The only external evidence for the dating of Antigone is a statement
in the ancient Argument attributed to the Hellenistic scholar Aristoph-
anes of Byzantium and prefixed to the play in the manuscripts. Thanks
to the success of Antigone, the Argument reports, Sophokles was elected
one of the ten generals to serve in the Athenian war against the revolt
of the island of Samos, an important member of the Athenian naval
empire. The Samian revolt took place in 441–439 BCE, and the con-
nection of the play with it, even allowing for exaggeration, would sug-
gest a date in 442 or 441. As the elections took place in late spring,
Antigone would have been first performed at the great festival of Dion-
ysos in March 442 or 441. The connection between the generalship and
the play, however, may be the invention of the often unreliable bio-
graphical tradition and may mean only that the play was performed
sometime around 440, plus or minus a few years. Some scholars,
therefore, for various reasons, have preferred a slightly later date. There
is no absolute certainty, but a date in this period would suit the play's
style and dramaturgy, and it is widely accepted. In any case, the play
seems to belong to Sophokles' full maturity. Born in 496/97, he would
have written it in his mid-fifties, after he had been presenting plays at
the dramatic festivals for some thirty years, since his first victory in the
dramatic competitions in 468. The play would be about a decade ear-
lier than the Oidipous Turannos (429–425), with which it shares certain
features (e.g., an angry encounter between a king and a prophet and
the silent exit of a queen to commit suicide).

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