Biography
Sophocles was born in Colonus, a village just outside Athens, into a wealthy family during the height of Athenian power. He lived through the Golden Age — from the Persian Wars to the catastrophic Peloponnesian War — and his career spans virtually the entire 5th century BCE.
He revolutionized Greek tragedy: he introduced the third actor (expanding dramatic possibilities beyond Aeschylus's two), pioneered the use of painted scenery, and shifted focus from the chorus to individual characters wrestling with impossible choices. He reportedly wrote over 120 plays and won first prize at the festival of Dionysus at least 18 times — a record never matched.
Only 7 complete plays survive. The Theban plays (Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone) are the most famous, but Ajax, Electra, Philoctetes, and Women of Trachis are all in the canon. Aristotle held up Oedipus Rex as the model of perfect tragic structure — a judgment that still holds.