Cuidados y ancianidad en Sófocles: gerontología y tragedia griega.

The objective of the present study is to show how care for the elderly appears witnessed and widely developed in Athenian tragedy, specifically in two plays by Sophocles: Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus. Added to this is the exposition of the prominent role that women played in everything related to this care, as well as that which was provided to the dead. Hence, special emphasis is placed on the fact that much of what is related to funeral rites, in ancient Greece, was reserved for women and prohibited for men. Furthermore, the importance that senescence has in the work of Sophocles is detailed, exemplified in the dramatic weight of the tragic chorus, made up, uniquely and exclusively, of elderly people. This work, therefore, highlights the preponderant role that, in care and attention to dependency, played two of the marginalized sectors in Athenian society, such as women and the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]