Sophocles
- Autor
- Music Department
Versatile Greek poet and tragic dramatist. He was the son of Sophilus,
a wealthy arms manufacturer. Sophocles studied tragedy under Aeschylus,
whom he subsequently defeated in the dramatic festival of 468 BC, thus
gaining his first victory at these competitions. He became a general
under Nicias and after the failure of the Athenian expedition to
Syracuse (413) was appointed one of the special commissioners to deal
with the emergency. He was a priest of Amynos, a god of healing, and
offered his own house as a place of worship for the healing deity
Asclepius until his temple was ready. In addition, he founded a
literary and musical society. His descendants were also tragedians -
his son Iophon and grandson Sophocles the younger. Unlike his rival
Euripides, he had very early acquired a favorable public. About 130
plays were attributed to him, (7 of which were subsequently reckoned
spurious). In the dramatic competitions he probably won 24
victories--that is to say, 24 of his tetralogies (each comprising 3
tragedies and a satyr play) were successful. Seven of his tragedies
have survived viz. Ajax, Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Electra, the Trachinian
Women, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus (his last play performed in
401 after his death). Sophocles died just before the catastrophic end
of the Peloponnesian War.