Sophocles (c. 496–406 BCE) was an Athenian tragedian, public figure and near contemporary of Pericles. Ancient tradition credits him with more than one hundred plays, of which seven survive complete. His drama is known for concentrated structure, ethical pressure and characters who discover the truth only when it has become unbearable.
The Theban Plays collects Sophocles’ tragedies about Oedipus and his children: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. They were not written as a trilogy, but together they form the most influential family disaster in Western drama.
