c. 496 B.C.E.–c. 405 B.C.E.

Tragic playwright

Role in Government and Religion.

In his play Oedipus at Colonus, Athens' most prize-winning tragic playwright paid tribute to his native village Colonus, just outside of Athens, where he was born sometime around 496 B.C.E. He was the son of Sophilus and had connections to the most important political figures of his day, from Cimon until his ostracism in 461 B.C.E. and Pericles afterward. Sophocles served as a treasurer of Athens and as a strategos or general, one of the highest elected offices in the state, though his contemporary Ion of Chios reported that he had no particular talent at politics. He was also called upon to serve as a state adviser after the catastrophic Athenian defeat at Syracuse in 413 B.C.E. Ancient sources report that he was a cult priest and worshipper of Asclepius...