Seven Plays

Sophocles, 495-406 BCE, was born at Colonus near Athens. The time of his death is fixed by the allusions to it in Aristophanes’ Frogs & in the Muses, both produced in 405 before Athens’ capture. The life event most authenticated is his appointment at age 55 as a general serving with Pericles.

The 7 tragedies owe their preservation to selections made for educational purposes in Alexandrian times. No example of his earliest manner has survived. His poems, elegies, paeans etc. have all perished. Of 100+ dramas only Ajax, Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Electra, The Trachinian Women, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus remain. Sophocles’ estimation depends upon the mode in which his treatment of destiny is conceived. He’s often praised for skilful construction, but the secret of his skill depends largely on the profound way in which the central situation in each of his fables has been conceived & felt. Concentration is tragedy’s distinguishing note. It’s by greater concentration that he’s distinguished.