Sophokles' strategia
In this page we present a passage from the Deipnosophists, where Athenaeus quotes Ion of Chios for an anecdote concerning Sophokles when he was strategos during the Samian war. Similar stories about the love of Sophokles for young boys are preserved also in other sources as Cicero and Plutarch (aligned in the right column).
In the fragment preserved by Athenaeus, Ion says that he met Sophokles at Chios when he was sailing as general to Lesbos. Thuc. 1.116.1 writes that Athenian ships went to Chios and Lesbos to ask for reinforcements and the anecdote can be dated on that occasion.
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Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 13.81 (603e)  = FGrHist 392 T 5b and F 6 = BNJ 392 T5b and F 6) γοῦν ὁ ποιητὴς ἐν ταῖς ἐπιγραφομέναις Ἐπιδημίαις γράφει οὕτως· ‛Σοφοκλεῖ τῷ ποιητῇ ἐν Χίῳ συνήντησα ὅτε ἔπλει εἰς Λέσβον στρατηγός, ἀνδρὶ παιδιώδει παρ᾽ οἶνον καὶ δεξιῷ. Ἑρμησίλεω δὲ ξένου οἱ ἐόντος καὶ προξένου Ἀθηναίων ἑστιῶντος αὐτόν, ἐπεὶ παρὰ τὸ πῦρ ἑστεὼς ὁ τὸν οἶνον ἐγχέων παῖς ... ἐὼν δῆλος ἦν εἶπέ τε· ‛βούλει με ἡδέως πίνειν;’ φάντος δ᾽ αὐτοῦ ‛βραδέως τοίνυν καὶ πρόσφερέ μοι καὶ ἀπόφερε τὴν κύλικα.’ ἔτι πολὺ μᾶλλον ἐρυθριάσαντος τοῦ παιδὸς εἶπε πρὸς τὸν συγκατακείμενον ‛ὡς καλῶς Φρύνιχος (TrGF 3 F 13) ἐποίησεν εἴπας· ‛λάμπει δ᾽ ἐπὶ πορφυρέαις παρῇσι φῶς ἔρωτος.’ καὶ πρὸς τόδε ἠμείφθη ὁ Ἐρετριεὺς ἢ Ἐρυθραῖος γραμμάτων ἐὼν διδάσκαλος· ‛σοφὸς μὲν δὴ σύ γε εἶ, ὦ Σοφόκλεις, ἐν ποιήσει· ὅμως μέντοι γε οὐκ εὖ εἴρηκε Φρύνιχος πορφυρέας εἰπὼν τὰς γνάθους τοῦ καλοῦ. εἰ γὰρ ὁ ζωγράφος χρώματι πορφυρέῳ ἐναλείψειε τοῦδε τοῦ παιδὸς τὰς γνάθους, οὐκ ἂν ἔτι καλὸς φαίνοιτο. οὐ κάρτα δεῖ τὸ καλὸν τῷ μὴ καλῷ φαινομένῳ εἰκάζειν ἄν.’ γελάσας ἐπὶ τῷ Ἐρετριεῖ Σοφοκλῆς· ‛οὐδὲ τόδε σοι ἀρέσκει ἄρα, ὦ ξένε, τὸ Σιμωνίδειον (PMG fr. 80), κάρτα δοκέον τοῖς Ἕλλησιν εὖ εἰρῆσθαι· ‛πορφυρέου ἀπὸ στόματος ἱεῖσα φωνὰν παρθένος, οὐδ᾽ ὁ ποιητής, ἔφη, ὁ λέγων χρυσοκόμαν Ἀπόλλωνα (Pind., Ol. 6.41)· χρυσέας γὰρ εἰ ἐποίησεν ὁ ζωγράφος τὰς τοῦ θεοῦ κόμας καὶ μὴ μελαίνας, χεῖρον ἂν ἦν τὸ ζωγράφημα. οὐδὲ ὁ φὰς ῥοδοδάκτυλον· εἰ γάρ τις εἰς ῥόδεον χρῶμα βάψειε τοὺς δακτύλους, πορφυροβάφου χεῖρας καὶ οὐ γυναικὸς καλῆς ποιήσειεν ἄν’. γελασάντων δὲ ὁ μὲν Ἐρετριεὺς ἐνωπήθη τῇ ἐπιρραπίξει, ὁ δὲ πάλιν τοῦ παιδὸς τῷ λόγῳ εἴχετο. εἴρετο γάρ μιν ἀπὸ τῆς κύλικος κάρφος τῷ μικρῷ δακτύλῳ ἀφαιρετέοντα, εἰ καθορᾷ τὸ κάρφος. φάντος δὲ καθορᾶν ‛ἄπο τοίνυν φύσησον αὐτό, ἵνα μὴ πλύνοιτο ὁ δάκτυλός σευ’. προσαγαγόντος δ᾽ αὐτοῦ τὸ πρόσωπον πρὸς τὴν κύλικα ἐγγυτέρω τὴν κύλικα τοῦ ἑαυτοῦ στόματος ἦγεν, ἵνα δὴ ἡ κεφαλῇ τῇ κεφαλῇ ἀσσοτέρα γένηται. ὡς δ᾽ ἦν οἱ κάρτα πλησίον, προσλαβὼν τῇ χειρὶ ἐφίλησεν. ἐπικροτησάντων δὲ πάντων σὺν γέλωτι καὶ βοῇ ὡς εὖ ὑπηγάγετο τὸν παῖδα, ‛μελετῶ, εἶπεν, στρατηγεῖν, ὦ ἄνδρες· ἐπειδήπερ Περικλῆς ποιεῖν μέν με ἔφη, στρατηγεῖνδ᾽ οὐκ ἐπίστασθαι. ἆρ᾽ οὖν οὐ κατ᾽ ὀρθόν μοι πέπτωκεν τὸ στρατήγημα;’ τοιαῦτα πολλὰ δεξιῶς ἔλεγέν τε καὶ ἔπρησσεν ὅτε πίνοι [ἢ πράσσοι]. τὰ μέντοι πολιτικὰ οὔτε σοφὸς οὔτε ῥεκτήριος ἦν, ἀλλ᾽ ὡς ἄν τις εἷς τῶν χρηστῶν Ἀθηναίων.’ |
Cicero, De officiis 1.144
Plutarch, Pericles 8.5
- On Sophokles' strategia at Samos with Perikles, see also Strabo 14.1.18; Justin, Historiae Philippicae 3.6.12-13; Aristodemos, FGrH 104 F 1 (15.4) = BNJ 104 F 1 (15.4) (= Codex Parisinus suppl. Graecus 607 fol. 83v–85r; 86v–87v). |
English translation (→ Greek text)
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Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 13.81 (603e)
