Oedipus Rex

Oedipus  Rex, also known by its Greek title, Oedipus  Tyrannus

Oedipus Rex
(Ancient Greek: Οἰδίπους Τύραννος IPA: [oidípuːs týranːos]), or Oedipus
the  King, is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed
around 429 BC.[1] Originally, to the ancient Greeks, the title was simply
Oedipus (Οἰδίπους), as it is referred to by Aristotle in the Poetics. It is
thought to have been renamed Oedipus  Tyrannus to distinguish it from
another of Sophocles' plays, Oedipus  at  Colonus. In antiquity, the term
“tyrant” referred to a ruler with no legitimate claim to do so, but it did not
necessarily have a negative connotation.[2][3][4]

Of his three Theban plays that have survived, and that deal with the story of
Oedipus, Oedipus Rex was the second to be written. However, in terms of
the chronology of events that the plays describe, it comes first, followed by
Oedipus at Colonus and then Antigone.

Prior to the start of Oedipus Rex, Oedipus has become the king of Thebes
while unwittingly fulfilling a prophecy that he would kill his father, Laius Louis Bouwmeester as Oedipus in a
(the previous king), and marry his mother, Jocasta (whom Oedipus took as Dutch production of Oedipus Rex, c.
his queen after solving the riddle of the Sphinx). The action of Sophocles' 1896
play concerns Oedipus' search for the murderer of Laius in order to end a
Written by Sophocles
plague ravaging Thebes, unaware that the killer he is looking for is none
other than himself. At the end of the play, after the truth finally comes to
Chorus Theban Elders
light, Jocasta hangs herself while Oedipus, horrified at his patricide and Characters Oedipus
incest, proceeds to gouge out his own eyes in despair. Priest

Oedipus  Rex is regarded by many scholars as the masterpiece of ancient Creon

Greek tragedy. In his Poetics, Aristotle refers several times to the play in Tiresias
order to exemplify aspects of the genre.[5][6] Jocasta
Messenger
Shepherd
Contents Second
Background Messenger
Plot Mute Daughters of
Relationship with mythic tradition Oedipus
Reception (Antigone and
Themes and motifs Ismene)
Fate, free will, or tragic flaw Date premiered c. 429 BC
State control
Place premiered Theatre of
Sight and blindness
Dionysus,
Sigmund Freud
Athens
Adaptations
Film versions Original language Classical Greek
Stage versions Series Theban Plays
TV/Radio versions
Genre Tragedy
Parodies
 See also Setting Thebes
Notes
Translations
Further reading
External links

Background
Many parts or elements of the myth of Oedipus occur before the opening
scene of the play, although some are alluded to in the text. Oedipus is the
son of Laius and Jocasta, the king and queen of Thebes. The misfortunes of
his house are the result of a curse laid upon his father for violating the
sacred laws of hospitality. In his youth, Laius was the guest of Pelops, the
king of Elis, and he became the tutor of Chrysippus, the king's youngest
son, in chariot racing. Laius seduced or abducted and raped Chrysippus,
who according to some versions, killed himself in shame. This murder cast
a doom over Laius and all of his descendants (although many scholars
regard Laius' transgressions against Chrysippus to be a late addition to the
myth).

When his son is born, the king consults an oracle as to his fortune. To his
horror, the oracle reveals that Laius "is doomed to perish by the hand of his
Painting by Jean-Auguste-
own son". Laius binds the infant's feet together with a pin, and orders
Dominique Ingres depicting Oedipus
after he solves the riddle of the Jocasta to kill him. Unable to kill her own son, Jocasta orders a servant to
Sphinx.[7] The Walters Art Museum. slay the infant for her. The servant then exposes the infant on a
mountaintop, where he is found and rescued by a shepherd (in some
versions, the servant gives the infant to the shepherd). The shepherd names
the child Oedipus, "swollen feet", as his feet had been tightly bound by Laius. The shepherd brings the infant to
Corinth, and presents him to the childless king Polybus, who raises Oedipus as his own son.

As he grows to manhood, Oedipus hears a rumour that he is not truly the son of Polybus and his wife, Merope. He asks
the Delphic Oracle who his parents really are. The Oracle seems to ignore this question, telling him instead that he is
destined to "mate with [his] own mother, and shed/With [his] own hands the blood of [his] own sire". Desperate to
avoid this terrible fate, Oedipus, who still believes that Polybus and Merope are his true parents, leaves Corinth for the
city of Thebes.

On the road to Thebes, Oedipus encounters Laius and his retainers, and the two quarrel over whose chariot has the
right of way. The Theban king moves to strike the insolent youth with his sceptre, but Oedipus, unaware that Laius is
his true father, throws the old man down from his chariot, killing him. Thus, Laius is slain by his own son, and the
prophecy that the king had sought to avoid by exposing Oedipus at birth is fulfilled.

