SOPHOCLES, Athenian tragic poet, born at Colonos, a suburb of Athens; when but 16, such was his musical talent, he was selected to lead the choir that sang the song of triumph over the victory of Salamis; his first appearance as a dramatist was in 488 B.C., when he had AEschylus as his rival and won the prize, though he was seven years afterwards defeated by Euripides, but retrieved the defeat the year following by the production of his “Antigone.”  That same year one of the 10 strategi (or generals) and he accompanied Pericles in his war against the aristocrats of Samos.  He wrote a number of dramas, over 100 it is alleged, but only 7 survive, and these in probable order are “Ajax,” “Antigone,” “Electra,” “Oedipus Tyrannus,” “Trachineae,” “Oedipus Coloneus,” and “Philoctetes.”  Thus are all his subjects drawn from Greek legend, and they are all alike remarkable for the intense humanity and sublime passion that inspires them and the humane and the high and holy resolves they stir up.

SORATA, a volcanic peak in the Bolivian Andes, 21,470 ft. in height.

SORBONNE, a celebrated college of Paris, taking its name from its founder, Robert of Sorbon, chaplain to Saint Louis in the 13th century; was exclusively devoted to theology, and through the rigour of its discipline and learning of its professors soon exercised a predominant influence on the theological thought of Europe, which it maintained until the new learning of the Renaissance (16th century), together with its own dogmatic conservatism, left it hopelessly stuck in the “Sorbonnian bog” of derelict scholastic theology; became an object of satiric attacks by Boileau, Voltaire, and others, and was suppressed in 1789 at the outburst of the Revolution; was revived by Napoleon in 1808; is at present the seat of the Academie Universitaire de Paris, with faculties of theology, science, and literature.

SORDELLO, a Provencal poet whom Dante and Virgil met in Purgatory sitting solitary and with a noble haughty mien, but who sprang up at sight of Virgil and embraced him and accompanied him a part of his way; Browning used his name, as the title of a poem showing the conflict a minister experiences in perfecting his craft.

SOREL, AGNES, the mistress of Charles VII. of France, who had a great influence over him; had been maid of honour to the queen (1409-1450).

SORROW, SANCTUARY OF, Goethe’s name for the fold of Christ, wherein, according to His promise (Matt. v. 4) the “mourners” who might gather together there would find relief and be comforted, the path of sorrow leading up to the “porch” of the sanctuary.

SORROW, WORSHIP OF, Goethe’s name for the Christian religion, “our highest religion, for the Son of Man,” Carlyle adds, interpreting this, “there is no noble crown, well worn or even ill worn, but is a crown of thorns.”

SORROWS OF THE VIRGIN.  See SEVEN DOLOURS.