Sophocles (ca. 495/6–406 BCE)

AbstractBorn in Colonus just northwest of Athens ca. 496 bce, Sophocles’ contribution as one of Athens’ greatest playwrights, spanned one of the most innovative and dynamic periods in Athenian intellectual and political history. In 468 he won his first victory at the annual festival, City Dionysia, a competitive dramatic festival that drew over 15 000 pan‐Hellenic spectators. Of his approximately 123 dramas, Sophocles won first prize for an estimated 24, and never placed lower than second place in an annual competition, an unprecedented feat. Of his seven surviving plays only two can be reliably dated:Philoctetes, 409 andOedipus at Colonus, performed posthumously in 401. The other five, in order of composition, areAjax,Trachiniae, Antigone,Oedipus Tyrannus, and Electra,spanning roughly 449–411bce.