He was born into a wealthy family (his father was an armour manufacturer), and was highly educated. Sophocles, the son of Sophillus, was a wealthy member of the rural deme (small community) of Hippeios Colonus in Attica, which was to become a setting for one of his plays and he was probably born there, a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC: the exact year is unclear, but 497/6 is most likely. Life Ī marble relief of a poet, perhaps Sophocles He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights. Sophocles influenced the development of drama, most importantly by adding a third actor (attributed to Sophocles by Aristotle to Aeschylus by Themistius), thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. The most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature Oedipus and Antigone: they are generally known as the Theban plays, though each was part of a different tetralogy (the other members of which are now lost). Aeschylus won thirteen competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles Euripides won four. He competed in thirty competitions, won twenty-four, and was never judged lower than second place. For almost fifty years, Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens which took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia.

Sophocles wrote over 120 plays, but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, Women of Trachis, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those of Aeschylus and earlier than, or contemporary with, those of Euripides. 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, known as one of three from whom at least one play has survived in full.

The Oedipus Cycle by Sophocles