Edited by Simon Goldhill and Edith Hall Thirteen essays by senior international experts on Greek tragedy take a fresh look at Sophocles# dramas. They reassess their crucial role in the creation of the tragic repertoire, in the idea of the tragic canon in antiquity, and in the making and infinite re-creation of the tragic tradition in the Renaissance and beyond. The introduction looks at the paradigm shifts during the twentieth century in the theory and practice of Greek theatre, in order to gain a perspective on the current state of play in Sophoclean studies. The following three sections explore respectively the way that Sophocles# tragedies provoked and educated their original Athenian democratic audience, the language, structure and lasting impact of his Oedipus plays, and the centrality of his oeuvre in the development of the tragic tradition in Aeschylus, Euripides, ancient philosophical theory, fourth-century tragedy and Shakespeare. # World-class set of contributors reassess the state of play in studies of Sophocles # Applies recently developed models of Greek tragedy to longstanding questions in classical scholarship # Combines discussions of all Sophocles# surviving plays with a broad contextualisation of his work within and beyond antiquity.