city suffering a plague because the gods Athena and Apollo were angry with the killer of King La?os. It was this direct interaction of the gods with the people that made them so central to the people's daily lives 3. These gods played a direct role in just about every story written in this time period. The authors of this time - Homer, Vergil, Hesiod, Euripides and others - almost always mentioned some of the gods. This was to be expected seeing how the gods were so central to everyday life. Sophocles was no exception to this rule, and the influence of the gods is very clear in his story, Oedipus Rex. In this story alone, there are three main gods with many more mentioned. This was done to help the audiences connect with the play, to give the people something that they could relate to. It gave the "common folk" a chance to go and enjoy these plays just like the educated class. Sophocles lived from about 496 BC to 406 BC. He was born into a rich family at Colonus near Athens. He lived during the golden age of Athens, during the flourishing of the arts, philosophy, and architecture. He was elected as one of the military commanders, a very prestigious position in Athens. He died during the Peloponneseian war with Sparta. He wrote 123 plays, but only seven have survived. These seven are: Ajax, Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Trachinian Women, Philocetes and Oedipus at Colonus. He also won the drama competition in Athens over twenty times, beating out his rivals. One of his major innovations was to complicate the conflict with three main Brozyna 5characters. Also he added three main gods into his work. Oedipus Rex was one of Sophocles's most involved works because he stretched the story over three plays. It was his high education that gave him the edge in writing these stories. The Greeks had many terms that were specific for drama, but one, hubris, applies here. The direct translation of t...