Sophokles was fond of young lads, as Euripides was fond of women. The poet Ion (FHG II 46 fr. 1 = FGrHist 392 T 5b and F 6 = BNJ 392 T5b and F 6), in the work entitled Sojournings, writes as follows: “I met Sophokles the poet at Chios when he was sailing as general to Lesbos; he was playful at wine, and clever. A Chian friend of his, Hermesilaus, who was proxenus of Athens, entertained him, when there appeared, standing beside the fire, the wine-pourer, a handsome, blushing boy; Sophokles was plainly stirred and said: ‘Do you want me to drink with pleasure?’ And when the boy said ‘Yes’ he said, ‘Then don't be too rapid in handing me the cup and taking it away’. When the boy blushed still more violently he said to the man who shared his couch: ‘That was a good thing Phrynichus (TrGF 3 F 13) wrote when he said: “There shines upon his crimson cheeks the light of love.”’ To this the man from Eretria (or Erythrae), who was a schoolmaster, made answer: ‘Wise you are, to be sure, Sophokles, in the art of poetry; nevertheless Phrynichus did not express himself happily when he described the handsome boy's cheeks as crimson. For if a painter should brush a crimson colour on this boy's cheeks he would no longer look handsome. Surely one must not compare the beautiful with what is obviously not beautiful.’ Laughing loudly at the Eretrian Sophokles said: ‘So, then, stranger you don't like that line of Simonides (PMG fr. 80), either, though the Greeks think it very well expressed: “From her crimson lips the maiden uttered speech” or again the poet who speaks of “golden-haired Apollo” (Pind., Ol. 6.41); for if a painter had made the god's locks golden instead of black, the picture would not be so good. And so for the poet who said: “rosy-fingered”; for if one should dip his fingers into a rose-dye, he would produce the hands of a purple-dyer and not those of a lovely woman.’ There was a laugh at this, and while the Eretrian was squelched by the rebuke, Sophokles returned to his conversation with the boy. He asked him, as he was trying to pick off a straw from the cup with his little finger, whether he could see it clearly. When the boy declared he could see it Sophokles said, ‘Then blow it away, for I shouldn't want you to get your finger wet.’ As the boy brought his face up to the cup, Sophokles drew the cup nearer to his own lips, that the two heads might come closer together. When he was very near the lad, he drew him close with his arm and kissed him. They all applauded, amid laughter and shouting, because he had put it over the boy so neatly; and Sophokles said, ‘I am practising strategy, gentlemen, since Perikles told me that whereas I could write poetry, I didn't know how to be a general. Don't you think my stratagem has turned out happily for me?’ Many things of this sort he was wont to say and do cleverly when he drank or when he did anything. In civic matters, however, he was neither wise nor efficient, but like any other individual among the better class of Athenians.” |
Cicero, De officiis 1.144
... When Perikles was associated with the poet Sophocles as his colleague in command and they had met to confer about official business that concerned them both, a handsome boy chanced to pass and Sophokles said: “Look, Perikles; what a pretty boy!” How pertinent was Perikles's reply: “Hush, Sophocles, a general should keep not only his hands but his eyes under control.” And yet, if Sophokles had made this same remark at a trial of athletes, he would have incurred no just reprimand ... Plutarch, Pericles 8.5 ... Once also when Sophocles, who was general with him on a certain naval expedition, praised a lovely boy, he said: ‘It is not his hands only, Sophocles, that a general must keep clean, but his eyes as well’. |