Oedipus Rex

Regarded since Aristotle as the model of Greek tragedy, Oedipus Rex—or Oedipus Tyrannus, or Oedipus the King—was written by Sophocles at a date that no ancient source records. The play opens many years after Oedipus has saved Thebes from the Sphinx and become its king, at a time of great misfortune. A plague is destroying the crops, the herds and the women’s childbearing, and Apollo’s oracle at Delphi has declared that the city must drive out the defilement it harbours: the murderer of its former king, Laius (Oedipus Tyrannus 1–131). Oedipus curses the murderer and promises to do whatever it takes to find him (216–275). The blind prophet Teiresias tells him that he need look no further than himself: the man he is seeking is Oedipus (350–353). Oedipus does not believe him and accuses Teiresias and Creon of conspiring against him. His wife Jocasta intervenes and tries to calm him by telling him not to trust oracles: an oracle once said that Laius would be killed by his son, but he was killed by robbers where three roads meet (707–725). Ironically, this reminds Oedipus of a similar event in his own life, and he begins to fear that he may have killed Laius. Hoping to be proved wrong, he sends for the herdsman who survived the attack. Meanwhile a messenger from Corinth arrives to announce the death of Polybus, Oedipus’ supposed father, whose house Oedipus had left long ago to avoid the fulfilment of an oracle that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Relieved that the first part of the prophecy has not come true, Oedipus admits that he still fears the second, since his supposed mother, Merope, is alive. To reassure him, the messenger reveals that Polybus and Merope were never his real parents: the messenger himself received him as an infant from a shepherd of Laius on Mount Cithaeron and gave him to Polybus (924–1046). That shepherd turns out to be the same man who survived the attack on Laius. He confirms what Jocasta and Oedipus have by now understood: Oedipus is the son of Laius and Jocasta (1117–1185). Jocasta hangs herself, and Oedipus blinds himself with the brooches from her dress (1237–1284).

Date and Historical Background

It is not known when Oedipus Rex was first performed. The plague at the opening of the play has led many readers to connect it with the plague that struck Athens in the second year of the Peloponnesian War, which Thucydides describes (Thucydides 2.47–54), but neither the play nor any ancient source gives its date.

According to the ancient introduction (hypothesis) to the play, Sophocles was defeated with it by Philocles, whom the Suda calls a nephew of Aeschylus. The year of that competition is not recorded. Aristotle, in his Poetics, refers to the play repeatedly as an example of how a tragic plot should work: for the recognition that coincides with a reversal (Poetics 11), for the good man who falls through a mistake (Poetics 13), and for the terrible deed done in ignorance (Poetics 14).

Characters and Setting

Characters

• Oedipus, King of Thebes, who believes himself the son of Polybus and Merope, King and Queen of Corinth
• Jocasta, Queen of Thebes, widow of Laius, the former King, and now wife to Oedipus
• Creon, Jocasta’s brother
• Teiresias, the blind prophet of Thebes
• Priest of Zeus
• Messenger from Corinth, a shepherd in his earlier life
• Theban herdsman, formerly a servant of Laius
• Second Messenger, a servant from the palace
• Chorus of the Elders of Thebes
• Antigone and Ismene, daughters of Oedipus and Jocasta, who appear at the end

Setting

Before the royal palace at Thebes.

Summary of Oedipus Rex

Prologue

(Oedipus Tyrannus 1–150) Many years after Oedipus has become king of Thebes by delivering the city from the Sphinx, a plague has struck “the fruitful blossoms of the land, the herds among the pastures, the barren pangs of women.” A priest of Zeus, speaking for a crowd of suppliants (young children and old men) who have gathered at the altars before the palace, asks Oedipus, whom they hold to be the first of men in dealing with the troubles of life, to find some relief for the city, whether through an omen from the gods or through advice from a man (14–57).

Oedipus replies that he is already in pain for them all, and has sent his brother-in-law Creon to Delphi “to learn what we might do or say to protect this city” (58–77). Creon returns with a crown of berried laurel and good news: Phoebus commands the Thebans to drive out the defilement that is harboured in the land, by banishing or killing the man responsible for the death of Laius, the king before Oedipus (78–107). Laius, Creon explains, had left for Delphi and never returned; all of his companions died except one, who fled and could say only that robbers had fallen on them in numbers. No one had searched for the killer, since the riddling Sphinx had forced the city to deal with the more pressing trouble (108–131).

Oedipus promises to bring the matter to light again, both for the god and for the city, and for himself too, “for whoever killed Laius might wish to take vengeance on me also with a hand as fierce.” The suppliants rise, and the priest prays that Apollo will come as saviour (132–150).

Parodos (Entrance Song)

(Oedipus Tyrannus 151–215) The Chorus of Theban Elders enters, anxious at the oracle from Delphi. They describe the effects of the plague, the unburied dead and the groaning mothers, and call upon Athena, Artemis, Apollo, Zeus, Ares and Dionysus to drive away the plague and the war-god who is destroying the city.

