Sophocles

[sof-uh-kleez]

noun

1. 495?–406? b.c., Greek dramatist.

Sophocles

/ ˈsɒfəˌkliːz, ˌsɒfəˈkliːən /

noun

1. ?496–406 _bc , Greek dramatist; author of seven extant tragedies: Ajax, Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Trachiniae, Electra, Philoctetes , and Oedipus at Colonus

Sophocles

1. An ancient Greek poet, author of Oedipus Rex and Antigone. He is counted, with Euripides and Aeschylus, among the great Greek authors of tragedies.

Other Word Forms

• Sophoclean adjective

Example Sentences

It’s election night in Robert Icke’s “Oedipus,” a modern retelling of Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King” that must be the buzziest, if not the chicest, Broadway offering of the fall season.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

In Sophocles, his character is little discussed but certainly not disparaged, and his death was a violent killing, not a car accident.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides illuminated how pride, injustice and failed leadership could threaten a community.

Read more on Salon

The Black prisoners of “The Island” turn to Sophocles’ “Antigone” to understand the injustice of their own situation.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Even Aristotle, who could be said to have launched literary criticism, set forth the precepts of tragedy by empirically studying the indelible examples of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.

Read more on Los Angeles Times