While many of the ancient Greek tragedies were lost, several works of three famous writers have survived.

Aeschylus (circa 525 B.C. - 456 B.C.) - The earliest Greek playwright whose work has survived, only seven of Aeschylus' works are extant ("Aeschylus," par. 9, 1). Included among these plays are Prometheus Bound, Seven Against Thebes, and the Oresteia trilogy ("Aeschylus," par. 2). "Aeschylus' stage world is one of powerful forces of which the Olympian gods are not fully in control, since the gods are at odds with one another as well as with the elemental powers which preceded them" ("Aeschylus," par. 6). In his plays, humanity survives by solving its own problems ("Aeschylus," par. 7).

The Oresteia triology opens with the play Agamemnon, which tells of the murder of Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra on his return from Troy (Powell 582). In the second play, Choëphori, Orestes, Agamemnon's son, together with his sister Electra take revenge on their mother for their father's murder (Powell 587). In the Eumenides, Orestes is tried for his crime, ultimately to be acquitted (Powell 588-9).

Sophocles (496 B.C. - 406 B.C.) - Considered the greatest of the Greek playwrights, only seven of Sophocles' complete works have survived ("Sophocles," par. 1) of the more than 120 plays he composed (Hadas viii). The surviving plays are Ajax, Electra, Oedipus the King, Antigone, Trachinian Women, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus.

Sophocles was particularly adept at creating psychologically believable and sympathetic characters, and at placing these characters in situations where their attitudes and circumstances must inevitably lead them into conflict and catastrophe. This conflict, arising as it does from the nature and desires of the individual characters, in turn supports the underlying structure and motivation of the dramatic action; indeed, the use of plot to explore and explicate ethical and psychological conflict as embodied in the individual characters and their deeds is one of the greatest achievements of Sophocles. ("Sophocles," par. 2)

Euripides (circa 485 B.C. - 406 B.C.) - Of these three, Euripides is the latest and most versatile with nineteen of his works extant ("Euripides," par. 1). His characters can undergo "radical change" ("Euripides," par. 3). "The refusal to take characters or situations at face value leads to a much more prosaic style and a direct approach to the real problems of everyday existence, despite being couched in the terms of myth" ("Euripides," par. 5). His plays offer psychological motives which guide characters through their actions ("Euripides," par. 6), where emotion overcomes reason and characters may exhibit "abnormal mental states" (Powell 71). His plays include Medea, Heracles, Iphigenia in Taurus, Iphigenia in Aulis, and Electra ("Euripides," par. 10).