First Episode

(Oedipus Tyrannus 216–462) In answer to the Chorus’ prayer, Oedipus declares that whoever knows the killer of Laius must tell him; the man himself, if he gives himself up, will suffer only exile. If anyone is concealing the killer, Oedipus forbids anyone in the land to receive or speak to him, and he lays a curse on the unknown murderer, whether he acted alone or with others: that he may wear out his unblessed life in misery. He prays that if the killer should, with his knowledge, ever be a resident of his own house, he himself may suffer the same things (216–275). The Chorus suggests that they ask the seer Teiresias, whom Oedipus, at Creon’s suggestion, has already sent for (276–299).

The blind Teiresias arrives, but to Oedipus’ dismay he refuses to say anything at all (300–344). Oedipus becomes angry and accuses him of having helped to plan the murder. Teiresias responds with something most unexpected: Oedipus himself is the accursed defiler of the land (345–353). Oedipus calls the accusation a lie, and says that Teiresias has been put up to it by Creon, who wants his throne (380–403). Teiresias holds to his word, and warns that the man Oedipus is seeking is here, believed to be a foreigner but soon to be revealed as a native Theban, blind instead of seeing, a beggar instead of rich, who will be found to be at once the brother and father of his own children and the son and husband of the woman who bore him (447–462).

The Chorus is unwilling to believe it. In the first stasimon (463–511) they describe the murderer fleeing in the mountains with the oracles of Delphi pursuing him; they are troubled by the seer’s words, but they say that until they see them made good, they “will never assent when men blame Oedipus.”

Second Episode

(Oedipus Tyrannus 513–862) Creon, hearing that he has been accused, comes to defend himself before the citizens, and then before Oedipus (513–633). He argues that he has no reason to want the throne, since he already has the influence of a king without the cares. Oedipus remains convinced and says that he wants him dead, not merely exiled (622–623). Their dispute is interrupted by Jocasta, who is Oedipus’ wife and Creon’s sister (634–658). Creon departs, and, when pressed, Oedipus tells Jocasta the cause of the argument (697–706).

Jocasta replies that he need not pay attention to seers. She gives an example: an oracle once told Laius that he would be killed by his own son, but he was killed by foreign robbers at a place where three roads meet, and the child, when it was only three days old, had its ankles joined together and was cast out on a trackless mountain by other hands (707–725). The mention of this place troubles Oedipus: “What restlessness of soul,” he exclaims, “what tumult has come upon me since I heard you speak!” He questions Jocasta about the place, the time, and Laius’ appearance and escort, and she answers: the place is where the roads from Delphi and Daulia meet, the news came just before Oedipus became king, and Laius was tall, with greying hair, and travelled with a herald and three others, in a single carriage, five men in all (726–756).

He then tells her his own story (771–833). His father was Polybus of Corinth and his mother Merope. One day at a banquet a drunken man told him that he was not his father’s true son. His parents were angry at the speaker, but the remark stayed with him, and he went secretly to Delphi. Apollo did not answer his question but told him that he would sleep with his mother, produce offspring that men could not bear to see, and kill his father. Hearing this, he fled from Corinth, so that he would never see the prophecy fulfilled. On the way he came to the three roads, where a herald and a man in a carriage drawn by colts tried to push him off the road; he struck the driver, the old man hit him on the head with a double goad, and in return Oedipus struck him with his staff so that he rolled out of the carriage. Oedipus killed them all. If this stranger was related to Laius, he says, no man is more wretched than he. He still has one hope: the survivor had spoken of robbers in the plural, and Oedipus was a single man. He sends for the herdsman, who is now far off in the countryside (758–770, 834–862).

In the second stasimon (863–910) the Chorus prays for holy purity in word and deed, warns that insolence breeds a tyrant, and fears that the oracles of Laius are being set aside, so that the gods are losing their honour.

Third Episode

(Oedipus Tyrannus 911–1085) Jocasta comes out with garlands and incense to pray to Apollo, since Oedipus is overwrought and she cannot calm him (911–923). A messenger from Corinth arrives, asking for the house of Oedipus, and announces that Polybus is dead, and that the Corinthians will make Oedipus their king (924–943). Oedipus is barely saddened by the news. Jocasta is delighted: here is proof, she says, that oracles mean nothing, as Polybus died of old age, not at the hands of his son. Oedipus is relieved but still afraid of the second part of the oracle, since his mother Merope is alive (950–993).

To reassure him, the messenger tells him that Polybus and Merope were never his real parents. He found the infant on Mount Cithaeron, where he was tending sheep, and received him from another shepherd, a servant of Laius; the child’s ankles had been pinned together, and the name Oedipus (“swollen-foot”) comes from this (1000–1046). The Chorus believes that the shepherd the messenger names is the same herdsman Oedipus has sent for. Jocasta understands first: “For the gods’ sake, if you have any care for your own life, do not continue this search…” and begs Oedipus to stop. He refuses to give up, and says that he must learn his birth even if it should prove lowly, and Jocasta, calling him unhappy, rushes into the palace (1047–1075). Oedipus, thinking that she fears he will turn out to be of humble origin, calls himself the child of Fortune (1076–1085).

