*SOFOKLH/S, son of Sophillus of Colonus c.495 to c.405BC

 Sophocles was born in 497/6 or 496/5BC in Colonus, a suburb of Athens. He first competed in tragic competition in 468BC, and won first prize over Aeschylus. By all accounts he was attractive and well-liked all his life. His popularity led to civic honors and offices. These offices include service as general (strategos) at least once, with Pericles in 441/0. His piety led him to help found the cult of Asclepius at Athens, for which action he himself was honored with a hero-cult, under the name of Dexion, after his death. His wife was named Nicostrate, and his son Iophon became a noteworthy tragic dramatist in his own right, as did his grandson Sophocles.

 Sophocles wrote over 120 plays, of which only seven survive complete. He won either 20 or 24 times and never came in below second place. He is credited with adding the third actor to tragedy and increasing the chorus from twelve to fifteen members. He also made unknown advances in stagework (skenographia) and wrote a work on the theater (*PERI\ XO/ROU). We have little reliable information about the dates of the surviving plays, but the traditional ordering runs as follows:

Large sections of a satyr play, *I)/XNEUTAI Trackers, turned up earlier this century. Many other plays exist in fragmentary form and the titles of nearly all of them are known.