Books by Sophocles

Sophocles (c. 497/496 – 406/405 BC) was one of the three canonical ancient Greek tragic dramatists alongside Aeschylus and Euripides, and is universally celebrated as the consummate master of classical Athenian theater. Renowned for his civic dedication as well as his dramatic genius, Sophocles served Athens as a military general, state treasurer, and priest during its golden age under Pericles. Over a prolific dramatic career spanning six decades, he wrote more than 120 plays, winning the prestigious Dionysia competition an astonishing twenty-four times without ever finishing lower than second. Of his surviving masterpieces, the Theban plays—Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone—represent the supreme zenith of tragic drama, acclaimed by Aristotle in his Poetics as the flawless model of tragic peripeteia and catharsis. Sophocles pioneered key theatrical innovations, including introducing the third actor and scene painting, while exploring destiny, divine justice, and moral agency.