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498 BCE
Short Overview of Sophocles
Sophocles was one of Athens' three great tragic playwrights, and wrote 123 plays. His most well known play is Oedipus Rex, also known by its Greek title, Oedipus Tyrannus, or as we may know it, Oedipus the King. We have relatively meagre information about him, but it suggests that he was very involved in his community, was a popular favorite, and exercised outstanding artistic talents. -
497 BCE
Sophocles' Remaining 7 Plays
Out of Sophocles' 120 plays (that he's said to have written), we now possess only 7, which are all tragedies. (We also have fragments and lengthy sections of others.)
Only 2 of the 7 can be dated with certainty: Philoctetes in 409, and Oedipus at Colonus, which produced posthumously by his grandson, in 401.
The others, Ajax, Electra, Women of Trachis, and Antigone, are hard to place in time, but there is evidence suggesting that Antigone was first performed in 442-441 BCE. -
496 BCE
Sophocles' Birth
Sophocles was born in 496 BCE, Colonus, outside of the walls of Athens, Greece, along with his older contemporary Euripides, and his younger contemporary Aeschylus. -
480 BCE
Leading the Celebration of Victory at the Battle of Salamis
At the age of 16, because of his beauty of physique, athletic prowess, and skill in music, Sophocles was chosen to lead the paean (choral chant to a god) celebrating the decisive Greek sea victory over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis. -
468 BCE
First Win of the City Dionysia
In 468, Sophocles achieved his first win of the City Dionysia, defeating Aeschylus in the process. This would then go on to begin a career of unparalleled success and longevity for Sophocles. He is said to have won as many as 18-24 times. Sophocles wrote, in total, 123 dramas for the City Dionysia festivals. And, since each author who was chosen to enter usually presented 4 plays, this means he must have competed about 30 times. -
454 BCE
Pericles' Leadership
In 454, the Athenian general Pericles had the funds of the Delian League moved from the island of Delos to the Acropolis in Athens. With these funds came an ambitious building program, which resulted in (amongst other things) the Parthenon. This period under Pericles' leadership saw a strengthening of democracy and an unprecedented bloom in the arts and in philosophy. -
445 BCE
Ajax
Ajax may be the earliest of Sophocles' surviving tragedies, dated to 445-440.
The play is about Ajax, a great Greek hero from the Trojan War. After losing a contest for the armor of the fallen hero Achilles to Odysseus, Ajax becomes deeply offended and tries to kill Odysseus and the judges, Agamemnon and Menelaus. However, the goddess Athena interferes and tricks him into killing livestock instead. Realizing what he has done, Ajax falls into despair and ultimately takes his own life. -
442 BCE
Time as a Treasurer
In 442, he served as one of the treasurers responsible for receiving and managing tribute money from Athens' subject-allies in the Delian League. -
442 BCE
Antigone
Antigone is a play by Sophocles that was produced around 442.
The play is about Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus. She was willing to face the punishment decreed by her uncle Creon, the new king, as penalty for anyone burying her brother Polyneices. (Polyneices was killed attacking Thebes, and so, as punishment, Creon forbid the burial of his corpse.) In the end, several people died as a result of Antigone killing herself in prison, and Creon was left desolate and broken in spirit. -
440 BCE
Election as one of 10 stratēgoi
In 440, he was elected one of the 10 stratēgoi (high executive officials who commanded the armed forces) as a junior colleague of Pericles. However, he would later on serve as stratēgos perhaps twice again. -
430 BCE
Oedipus Rex
Sophocles' most well-known play, Oedipus Rex, was first performed between 430-426.
It is about Oedipus, ruler of Thebes. One day, the citizens were plague-stricken. Oedipus is told by an oracle that the plague will cease when the murderer of Queen Jocasta's 1st husband, King Laius, is found. He resolves to find the killer, which leads him to discover it was him when he first approached Thebes as a youth. In the end, a guilt-stricken Oedipus blinded himself and Jocasta hung herself in shame. -
430 BCE
Women of Trachis
Women of Trachis was performed sometime after 458.
The play is about Deianeira, who wants to win back the wandering affections of her husband, Heracles, who—although he is away on one of his heroic missions—has sent back his latest concubine, Iole, to live with her at their home in Trachis. Deianeira uses a love charm on Heracles, however, she learns too late that it is poisonous, and kills herself when she learns of the agony she has caused her husband. -
420 BCE
Electra
Electra was first performed in 420-410.
