num_pages: 460
description: Sophocles' innovative plays transformed Greek myths into dramas featuring complex human characters, through which he explored profound moral issues. Electra portrays the grief of a young woman for her father Agamemnon, who has been killed by her mother’s lover. Aeschylus and Euripides also dramatized this story, but the objectivity and humanity of Sophocles’ version provides a new perspective. Depicting the fall of a great hero, Ajax examines the enigma of power and weakness combined in one being, while the Women of Trachisportrays the tragic love and error of Heracles'; deserted wife Deianeira, and Philoctetes deals with the conflict between physical force and moral strength.
language: English
title: Sophocles
titlecomplete: Sophocles (The Complete Greek Tragedies Volume 2)
characters: Ajax
genres: Literature, Classics, Mythology, Drama, Greece, Tragedy, Plays, Fiction, Poetry, Theatre
ratings_count: 6405
publisher: University of Chicago Press