Shakespeare wrote 12 tragedies, with Hamlet considered best play ever written. Tragic heroes have fatal flaws leading to downfall. Nobles often face greater tragic consequences due to wealth. External pressures like fate and evil spirits contribute to downfall
Thebes faces a plague that threatens to destroy the city. King Oedipus sends brother-in-law Creon to the oracle. Oracle reveals plague will end only if Laius' murderer is banished
Born in 525/524 BC, died in 456/455 BC in Gela, Sicily. Participated in Persian invasions and fought at Marathon. Won first victory in 484 BC at Great Dionysia competition. Wrote approximately 90 plays, including seven surviving tragedies
Born in Athens around 484 BC, Euripides was the last of Athens' three great tragic dramatists. He left Athens in 408 BC for Macedonia, dying there in 406. He had a large library and was associated with Sophists and philosophers. Only 19 of his 92 plays survive, winning only four festival prizes
Only seven complete tragedies and 400 lines of a satyr play survive. Ajax is generally regarded as the earliest extant play. Antigone was performed around 442-441 BCE. Philoctetes was performed in 409 when Sophocles was 90
Written by Seneca the Younger around 50 CE. Contains 1027 lines of verse, considered strongest of his earlier plays. Medea delivers over half of the play's lines