Sophocles was born just outside Athens, in 496 BC, and lived ninety
years. His long life spanned the rise and decline of the Athenian
Empire; he was a friend of Pericles, and though not an active
politician he held several public offices, both military and civil.
Sophocles wrote over a hundred plays for the Athenian theater, and
is said to have come first in twenty-four contests. Only seven of
his tragedies are now extant, these being Ajax, Antigone, Oedipus
the King, Women of Trachis, Electra, Philoctetes, and the
posthumous Oedipus at Colonus. He died in 406 BC.
Pat Easterling was Regius Professor of Greek in Cambridge from 1994
until her retirement in 2001; before that she taught in Manchester,
Cambridge and London (UCL). Her main field of research is Greek
literature, particularly tragedy; she also has a special interest
in the survival of ancient texts and the history of performance;
her most recent book is Greek and Roman Actors- aspects of an
ancient profession (Cambridge 2002), which she co-edited with Edith
Hall. She is currently writing a commentary on Sophocles' for the
series Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics, of which she is a
general editor.
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