Life and Times of Sophocles

1
Life and Times of Sophocles
Genus
Mors
496-495 B.C.
406 B.C.

• Marc Breidenbaugh

2
496- Born at Colonus
3

• 478-Delian League Founded

468- First dramatic performance of Sophocles

• 456- Death of Aeschylus

4
443/442- Becomes one of 10 Hellnotamias
441/440- Elected Strategos along with Pericles
Samian War
431- 404 Peloponnesian War
5
430- Performance of Oedipus Rex
427- Elected Strategos along with Nicias
421- Peace of Nicias

• 420- Sophocles receives cult of Asclepius on its
  arrival in Athens.

6
415/413- Athenian expedition to Syracuse, Sicily
(2nd stage)
429-410 Performance of Electra/ Performance of
The Women of Trachis
413 -Decelean War, or Ionian War (3rd stage)

• 413/411- Elected to Probouloi (after defeat of
  Athens at Sicily)

7
411- Council of the Four Hundred

• 409- Performance of Philoctetes first prize)

406- Death of Sophocles
404- Athens Surrenders in Peloponnesian War
8
Surviving Plays of Sophocles

• 450-442 - Performance of Ajax
• 442 442 - Performance of Antigone (1st place)
• 429 ------ Performance of Oedipus Rex (2nd
  place)
• (???) ---- Performance of Electra
• (???) ---- Performance of Women of Trachis
• 409 ------ Performance of Philoctetes (1st
  place)
• 401 ---- Posthumous Performance of Oedipus at
  Colonus (1st place)

9
His Writings

• Introduction of 3rd Actor
• Expanded chorus size from 12 to 15
• Introduced the use of Painted Scenery
  (skenographia)
• Used Diptych style

• Wrote in Greek
• Ode to Herodotus and a treatise, On the Chorus
• Wrote 123 Plays- Fragments Survive

10
(450-442) Ajax

• Ajax-hero of Trojan War
• He is driven to treachery and eventually his own
  death.
• Concerns Achilles and Odysseus

11
442 Antigone 429-Oedipus Rex 401-Oedipus at
Colonus Theban Plays

• Concern the fate of Thebes during and after the
  reign of King Oedipus
• Each of the plays relates to the tale of the
  mythological Oedipus,
• According to the legend, order should be
• 1) Oedipus Rex, 2) Oedipus at 3) Colonus,
  Antigone
• Not a connected Trilogy

12
(429-410) Electra

• Concerns Electra and Orestes avenging their
  father Agamemnon, murdered by Aegisthus and
  Clytaemnestra

13
(429-410)The Women of Trachis

• Concerns Deianeira accidental killing of Heracles
  after 12 labors
• Named for the Trachinian women who make up the
  chorus

14
(409)Philoctetes

• Retells story of Philoctetes, who was abandoned
  by Greeks on their way to the Trojan War
• Eventually goes to Troy to fight

15
Citations

• http//ancienthistory.about.com/od/sophocles/p/Sop
  hocles.htm
• http//books.google.com/books?idy_DTllltXBQCpgP
  A66lpgPA66dqsophoclespriestofHalonsourceb
  lots5RlnFlBK6-sigbosL2iI-HcKoGR0v0Fhx5yWTJ9oh
  leneiv0wAS7iNCsqsngehtNUQsaXoibook_resultc
  tresultresnum2ved0CAsQ6AEwAQvonepageqsoph
  ocles20priest20of20Halonffalse
• http//www.theatredatabase.com/ancient/sophocles_0
  04.html
• http//www.crystalinks.com/sophocles.html
• http//www.wsu.edu8080/dee/GREECE/PELOWARS.HTM