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Audible.com, forward slash ancient Greece. Oh, The The Hello and welcome back to the history of ancient Greece. Episode 51, Sophocles. The second great Athenian playwright whose works have survived is Sophocles.

He was born a few years just before the Battle of Marathon, most likely in 497 BC, in the rural Athenian

Deem of Colonus, which would become a setting for one of his later plays.

Over time, his father became the primary manufacturer of armor for Athenian hoplites and thus he was able to achieve great wealth.

As a result of his wealthy upbringing, Sophocles' character was both measured and conservative, but his family's

wealth and position also afforded him the opportunity as a youth to become highly educated

in the works of the traditional epic and lyric poets.

From an early age, he also showed exceptional ability in musical and gymnastic contests,

and he was admired for his athletic prowess and good looks. In 479 BC at 18 years old

Sophocles was chosen to lead the pay on a choral chant to a god. This one in

particular celebrated the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Salamus.

His musical ability was so advanced that he would go on to compose the music for the chorus of his own tragedies.

Early in his career too, Sophocles even acted in his own plays, but due to having a weak voice,

he eventually settled into the role of being a writer only.

Most modern scholars believe that he presented his first play sometime in the late

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