How many plays did sophocles write
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About
Sophocles (496-406 B.C), a celebrated ancient Greek tragedian, was believed to have been born into a wealthy family and was thought to be highly educated. As a respected public citizen, Sophocles served as a treasurer, as a general, and as a commissioner for the Athenian expeditionary force.
In his career that span over thirty-six years, Sophocles wrote over 120 plays. Only seven plays have survived in complete form, all of which were stored in public archives at Athens (Slavitt X): Ajax, Antigone, The women of the Trachis, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus. Next best survived works of Sophocles are the fragments of the Ichneuteu and Epigoni, which were found in 1907, in Egypt and in 2005 by classicists at Oxford University respectively (“Sophocles”, n.d.).
Sophocles is credited for innovations in dramatic structure and creating scenery-painting. He influenced the development of drama by adding a third actor, thereby reduced the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. Sophocles also created greater opportunity for character deve
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Sophocles
5th century BC Athenian tragic playwright
For other uses, see Sophocles (disambiguation).
Sophocles[a] (c. 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)[2] was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least one play has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those of Aeschylus and earlier than, or contemporary with, those of Euripides. Sophocles wrote more than 120 plays,[3] but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, Women of Trachis, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus.[4] For almost fifty years, Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens, which took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. He competed in thirty competitions, won twenty-four, and was never judged lower than second place. Aeschylus won thirteen competitions and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles; Euripides won four.[5]
The most famous tragedies of Sophocles f
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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
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