Portrait of Sophocles
Meet the Author

Sophocles

Ancient Greek (Athenian) · c. 496 BCE–c. 406 BCE · Tragic playwright

Portrait: Wolfgang Sauber, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Athenian dramatist whose flawed, stubborn heroes made tragedy about character as much as fate.

2 StoryBites Editions2 Big Books2 Full texts
Start with Antigone → Browse the editions

Why read Sophocles?

Sophocles wrote about people who refuse to bend: a king who must know the truth whatever it costs, a young woman who defies the state to bury her brother. His plays are short, tightly built, and still argued over, because he gives both sides of every conflict real force. Read him to see where Western drama’s ideas about pride, conscience, and recognition begin.

A life in six dates

  1. c. 496 BCEBorn at Colonus, near Athens
  2. 468 BCEWins first prize at the Athenian dramatic festival
  3. c. 441 BCEAntigone
  4. c. 429 BCEOedipus Rex
  5. c. 406 BCEDies in Athens
  6. 401 BCEOedipus at Colonus staged after his death

Themes across the collection

PlaysTragedyGreekMythologySacrificeFate

The StoryBites Editions

Context that actually matters

Athenian drama festivalsPlays were performed in competition at religious festivals, before thousands of citizens, which made tragedy a public way of thinking through civic questions.
The chorusA group of citizens who sing between scenes, commenting on the action and voicing the community’s fears.
Survival of the playsHe is said to have written more than a hundred plays, but only seven complete tragedies survive.

Reading the plays and snagging on the language? A Glossary of Common Shakespearean Words →

Influence

Echoes of Sophocles run through Jean Racine, Jean Anouilh, Seamus Heaney, among many others.