Sophocles death

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Sophocles Facts

Only the plays of three ancient Greek tragedians, including Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides have survived. The seven plays of Sophocles that have survived in their entirety include Ajax, Antigone, The Women of Trachis, Electra, Philoctetes, Oedipus Rex, and Philoctetes and Oediups At Colonus. During his career Sophocles competed in 30 dramatic competitions. He won 24 of them and never placed lower than second place. In comparison Euripides won 4 competitions and Aeschylus won 13, and was defeated by Sophocles on occasion. Sophocles was the most famous and most celebrated dramatic playwright for almost 50 years in Athens during the Dionysia and the Lanaea, which were religious festivals. Sophocles most famous tragedies featured Antigone and Oedipus. Sophocles was known for developing his characters much more than earlier playwrights. Sophocles featured the rural community where he was born in one of his plays - Hippeiois Colonus in Attica. Sophocles served as a treasurer of Athens in 443 BC during Pericles political ascenda

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Sophocles Facts & Worksheets

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Sophocles was one of ancient Greece’s most famous and revered tragedy playwrights. His preserved works, produced throughout the 5th century BCE, include masterpieces such as Antigone, Oedipus Rex, and Women of Trachis.

See the fact file below for more information on Sophocles, or you can download our 26-page Sophocles worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

PERSONAL LIFE

Sophocles, the son of Sophillus, was a wealthy citizen of Hippeios Colonus, a rural deme (small village) in Attica. He was most likely born a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE: most likely 49

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Sophocles

Sophocles, the son of a wealthy arms manufacturer, was born probably in 496 B.C.E. in the deme Colonus near Athens. Of all the ancient playwrights, he scored the most wins in dramatic competitions, and won the most important dramatic festival, the City Dionysia, an unmatched 18 times. He received an education in music, athletics, and dancing, and as a boy of fifteen was chosen to lead the paean (hymn of praise) sung by the chorus of boys after the victory of Salamis. Like most of the ancient playwrights, he acted in the plays he wrote. He showed his musical skill in public, when he played the blind singer Thamyris in his drama of the same name, and played the cithara with such success that he was painted as Thamyris with the cithara in the famous Stoa Poecile ("painted colonnade"), a prominent gathering place in ancient Athens. Sophocles was also involved in Athenian political and military affairs. Owing to his practical gifts with language he was involved in negotiations with the allies of Chios and Samos. During the Peloponne