Source 1:

Introduction – Oedipus Story

“Oedipus the King” (Gr: “Oidipous Tyrannos”; Lat: “Oedipus Rex”) is

a tragedy by the ancient Greek
playwright Sophocles, first performed in about Synopsis –
429 BCE. It was the second of Sophocles‘ three Oedipus Back to Top
Theban plays to be produced, but it comes first Summary of Page
in the internal chronology (followed
by “Oedipus at Colonus” and then “Antigone”).
Dramatis Personae –
It follows the story of King Oedipus of Characters
Thebes as he discovers that he has unwittingly
killed his own father, Laius, and married his own OEDIPUS
mother, Jocasta. Over the centuries, it has come THE PRIEST OF ZEUS
to be regarded by many as the Greek tragedy par CREON
excellence and certainly as the summit CHORUS OF THEBAN
of Sophocles’ achievements. ELDERS
TIRESIAS
To briefly recap on the background to the play: JOCASTA
MESSENGER
Shortly after Oedipus’ birth, his father, King HERDSMAN OF LAIUS
Laius of Thebes, learned from an oracle that
he, Laius, was doomed to perish by the hand
of his own son, and so ordered his
wife Jocasta to kill the infant.

However, neither she nor her servant could bring themselves to kill him and he
was abandoned to elements. There he was found and brought up by a shepherd,
before being taken in and raised in the court of the childless King Polybus of
Corinth as if he were his own son.

Stung by rumours that he was not the biological son of the

king, Oedipus consulted an oracle which foretold that he would marry his own
mother and kill his own father. Desperate to avoid this foretold fate, and believing
Polybus and Merope to be his true parents, Oedipus left Corinth. On the road to
Thebes, he met Laius, his real father, and, unaware of each other’s true identities,
they quarrelled and Oedipus‘ pride led him to murder Laius, fulfilling part of the
oracle’s prophecy. Later, he solved the riddle of the Sphinx and his reward for
freeing the kingdom of Thebes from the Sphinx’s curse was the hand of Queen
Jocasta (actually his biological mother) and the crown of the city of Thebes. The
prophecy was thus fulfilled, although none of the main characters were aware of
it at this point.

As the play opens, a priest and the Chorus of Theban elders are calling on King
Oedipus to aid them with the plague which has been sent by Apollo to ravage the
city. Oedipus has already sent Creon, his brother-in-law, to consult the oracle at
Delphi on the matter, and when Creon returns at that very moment, he reports that
the plague will only end when the murderer of their former king, Laius, is caught
and brought to justice. Oedipus vows to find the murderer and curses him for the
plague that he has caused.

Oedipus also summons the blind prophet Tiresias, who claims to know the

answers to Oedipus‘ questions, but refuses to speak, lamenting his ability to see
the truth when the truth brings nothing but pain. He advises Oedipus to abandon
his search but, when the enraged Oedipus accuses Tiresias of complicity in the
murder, Tiresias is provoked into telling the king the truth, that he himself is the
murderer. Oedipus dismisses this as nonsense, accusing the prophet of being
corrupted by the ambitious Creon in an attempt to undermine him,
and Tiresias leaves, putting forth one last riddle: that the murderer of Laius will
turn out to be both father and brother to his own children, and the son of his own
wife.
Oedipus demands that Creon be executed, convinced that he is conspiring
against him, and only the intervention of the Chorus persuades him to
let Creon live. Oedipus‘ wife Jocasta tells him he should take no notice of
prophets and oracles anyway because, many years ago, she and Laius received an
oracle which never came true. This prophecy said that Laius would be killed by his
own son but, as everyone knows, Laius was actually killed by bandits at a
crossroads on the way to Delphi. The mention of crossroads causes Oedipus to
give pause and he suddenly becomes worried that Tiresias‘ accusations may
actually have been true.

When a messenger from Corinth arrives with news of the death of

King Polybus, Oedipus shocks everyone with his apparent happiness at the news,
as he sees this as proof that he can never kill his father, although he still fears that
he may somehow commit incest with his mother. The messenger, eager to
ease Oedipus‘ mind, tells him not to worry because Queen Merope of Corinth was
not in fact his real mother anyway.

