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Tertiary sourceDocument1914

Sophocles entry, The New Student's Reference Work

1914

A 1914 student encyclopedia entry summarizing Sophocles' life, plays, and death.

A student reference entry summarizing Sophocles' career, surviving plays, and uncertain accounts of his death.

Source: Wikisource

About this source

What it is

This is an entry on Sophocles from The New Student's Reference Work, published in Chicago in 1914. It was written for younger readers studying general knowledge.

Why it matters

The entry lists Sophocles' surviving plays and his connection to other famous Greek dramatists like Aeschylus and Euripides, and repeats popular but uncertain stories about his death, showing how legends about ancient figures persisted even in student textbooks.

Look closer

  • Why does the entry mention several different stories about how Sophocles died, admitting there isn't 'sufficient authority' for them?
  • What does the list of his seven surviving plays tell you about how much of his work has been lost?
  • How might this entry's purpose for students shape what it includes?

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Sophocles on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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