Sophocles and Alcibiades

Literary historians have long held the view that the plays of the Greek dramatist Sophocles deal purely with archetypes of the heroic past and that any resemblance to contemporary events or individuals is purely coincidental. In this book, Michael Vickers challenges this view and argues that Sophocles makes regular and extensive allusion to Athenian politics in his plays, especially to Alcibiades, one of the most controversial Athenian politicians of his day. Vickers shows that Sophocles was deeply involved in Athenian political life, which was often intensely personal. He argues cogently that classical writers employed hidden meanings and that Sophocles consciously or subconsciously projected onto his plays hints of contemporary events or incidents, mostly of a political nature, hoping that his audience's passion for politics would enhance the popularity of his plays. Vickers strengthens his case about Sophocles by discussing authors-Thucydides, Plato, and Euripides-whose work contains a body of allusions to Alcibiades and others.

"Michael Vickers has written an ingenious, original, and scholarly book on an important subject. It is an argument that students of period need to take into account. Vickers is doing truly seminal work."—Barry Strauss, Cornell University, "This book contains a very important finding, which is likely to inject an entirely new, hitherto by and large unsuspected, element into the study of Greek drama. Thoroughly original, this book constitutes an important landmark in the study of Greek tragedy."—Gabriel Herman, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Michael Vickers is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Oxford, Senior Research Fellow in Classical Studies at Jesus College, Oxford, and Curator of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum. His books include Pericles on Stage: Political Comedy in Aristophanes' Early Plays.