Biographical information about the author:
Sophocles (496-406 B.C.) was a playwright in Greek theater and won awards for his written tragedies. He was born in Colonus in 496 B.C and his demise was in 406 B.C. He moved to the Athens and practice political theory. His first play to win an award was in 468 B.C at the age of twenty-eight, (beating Aeschylus) and is believed to have won twenty-four contests. Sophocles is considered one of the best playwrights of tragedies along with Aeschylus and Euripides. He wrote various plays for the Greek theater estimated to be around one hundred plays. Unfortunately most have been lost. Pieces of other plays still exist and it is within these pieces that a source of Sophocles being the first playwright
Greek Tragedy The religious and philosophical outlook of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides the three major Greek tragic playwrights and the outlook of each are reflected in his plays. In Aeschylus playwrights, one of his playwrights happens to be one in which the whole trilogy survives called the Oresteia and he also wrote a play called The Persians. Aeschylus who wrote primarily of war, and how hubris and arrogance can lead to disastrous results like in the Persians, which he wrote from the personal experience he saw in Persians defeat and Athenians win.
Pericles (495 BC-429 BC) was an Athenian statesman and strategos during the “Golden Age” of Athens. His father Xanthippus fought in the Persian wars and his mother Agariste belonged to the powerful Alcmaeonid family, so he was brought up with considerable wealth and power. Pericles placed much value into philosophy and the arts as a result and was even personal friends with famous philosophers such as Anaxagoras and Zeno.
Sophocles was born near Athens, Greece in 496 BC he was the son of Sophilus and Jocasta. Because his father was a wealthy member of their small community Sophocles had a educated and nice childhood. From a young age Sophocles's began to win awards for his many academic accomplishments. In his prime Sophocles entered competitions and his plays were brought to the attention of Athens where his playwriting career really took off. Some of his most popular plays and books include: Antigone (441 BC), Electra, Sophocles, Oedipus Rex (429 BC), Oedipus at Colonus, Ajax, Epigoni, and Philoctetes.
Every book, play, tv show, and movie has a hero of some sort. This could be a super hero, an epic hero, or a tragic hero. Aristotle defined a tragic hero as "a character in literature who makes a judgement error that inevitably leads to his or her own destruction". It has been argued for years who the tragic hero is in Sophocles' play Antigone, but the true tragic hero is Antigone because she is loyal to her family and she has suffered much more than she deserved.
So how would an ancient Greek tragedy and comedy hold up to his standard? Sophocles’s Oedipus Tyrannus and Aristophanes’s Clouds are both great plays but which is the superior work? Whereas both Oedipus Tyrannus and Clouds are fantastic works in their adherence to Poetics in terms of the similarity of their characters
Melanee Terrell Professor Ohayon HUM2210 11 October 2015 Antigone: Morals vs. Law Antigone is a play written by Sophocles, who is one of three ancient Greek tragedians. In the midst of Sophocles' most well-known plays are Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone. These plays follow the fall of the great king, Oedipus, and later the tragedies that his children suffer.
Sophocles lived from 496 to 406 B.C. He was the first playwright to have three across on stage at the same time. He was a conscious innovator in the theatre. He also increased the number of singers in the chorus. Sophocles wrote about partly mythical heroic era of Greek history.
he tragedy genre originated in ancient Greece for the worship of Dionysus or Bacchus. There were many grand festivals that were held for the revealing of many dissimilar tragic plays. One of the most well-known authors of the tragic genre was Sophocles. Sophocles presented many tragedies such as Oedipus, Antigone, Electra, and Ajax. Tragedies always have a tragic hero and a tragic flaw, some tragedies also have other important elements such as hubris, or parity.
In Oedipus The King by Sophocles the horrible events that transpired were influenced by the characters. However, the main cause was ultimately the gods. Sophocles wrote this play around 429 BC in Athens, Greece and was one of the most celebrated playwrights of the era. The play centers around a royal family and the hidden horrors of their relations to each other with Oedipus having unwittingly killed his own father and married his mother. Without the gods there would be no horror and the land would
Sophocles was the author of the two Greek tragedies: Antigone and Oedipus the King. Although written by the same person, they have their differences. Antigone deals with the conflict of age versus youth, while Oedipus the King deals with man versus fate. In Antigone, Creon is shown to be an undesirable king while in Oedipus the King, Oedipus is presented to be a respected king likes by the people. Lastly, Antigone focuses more on what is morally and ethically right while Oedipus the King focuses more on the idea of unawareness of a situation.
Sophocles had an enormous impact on Greek theater due to three theatrical innovations he made: the addition of a third actor, ending the custom of presenting tragedies as linked trilogies, and the increase of the chorus from twelve to fifteen. The three greatest classical tragedians are Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides, but Sophocles is known as the greatest dramatist in Western literature. Due to innovations he made to Greek theater and the plays he wrote, Sophocles is a more successful dramatist than Aeschylus and Euripides. He wrote 123 plays during his lifetime and of those, seven survive to this day. Sophocles surviving tragedies are still known to this day because of “Sophocles' technical skill as a dramatist, unforgettable characters,
Some of his more popular pieces include “Medea,” “Bacchae,” “Electra,” and “Hippolytus.” The inspiration from some of his tragedies were drawn from the pain inflicted upon him during the Peloponnesian War. Many people have complimented Euripides on his work. Edward Blaiklock, a British author who also studied ancient Greek, has dubbed Euripides as “the most historically
His plays are based on the combination of different kinds of humor and political and social satire. One of his most important plays is Lysistrata. In the lysistrata, it is about women withholding sex from their husbands to end the Peloponnesian war. Lysistrata persuades the women to not have sex with their husbands to basically have some peace, but it only caused problems between the sexes. This play shows how much mind control women have over men.
Studying plays as Oedipus Rex and Hamlet is a vital part of studying literature since they are timeless works that teach many lessons. Moreover, they still have some concepts to be unmasked by critics of literature. According to Aristotle tragedy is ''a form of drama based on human misery that arouses in its audience feelings of pity and fear'' and each tragedy must have a tragic hero. Tragedy began in the ancient Greek theatre where tragedies were performed in late March to early April at an annual religious festival in honour of Dionysus. () One of the most famous tragedies in that period is Oedipus Rex which was written by Sophocles.
Through the outcomes of both plays, the audience is able to receive some hard truths and be confronted with reality. In their respective ways, the two plays reveal truths about the human experience in the way that the plays are symbolic of very real human or societal problems. Sophocles’ Greek tragedy, Oedipus Rex, has a fateful plot with a tragic ending. His play follows the conventions of tragedy, implementing plot, character development,