

   ' From such men I so far dissent that, although Sophocles wrote his Electra with the utmost excellence, I yet think the poor translation by Atilius worth my reading — Atilius of whom Lucilius says,

4. Tusculan Disputations Cicero, Marcus Tullius 1 neutral · 1 extended 2 citations · 5 passages

   book 2 5 passages anchored here

   Named directly as a source ('Pacuvius does this better than Sophocles') compared against another cited author.

   \" (Pacuvius does this better than Sophocles;

5. Protrepticus Clement of Alexandria 2 neutral 2 citations

   protrepticus 2 passages anchored here

   Cited alongside Epicharmus as a conflicting source on Ares.

   Take Ares, who even among the poets is honoured as much as may be — "Ares, Ares, bane of mortals, blood-stained, stormer of walls" — this fickle and hostile one was, as Epicharmus says, a Spartan;

6. The Rights of War and Peace Hugo Grotius 2 authority 2 citations

   chapter xiii.: on oaths. · ch. 24

   Grotius quotes Sophocles' lost play to support the claim that oaths induce caution.

   For as Sophocles has said in his Hippodamia, “The soul is bound to greater caution by the addition of an oath.

7. Birds Aristophanes 1 refuted 1 citation

   birds

   Epops explicitly names Sophocles and rejects his tragic portrayal of Tereus as an 'outrage,' a refutation of the poet's depiction.

   This is how Sophocles outrages me in his tragedies.

8. Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle 1 neutral 1 citation · 2 passages

   book 7 2 passages anchored here

   Sophocles' play is cited twice by name as the source of the Neoptolemus example.

   And there are some who fail to abide by their resolves from some other cause than lack of self-restraint, for instance, Neoptolemus in the PhiIoctetes of Sophocles.

9. On the False Embassy Demosthenes 1 endorsed 1 citation · 3 passages

   on the false embassy 3 passages anchored here

   Demosthenes praises the lines and applies their political lesson to the case.

   But Sophocles’ Antigone was frequently acted by Theodorus, and also by Aristodemus;

10. Dissertations on Early Law and Custom Henry Sumner Maine 1 neutral 1 citation

    ch. 12

    Explicitly cited by line reference.

    There is a startling contrast between the last prayer of Ajax to Zeus that he be at least buried, so that dogs and birds eat not his body, and the prayer of the devout Zoroastrian that he be not buried, and that dogs and birds do eat his remains.

11. The Freedom of the Seas (Mare Liberum) Hugo Grotius 1 neutral 1 citation · 2 passages

    letter ii 2 passages anchored here

    Cited directly, with the editor flagging the citation as probably mistaken.

    [Grotius refers to the Trachiniae of Sophocles, but probably from memory, for there is no such reference in that play.

12. Republic Plato 1 authority 1 citation

    book 1

    Cephalus explicitly names Sophocles and treats his reported answer as authoritative support ('I thought it a good answer then and now I think so still more').

    But in fact I have ere now met with others who do not feel in this way, and in particular I remember hearing Sophocles the poet greeted by a fellow who asked, How about your service of Aphrodite, Sophocles—is your natural force still unabated?