SOPHOCLES

BIOGRAPHY
Sophocles was born in 497 BC in Colonos,Athens. Although according to some sources he was
the son of an aristocratic family, according to others, he was the son of a knife-maker.
He was very handsom and a great athlet. He kept studying the plays of Aeschylos and many
times he defeated him in the contests.
During his militairy service he attained the rank of General.
He was teaching three separate tragedies instead of one trilogy. He increased the number of
hypocrits(actors) from two to three( Thespis had imported the first hypocrit in the dithyrambic
drama and Aeschylos the second one in his tragedies). He also increased the members of the
chorus from 12 to 15.His language was so harmonic and beautiful that Aristoteles said that
"honey was dropping of his mouth"
At the end of his life he was dragged before the jury by his son Iofon, charged for dementia. In
the court he recited a part of his latest work, "Oedipus in Colonos". The judges admired his spirit
and found him innocent.
He died in Athens in 405 BC, after having written 123 dramas, of which only 7 are saved.
His works
1. The Tracchiniae (430 BC)
2. Antigone (442 BC)
3. Ajax (440 BC)
4. Electra (410 BC)
5. Philoctetes (409 BC)
6. Oedipus the Tyrant (407? BC)
7. Oedipus in Colonos (405 BC )

EURIPIDES
BIOGRAPHY
He was born in 480 BC in Halandri, Athens on the day of the battleship of Salamina.
His parents were very poor but he had a fine education, being a student of Anaxagoras
and a close friend to Socrates. He wrote 72 works, 19 of which are saved ( 18 tradgedies and
1 satiric drama: "The Cyclops")
He died violently in 406 in Pella, killed by wild dogs
His works
1. Rhesus (450 BC)
2. Alcestis (438 BC)
3. Medea (431 BC)
4. Heracles' children (430 BC)
5. Hippolytus (428 BC)
6. Hecuba (424 BC)
7. Andromache (427-424 BC)
8. The Suppliants (422 BC)
9. Heracles (422-416 BC)
10. Helectra (420-410 BC)
11. The Trojan Women (415 BC)
12. Helen (412 BC)
13. Ion (414-412 BC)
14. Iphigenia in Tauris (413-412 BC)
15. The Phoenician Womwn (410-409 BC)
16. Iphigenia in Avlis (410BC)
17. The Bacchae (410 BC)
18. The Cyclops (408 BC)
19. Orestes (408 BC)

AESCHYLUS
BIOGRAPHY
He was born in Elefsina in 525 BC. His father was Ephorion and he was descended from the glorious line
of Kodrites. His family was noble and wealthy. He participated in the battle of Marathon (490 BC)and in the
battleship of Salamina (480 BC)against the Persians, where he showed great braveness and got seriously
injured. He was awarded with 13 first prizes. As an acknowledgement to his work and his contribution to
thetheatre, the Athenians voted a law for the obligatory production of his works.
Aeschylus died in Gela of Sicely in 455 BC. The tradition reports as a cause of his death the
fall of a turtle on his head. Only 7 of his 74 works are preserved today.
His works
1.The Persans (472 BC)

2.The seven against Thebes (467 BC)

3.The Suppliants (464 BC)

4.Agamemnon (458 BC)

5.The Libation - Bearers (458 BC)

6.Eumenides (458 BC)

7.Prometheus Bound (431 BC)

ARISTOPHANES

BIOGRAPHY

He was born in Athens in 452 BC. He had been writing since he was an adolescent but he was not allowed
to participate in the contests because of his age. Therefore he participated with the alias "Detalis" and he
won the first prize with "The Acharnians". His comedies were characterised by a great sense of humour.
He died in Aegina in 385 BC.

His works
1. The Acharnians

2. The Knights
3. The Wasps (422 BC)
4. Peace (421 BC)
5. The Clouds (419 BC)
6.The Birds (414 BC)
7. The Thesmophoriazoussae (411 BC)
8. The Frogs (405 BC)
9. The Ecclessiazoussae (390 BC)
10. Plutus (380 BC)

Seven against Thebes

Right after the exile of King Oedipus to mountain Kolonos, his son Eteocles became the
new king for a predefined period of one year. His brother Polynices was supposed to take the
throne, when the year passed but Eteocles refused to pass the authority to his brother. Polynices
left Thebes and found refuge to the city of Argos in the palace of king Adrastos. He married
Adrastos daughter and prepared a military campaign against Thebes, in order to gain the throne
he deserved. The troops of Argos have been leaded by seven generals (Polynices included) (the
tragedy was named after them : seven against Thebes).
Eteocles had sent a spy to Argos to get information about the enemy plans. The spy
returned and reported to his king about the campaign. Eteocles prepares the defense of Thebes,
addressing one warlord for each one of the seven gates of the city (he had kept one for himself).
In the battle he fought against his brother. The army of Thebes won the battle but both Eteocles
and Polynices died.
Kreon, their uncle took over the throne of Thebes and the prophecy about the horrible
fate of the family of Laios has come true.

ANTIGONE
From his unholy marriage to his mother Iokaste, Oedipus had four children: two boys, Eteocles
and Polynekes and two girls, Antigone and Ismene.
After the departure of Oedipus un self-exile in mountain Kithairon, his two sons agreed to rule in
Thebes in periods of one year each. Eteocles broke the agreement and refused to hand over the
power to his brother Polynekes, who raged, leaves Theabes and goes to Argos, where he gets
married to the daughter of Adrastos, King of Argos. After a while Polynekes with the army of
Argos arrives in Thebes in order to start a war.The two brothers fight and kill each other and the
war ends.
New King becomes Kreon, who commands that the body of Polynekes should not be burried but
left to be eaten by dogs and vultures, for he prooved to be an enemy of the city, when the body of
Eteocles was burried properly as a city hero.
Antigone does not obey and burries the body of her brother, even though her sister Ismene
refuses to help her, fearing Kreon. As soon as Kreon finds out, what Antigone had done, he had
her arrested and burried her alive, in order to punish her in that cruel way.
Aimon, Kreon's son and also Antigone's husband to be, begs his father to let her live. Kreon
refuses to do him the favour and Aimon kills himself with a sword. When Euridice, Kreon's wife
heard the news, she killed herself too.
Kreon at the end mourns the death of the two members of his family.

Oedipus at Colonus
After having met his tragic destiny, Oedipus and his daughter Antigone reached the hamlet of
Colonus, near the city of Athens. Oedipus hears of the rivalry between his sons, Eteokles and
Polynikes and finds out that each want the remains of his dead body to secure their aims for the
throne.
He curses them to be killed by each other and arranges with King Theseus of Athens to be
allowed to reach the sacred ground. There, far away from the mortal eyes, his life is taken by the
gods and his body vanishes forever without a trace.