Sophocles
In the winter of 406 or 405 BC, Sophocles died at the age of ninety or ninety-one. He had witnessed both the Greek triumph in the Persian Wars and the bloodletting of the Peloponnesian War within his lifetime. Born around 497 or 496 BC to a wealthy family, he was the son of Sophillus, an armour manufacturer. His rural deme of Hippeius Colonus in Attica later became the setting for one of his most famous plays. Early in life, he led a paean celebrating the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. This choral chant honored the gods for their deliverance from invasion.
His political career mirrored his artistic success. In 443 or 442 BC, he served as one of the Hellenotamiai, treasurers of Athena who managed city finances during Pericles' ascendancy. By 441 BC, he was elected one of ten generals alongside Pericles himself. The Vita Sophoclis claims this election resulted from his production of Antigone, though scholar Hugh Lloyd-Jones calls that link improbable. Later, in 420 BC, Athenians chose him to receive the image of Asclepius into his own house when the cult arrived in Athens. For this service, they granted him the posthumous epithet Dexion, meaning receiver.
Even near death, public trust remained high. In 411 BC, he was elected commissioner to respond to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary force in Sicily. Apocryphal stories surrounded his final days. One claimed he died straining to recite a long sentence from Antigone without breathing. Another suggested he choked on grapes at the Anthesteria festival. A third account held that he died of happiness after winning his final victory at the City Dionysia. His sons once tried to have him declared incompetent, but he refuted their charge by reading from Oedipus at Colonus in court.
Aristotle credited Sophocles with adding a third actor to Greek tragedy, thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in plot presentation. This structural change occurred before Aeschylus adopted it himself. Themistius attributed the innovation to Aeschylus instead, creating historical debate about who truly pioneered the shift. The addition increased opportunities for character development and conflict while diminishing the choral role. Sophocles also developed characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights had done.
He introduced skenographia, or scenery painting, though Vitruvius later attributed this technique to Agatharchus of Samos. After Aeschylus died in 456 BC, Sophocles became the pre-eminent playwright in Athens. He won competitions at eighteen Dionysia festivals and six Lenaia festivals over nearly fifty years. He competed in thirty competitions total, winning twenty-four times without ever being judged lower than second place. Foreign rulers invited him to attend their courts, yet unlike Aeschylus or Euripides, he never accepted any such invitations.
His reputation influenced how drama evolved across generations. Aristotle used Oedipus Rex as an example of the highest achievement in tragedy within his Poetics. The play demonstrated how a single work could embody perfect tragic form. Sophocles' innovations allowed for deeper psychological exploration within the constraints of festival competition rules. His approach shifted focus from mythic grandeur toward individual human experience.
In Oedipus Rex, Thebes suffers from a plague that forces King Oedipus to send Creon to seek advice from the Delphic Oracle. Tiresias reveals that Oedipus himself is the cause of the plague, having unknowingly killed his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta. The slave sent to kill baby Oedipus instead left the child on Mount Cithaeron where a childless couple adopted him. As a young man, Oedipus met and killed a man on the road to Thebes who turned out to be Laius. After solving the riddle of the Sphinx, he became ruler and married the widowed queen.
When the truth emerges following Creon's return from Delphi, Jocasta commits suicide while Oedipus blinds himself. Creon becomes king and forbids Oedipus from taking his children into exile. In Oedipus at Colonus, the banished Oedipus and daughter Antigone arrive at Colonus where they encounter Theseus, King of Athens. Creon demands Oedipus return to Thebes since an oracle foretold peace would come only if buried there. Theseus protects Oedipus, who refuses both Creon's demand and Polynices' exhortation to help overthrow Creon. At play's end, Oedipus dies peacefully.
Antigone centers on Oedipus's daughter whose brother Polyneices died during the Seven against Thebes attack. Creon forbids burial of Polyneices' body outside city walls. Antigone chooses to bury her brother despite facing death herself. Creon sentences her to execution but eventually persuades himself to free her too late. Her suicide triggers Haemon's death and Eurydice's suicide after losing her son. The three plays contain inconsistencies because they were written separately across thirty-six years rather than as a trilogy.
Four complete plays survive alongside the three Theban works: Ajax, Women of Trachis, Electra, and Philoctetes. Philoctetes won first prize in 409 BC while Oedipus at Colonus was performed posthumously in 401 BC by his grandson. Ajax focuses on Telamonian Ajax driven to treachery and eventual suicide when Achilles's armor goes to Odysseus instead. Despite their enmity toward him, Odysseus persuades Menelaus and Agamemnon to grant Ajax proper burial.
