The History of Ancient Greece Podcast: 051

In this episode, we discuss the life, theatrical innovations, and tragic works of the second great Athenian playwright, Sophocles; and the historicity and some of the major themes of his seven surviving plays, which include Antigone, Ajax, Oedipus Rex, The Women of Trachis, Philoctetes, Electra, and Oedipus at Colonus

497 BC - Sophocles is born

479 BC - 18-year-old Sophocles is chosen to lead the paean (a choral chant to a god), celebrating the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis

ca. 475-470 BC - Sophocles competes in his first Dionysia (unknown work)

468 BC - Sophocles wins his first victory at the Dionysia (unknown work) over Aeschylus; unusual in that Kimon and the other strategoi served as judges; Aeschylus and Sophocles dominate the dramatic competitions as rivals for the next decade

456 BC - Death of Aeschylus; Sophocles becomes preeminent playwright in Athens

443-442 BC - Sophocles served as one of the Hellenotamiai, or treasurers of Athena, who managed the finances of the city and the empire during the political ascendancy of Pericles

ca. 442-441 BC - Euripides wins his first victory at the Dionysia (unknown work); Sophocles stages trilogy with Antigone and Ajax (his oldest surviving plays)

441-440 BC - Sophocles, as one of the ten strategoi, served in Athens' campaign at Samos

431 BC - Aeschylus' son, Euphorion, wins first prize at the Dionysia (unknown work); Sophocles places second (unknown work); Euripides places third (trilogy with Medea)

429 BC - Sophocles stages trilogy with Oedipus Rex and takes second place; defeated by Aeschylus' nephew, Philokles (unknown work); third place is unknown

ca. 425-420 BC - Sophocles stages trilogy with Women of Trachis

420 BC - After Asklepios is introduced from Epidauros into the city of Athens, Sophocles welcomes and set up at his house an altar for the image of the god, in his guise as a serpent; for this, after his death, he was worshipped at a hero shrine on the western slope of the Acropolis, where he was given the posthumous epithet, Dexion, meaning "the Receiver"

413 BC - Sophocles is elected as one of the probouloi, or "commissioners," who responded to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian fleet in Sicily

409 BC - Sophocles stages trilogy with Philoctetes

ca. 409-406 BC - Sophocles stages trilogy with Electra

Winter 406/5 BC - Sophocles dies in Athens

401 BC - Sophocles' grandson (also named Sophocles) posthumously stages trilogy with his last completed and final surviving play, Oedipus at Colonus

Primary Sources:
Text/Sophocles' Antigone
Text/Sophocles' Ajax
Text/Sophocles' Oedipus the King
Text/Sophocles' The Trackers (fragmentary satyr play)
Text/Sophocles' The Women of Trachis

Text/Sophocles' Philoctetes
Text/Sophocles' Electra
Text/Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus