Oedipus the King

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Oedipus the King
Image:The Plague of Thebes.jpg
Written by	Sophocles
Chorus	Theban Elders
Characters	Oedipus Priest of Zeus Creon Tiresias Jocasta Messenger Herd of Laius
Setting	Before the Palace of Oedipus in Thebes

Oedipus the King (Greek Oἰδίπoυς τύραννoς, "Oedipus Tyrannos"), also known as Oedipus Rex, is a Greek tragedy, written by Sophocles and first performed 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.

1 Plot
2 Analysis
3 See also
4 Translations
5 Additional references

[edit] Plot

The main character of the tragedy is Oedipus, son of King Laius of Thebes and Queen Jocasta. Oedipus is a mythical character who was sent to die or be killed with his ankles bound and his feet punctured, where he was 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. (The Shepherd gave Oedipus to the Messenger who then gave him to King Polybus) 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 (infants crawl on their four limbs, adults walk on two legs, and, finally, the elderly walk with the aid of a cane) --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.

[edit] Analysis

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Literary: The play employs a literary motif used extensively by Herodotus the first ancient Greek historian. Herodotus tells several versions of the same story using other characters. He tells for example, how the grandfather of Cyrus the Great, a Persian conqueror despised by the Greeks, was afraid his grandson would threaten his power and ordered a servant to kill him. The servant disobeyed, and Cyrus was raised by peasants. He grew up to reclaim his "rightful" inheritance. Later, Cyrus' own grandson became a tyrant who killed his brother and married his sisters. Sadistic inter-familial fighting for power was a favorite theme of Herodotus, who never has a kind word for a tyrant.

Religious: The play may be seen as a tragedy of fate whereby the gods inexplicably single out a man to be the subject of their evil designs. The play is not really a working out of fate, however, it is more about the discovery. At the start of the play, Oedipus' "fate" is has been a fait accompli for some twenty years, awaiting only to be "seen" by the principal character.

Moral/Political: Oedipus is arrogant, impulsive and angry. He slaughtered five people (including his father) in a road-rage incident as a young man, and apparently forgot about it completely. His techniques for extracting the truth from people are threats and bullying. Without cause he threatens his brother in law, and accuses him of jockeying for the throne. He threatens to torture a very old man, the same man who did not have the heart to carry out the cruel command of his father, Laius. The play may really be a play against tyrants, for whom bad character may spell bloody destiny.

Psychological/Existential: The play seems to be also a verbal play on the concept of seeing, that sometimes the last thing a person "sees" is his own character. Freud of course, took literally Jocasta's comment that all boys dream of getting into bed with their mothers. Taking Oedipus' obliviousness to his crimes as a metaphor for his repression of this boyish desire, Freud built his theory of the subconscious mind.

Crime & Punishment: Oedipus has flouted (albeit unwittingly, after a fashion) the ultimate taboos: killing his father and having sex with his own mother. He punishes himself by gouging out his own eyes, saying that he does not want to "see" what he has done. The logic of his self-maiming is unconvincing, and worse than suicide. Attacking one's own body parts is a theme of the Gospels in which Jesus admonishes his followers that if your eye "scandalizes" you, cut it out; if your hand "scandalizes" you, cut it off, because it is better to go to go blind and crippled rather than not go at all. (Matthew 18:8-9) In some Middle eastern countries, cutting off the hands of thieves is legal punishment.

Borrowing from Homer: Like his contemporary fellow playwrights, Sophocles borrows characters from Homer. Oedipus is mentioned briefy in the Iliad: "Mecisteus went once to Thebes after the fall of Oedipus, to attend his funeral, and he beat all the people of Cadmus." (Book 23, ln 756). There is also a reference to Oedipus in the Odyssey; 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 (11.271-280).

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 (a reference to his childhood injury) and Swollen Head (a reference to Hubris, which is an imbalance in the world, in this case excessive pride, or believing ones self to be better or stronger than the gods).