Essays on Sophocles

497/496 BC

406/405 BC

Tragedian

Tragedy

• Ajax
• Antigone
• Oedipus Rex
• Electra
• Oedipus at Colonus

• “Fortune is not on the side of the faint-hearted.”
• “One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day has been.”
• “The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.”
• “You can kill a man but you cant kill a idea.”

c.496 BCE - 406 BCE

Sophocles, with Aeschylus and Euripides, is one of classical Athens’s three great tragic playwrights. The best known of his 123 dramas is Oedipus the King.

Sophocles is thought to have written over 100 plays, but only seven fully survive today: Ajax, Antigone, Trachinian Women, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus. Trackers, a satyr play, exists only as a 400-line fragment.

Sophocles is credited with diverging from the typical format of a tragedy: he increased the number of speaking actors, increased the number of chorus members, and used painted scenery. He also made an impact on Aristotle, who references Oedipus Rex numerous times in his book Poetics.

“Leave me to my own absurdity.”
“You must remember that no one lives a life free from pain and suffering.”
“Yes it will be a grace if I die. To exist is pain. Life is no desire of mine anymore.”