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‘Electra’
Sophocles
Major Dates concerning
Sophocles
► About
496BC
► 490
► 480
► 468
► 441/440
► 443-440
birth of Sophocles
war against Persia
second war against Persia
first writing contest,
beats Aeschylus
general in the Samian War
‘Antigone’
► 442
► About
► 431
► 430
► About
► About
► 409
► 406
► 401
Ajax
430
The Women of Trachis
Peloponnesian War
Plague in Athens
420
King Oedipus
425-413 Electra
Philoctetes
Death of Sophocles
Performance of Oedipus in
Colonus
Sophocles was one of three playwrights who
wrote plays during the golden age of Greek
theatre, in the 5th century BC. The two
other playwrights were Euripides and
Aeschylus. The three competed against
each other often in the annual Dionysia
drama festival. During this period
Sophocles was the most successful and he
won about twenty times. The three have
written plays based on the legend of
Electra and the history of the Mycenae
family. We are very fortunate to have three
surviving versions of the same story.
The tragic plays of Sophocles follow the standard pattern which was
analyzed by Aristotle a century later. The main features are that there
are three unities, unity of place, time and story, the use of a chorus of
15 members and the use of the three actors. The main events occur
off the stage with a messenger or character relating the event to the
audience. His plays focus on an event in the life of one person, the
protagonist, who is normally on stage throughout most of the play. He
or she is normally a member of a royal family or of noble birth. There
has to be a fatal flaw also so that the audience sympathises with the
protagonist.