Sophocles (496-406 BC), the second of the three great tragedians, brought Greek tragedy to its peak. His dramas have the most rigorously composed form, and his innovations make the action on stage more prominent: he introduces the third actor, reduces the choral songs, expands the chorus from 12 to 15 men, and is the first to use stage painting. He departs from the conventional trilogy and presents each of the three tragedies performed together as a self-contained work in terms of content and plot. With these innovations, he created the means to make the new tragedy more versatile, dynamic, and artistically as well as dramatically demanding. And he was successful: he won first place with his dramas eighteen times. The center of his dramas is the suffering human: the great individual stands at the heart of the events.