The messenger turns out to be the very shepherd who had looked after an

abandoned child, which he later took to Corinth and gave up to King Polybus for
adoption. He is also the very same shepherd who witnessed the murder of Laius.
By now, Jocasta is beginning to realize the truth, and desperately begs Oedipus to
stop asking questions. But Oedipus presses the shepherd, threatening him with
torture or execution, until it finally emerges that the child he gave away was
Laius’ own son, and that Jocasta had given the baby to the shepherd to secretly be
exposed upon the mountainside, in fear of the prophecy that Jocasta said had
never come true: that the child would kill its father.

With all now finally revealed, Oedipus curses himself and his tragic destiny and
stumbles off, as the Chorus laments how even a great man can be felled by fate. A
servant enters and explains that Jocasta, when she had begun to suspect the truth,
had ran to the palace bedroom and hanged herself there. Oedipus enters,
deliriously calling for a sword so that he might kill himself and raging through the
house until he comes upon Jocasta‘s body. In final despair, Oedipus takes two
long gold pins from her dress, and plunges them into his own eyes.

Now blind, Oedipus begs to be exiled as soon as possible, and asks Creon to

look after his two daughters, Antigone and Ismene, lamenting that they should
have been born into such a cursed family. Creon counsels that Oedipus should be
kept in the palace until oracles can be consulted regarding what is best to be done,
and the play ends as the Chorus wails: ‘Count no man happy till he dies, free of
pain at last’.

Oedipus The King Analysis

The play follows one chapter (the most dramatic one) in the life of Oedipus, King
of Thebes, who lived about a generation before the events of the Trojan War,
namely his gradual realization that he has killed his own father, Laius, and
committed incest with his own mother, Jocasta. It assumes a certain amount of
background knowledge of his story, which Greek audiences would have known
well, although much of the background is also explained as the action unfolds.
The basis of the myth is recounted to some extent in Homer’s “The Odyssey”,
and more detailed accounts would have appeared in the chronicles of Thebes
known as the Theban Cycle, although these have since been lost to us.

“Oedipus the King” is structured as a prologue and five episodes,

each introduced by a choral ode. Each of the incidents in the play is part of a
tightly constructed cause-and-effect chain, assembled together as an investigation
of the past, and the play is considered a marvel of plot structure. Part of the
tremendous sense of inevitability and fate in the play stems from the fact that all
the irrational things have already occurred and are therefore unalterable.

The main themes of the play are: fate and free will (the inevitability of oracular
predictions is a theme that often occurs in Greek tragedies); the conflict between
the individual and the state (similar to that in Sophocles’ “Antigone”); people’s
willingness to ignore painful truths (both Oedipus and Jocasta clutch at unlikely
details in order to avoiding facing up to the inceasingly apparent truth); and sight
and blindness (the irony that the blind seer Tiresius can actually “see” more
clearly than the supposedly clear-eyed Oedipus, who is in reality blind to the truth
about his origins and his inadvertent crimes).

Sophocles makes good use of dramatic irony in “Oedipus the King”. For

example: the people of Thebes come to Oedipus at the start of the play, asking him
to rid the city of the plague, when in reality, it is he who is the
cause; Oedipus curses the murderer of Laius out of a deep anger at not being able
to find him, actually cursing himself in he process; he insults Tiresius’ blindness
when he is the one who actually lacks vision, and will soon himself be blind; and
he rejoices in the news of the death of King Polybus of Corinth, when this new
information is what actually brings the tragic prophecy to light.

SOURCE 2:
Oedipus steps out of the royal palace of Thebes and is greeted by a procession of
priests, who are in turn surrounded by the impoverished and sorrowful citizens of
Thebes. The citizens carry branches wrapped in wool, which they offer to the gods
as gifts. Thebes has been struck by a plague, the citizens are dying, and no one
knows how to put an end to it. Oedipus asks a priest why the citizens have gathered
around the palace. The priest responds that the city is dying and asks the king to
save Thebes. Oedipus replies that he sees and understands the terrible fate of
Thebes, and that no one is more sorrowful than he. He has sent Creon, his brother-
in-law and fellow ruler, to the Delphic oracle to find out how to stop the plague.
Just then, Creon arrives, and Oedipus asks what the oracle has said. Creon asks
Oedipus if he wants to hear the news in private, but Oedipus insists that all the
citizens hear. Creon then tells what he has learned from the god Apollo, who spoke
through the oracle: the murderer of Laius, who ruled Thebes before Oedipus, is in
Thebes. He must be driven out in order for the plague to end.
Creon goes on to tell the story of Laius’s murder. On their way to consult an
oracle, Laius and all but one of his fellow travelers were killed by thieves. Oedipus
asks why the Thebans made no attempt to find the murderers, and Creon reminds
him that Thebes was then more concerned with the curse of the Sphinx. Hearing
this, Oedipus resolves to solve the mystery of Laius’s murder.

