Greek dramatist who, with Aeschylus and
Euripides, is one of the three great
tragedians. He modified the form of tragedy
by introducing a third actor and developing
stage scenery. He wrote some 120 plays, of
which seven tragedies survive. These are
Antigone 441 BC, Oedipus Tyrannus, Electra,
Ajax, Trachiniae, Philoctetes 409 BC, and
Oedipus at Colonus 401 BC. Sophocles lived in
Athens when the city was ruled by Pericles, a
period of great prosperity. His many friends
included the historian Herodotus. In his
tragedies, human will plays a greater part
than that of the gods, as in the plays of
Aeschylus, and his characters are generally
heroic. This is perhaps what he meant when he
said of Euripides `He paints men as they are'
and of himself `I paint men as they ought to
be'. A large fragment of his satyric play (a
tragedy treated in a grotesquely comic
fashion) Ichneutae also survives.