Sophocles (497 – 406 BC)(Ancient Literature)

 Sophocles

(497 – 406 BC)

 Sophocles is one of the ancient Greek Tragedians whose plays are survived.

 Sophocles wrote 123 plays during the course of his life but only seven have survived in complete form,

They are:

1. Ajax

2. Antigone

3. The Women of Trachis

4. Oedipus the King

5. Electra

6. Philoctetes and

7. Oedipus at Colonus

 The most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature Oedipus (means- swollen foot) and also “Antigone”.

They are generally known as the “Theban Plays”. Although each play was actually a part of a different

tetralogy, the other members of which are now lost.

 He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights such as Aeschylus.

 Only two of seven surviving plays can be dated securely i.e. “Philoctetes” (409 BC) and “Oedipus at Colonus” (401 BC).

Theban Plays:

It consists of three plays: “Oedipus the King (also called Oedipus Tyrannus or by its Latin title Oedipus

Rex), “Oedipus at Colonus” and “Antigone”. All the three plays concern the fate of Thebes during and

after the reign of King Oedipus.

 According to Aristotle, Sophocles is responsible for introducing the “Third Actor to Greek Stage”

(Tritagonist).