Sophocles

Hello from ancient Greece! My name is Sophocles, and I was a playwright who loved to tell stories that made people think and feel. I was born around the year 496 BCE in a small village called Colonus, not far from the magnificent city of Athens. My family was wealthy, which meant I was very fortunate to receive a wonderful education. I learned how to play music and, most importantly, how to write. From a young age, I was fascinated by the epic tales of our gods and heroes, full of adventure and difficult choices. When I was just a teenager, our city won a great victory in a battle, and I was given the incredible honor of leading a chorus of boys to sing songs of celebration for all of Athens to hear. It was a proud moment that I never forgot, and it sparked my love for performing and sharing stories with my fellow citizens.

In Athens, the stage was my world. Every year, our city held a huge festival called the City Dionysia to honor the god Dionysus. It was a time of great celebration, and the most exciting part was the playwriting competition. Playwrights from all over would present their new plays, and a winner would be chosen. For years, I watched the famous playwright Aeschylus win, and I dreamed of one day seeing my own stories on that stage. In the year 468 BCE, I finally got my chance. I entered the competition for the very first time with a set of my plays. The moment the judges announced my name as the winner was unbelievable. I had beaten the great Aeschylus! My plays were known as tragedies, but that doesn't mean they were only sad. They were exciting stories about powerful kings, brave heroes, and determined queens who faced enormous challenges. My characters had to make tough decisions that explored important ideas like bravery, justice, and fate. I wanted the audience to wonder, 'What would I do if I were in their shoes?'.

I was always thinking of new ways to make the theater more exciting for the audience. Before me, plays usually only had two actors speaking on stage at one time. I had the idea to add a third actor, which allowed for more complex conversations and surprising twists in the story. I also thought the stage should help the audience imagine where the story was taking place, so I began using painted scenery to create backgrounds like palaces or dark caves. Over my long career, I wrote more than 120 plays. Two of my most famous stories are still told today. Around 442 BCE, I wrote Antigone, a play about a brave young woman who must choose between the laws of the king and the laws of the gods. And perhaps my most famous play of all, Oedipus Rex, which I wrote around 429 BCE, is a gripping mystery about a king who slowly uncovers a terrible secret about his own past. The people of Athens seemed to enjoy my work, and I was honored to win the top prize at the festival more than 20 times.

While writing was my greatest passion, it wasn't the only way I served my city. I loved Athens deeply and believed it was my duty to help it thrive. I was elected as a strategos, which is a type of general, helping to lead our city. I also helped manage the city’s money to make sure it was used wisely for the good of the people. In addition to these roles, I served as a priest, helping to honor our gods. I lived during a very special time in history known as the Golden Age of Athens. It was a period of peace and great learning, and I was lucky to be friends with some of the most brilliant people of my time, including the great leader of Athens, Pericles. It was a privilege to contribute to the city that gave me so much inspiration for my stories and to work alongside others who were building a better world.

I lived a very long and fortunate life, to be about 90 years old. Over the many centuries since my time, most of my 120 plays were sadly lost. However, seven of them survived completely, and I am so proud that they are still performed in theaters all around the world. Stories like Antigone and Oedipus Rex continue to be read by students and watched by audiences thousands of years after I first wrote them. My hope was always to create stories that would make people think about big questions and understand themselves a little better. Knowing that my plays still do that today is the greatest prize a writer could ever ask for.