"Sofocles or Sophocles ", 400 BC Capitoline Museums, Rome, Italy

Sophocles (c. 496-406 B.C.), an ancient Greek poet and dramatist, was a highly educated member of a wealthy family and became one of three tragedians (the other two are Aeschylus and Euripides) whose plays survived and continue to captivate international audiences. Only seven of his 120 plays are extant; Ajax, Trachinian Women, Electra, Philoctetes, Antigone, Oedipus the King or Oedipus Tyrannus, and Oedipus at Colonus. The last three plays are also called "Theban Plays" or "The Oedipus Cycle". Aeschylus served Pericles and experienced the tragedies of the Peloponnesian War that weakened Athens.