A life more ,satisfactory than Sophocles' if difficult to imag ine. Its timing, first of a11, could not be more propitious, for his lifespan coincided precisely with the Golden Age of Athenian intellectual, artistic, and political glory. He was born in 496 B.c., and so was maturity at the time of file great victory over the Pendan, at Salamis (48O BC.) which initiated the era of Athenian preeminence, and died in 406, two years before Athens fell to the Spsrtzm. On his youth we are informed by a single but revealing passage Athenaeus (1.20 ef):Sophocles,besides being handsome in his youth,became proficient in dancing and music,while still a lad,under the instruction of Lampus. ...