Sophocles-Herme Original, type Farnese,
British Museum London, Inventory No. 1831
The Greek playwright Sophocles was one of the three great classical tragedians alongside Aeschylus and Euripides.
Born around 496 BCE in the Attic community of Kolonos near Athens, died 406 BCE in Athens, Sophocles was the son of the rich arms manufacturer Sophillos.
In his dramas Sophokles increased the number of actors from two to three, the number of choir singers from 12 to 15 and mostly renounced the trilogical composition. Of 123 dramas, seven are complete, of the others only titles and fragments, of his satyr plays about 400 verses, of epigrams and elegies only remains.
The surviving works are: Antigone, King Oedipus, Oedipus on Colonus, Aias,
The traquinesses, Electra and Philoctetes.
Sophocles won 24 competitions at the Dionysias, the dramaturgy festival held in honour of the god Dionysus.
He formed his characters from the way they acted as defined in the myth of the epic tradition, which he psychologically motivated by their character. By not knowing the divine truth, his heroes, often in an unjustifiably high degree, are torn into tragic suffering and death, often she also leads hubris (delusion) into the tragic situation.
Sophocles was already considered a classic in antiquity, read and passed down as a school author. From the 16th century onwards, the fabrics designed by Sophocles, especially Antigone, Elektra and Oidipus, underwent a variety of musical arrangements and are also effective on the modern stage.
Sophocles replica special edition limited to 20 copies.
Typus Farnese, exhibit of the British Museum in London, inventory no. 1831.