In 495 B.C. there was a child born about a mile outside of Athens. This child was to be named Sophocles. He was a boy whose father was a wealthy merchant. He now had the opportunity to enjoy all of life's greatest expectations in the Greek empire. Being that he was from a wealthy family, he had the chance to study all of the arts. By the time Sophocles reached his late teens, he was already known for his charm and elegance and was honored by being chosen to lead a challenging group of young men at a celebration of the victory of Salamis. When Sophocles reached the late twenties, he was ready to compete in the City Dionysia, which is a celebration held every year at the theater of Dionysus in which new plays are presented all of the time. This was to show how successful Sophocles was in his acting career. During his first competition, Sophocles had the honor of competing against the great Aeschylus himself and defeated him taking first place. There would be many more plays to follow this accomplishment and Sophocles would walk home with nothing less than a second place.
	Sophocles, noted as being a talented actor, performed in many of his own plays. In one of his plays called, "The Woman Washing Clothes," he performed a juggling act that was talked about all over town for many years because the audience was so fascinated. But before you knew it Sophocles was to take another route and end his acting career to venture elsewhere. For many years Sophocles served as a dictated priest in the service of two heroes named Alcon and Asclepius, who was the god of medicine. Not only did he do this but he also served on the Board of Generals which was a committee that administered civil and military affairs in Athens. For some time after that, Sophocles was the director of the Treasury. This was where Sophocles controlled the funds of the association of states which were to be known as the Delian Confederacy. Being one of the great innovators of the theatre, Sophocles was the first playwright to add a third actor to his plot. In doing this, he annulled the trilogic form. For example, Aeschylus used three tragedies to explain a single story. Sophocles preferred to make each tragedy a complete entry in itself.
Woodard, Thomas. Introduction. In Sophocles: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Thomas Woodard. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
Woodard, Thomas. Introduction. In Sophocles: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Thomas Woodard. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
Woodard, Thomas. Introduction. In Sophocles: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Thomas Woodard. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
Jaeger, Werner. “Sophocles’ Mastery of Character Development.” In Readings on Sophocles, edited by Don Nardo. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1997.
After her mother committed suicide, her father died and her brothers fought until they killed each other, Antigone projects her strong character with interesting ways of showing it. As the main character with strong values and a stubborn way, she follows the laws of god, without minding the consequences. Antigone is a strong willed woman who wins the respect of the audience by the inner strength and resistance of manipulation she has, showing the potential of human kind. She becomes a heroine with noble qualities of mind, heart and soul because she is willing to sacrifice her life, doing what she believes it is right. With a sense of family ties, she is an ideal for humanity, the issue is that she must burry her brother Polynices with an appropriate ceremony since she believes it is the last right for every human being.
In Sophocles’ Oedipus The King, King Oedipus of Thebes is confronted. and strangely obsessed with the mystery of who killed Laios. former king of Thebes, for a great plague has overtaken the city of. Thebes because of this murder. During his quest for the truth, he begins to discover that the answer to his query is also the answer to another disturbing mystery about himself, who am I?
Sophocles’ background influenced him to write Antigone. One important influence on the drama was the author’s life in the “golden era” of Athens during fifth century BCE. In that time, Athens was experiencing much change in all facets, and drama was a major factor in Athenian culture. In his essay “Sophocles,” Ed Downey reports that Sophocles was born at the beginning of the “golden era” in Athens and lived a long life influenced by “the artistic and cultural achievements in the ancient Greek world”. Sophocles was a wealthy and highly educated, “happy man.” As a young man, Sophocles began his playwright career, eventually becoming one of the greatest writers in history although only seven of his works are still intact (1). Similarly, the setting
Sophocles was able to incorporate Poetics in his tragedy of Antigone. We see two different characters, moved with two different purposes: one ethical and one pathetic. Through the complication and unraveling we see how Antigone embodies the fundamentals of what a Greek tragedy is.
In ancient Greece, plays were more then simply a form of entertainment. "Athenian drama was supported and financed by the state. (...)Greek theater was directed at the moral and political education of the community." (Kennedy and Gioia, pgs 1357-1363) Sophocles understood this, and dissipated any pollyanic view of society by presenting us with plays that were intended to teach. Sophocles's Oedipus the King issued a warning for those who foolishly believed that they could challenge the forces of nature. Sophocles was known for presenting characters that are fluid not static. So it should come as no surprise that the Oedipus the reader encounters at the outset of the play, an extraordinary leader, but one who's pride has lead him to challenge his fate, has changed by the end of the play. He comes to realize that all his efforts to change the outcome of his life were acts of futility. We are shown a man who has finally accepted divine will and though now fallen from high estate is uplifted in moral dignity. (Kennedy and Gioia Pg 1364-1365)
Werner Jaeger in “Sophocles’ Mastery of Character Development” pays the dramatist the very highest compliment with regard to character development:
Information about lifes of Sophocles and Euripides are very limited and hard to verify. However, many sources match about following information about their biographies. Sophocles was born at 497 or 496 BCE in Colonus Hippius, now a part of Athens. His father was a wealthy merchant and weapon producer and an important figure in their society. So, Sophocles had the opportunity of taking the traditional aristocratic education and studying art in his early age which was a pr...
Woodard, Thomas. Introduction. In Sophocles: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Thomas Woodard. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
The ineffaceable impression which Sophocles makes on us today and his imperishable position in the literature of the world are both due to his character-drawing. If we ask which of the men and women ofGreek tragedy have an independent life in the imagination apart from the stage and from the actual plot in which they appear, we must answer, ‘those created by Sophocles, above all others’ (36).
Sophocles. Four Plays by Sophocles. Trans. Thomas H. Banks. New York: Oxford University Press, 1966.
Sophocles was born around 497 BC and died around 406 BC. He played a large role in the development of Greek culture and theater. He along with the two other most famous tragedy playwrights, Euripides and Aeschylus, are still known today as the greatest of all time. Sophocles was said to be born in a town not far from Athens known as Colonus. In his early years, Sophocles wrote music and would often perform solos at contests. Sophocles was married two time in his life and had two sons by the names of Lophon and Agathon. When Oedipus Rex premiered in Greek theaters, many people enjoyed the play. Aristotle even praised the play by explaining that the imagery and plot were merged very smoothly into one. Sophocles is also credited for writing Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus along with many other famous plays. (http://www.egs.edu/library/sophocles/biography/).