The Chorus enters, calling on the gods Apollo, Athena, and Artemis to save
Thebes. Apparently, it has not heard Creon’s news about Laius’s murderer. It
bemoans the state of Thebes, and finally invokes Dionysus, whose mother was a
Theban. Oedipus returns and tells the Chorus that he will end the plague himself.
He asks if anyone knows who killed Laius, promising that the informant will be
rewarded and the murderer will receive no harsher punishment than exile. No one
responds, and Oedipus furiously curses Laius’s murderer and anyone who is
protecting him. Oedipus curses himself, proclaiming that should he discover the
murderer to be a member of his own family, that person should be struck by the
same exile and harsh treatment that he has just wished on the murderer. Oedipus
castigates the citizens of Thebes for letting the murderer go unknown so long. The
Leader of the Chorus suggests that Oedipus call for Tiresias, a great prophet, and
Oedipus responds that he has already done so.

Analysis
Oedipus is notable for his compassion, his sense of justice, his swiftness of thought
and action, and his candor. At this early stage in the play, Oedipus represents all
that an Athenian audience—or indeed any audience—could desire in a citizen or a
leader. In his first speech, which he delivers to an old priest whose suffering he
seeks to alleviate, he continually voices his concern for the health and well-being
of his people. He insists upon allowing all his people to hear what the oracle has
said, despite Creon’s suggestion that Oedipus hear the news in private. When
Creon retells the story of Laius’s murder, Oedipus is shocked and dismayed that
the investigation of the murder of a king was so swiftly dropped (145–147).
Oedipus quickly hatches plans to deal with both his people’s suffering and Laius’s
unsolved murder, and he has even anticipated the Chorus’s suggestions that he
send someone to the oracle and call forth Tiresias. Finally, Oedipus is vehement in
his promises of dire punishment for Laius’s murderer, even if the murderer turns
out to be someone close to Oedipus himself.

Read an in-depth analysis of Oedipus.

Sophocles’ audience knew the ancient story of Oedipus well, and would therefore
interpret the greatness Oedipus exudes in the first scene as a tragic harbinger of his
fall. Sophocles seizes every opportunity to exploit this dramatic irony. Oedipus
frequently alludes to sight and blindness, creating many moments of dramatic
irony, since the audience knows that it is Oedipus’s metaphorical blindness to the
relationship between his past and his present situation that brings about his ruin.
For example, when the old priest tells Oedipus that the people of Thebes are dying
of the plague, Oedipus says that he could not fail to see this (68–72). Oedipus
eagerly attempts to uncover the truth, acting decisively and scrupulously refusing
to shield himself from the truth. Although we are able to see him as a mere puppet
of fate, at some points, the irony is so magnified that it seems almost as if Oedipus
brings catastrophe upon himself willingly. One such instance of this irony is when
Oedipus proclaims proudly—but, for the audience, painfully—that he possesses
the bed of the former king, and that marriage might have even created “blood-
bonds” between him and Laius had Laius not been murdered (294–300).

Although the Chorus’s first ode (168–244) piously calls to the gods to save Thebes
from the plague, the answer they get to their prayer arrives in human form.
Immediately following the ode, Oedipus enters and says that he will answer the
Chorus’s prayers. For a moment, Oedipus takes upon himself the role of a god—a
role the Chorus has been both reluctant and eager to allow him (see 39–43).
Oedipus is so competent in the affairs of men that he comes close to dismissing the
gods, although he does not actually blaspheme, as Creon does in Antigone. At this
early moment, we see Oedipus’s dangerous pride, which explains his willful
blindness and, to a certain extent, justifies his downfall.

