Oedipus the King
Oedipus the King is a Greek tragedy, written by
Sophocles in 428 BC. The play was the second of Sophocles' three Theban plays to be produced, but comes first in the internal chronology of the plays, followed by
Oedipus at Colonus and then
Antigone.
Encyclopedia
Oedipus the King is a Greek tragedy, written by
Sophocles in 428 BC. The play was the second of Sophocles' three Theban plays to be produced, but comes first in the internal chronology of the plays, followed by
Oedipus at Colonus and then
Antigone.
Plot
The subject of the play is
Oedipus, son of King
Laius of
Thebes and Queen Jocasta, also known as Iocaste; a
mythical character who was sent to be exposed with his ankles bound and left for dead on a mountainside as an infant in an effort to avoid a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. However, he was found by a
shepherd and raised in the court of King Polybus of
Corinth and his wife Merope. Hearing from an oracle that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother, and believing Polybus and Merope to be his real parents, he left Corinth. Meeting Laius by chance on a road and not recognizing him, Oedipus became involved in a fight with Laius and killed him. Oedipus went on to solve the
Sphinx's riddle, "What uses four legs in the morning, two in the day, and three at night?"--the answer is Man--and his reward for this is the kingdom of Thebes, and the hand of Jocasta; again, neither recognizes the other.
The play begins after Thebes has been struck with a plague by the gods in outrage at Oedipus' unintentional wrongdoing. The play shows Oedipus' investigation, in which he curses and promises to exile those responsible for the murder. Although the blind prophet Tiresias explicitly tells Oedipus at the beginning of the play that he is the cause of the plague, Oedipus at first does not understand. Instead he accuses Tiresias of conspiring with Creon, Jocasta's brother, to overthrow him.
Oedipus then calls for a former servant of Laius, the only surviving witness of the murder, who fled the city when Oedipus became king. Soon a messenger from Corinth also arrives to inform Oedipus of the death of Polybus, whom Oedipus still believes is his real father, until the messenger informs him that he was in fact adopted. In the subsequent discussions between Oedipus, Jocasta, the servant, and the messenger, Jocasta discovers the truth and runs off; Oedipus learns the truth more slowly, but later runs off-stage as well. A second messenger fills in the unseen details: Jocasta has hanged herself, and Oedipus, upon discovering her body, blinds himself with the brooches of her dress. The play ends with Oedipus entrusting his children to Creon and going into exile, as he promised at the beginning.
Analysis
The play depends very heavily on
dramatic irony. At one point, Oedipus and Jocasta discuss the oracle, dismissing it as its prophecies have apparently not come to pass. The audience was expected to understand Oedipus' history well before he does.
Essentially the play is the story of an admirable man laid low by a fatal flaw of hubris. He condemns the murderer of Laius to banishment and due to his arrogance it never occurs to him until it too late that it could be him. He is also given to bullying the messenger and the shepherd and threatening torture when they reveal facts that he does not care for.
Some of the story revolves around how the famous prophecy regarding Oedipus's fate changed. While Oedipus is told that he will murder his father and wed his mother , his parents were only told that their son would murder his father .
Oedipus is mentioned once in the
Iliad is, together with the
Odyssey [i], one of two ancient Greek [i] epic [i]...
of
Homer: "Mecisteus went once to Thebes after the fall of Oedipus, to attend his funeral, and he beat all the people of Cadmus." .
There is also a reference to Oedipus in the
Odyssey of Homer; when Odysseus goes down to the underworld he meets Epicaste the mother and wife of Oedipus, and the story of Oedipus is then briefly told .
This play was performed at the Dionysia, the fertility festival of
Dionysos.
There is a pun in the original Greek that would have linked Oedipus's name, Swollen Feet and Swollen Head .
This play could be considered as one of the first surviving detective stories since it involves the investigation of a murder, the gathering of evidence and a surprising, and tragic, twist.
See also
- Oedipus
- Oedipus rex
- Oedipus Tex
- Oedipus complex
Translations
- Thomas Francklin, 1759 - verse
- Edward H. Plumptre, 1865 - verse:
- Richard C. Jebb
...
, 1904 - prose:
- Francis Storr, 1912 - verse:
- David Grene, 1942 - verse
- E.F. Watling, 1947
- Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald, 1949 - verse
- Theodore Howard Banks, 1956 - verse
- Albert Cook, 1957 - verse
- Paul Roche, 1958 - verse
- Bernard Knox, 1959 - prose
- H. D. F. Kitto, 1962 - verse
- Stephen Berg and Diskin Clay - verse
- Robert Bagg, 1982 - verse
- Robert Fagles, 1984 - verse
- Nick Bartel, 1999 - verse:
- George Theodoridis, 2005 - prose:
Additional references
- Brunner, M. "King Oedipus Retried" Rosenberger & Krausz, London, 2000
