OEDIPUS REX

INTRODUCTION 2

Oedipus rex also known as by its

greek title, Oedipus Tyrannus, or
Oedipus the King, is in Athenian
tragedy by Sophocles that was
first performed around 429 BC.
Originally, the ancient greeks, the
title was simply Oedipus, as it
referred to by Aristotle in the
poetics.
CHARACTERS
OEDIPUS
❖The king of Thebes.He
is renowned for his
intelligence and his
ability to solve
riddles

Jocasta
❖ Oedipus’s wife and
mOther, and CreOn’s
sister.
❖ she expresses her love
for her son and husband
in her desire to protect
him
ANTIGONE
❖ Child of Oedipus and
Jocasta, and therefore
bOth Oedipus’s daughter
and his sister.

Creon
❖Oedipus’s brother-in-law, has a
wife named eurydice

❖In him more than anyone else we

see the gradual rise and fall of
One man’s pOwer.
POLYNICES
❖ Son of Oedipus, and thus also
his brother
❖ He arrives at Colonus seeking
his father’s blessing in his
battle with his brother.

TIRESIAS
❖ the blind soothsayer of Thebes

❖ Tiresias tells Oedipus that he is the

murderer he hunts, and Oedipus does
not believe him
HAEMON
❖CreOn’s sOn

❖Haemon is engaged to marry

Antigone. Motivated by his love
for her, he argues with Creon
abOut the latter’s deCisiOn tO
punish her.
ISMENE

❖Oedipus’s daughter

❖Ismene fears helping Antigone bury

Polynices but offers to die beside Antigone
when Creon sentences her to die .
THESEUS
❖The king of Athens

❖A renowned and powerful

warrior, Theseus takes pity on
Oedipus and defends him against
Creon. .
THE CHORUS
❖sometimes comically obtuse or
fickle, sometimes perceptive,
sometimes melodramatic, the
Chorus reacts to the events
onstage..
POLYBUS &MEROPE
❖ the gentle, childless couple
who are given the baby Oedipus
to raise as their own boy

THE SHEPHERD

❖He is the one who gives baby

Oedipus to the messenger, on
the orders of the king and
queen.
EURYDICE
❖ Queen of thebes and wife of
creon

❖ Her son’s death brings eurydiCe

into great lemenation where
she fear for her life and her
solitude slips away.
APOLLO
❖A god of
prophecy,healing,poetry.

❖He communicates a prophecy

through his oracle at delphi
KING LAIUS
❖ The king prior to Oedipus

❖ oedipus’ biOlOgiCal father is

him

ETEOCLES
❖ A king of thebes, the son of
Oedipus and either jacosta or
eurygenia.
 SPHINX
❖A female with the wings of a bird, the body of an animal,
and the breast, neck, and face of a woman.

❖Represents the destiny of all life.

 PLOT
STRUCTURE
 PLOT STRUCTURE 14

EXPOSITION
The exposition reveals three
things.
1. a man named Oedipus solved
the riddle of Sphinx and
became the king of Thebes.
2. Laius the old king of Thebes
was murdered at the
crossroads.
RAISING
ACTION
❖ The rising action is when
Oedipus arrives at Thebes.
❖ He kills someone at the
crossroads, who is later
revealed to be the king and
also his father.

3. the god Apollo was angry

and sent the plague over
Thebes.
 PLOT STRUCTURE 15

FALLING
CLIMAX
ACTION
❖ The climax of Oedipus ❖ the consequences of
the King occurs when Oedipus's learning of his
Oedipus learns, quite identity as the man who
contrary to his killed his father and
expectations, that he is slept with his mother are
the man responsible for the falling action
the plague that has
stricken Thebes ❖ This discovery drives
Jocasta to hang herself,
❖ he is the man who killed Oedipus to poke out his own
his father and slept eyes, and Creon to banish
with his mother. Oedipus from Thebes.
 PLOT STRUCTURE 16

CONCLUSION

❖ And so, despite his precautions, the

prophecy that Oedipus dreaded
has actually come true.

❖ Realizing that he has killed his

father and married his mother,
Oedipus is agonized by his fate.
Rushing into the palace, Oedipus
finds that the queen has killed
herself.
THANK YOU!