In the third stasimon (1086–1109) the Chorus hopes that Cithaeron will be honoured as Oedipus’ nurse and mother, and wonders whether he is the child of a nymph and Pan, Apollo, Hermes or Dionysus.

Fourth Episode

(Oedipus Tyrannus 1110–1185) The herdsman is brought in. The Corinthian recognises him as the man who gave him the child in the days they spent together on Cithaeron, he with two flocks and the Corinthian with one (1110–1141). The old man at first refuses to speak, but Oedipus has his hands bound, and under threat of death he admits that he gave the child to the messenger. The child, he says, was from the house of Laius: it was said to be Laius’ own, and Jocasta gave it to him to be done away with, out of fear of the prophecies that he would kill his father. He gave it away out of pity, thinking that the man would take him to another land (1142–1177).

“Oh, oh! All brought to pass, all true. Light, may I now look on you for the last time—I who have been found to be accursed in birth, accursed in wedlock, accursed in the shedding of blood,” cries Oedipus, and rushes into the palace (1182–1185).

In the fourth stasimon (1186–1222) the Chorus laments his fall: “Who is a more wretched slave to fierce plagues and troubles, with all his life reversed?” they sing, taking his story as a model of how little mortal happiness lasts.

Exodos (Exit Song)

(Oedipus Tyrannus 1223–1530) A messenger comes out of the palace and tells the Chorus what has happened (1223–1296). Jocasta rushed into her bedroom, shut the doors, and called on Laius and on the child by whom he had been killed; Oedipus burst in, asking for a sword and for the wife who was no wife, and found her hanging by the neck in a twisted noose. He took her down, tore from her dress the golden brooches, and with them struck his own eyes, saying that they would no longer see the horrors he suffered and committed, and that they would be dark to those whom he longed to know.

Oedipus is brought out, blinded. He laments to the Chorus: it was Apollo who brought these sufferings to pass, he says, but the hand that struck his eyes was his own (1297–1366). He asks to be cast out of Thebes, to be hidden away or killed (1369–1415). Creon, who arrives to take charge, says he has not come to mock him, and orders the servants to take him inside, out of the sight of others (1416–1431). Oedipus asks him to bury Jocasta, to send him to live on Cithaeron, and to look after his young daughters, Antigone and Ismene (1432–1475). They are brought, and he laments the life that awaits them (1476–1514). Creon, who says he cannot send him away until the god has been asked, tells him to go in (1515–1523).

The Chorus ends the play with a warning: look to the end of life, and “call no mortal happy until he has crossed life’s border free from pain” (1524–1530).

A Brief Analysis

In his Poetics, Aristotle refers to Oedipus Rex repeatedly as an example of how a tragic plot works: the reversal in Oedipus comes at the very moment of the recognition, when the Corinthian messenger, who came to comfort Oedipus, only tells him who he is (Poetics 11; Oedipus Tyrannus 1002–1046). The play is also a model of dramatic irony: Oedipus is searching for a murderer who, as the audience learns from the oracle, from Teiresias and from Jocasta’s story before Oedipus does, is himself.

Oedipus tried to escape the oracle, and he brings it about. He fled from Corinth so as not to kill his father (994–999), and on the road he met and killed Laius (800–813). He is determined to find the killer because he wants to save his city again, as he had saved it from the Sphinx (216–275). Teiresias’ sentence on him contains the central contrasts of the play: the sighted man who is blind to his own life, and the blind prophet who sees it (412–428, 447–462). Oedipus is proud of his skill, which won him the throne (380–403), but the question he now has to solve is his own origin. In the end the man who could not see the truth in daylight puts out the eyes that failed him, saying that they will no longer see what he suffered and did, and will be dark to those he longed to know (1268–1274).

The Chorus draws the conclusion at the end: no mortal should be called happy until the day he dies and has passed his last day without suffering (1524–1530). The same thought is put into the mouth of Solon in Herodotus’ story of Solon and Croesus (Herodotus 1.30–33). No one in the play is happier or more admired than Oedipus at the beginning, and no one would have exchanged places with him at the end.

Oedipus Rex Sources

The main source for this page is the play itself: Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus 1–1530, read in the Greek text (Perseus Digital Library). Other ancient sources used are Thucydides 2.47–54 (the plague at Athens), Aristotle, Poetics 11, 13 and 14, Herodotus 1.30–33 (Solon and Croesus) the ancient hypothesis to the play for the production notice, and the Suda (Philocles).

See Also: Sophocles, Oedipus, Laius, Oedipus at Colonus