SOURCE 3: CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Sophocles' Oedipus is known by his tragic story. Who kills his father and marries
his mother. He discovers his own corruption and tears out his eyes in self-
punishment. The key King Oedipus is brilliant and excellent leader. He has been a
good king for Thebes, and in crisis he moves decisively to save his city, but in his
excitement and energy, Oedipus lacks discretion. The play Sophocles the king
oedipus and it's characters are very interesting and many essays and papers are
there to read about them. Here we will discuss brreifly and analyze the characters
and their personalities of the play.
1) Oedipus:-

The King of Thebes. He is known by his tragidy that he killed his biological father
and married to his mother without knowing that who are they actually. He saved
the city of Thebes by solving the riddle of the Sphinx and destroying the monster.
He now sets about finding the murderer of the former king Laius to save Thebes
from plague. When Oedipus was in Colonus he lives like a begger and he is blind
also.
2) Creon:-
He is the brother-in-law of Oedipus. King Oedipus trusts him and he is a trusted
advisor of the king Oedipus. He is the second-in-command in Thebes. He is
selected to go to the oracle at Delphi to seek the Apollo's advice in saving the city
from plague. Creon is a complete autocrat, a leader who identifies the power and
dignity of the state entirely with himself. He had given strict order to leave
Polynices' body unburied and his refusal to admit the possibility that he is wrong
about the events of the tragedy.
3) Tiresias :-
Tiresias is a prophet and he is blind. The king of Thebes had taken his advice and
guidance. Tiresias also advised Laius and Oedipus, before Creon. He show that the
gods are angered by Creon's decision to leave Polynices unburied.
4) Jocasta

Oedipus married to Jocasta so she is Queen of the Thebes. King Laius is the former
husband of Jocasta and she was widow when she married to Oedipus. She married
to Oedipus due to he save the city from the Sphinx.

5) There are a Messenger from Corinth and a shepherd also. The messenger
bringing news to Oedipus and the shepherd once served for the Laius.There is an
another messenger who announce the death of the queen and the blinding of
Oedipus.
6) Antigone :- Antigone is Oedipus' daughters. Antigone leads her blind father on
his travels and serves his needs. Antigone stays with her father and helps him
during his blindness. Antigone defies a civil law forbidding the burial of Polynices,
her brother, in order to uphold the divine law requiring that the dead be put to rest
with proper rituals.

7) Ismene :-

Ismene is daughter of oedipus and sister of Antigone and she lives in Thebes and
brings her father and sister news while they stay in Colonus. She refuses to join her
sister Antigone in disobeying the civil law, but later wants to join her in death.

8) Theseus :-

Theseus is the King of Athens. He helped oedipus when he is blind and staying in
colonus like a begger and witnesses his death.

9) Polynices :-
Polynices is the Son of King Oedipus, and Antigone and Ismene are his sisters.He
did planning the take the Thebes by force and struggled with his brother Eteocles
and Creon. He is Driven out of Thebes.

10) Haemon :-
Haemon is the Son of Creon, promised in marriage to Antigone. He argues calmly
for Antigone's release, but meets with angry rejection.

11) Eurydice

Eurydice is the wife of Creon and Queen of Thebes. She killed herself when she
came to know about her son's death.
12) There was a man as messenger who tells of the deaths of Antigone, Haemon,
and Eurydice. And a group of elders of Thebes and their Leader. They listen
loyally to Creon and rebuke Antigone, but advise the king to change his mind
when Tiresias warns of the gods' punishment.
So these are the main characters of the play and their personalities are briefly
discussed and analyzed.

Source 4: Historical Analysis

Oedipus the king ,which was written by sophocles, is a 5th century GREEK
mythology. This story is about the king (i.e.) Oedipus who fated kills his father to
marry his mother. The historical context of this period is that , Greeks believed that
god can see and take hold of everything he wants from humans & also he can give
everything humans want. The story line talks about how oedipus save his people
from deady plague which has spread all over the city. then he finds about his fate
and tries to escape from his fate but eventually he get stuck into his fate. According
to the greek notion the fate of a person take control over the person's life despite of
his or her free will. the author of this story is SOPHOCLES and he throught out his
story he is unbiased basically. The author is intended to write this story to make
everyone understand a lesson, that an act as a result of aggression and selfishness
can lead to destruction because when a person is restless he become judgemental
without having control over himself and over his thoughts. the audience of this
play according to the author are the ones who have belief over fate.

In conclusion, what stands out as meaningful is whatever the person try to escape
from his fate oneday fate will come and take control over the person. ie) if you do
wrong to someone, wrong doings will come back in someother way to harm you to
take vengence. what is written in your fate will definitely happen for sure.