Is there an easy way to sort a list by two criteria?

[neocortex]

Hello!
I am a newbie in Python. Recently, I get stuck with the problem of
sorting by two criteria. In brief, I have a two-dimensional list (for
a table or a matrix). Now, I need to sort by two columns, but I cannot
figure out how to do that. I read somewhere that it is possible to do:
>>> table.sort().sort()
but it does not work.
Can anyone help me with this?
PS: I am using Python under Ubuntu 6.06.

Best,
PM