Sophocles was born near Athens, in the small town of Colonus, around 495 BC. His ninety-year life span coincided with the rise and fall of the Athenian Golden age. The son of Sophillus, a wealthy armor maker, Sophocles was provided with the best traditional aristocratic education available in Athens (Page 3). Very little is known about Sophocles as a youth, although one public record suggests his participation in The Chorus of Youths, chosen to celebrate the Athenian naval victory at Salamis, in 480 BC (Terrell 1). Much speculation exists around the life of Sophocles as a young man, but no definite record of his achievements can be found before 468 BC, the year he defeated Aeschylus in a dramatic competition. During his life as a dramatist, Sophocles won first prize about twenty times, in annual competitions usually held at the Theatre of Dionysus, and was awarded second prize many times as well (Page 3). In addition to his theatrical accomplishments, Sophocles also served on the Board of Generals, a committee that administered civil and military affairs in Athens. He supposedly denied more illustrious positions concerning politics, and spent the majority of his time as a dramatist and civil servant until his death in 406 BC (Terrell 1). The contributions made by Sophocles to dramatic technique were numerous, and two of his innovations were especially important. He increased the number of actors from two to three, thus lessening the influence of the chorus and making possible greater complication of the plot and the more effective portrayal of character by contrast and juxtaposition; and he changed the Aeschylean fashion of composing plays in groups of three, each of them part of a central myth or theme, and made each play an independent psychological and dramatic unity (Babette 2).In his lifetime, Sophocles composed more than one hundred plays, of which seven complete tragedies and fragments of eighty or ninety others are p...
