Women of Trachis or The Trachiniae c. 450–425 BC, is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles.
Hercules on his funeral pyre by Hans Sebald Beham
Artistic rendition of Deianeira being captured by the centaur, Nessus.
Sophocles was an ancient Greek tragedian, known as one of three from whom at least one play has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those of Aeschylus; and earlier than, or contemporary with, those of Euripides. Sophocles wrote over 120 plays, but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, Women of Trachis, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus. For almost fifty years, Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens which took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. He competed in thirty competitions, won twenty-four, and was never judged lower than second place. Aeschylus won thirteen competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles; Euripides won four.
Sophocles
A marble relief of a poet, perhaps Sophocles
Portrait of the Greek actor Euiaon in Sophocles' Andromeda, c. 430 BC.
Oedipus at Colonus by Jean-Antoine-Théodore Giroust (1788), Dallas Museum of Art