The following biography was taken from The Longman Anthology of Drama and Theatre: A Global Perspective and Stages of Drama by Carl H. Klaus, Miriam Gilbert and Bradford S. Field, Jr.
Sophocles is recognized as the second of the great Greek tragedians (Aeschylus being the first and Euripides the third). Sophocles authored some 120 dramas, including Oedipus the King, Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonus, and won at least eighteen first prizes for playwriting in the City Dionysia - spring festivals held in honor of Dionysus in Greek city-states. One of the highlights of these annual events was the presentation of a series of tragic and comic plays.
Born in Colonus, Sophocles received an excellent education and at the age of 16 led the boys’ chorus in celebration of the victory over Persia. In his maturity he was a model Greek citizen, serving as imperial treasurer and state commissioner; he was twice elected to the office of general and was a priest of Asclepias, the Greek god of medicine.
Among his contributions to the development of theater are the introduction of the third actor, the invention of painted scenery, and the introduction of a new style of music. Stages of Drama expounds that "he increased the size of the chorus from twelve to fifteen members, he actually reduced its functions, confining its activities almost exclusively to choral odes and leaving it little opportunity to interact with the characters,” thereby placing greater emphasis on the individual.
Unlike Aeschylus, he rarely acted in his own plays, reputedly because of his weak voice. As a playwright, he was a master craftsman who carefully planned exposition and intricately developed complications to create moving recognition scenes – the Greek term is anagnorisis - and heartrending, often ironic, reversals - Greek term peripeteia. Both Sophocles’ diction and his use of irony are unmatched by his contemporaries.
Sophocles’ characters, unlike those of Aeschylus who are often characterized as “superhuman” or “godlike”, and those of Euripides, who are described as “realistic,” are idealized characters, drawn neither as gods nor as they are, but, in his own words, “as they ought to be.” Invariably they face choices and make decisions that lead them through suffering to self- realization. They represent the noblest achievements of the human spirit. The presence of the strong hand of fate and the undeniable existence and power of the gods is often present in Sophocles’ plays.
Sophocles
