Golden Age of Greek Dramatists

Aeschylus (525-455 B.C.) His "Oresteia" is the only trilogy of the classical period to have survived intact. His lyrical dramas, out of which only seven (including the three mentioned above) have survived, pioneered the Greek drama & cultivated an audience, who were cultured enough to judge & award prizes to the best dramatists of the Golden age.

Euripides (484-406 B.C) 19 plays of his have survived. His "Medea" introduced a realism that shocked audiences. His "Electra" is quiet different from Aeschylus & Sophocles versions. She lives not in a palace, but in a peasant's hut & is obsessed with babies & nurses. She is motivated more by her envy of her mother than loyalty to her father.

Sophocles (496-406 B.C.) is the greatest but  with only seven tragedies extant. His "Antigone" celebrates sibling love in these immortal lines.

Had I had children or their father dead,

I'd let them moulder.

One husband gone, I might have found another,

Or a child from a new man in first child's place,

but with my parents hid away in death,

no brother, ever, could spring up for me.

Aristophanes (450-385 B.C)  With his 11 irreverent plays was the most creative, with the largest range of comedy. His "The Clouds", an attack on the Sophists, makes unfair fun of Socrates. But when he was impersonated by an actor wearing a mask, & the audience applauded, Socrates (who was in the audience), stood up so that the likeness may be better appreciated, like the true philosopher he was.

So contemporary were his plays that in his "Frogs", Aeschylus & Euripides characters appear on stage to debate who is the better tragedian!