[21] The date of the
Ajax is unknown; but internal
1
evidence affords reasons for believing that, if not the earliest of the seven plays, it is the next oldest to the
Antigone.
(1) The Parodos has the form of an anapaestic marching-song (vv. 134—171), followed by a lyric ode (vv. 172—200), as in the
Persae, the
Supplices, and the
Agamemnon of Aeschylus. This simplest type of Parodos occurs in no other play of Sophocles, though that of the
Antigone is akin to it.
(2) Anapaests for the Chorus are interposed in the iambic dialogue (vv. 1163—1167). The only other play of Sophocles in which this occurs is the
Antigone (vv. 929—943).
These are (I think) the only clear indications of a relatively early date. Some other points, however, have been urged, and demand consideration here.
(3) It has been noted by G. Wolff
2
and others that several words and phrases in the
Ajax are Aeschylean:
e.g. v. 56
ῥαχίζω
(
Pers. 426
etc.): 412
πόροι ἁλίρροθοι
(
Pers. 367
): 447
φρένες διάστροφοι
(
P. V. 673
): 673
λευκόπωλος ἡμέρα
(
Pers. 386
): 740
ὑπεσπανισμένον
(
Pers. 489
etc.). Again, the epic
ἦ ῥα
(172,
Pers. 954
) occurs also in
Pers. 633
, but not elsewhere in Tragedy; the Doric and epic plural
τοί
(1404), used by Aeschylus (
Pers. 584
etc.), is not elsewhere used by Sophocles. The
Persae, it will be seen, furnishes most of these parallelisms
3
. But such coincidences merely show that the
Ajax belongs to a period when Aeschylus had a strong influence on the younger poet's style; and we have no means of setting an inferior limit to that period. In so far, then, as the language of the play has an Aeschylean stamp, it seems more accurate to say that this characteristic is entirely consonant with the hypothesis of a relatively early date than to claim it as a separate indication of such a date. With regard to the epic
ἦ ῥα
and
τοί
, it should be remembered that the play contains several phrases which show a deliberate aim at epic colouring, such as
κλυτῶν ἐνάρων
(177),
ἑλίκεσσι βουσί, κλυτοῖς αἰπολίοις
(374 f.),
οὐλίῳ
(933),
πολύτλας
(954),
κοίλην κάπετον
(1165), which the poet may have deemed appropriate to a subject taken from the Trojan cycle and concerned with a Homeric hero.(4) Some critics have thought that only twelve choreutae were used in the
Ajax, and infer that the play belonged to a time when Sophocles had not yet raised the number of the Chorus to fifteen
4
. The chief ground of this theory is the fact that verses 892—914 and 938—960 (taken together) contain twelve utterances of the Chorus. It is assumed that each utterance represents a single choreutes. But this is an assumption only; and it does not appear a probable one, when it is observed that verses 900—903, and 908—914, are passionate expressions of a feeling common to the whole Chorus, and would naturally, therefore, be given by the whole Chorus. In verses 866—878, again, the attempt to distinguish twelve parts, one for each of twelve choreutae, involves a highly arbitrary process. The mere fact of
ἡμιχόρια
being there employed proves nothing; for the use of hemichoria occurs in plays written at a time when the number of the tragic chorus was certainly fifteen (
Eur.
Or. 1258
ff.,
Eur.
Alc. 93
—111,
Eur. Alc. 226
—232).(5) Lastly, it has been supposed that the play was written ‘not long after the introduction of a third actor
5
,’ because three actors are on the scene together only in the prologue (Athena, Odysseus, Ajax), and at the end (Agamemnon, Teucer, Odysseus); Odysseus being silent while Ajax is present (92—117), and Teucer while Agamemnon is present (1318—1373). But it appears very unsafe to assume that these facts indicate an early and tentative stage in the use of the third actor. They may be due simply to the construction of the play and to the requirements of each dramatic situation.
As between the
Ajax and the
Antigone, the claim to priority would rest with the
Ajax, if the form of the Parodos were the test; though the Parodos of the
Antigone is also of an early type (see n. on
Ai. 134
). But much more weight is due to the fact that the
Antigone, alone of the seven plays, rigorously adheres to the practice of Aeschylus, in never admitting the division of an iambic trimeter between two or more speakers (
ἀντιλαβή
). This was no trivial detail, but a general rule of composition which materially affected the character of dialogue. When Sophocles at last decided to relax that rule, the result was a marked gain in lightness and rapidity at moments when the dialogue became animated or excited. The fact that he had made this change before he wrote the
Ajax seems clearly to indicate that the
Ajax is later than the
Antigone.Introduction to Commentary on Sophocles: Ajax. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. 1900.
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