Sophocles

Athenian tragic playwright who wrote Oedipus Rex, Antigone, and Electra — winning the City Dionysia festival 18 times — and whose work represents the peak of Greek tragic form: the individual destroyed by forces larger than themselves while revealing their essential character.

Created the tragedy of character — Oedipus's downfall comes from the relentless pursuit of truth that is simultaneously his greatest virtue and his destruction — establishing the principle that the same quality that makes someone great can make them tragic.