Electra's brother Orestes wants to kill their mother and her lover in retribution for their murder of Orestes' father, Agamemnon. To execute his revenge, Orestes spreads false news of his own death. Believing this, Electra tries to enlist her sister Chrysothemis to murder their mother. Orestes then in disguise hands Electra the urn that "contains" his own ashes. Moved by her grief, Orestes reveals himself to her then strikes down his mother and her lover. -
413 BCE
Proboulos
In 413, at about 83 years of age, Sophocles was a proboulos, one of 10 advisory commissioners appointed to organize and ensure Athen's financial and domestic recovery after its crushing defeat at Syracuse in Sicily. -
409 BCE
Philoctetes
Philoctetes was first performed in 409.
The Greeks on their way to Troy cast away Philoctetes on the desert island of Lemnos because of an incurable ulcer on his foot. In the course of battle, the Greeks discover that they cannot defeat the Trojans without Philoctetes, who possesses the magic bow and arrow bequeathed to him by Heracles. A supernatural appearance by Heracles ultimately convinces Philoctetes to go to Troy to both win victory and be healed of his wound. -
406 BCE
Sophocles' Death
Sophocles died in 406 BCE, in Athens, at the age of either 90 or 91 (though most believe he died at 91). He died before Athens was finally defeated in 404 BCE. -
406 BCE
Sophocles' Last Recorded Act
His last recorded act was to lead a public chorus in mourning for his deceased rival, Euripides, before the festival of 406. Unfortunately, he also died that same year. -
405 BCE
Sophocles' Life
While there is little we know about Sophocles' life, we do know that he was wealthy from birth (being born into a wealthy family). He was also highly educated, noted for his grace and charm, on easy terms with the leading families, a personal friend of a prominent statesmen, and in many ways fortunate to have died before the final surrender of Athens to Sparta in 404. Before that, he did have 2 sons, Iophon and Sophocles, by his 1st wife, Nicostrata, and a 3rd, Ariston, by his 2nd wife, Theoris. -
405 BCE
Dramatic Innovations
He invented a type of scene paintings and increased the size of the chorus from 12 to 15 members. His one major innovation was his introduction of a third actor into the dramatic performance. It had previously been permissible for two actors to “double”, but the addition of a third enabled him to increase the number of characters & widen the variety of their interactions. The scope of the dramatic conflict was thereby extended, plots could be more fluid, and situations could be more complex. -
405 BCE
Literary Achievements
Sophocles developed his characters’ rush to tragedy with great economy, concentration, and dramatic effectiveness, epitomizing the tragic form in the classical world. This more complex type of tragedy demanded a third actor. He thus abandoned the spacious Aeschylean framework of the connected trilogy and instead comprised the entire action in a single play. Sophocles is unsurpassed in his moments of high dramatic tension and in his revealing use of tragic irony. -
401 BCE
Oedipus at Colonus
Oedipus at Colonus was produced by Sophocles' grandson in 401.
The blind Oedipus, after wandering around in exile for many years, arrives at a sacred grove in Colonus close by Athens. There, he is guaranteed protection by Theseus, king of Athens. He protected Oedipus from the pleadings of Creon for him to protect Thebes. Oedipus himself rejects the entreaties of his son Polyneices, who's bent on attacking Thebes and who Oedipus solemnly curses. Oedipus in the end departs to a mysterious death. -
400 BCE
After Sophocles' Death
The god Dionysus prompted the general of the Spartans, who were then attacking Athens, to grant a truce in order to bury Sophocles in the family grave outside the city. On his tomb stood a Siren, a symbol of the charm of poetry, and afterwards the Athenians worshipped him as a hero and offered an annual sacrifice in his memory. In later times, a bronze statue was erected to him together with Aeschylus and Euripides. Standard and authorized copies of his dramas were made to preserve them too. -
Reference Resource Links #1
NOTE: Most of these are from the same webpages!
Britannica
Department of Classical Studies - Greek Tragedy: Sophocles
Colombia College
Utah State University - Classical Drama/Theatre -
Reference Resource Links #2
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Reference Resource Links #3
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