The Relevance of Sophocles to Today’s World :: Biography Biographies Essays

The Relevance of Sophocles to Todays WorldA play is meant to entertain. A play that amuses the audience is considered a comedy, and a play that saddens is classified as a tragedy. Sophocles wrote tragedies about prevalent people and their interaction with fate. All of Sophocles major characters posses a heroic flaw. A heroic flaw is a trait that brings both good and dingy events upon the character (Magill 3). Sophocles use of heroic flaws, the irony between a prediction and a characters attempt to avoid it, his definition of what makes someone great, and his view of laws be the reasons why his plays are still read almost two deoxyguanosine monophosphate years after they were writ hug drug. Sophocles was born in Colonus, Greece in 496 b.c.e. At the snip of his birth, there was a legend about an exiled Theban king, Oedipus. It was said that Oedipus disappeared somewhere around Colonus, and because of this he protected the area (Magill 1). This tale was the source of triad of Sop hocles greatest plays Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone (Romilly 2). Sophocles involvement in theatre started at a young age. He sang in a chorus celebrating an Athenian naval battle. As an adult, Sophocles was credited with playing the lyre, a musical instrument, and he also played the lead type in one of his plays. but as he aged, he stopped appearing on academic degree because of his weakened voice. This ended the Greek custom of playwrights playing the lead role in their own plays (Magill 1). Sophocles won his first award for his plays at the feast of Dionysius in 648b.c.e. The other contender for this award was Aeschylus, an older and much experienced Greek playwright. A legend about this first victory states that because of elevated tensions over the competition, ten Athenian generals presented Sophocles the award instead of the customary ten government officials. Sophocles went on to win this award twenty more times, more frequently than any other playw right. When he did not win, he came in second. He never came in last place (Magill 2). A carriage in the government was a symbol of a persons status in society. When Sophocles plays were at the peak of their popularity, he served as the peak of the treasury and as a general for the city of Athens (Magill 2). Sophocles power, popularity, and the avaritia of his eldest son provide an insight into how he viewed himself.