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Introduction

Sophocles

Sophocles changed Greek drama by killing the chorus. Although the device was still used in the playwright’s works, its size and importance was significantly reduced when he introduced the third actor. This revolutionary change was so popular that even his revered predecessor, Aeschylus, adopted the convention. Eschewing the poetic roots of tragedy, Sophocles also changed Greek drama by defining it as what happens between people. Sophocles’s most famous character, Oedipus, typified the idea of the protagonist who has a “tragic flaw”—the very human quality of misjudging one’s place in the world. Whether the incest, suicides, and murders that befell Oedipus and his clan were his fault or a cruel twist of fate, they firmly established the importance of Sophocles in the evolution of Greek tragedy.

Essential Facts

1. Sophocles wrote more than one hundred plays, but only a handful of his works survived in their entirety.
2. Living to be nearly a century old, Sophocles was not only a writer. He also served in the military and the government.
3. Today referred to as Sophocles’ “Theban Cycle,” Oedipus the King, Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonus were not originally part of the same trilogy, though they do feature some of the same characters and story lines.
4. Aristotle, who wrote extensively on the nature of fine tragedy, praised Oedipus the King highly. It remains the most famous of the surviving Greek tragedies.
5. Oedipus at Colonus was performed posthumously at the dramatic festival overseen by Sophocles’ grandson, who may have completed the play.