Greek
Sophocles was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, author of Oedipus Rex, Antigone, and Electra. His plays, with their masterful structure, profound moral questions, and psychologically vivid characters, stand at the foundation of Western drama.
Sophocles (c. 497–406 BCE) lived through the golden age of Athens and won more dramatic competitions than any of his rivals. Of his roughly 120 plays, only seven survive complete, but those seven — including the three “Theban plays” (Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone), Electra, Ajax, Philoctetes, and The Women of Trachis — are among the supreme achievements of world literature.
Sophocles refined the form of Greek tragedy, adding a third actor, deepening characterization, and tightening dramatic structure. His plays grapple with fate and free will, justice and the gods, pride and suffering, and his protagonists — Oedipus, Antigone, Electra — remain archetypes of the human confrontation with destiny.
More than two millennia later, Sophocles continues to be staged, studied, and reinterpreted, his tragedies a permanent touchstone for drama, philosophy, and the understanding of the human condition.
by Sophocles
Oedipus, king of Thebes, investigates a plague afflicting his city. The investigation reveals that he himself is the cause — he has unknowingly killed his father and married his mother, fulfilling the prophecy he spent his life trying to avoid.
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by Sophocles
Antigone defies King Creon's decree forbidding the burial of her brother Polynices, a rebel who died attacking Thebes. Creon represents the state's authority; Antigone represents divine law and family obligation. The conflict between them destroys both.
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by Sophocles
Sophocles' searing tragedy of grief and revenge. Consumed by mourning for her murdered father Agamemnon and hatred for her mother Clytemnestra, Electra waits for her brother Orestes to return and exact vengeance — a relentless study of obsession, justice, and the cost of retribution.
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