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Sophocles
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The son of Sophilus, a well-to-do industrialist, Sophocles was born in Colonus near Athens and grew up in the most brilliant intellectual period of Athens. Nothing concrete is known about his education, though it is known that he had a reputation for learning and esthetic taste. He was well versed in Homer and the Greek lyric poets, and because of his industriousness he was known as the "Attic Bee." His music teacher was a great man of the old school, Lamprus. Tradition says that because of his beauty and talent Sophocles was chosen to lead the male chorus at the celebration of the Greek victory at Salamis.
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Despite his reputation for conservatism, Sophocles was an extraordinarily innovative artist. He is said to have introduced the third speaking actor to the Greek theater sometime around 460; Aeschylus did not use a third actor until the Oresteia in 458. Sophocles ... increased chorus from 12 to 15 members, wrote a treatise (now lost) on the use of the chorus in drama, and enhanced the role of scene painting. Sophocles also was the first playwright not to act in his own plays, owing to the weakness of his voice; remember, Greek drama was performed outdoors before 16,000 people, so a strong voice was essential for an actor. He is also said to have commented on his peers. He remarked that Aeschylus did the right thing in drama without knowing what he was doing, and, comparing himself to Euripides, he commented, "I portray men as they ought to be, Euripides as they are."
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One of Sophocles’ more accomplished dramas, the Electra has always generated a good deal of scholarly debate. This edition, the first full-scale commentary on any play of Sophocles since the nineteenth century, explores afresh longstanding controversies such as the moral status of the killing of Clytemnestra, while ... investigating many subjects which have traditionally attracted less attention, such as the place of rhetoric within the drama, the use of typical scenes, and allusions to epinician poetry. It provides original metrical analyses of the lyrical sections of the play and a completely revised Greek text. New research on the papyri, mediaeval manuscripts and printed editions has led to a more accurate apparatus criticus than ever before, with many conjectures attributed to their rightful owners for the first time.
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According to one possibly apocryphal, but at least 2,000-year-old, tale, Sophocles' son sued to have the playwright declared incompetent so he could assume his father's estate. The 90-year-old Sophocles read to the court passages from the play he was writing at the time, "Oedipus at Colonus," and the judge dismissed the case.
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Sophocles's Oedipus Rex is probably the most famous tragedy ever written. It is known by a variety of titles (the most common being Oedipus Rex), including Oedipus the King and Oedipus Tyrannus. Sophocles first produced the play in Athens around 430 B.C. at the Great Dionysia, a religious and cultural festival held in honor of the god Dionysus, where it won second prize. In the play Oedipus, King of Thebes, upon hearing that his city is being ravaged by fire and plague, sends his brother-in-law Creon to find a remedy from the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. When Creon returns Oedipus begins investigating the death of his predecessor, Laius, and discovers through various means that he himself was the one who had unknowingly killed Laius and then married his own mother, Jocasta. Jocasta commits suicide, Oedipus blinds himself, takes leave of his children, and is led away.
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In addition to crafting sophisticated tragedies for the Greek theater, Sophocles introduced several important innovations to the stage. Most important, he broke the tradition of using only two actors; adding a third resulted in more complicated relationships and intricate dialogue among characters. As individual actors took center stage more often, Sophocles reduced the role of the chorus. This shift placed even more emphasis on the actors, although the chorus remained important as a means of commenting on the action and establishing its tone. Sophocles was ... the first dramatist to write plays with specific actors in mind, a development that many later playwrights, including Shakespeare, exploited usefully. But without question Sophocles’ greatest contribution to drama was Oedipus the King, which, it has been argued, is the most influential drama ever written.
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