The Women of Trachis dramatizes Deianeira accidentally killing Heracles after he completed twelve labors. Tricked into believing it is a love charm, she applies poison to clothing that causes excruciating death upon contact. Upon learning the truth, Deianeira kills herself. Electra corresponds roughly to Aeschylus's Libation Bearers detailing how Electra and Orestes avenge father Agamemnon's murder by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. Philoctetes retells the story of an archer abandoned on Lemnos during the Trojan War journey. Greeks send Odysseus and Neoptolemus to retrieve him since they cannot win without his bow. Heracles' deus ex machina appearance finally persuades Philoctetes to return to Troy.
Aristophanes of Byzantium wrote that one hundred thirty titles were attributed to Sophocles though seven or seventeen might be spurious. More than one hundred twenty play titles exist associated with Sophocles but precise dating remains unknown for most. By his time, convention required submitting plays in tetralogies of three tragedies plus one satyr play. The three modern Theban plays never performed together in Sophocles' lifetime therefore belong to different tetralogies.
Fragments of Ichneutae discovered in Egypt in 1907 amount to about half the play making it best preserved satyr work after Euripides' Cyclops. Epigoni fragments found April 2005 by Oxford classicists used infrared technology previously employed for satellite imaging. This tragedy tells the second siege of Thebes. Other works survive only in fragments including Aias Lokros, Ajax the Locrian, and many others listed in ancient catalogs. These lost titles represent hundreds of stories now known only through scattered papyrus evidence and scholarly reconstruction efforts.
Plutarch's tract De Profectibus in Virtute records Sophocles discussing his own growth as a writer through three distinct stages. C.M. Bowra translated the passage describing how he first practiced bigness of Aeschylus then painful ingenuity of his own invention before changing to diction most expressive of character. His initial stage featured Aeschylean pomp in language while imitating earlier masters. He completed that phase meaning he finished imitating Aeschylus's style but maintained reservations about its approach.
His second stage was entirely original introducing new ways evoking feeling from audiences. In Ajax when mocked by Athene the stage empties so he may commit suicide alone demonstrating this independent power. The third stage paid more heed to diction allowing characters to speak naturally expressing individual feelings differently than previous generations. Sophocles respected Aeschylus enough to imitate early work yet did not maintain imitation throughout career. This evolution shows deliberate artistic development rather than accidental stylistic drift across decades of writing.
Signs of early reception appear in greater number of quotations or allusions starting with contemporaries like Ion of Chios who recorded conversations with Sophocles. Ancient critics evaluated his work differently depending on their philosophical priorities. Aristotle used Oedipus Rex as example highest achievement tragedy within Poetics framework. Modern scholarship interprets historical significance through surviving fragments and comparative analysis with other playwrights. His influence extended beyond Athens affecting how drama developed across Greek city-states over centuries.
Apocryphal stories about death inspired eulogies including one comic poet wrote in The Muses calling him blessed long life happy talented writer many good tragedies ended well without misfortune. Some accounts claim sons tried declaring him incompetent near end life but he refuted charge reading Oedipus at Colonus court. Two sons Iophon and grandson named Sophocles became playwrights continuing family tradition. His reputation ensured foreign rulers invited him though he never accepted invitations unlike peers. This enduring legacy demonstrates how ancient audiences valued both technical innovation and emotional depth combined.
Common questions
When did Sophocles die and how old was he?
Sophocles died in the winter of 406 or 405 BC at the age of ninety or ninety-one. He lived through both the Greek triumph in the Persian Wars and the bloodletting of the Peloponnesian War.
What political roles did Sophocles hold during his lifetime?
In 443 or 442 BC, Sophocles served as one of the Hellenotamiai treasurers of Athena who managed city finances during Pericles' ascendancy. By 441 BC, he was elected one of ten generals alongside Pericles himself.
How many times did Sophocles win competitions at Dionysia festivals?
Sophocles won competitions at eighteen Dionysia festivals over nearly fifty years. He competed in thirty competitions total and won twenty-four times without ever being judged lower than second place.
Which play by Sophocles was performed posthumously in 401 BC?
Oedipus at Colonus was performed posthumously in 401 BC by his grandson. This play features the banished Oedipus and daughter Antigone arriving at Colonus where they encounter Theseus King of Athens.
Who is credited with adding a third actor to Greek tragedy according to Aristotle?
Aristotle credited Sophocles with adding a third actor to Greek tragedy thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in plot presentation. Themistius attributed this innovation to Aeschylus instead creating historical debate about who truly pioneered the shift.