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Person406 BC

Sophocles

Also called: Sophokles

Tragic poet of ancient Athens, author of Oedipus the King and Antigone, counted with Aeschylus and Euripides among the three great tragedians

Born to a wealthy family at Colonus near Athens, he first competed in the tragic contest of the Dionysia in 468 BC and defeated Aeschylus. Over his lifetime he wrote more than 120 plays and is said to have won 24 times, never placing lower than second. Aristotle credits him with adding a third actor, so that dialogue between characters rather than the chorus drove the drama. Seven plays survive complete, including Antigone, Oedipus the King and Electra; his last, Oedipus at Colonus, was staged after his death in 401 BC. He was also active as a citizen, serving as a treasurer of the Athenian alliance and, according to tradition, as a general with Pericles in the Samian campaign.

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1 related event

  1. 1
    429 BCFirst Performance of Sophocles’ Oedipus the Kingauthor

    Around 429 BC Sophocles’ tragedy Oedipus the King was first performed at the City Dionysia in the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens. It won only second prize that year, but Aristotle held it up in his Poetics as the model of tragedy, and it has become the most famous Greek tragedy.

Themes this person appears in

  • Heroes of Greek Myth1400 BC – 1900

    Perseus and Medusa, the labours of Heracles, Jason and the Golden Fleece, Theseus and the Minotaur, the wings of Icarus, Oedipus and Antigone — the heroes of Greek myth, alongside the real sites of Tiryns, Knossos and Thebes, the first performance of a tragedy, and the sculptures and paintings their stories inspired