Women of Trachis - Date

Date

The date of the first performance of Women of Trachis is unknown, and scholars have speculated a wide range of dates for its initial performance. Scholars such as T.F. Hoey believe the play was written relatively early in Sophocles' career, around 450 BC. Among the evidence for an early date are a belief that the dramatic form of Women of Trachis is not a well developed as other extant Sophocles' plays. Another piece of evidence is the fact that the plot of the play is similar to a story related by Bacchylides in Bacchylides XVI, but different in significant respects from earlier known versions of this story. Hoey and others believe that Sophocles' version was more likely to have influenced Bacchylides' version than vice versa. Another piece of evidence used to support an early date is the relationship between the character of Deianeira and that of Clytemnestra in Aeschylus' Oresteia, first produced in 458. In earlier known versions of this story, Deianeira is a rather masculine character, similar to that of Clytemnestra in Oresteia who purposely killed her husband Agamemnon, but in Women of Trachis Deianeira's character is much softer and more feminine and she is only inadvertently responsible for the death of her husband. According to some scholars, Deianeira's character in Women of Trachis is intended as a commentary on Aeschylus' treatment of Clytemnestra, and if this is the case this play was most likely produced reasonably soon after Oresteia, although it is also possible that such commentary was triggered by a later revival of Aeschylus' trilogy. Hoey also sees echoes of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, particularly in the relevance of Women of Trachis to debates that were occurring during the 450s on the "relationship between knowledge and responsibility."

Other scholars, such as Cedric H. Whitman, argue for a production date during the 430s, close to but probably before Oedipus the King. Evidence for a date near Oedipus the King include a thematic similarity between the two plays. Whitman believes the two plays represent "another large step in the metaphysics of evil, to which Sophocles devoted his life." Thomas B. L. Webster also estimates a date in the 430s, close to 431, for a variety of reasons. One reason Webster gives for this dating is that there are a number of similarities between Women of Trachis and plays by Euripides that were known to be written between 438 and 417, and so may help narrow the range of dates, although it is unknown which poet borrowed from the other. A stronger reason Webster gives for this dating is that he believes that the structure of Woman of Trachis is similar to that of Sophocles' lost play Tereus, which Webster dates to this time period based largely on circumstantial evidence from Thucydides. Finally, Webster believes that the language and structure of Women of Trachis are consistent with such a date.

Other scholars, including Michael Vickers, argue for a date around 424 or 425, later than the generally accepted date range for the first performance of Oedipus the King. Arguments in favor of such a date include the fact that events in the play seem to reflect events that occurred during Peloponnesian War around that time. The Spartans believed they were descended from Heracles, and in 427 or 426, Sparta founded a colony in Trachis called Heraclea. The colony alarmed Athens, who feared the colony could be used to attack Euboea, and in Women of Trachis Heracles is said to be either waging war or planning to do so against Euboea. Vickers believes that the link to current events and to Sparta accounts for why Hearcles is portrayed so coldly in the play. Vickers also argues that Sophocles chose the name "Lichas" for Heracles' messenger as a result of the link to current events, as Lichas was the name of a prominent Spartiate envoy during the war.