Sophocles

Born in 496 B.C. near Athens, Sophocles was the last one of the three great tragic poets. His plays were greatly influenced by Aeschylus. When competing with other playwrights, Aeschylus had never lost until he competed against a young Sophocles. Sophocles also showed great respect towards Euripides and upon hearing about his death, Sophocles had his chorus dress up in black in mourning for Euripides. He was often viewed as the most charming one of the three tragedians and his charm alone made him win over many admirers.
Sophocles’ tragedies started out as imitations of the ones written by Aeschylus but as he continued writing he started writing his plays in such a way that allowed him to express human character in a suitable manner. This meant that he tried to have the audience satisfied with how his characters were portrayed rather than creating characters in a way that satisfied himself. He is also described as infrequently introducing mental images in his audience so that when he does create imagery it becomes powerful and memorable. During his career as a tragic poet, Sophocles got the nickname “the Bee” because the ancient Greeks thought his words were so sweet that they his lips must have been “smeared with honey.”(Haigh 161). I thought that this was surprising because as a tragic poet, his plays had to deal with a lot of negatively-perceived emotions like pain, suffering and misery. His most famous tragedy Oedipus Rex has a lot of dark elements that it just added to my surprise.