Sophocles' greatest plays reissued in the new Classical Greek Dramatists series. Introduced by series editor J Michael Walton

Includes the surviving complete plays: Ajax which plots the downfall of Odysseus's greatest Trojan enemy - who slaughters a whole herd of cattle before killing himself; Women of Trachis in which the seemingly docile Deianira prepares a lethal homecoming for her womanising husband Heracles; in Electra the son and daughter of the ill-starred Agamemnon plan their revenge on their usurping stepfather and mother and finally Philoctetes in which Sophocles brilliantly explores the themes of pain, love and the betrayal of trust.

Ajax; Women of Trachis; Electra; Philoctetes

Sophocles (496-406 BC) was one of the three great tragic playwrights of ancient Greece; he wrote 123 plays during a career of 60 years and was still writing at the age of 90. Only seven tragedies survive, of which the most famous is Oedipus Rex.