Theater and democracy in Sophocles

The aim of this book is to demonstrate how the surviving works of Sophocles promoted Athenian democracy in the 5th century B.C. Indeed, the pedagogical dimension of this playwright's writings was a reality, given the context. In other words, this literary form was an attempt to provide a collective response to the question of how to be a good Athenian. In an environment where several other political regimes existed, such as the oligarchy in Sparta, tragedy presented itself as a school of democracy, teaching how this novel political system worked during religious festivals. Endowed with moral authority, Sophocles was seen as an educator of the masses.