The armistice between Athens and Sparta proves ultimately unstable, because, although there have been no significant hostilities, neither side has fully complied with the terms of the inconclusive Peace of Nicias.
When in 422 the death of Cleon made peace with Sparta possible, Laches had served on the commission that negotiated terms.
He has supported Nicias' attempts to preserve the peace, but cannot prevent the dangerous alliance of Athens with Argos and Mantineia.
Sophocles between 430 and 420 produces The Trachinian Women, a play that deals with the violence of sexual passion.
Like Aeschylus in his earlier Oresteia, Sophocles retells a part of the tragedy of the House of Atreus in his explicit version of Electra, produced between 420 and 410.
Like Aeschylus, Sophocles recounts justice and vengeance in Agamemnon’s family but focuses on the sensitively drawn character of Electra.
