Sophocles (center) amidst a few of the tragedy masks that have served him well in his career
SOPHOCLES WINS AGAIN!
2 weeks ago
by Julia Mayfields
Thebes NewsDesk Arts and Leisure
ATHENS - That Athenian playwriting wonder, Sophocles, has done it again. In the City Dionysia, the largest play competition in Greece, the bearded master has once again captured first place.
Sophocles is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work is likely to remain popular in the centuries and millennia to come (the others being Aeschylus, whose Orestia trilogy continues to be an “oldie but goody”, and Euripides, whose Medea is certainly shaking things up in the theater world). Sophocles’ first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides. By the time he retires, it looks like he will have written over 120 plays (the most famous including Ajax, Antigone - [a work-in-progress], Trachinian Women, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus[a work-in-progress]). He has competed in around 30 City Dionysia play competitions and has won perhaps 24, never receiving lower than second place.
Sophocles has critically influenced the development of drama. His works tell an entire story in one play (where Aeschylus would take three) and include a third actor (the first playwright to do so, introducing the ever enticing dramatic triangle and reducing the importance of the chorus). In The Poetics, one of the seminal works about western drama, Aristotle frequently cites Sophocles’ plays as the perfection of the dramatic form.
Sophocles has most recently announced his plans to dramatize the saga of our own tale of woe, centered around the house of Oedipus (reportedly to be in three volumes -Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone). These plays will most likely work together to address issues such as the power of the gods over our lives and duty.
Personally, this reporter cannot wait to see what the master dramatist does with our own unfolding saga of individual and state rights!
