Theater of Dionysos, Athens, with 2c AD remodeling

Dates of Extant Classical Athenian Dramas

Not all extant plays are dated. Not all dates are secure. Very many more plays were produced, by these playwrights and many others, than are extant.

The Poets:
  • Aeschylus, fl. 499 - 456 BC
  • Sophocles, fl. 468 - 406 BC
  • Euripides, fl. 455 - 406 BC
  • Aristophanes, fl. 427- 386 BC

The Plays:

472 Aeschylus, Persians
467 Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes
c 460s Aeschylus, Suppliants
460-450? Sophocles, Ajax
458 Aeschylus, Agamemnon + Libation Bearers + Eumenides (trilogy: Oresteia)
442-441? Sophocles, Antigone
440-430? Sophocles, Women of Trachis
438 Euripides, Alcestis
431 Euripides, Medea
430-425? Sophocles, Oedipus the King Euripides, Children of Heracles
428 Euripides, Hippolytus
425(?) Euripides, Andromache Aristophanes, Acharnians
424 Aristophanes, Knights
before 423? Euripides, Hecuba
423? Euripides, Suppliant Women
422 Aristophanes, Wasps
421 Aristophanes, Peace
421-420? (before 415) Euripides, Electra
419-16 Aristophanes, revised Clouds
before 415? Euripides, Heracles
415 Euripides, Trojan Women
414 Aristophanes, Birds
c 413? (419-410) Sophocles, Electra
414-412 Euripides, Ion, Iphigeneia at Tauris, Helen (separate productions)
411 Aristophanes, Lysistrata, Thesmophoriazusae (separate productions)
411-409 Euripides, Phoenician Women
409 Sophocles, Philoctetes
408 Euripides, Orestes
after 406 (posthumous performances) Euripides, Bacchae, Iphigeneia at Aulis (separate productions)
405 Aristophanes, Frogs
401 (posthumous performance) Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus
c 392 Aristophanes, Ecclesiazusae
388 Aristophanes, Wealth
These dates synthesize the Chronology of P. E. Easterling, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy (1997) with that of Charles Segal, Oedipus Tyrannus (2001).

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Revised 25 July 2018 by jlong1@luc.edu
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