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Oedipus Rex, also known by its Greek title, Oedipus Tyrannus (Ancient Greek: Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, pronounced [oidípuːs týrannos]), or Oedipus the King, is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles. While some scholars have argued that the play was first performed c. 429 BC, this is highly uncertain. [1]
Oedipus realizes with horror that the Oracle's prophecy has been fulfilled and that Jocasta and Laius were his birth parents. The old servant who brought Oedipus to the desert is called for and admits to him the truth. Jocasta commits suicide by hanging and Oedipus blinds himself.
Jocasta is the widow of the former king Laius, wife of Oedipus and sister of Creon. Creon is Jocasta's brother, and the chief aid to Oedipus in Thebes. Tiresias is a blind prophet who is charged by Oedipus to find the killer of King Laius. Manto is the daughter of Tiresias. She is used in the play to describe Tiresias' sacrifice to him, and ...
Oedipus (UK: / ˈ iː d ɪ p ə s /, also US: / ˈ ɛ d ə-/; Ancient Greek: Οἰδίπους "swollen foot") was a mythical Greek king of Thebes.A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby bringing disaster to his city and family.
As yet, it would not have been revealed that Oedipus was the biological son of Laius, and hence the fragment describing the blinding refers to Oedipus as the son of Polybus. [3] [5] The blind Oedipus has a scene with Jocasta and possibly Periboea in which the fact that his biological parents are Laius and Jocasta is revealed. [3]
The play opens with a summary of the story of Oedipus and its aftermath told by Jocasta, who in this version has not committed suicide.She explains that after her husband blinded himself upon discovering that he was her son, his sons Eteocles and Polynices locked him away in hopes that the people might forget what had happened.
The "bombastic violence of Oedipus", as Kinsley puts it, was a "scandalous success, with the Bettertons playing Oedipus and Jocasta." [9] This play was Admirably well Acted; especially the Parts of Oedipus and Jocasta: One by Mr Betterton, the other by Mrs Betterton; it took prodigiously being Acted 10 Days together. [3]
Tiresias revealed to the king that "you yourself are the criminal you seek". Oedipus didn't not understand how this could be, and supposed that Creon must have paid Tiresias to accuse him. The two argued vehemently, and Jocasta entered and tried to calm Oedipus by telling him the story of her first-born son and his supposed death. Oedipus ...