1, Aeschylus
Aeschylus is known as the father of ancient Greek tragedy, and his greatest contribution to the tragedy is to increase the number of actors in the play.
In Aeschylus' view, fate or the malicious tricks of the gods doomed the hero to bear the blow and pain of destruction, but on the more positive side, the hero remained indomitable in the face of setbacks and hardships, and fought against the powerful fate with extraordinary courage.
Aeschylus' most famous tragedy is Prometheus Bound, which is a trilogy with the theme of Prometheus released and Prometheus burned by fire.
2. Sophocles
Sophocles (496-406 BC) was a tragic writer in the heyday of democracy in Athens. At the age of 27, he took part in the tragic competition for the first time and defeated Aeschylus.
Aristophanes praised him for being "perfect before his death and regretless after his death". Sophocles wrote more than 100 plays in his life, but only seven have survived to this day, with antigone and Oedipus the King as the highest achievements.
Among them, King Oedipus is regarded as a model of ancient Greek tragedy. The tragedy of Sophocles is usually called "the tragedy of fate", that is, it is usually manifested as the conflict between personal will and fate.
3. euripides
Euripides (about 480-406 BC), one of the three great tragic writers in ancient Greece, was born into a noble family.
Although most dramas are based on myths, they mainly show the thoughts and feelings of freemen, which makes the theme of myths full of practical significance and widely reflects many practical problems in the deepening democratic political crisis of Athenian slave owners.
His plays are close to spoken language, especially good at describing the psychology of characters, full of romantic sentiment and farce atmosphere, which has a great influence on future playwrights.
His current works include Medea, Hippolytus, trojan women and Arcadia. 18. Medea is one of the most famous.