Remembering Sophocles

Sophocles lived a long life.  Born in 496 B.C.E. in Colonus, a village outside of Athens, Greece, he is considered one of the three greatest playwrights of classical Greek theater.  Not only a playwright, but he held political and military offices in fifth-century B.C.E. Athens.  Only seven of his complete plays have are still around, but he wrote more than 100 and won first place in 24 contests.  He found his fame by defeating the playwright Aeschylus in 468 B.C.E.  He is the one known for changing Greek drama by adding a third actor, paying greater attention to the character development, and reducing the role of the chorus.  His best known plays are Antigone, Oedipus Rex, and Oedipus at Colonus.  These three Thebian plays were explained best by my Professor, they are a modern day Kennedy family.  I love it!  Sophocles's other complete works are Philoctetes, Electra, Ajax, and Trachinian Women.  This man shifted the way we are entertained as an audience, and how we as actors have a monologue!  Sophocles died 406 B.C.E.
OEDIPUS REX
GENRE: Tragic Drama
SETTING: The royal house of Thebes
CLIMAX: Oedipus gouges his eyes out
PROTAGONIST: Oedipus
ANTAGONIST: Tiresias; Creon
WRITTEN: 429 B.C.E.  Athens, Greece
The tragedy of Oedipus was nothing new to Sophocles audience.  Greek playwrights often got their material from a cycle of four epic poems, the Thebian Cycle, which was already ancient in the fifth-century.  So the audience knew what was going to happen to Oedipus, it was the interaction between the characters that would keep them engaged.  Sophocles made Oedipus a real person, a man with Athenian leadership, and someone who desired to find out the truth.  These things are what Sophocles's audience loved, especially because it leads to destruction!