A substantial part of The Searches, a satyr play, was recovered from papyri in Egypt in modern times. Only seven of his tragedies are now extant, these being Ajax, Antigone, Oedipus the King, Women of Trachis, Electra, Philoctetes, and the posthumous Oedipus at Colonus. He wrote over a hundred plays for the Athenian theater, and is said to have come first in twenty-four contests. Sophocles first won a prize for tragic drama in 468, defeating the veteran Aeschylus.
He seems to have been content to spend all his life at Athens, and is said to have refused several invitations to royal courts. The leader of a literary circle and friend of Herodotus, he was interested in poetic theory as well as practice, and he wrote a prose treatise On the Chorus.
His long life spanned the rise and decline of the Athenian Empire he was a friend of Pericles, and though not an active politician he held several public offices, both military and civil. in Athens at the age of ninety.Sophocles was born at Colonus, just outside Athens, in 496 BC, and lived ninety years. At eighty-three he was still active in the Athenian government. The circumstances of his life, as well as his plays, suggest that Sophocles was conservative, and opposed to innovation in religion and politics. Sophocles's plays won more victories than the plays of either his older contemporary Aeschylus or the younger Euripides. Aristotle, in his Poetics, praised Sophocles above other tragedians and regarded his masterpiece, OEDIPUS THE KING, as a model for Greek tragedy. Sophocles wrote over 120 plays seven complete plays survive (plus half a light satyr play, some fragments, and ninety titles). He wrote two dozen more plays before 450, by which date he had made important changes in the form of tragedy by adding a third speaking actor to the traditional two, by reducing the importance of the chorus, and by improving the stage scenery. His first dramatic production, in 468, won the prize over Aeschylus's. He was from a good family, well educated, handsome, wealthy, healthy, and highly respected by his fellow Athenians. Although hopelessness and misfortune plague the characters in his great plays, Sophocles's own life was a long, prosperous one. Sophocles, the Greek tragic dramatist, was born at Colonus near Athens about 496 B.C. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Watling’s masterful translation is accompanied by an introduction, which examines the central themes of the plays, the role of the Chorus, and the traditions and staging of Greek tragedy.įor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. Oedipus at Colonus provides a fitting conclusion to the life of the aged and blinded king, while Antigone depicts the fall of the next generation, through the conflict between a young woman ruled by her conscience and a king too confident in his own authority.Į. With profound insights into the human condition, it is a devastating portrayal of a ruler brought down by his own oath. King Oedipus tells of a man who brings pestilence to Thebes for crimes he does not realise he has committed, and then inflicts a brutal punishment upon himself.
The legends surrounding the royal house of Thebes inspired Sophocles (496–406 BC) to create a powerful trilogy of mankind’s struggle against fate. Sinful in marriage, sinful in shedding of blood!’ Revealed as I am, sinful in my begetting,