Authors life

• Sophocles was born about 496BCE at Colonus, a village just outside of Athens, Greece.
• His father, Sophillus, was a wealthy weapons-maker and a leading citizen.
• Like other Greek boys from wealthy families, Sophocles studied poetry, music, dancing, and gymnastics — subjects regarded as the basis of a well-rounded education for a citizen.
• The young Sophocles showed great skill at music and dancing. In fact, at age 15, he won the great honor of leading the boys' chorus in the victory paean (joyful song) celebrating the Athenian naval victory over the Persians at the battle of Salamis. 
• Sophocles lived during the Classical Period (500 to 400 B.C.), a time of transition for Greece, when political and cultural events were changing and shaping Athenian culture. 
• Sophocles probably also studied under the Greek playwright Aeschylus. If so, then Sophocles' first dramatic success had a very personal significance. In 468 B.C., his play Triptolemus took first prize for tragedy, while Aeschylus' play came in second.
• Besides his contributions as playwright, Sophocles served as a diplomat, general, and even a priest of Alscepius, a minor god of healing.
• In 443 B.C., the great Athenian leader Pericles chose Sophocles to be treasurer of the Delian Confederation. 
• In 440 B.C., Sophocles served as a general in the siege of Samos, an island that challenged the authority of Athens. 
• He later took part in a special commission to investigate the Athenian military defeat in Sicily in 413 B.C
• His death in 406 B.C. inspired a national cult that worshipped him as a cultural hero at a shrine dedicated to his memory.
• Originally produced around 445 B.C., Ajax tells the story of the legendary Trojan War hero who is driven mad by the vengeful goddess Athena.
•  In Antigone (440 B.C.), Sophocles dramatizes a tragic conflict between human and divine law in the story of Oedipus' daughter and King Creon. 
• Oedipus the King (430 B.C.), generally regarded as Sophocles' masterpiece, presents the myth of Oedipus, the man fated to kill his father and marry his mother.