Sophocles brief history

SOPHOCLES, one of the most influential writers of Ancient Greece, was most likely born in 497/6 B.C., a few years before the Battle of Marathon. in 490 B.C. Probably, his place of birth is in Attica. 


He comes from a rather wealthy family. His father, Sophillus, was a rich member of the rural deme (small community) of Colonus Hippius. Some believe that Sophillus had been a carpenter, smith, or a sword – maker and he probably owned an "armaments business" for which many carpenters and smiths had worked. The village, Colonus, latter to become a setting for Sophocles’ plays, was situated north-west of Athens, and about a mile distant from the city. “White Colonus” was the place for his childhood, and he later remembered his beautiful boyhood in works, such as Oedipus Coloneus.