Socio-historic Context of Sophocles Antigone

Sophocles wrote Antigone in around 441 BC and performed it in Athens in

what is believed to be the same years. Like all plays performed at this point in
history, there were obviously mixed views as to whether or not it was widely
accepted by the Athenian population. The play displays many themes which
would have been common in everyday society, such as the idea that women
had to be pliable and obedient. In reference to this, there would have been
those in society who believed that Antigone may have represented what
women were becoming or should become more opinionated and
independent of those they married but then there would have been those
with more traditional views who see Antigone as someone who should be
refrained from in society, with her demise acting by way of depicting the
consequences of such an unseemly womans actions, should anyone in
reality act in such a way as the young woman in the play. On another note,
there is the portrayal of the gods and there role in society. The more modern
way for people to view things would have been rationally and to concede with
the laws of the State, rather than those of the gods. On the other hand, those
in society with more traditional views would have been completely against
complying with the laws of the State should they interfere with the divine or
cosmic laws (ie. The denial of proper burial rites).
Sophocles was born in 496 BC at Colonus, just outside of Athens. Throughout
the course of his life, he was able to observe both the rise and fall of the
powerful Athenian Empire. He was also a great friend of Pericles and,
although he was not an active politician, he was able to hold several positions
in the public office both military and civil. He was a leader of a great circle
of writers and a dear friend of Herodotus, and like them, he was interested in
poetic theory and its practice. According to those of his times, he was happy
to spend his entire life in Athens, a fact which is apparent to some in his
writing. Sophocles first won a prize for a tragic drama in 468 BC, even
defeating the great writer Aeschylus. He created over 100 performances for
the Athenian theatre and is thought to have won first prize at the City of
Dionysia at least eighteen times. As time has passed, many of his works have
been lost, and now only seven of his tragedies are known to exist. Sophocles
died c. 406 BC, aged approximately ninety years old.