Before arriving at Thebes, Oedipus encounters the Sphinx, a legendary beast with the head and breast of a woman, the
body of a lioness, and the wings of an eagle. The Sphinx was sent to the road approaching Thebes as a punishment
from the gods, and would strangle any traveler who failed to answer a certain riddle. The precise riddle asked by the
Sphinx varied in early traditions, and is not stated in Oedipus Rex, as the event precedes the play; but the most widely-
known version is, "what is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the
evening?" Oedipus correctly guesses, "man", who crawls on all fours as an infant, walks upright in maturity, and leans
on a stick in old age. Bested by the prince, the Sphinx throws herself from a cliff, thereby ending the curse.[8] Oedipus'
reward for freeing Thebes from the Sphinx is its kingship, and the hand of the dowager queen, Jocasta; none then
realize that Jocasta is Oedipus' true mother.[9] Thus, unknown to all of the characters, the prophecy has been fulfilled.
Plot
Oedipus, King of Thebes, sends his brother-in-law, Creon, to ask advice of
the oracle at Delphi, concerning a plague ravaging Thebes. Creon returns to
report that the plague is the result of religious pollution, since the murderer
of their former king, Laius, has never been caught. Oedipus vows to find the
murderer and curses him for causing the plague.

P. Oxy. 1369, a fragmentary papyrus
copy of Oedipus Rex, 4th century
BC.
Oedipus summons the blind prophet Tiresias for help. When Tiresias
arrives he claims to know the answers to Oedipus's questions, but refuses to
speak, instead telling him to abandon his search. Oedipus is enraged by
Tiresias' refusal, and verbally accuses him of complicity in Laius' murder.
Outraged, Tiresias tells the king that Oedipus himself is the murderer ("You
yourself are the criminal you seek"). Oedipus cannot see how this could be,
and concludes that the prophet must have been paid off by Creon in an
attempt to undermine him. The two argue vehemently, as Oedipus mocks
Tiresias' lack of sight, and Tiresias in turn tells Oedipus that he himself is
blind. Eventually Tiresias leaves, muttering darkly that when the murderer
is discovered he shall be a native citizen of Thebes, brother and father to his
own children, and son and husband to his own mother.

Creon arrives to face Oedipus's accusations. The King demands that Creon be executed; however, the chorus persuades
him to let Creon live. Jocasta, wife of first Laius and then Oedipus, enters and attempts to comfort Oedipus, telling him
he should take no notice of prophets. As proof, she recounts an incident in which she and Laius received an oracle
which never came true. The prophecy stated that Laius would be killed by his own son; however, Jocasta reassures
Oedipus by her statement that Laius was killed by bandits at a crossroads on the way to Delphi.

The mention of this crossroads causes Oedipus to pause and ask for more details. He asks Jocasta what Laius looked
like, and Oedipus suddenly becomes worried that Tiresias's accusations were true. Oedipus then sends for the one
surviving witness of the attack to be brought to the palace from the fields where he now works as a shepherd.

Jocasta, confused, asks Oedipus what the matter is, and he tells her. Many years ago, at a banquet in Corinth, a man
drunkenly accused Oedipus of not being his father's son. Oedipus went to Delphi and asked the oracle about his
parentage. Instead of answers he was given a prophecy that he would one day murder his father and sleep with his
mother. Upon hearing this he resolved to leave Corinth and never return. While traveling he came to the very
crossroads where Laius was killed, and encountered a carriage which attempted to drive him off the road. An argument
ensued and Oedipus killed the travelers, including a man who matches Jocasta's description of Laius. Oedipus has
hope, however, because the story is that Laius was murdered by several robbers. If the shepherd confirms that Laius
was attacked by many men, then Oedipus is in the clear.

A man arrives from Corinth with the message that Oedipus's father has died. Oedipus, to the surprise of the messenger,
is made ecstatic by this news, for it proves one half of the prophecy false, for now he can never kill his father. However,
he still fears that he may somehow commit incest with his mother. The messenger, eager to ease Oedipus's mind, tells
him not to worry, because Merope was not in fact his real mother.

It emerges that this messenger was formerly a shepherd on Mount Cithaeron, and that he was given a baby, which the
childless Polybus then adopted. The baby, he says, was given to him by another shepherd from the Laius household,
who had been told to get rid of the child. Oedipus asks the chorus if anyone knows who this man was, or where he
might be now. They respond that he is the "same shepherd" who was witness to the murder of Laius, and whom
Oedipus had already sent for. Jocasta, who has by now realized the truth, desperately begs Oedipus to stop asking
questions, but he refuses and Jocasta runs into the palace.
When the shepherd arrives Oedipus questions him, but he begs to be allowed to leave without answering further.
However, Oedipus presses him, finally threatening him with torture or execution. It emerges that the child he gave
away was Laius's own son, and that Jocasta had given the baby to the shepherd to secretly be exposed upon the
mountainside. This was done in fear of the prophecy that Jocasta said had never come true: that the child would kill his
father.

Everything is at last revealed, and Oedipus curses himself and fate before leaving the stage. The chorus laments how
even a great man can be felled by fate, and following this, a servant exits the palace to speak of what has happened
inside. When Jocasta enters the house, she runs to the palace bedroom and hangs herself there. Shortly afterward,
Oedipus enters in a fury, calling on his servants to bring him a sword so that he might cut out his mother's womb. He
then rages through the house, until he comes upon Jocasta's body. Giving a cry, Oedipus takes her down and removes
the long gold pins that held her dress together, before plunging them into his own eyes in despair.

A blind Oedipus now exits the palace and begs to be exiled as soon as possible. Creon enters, saying that Oedipus shall
be taken into the house until oracles can be consulted regarding what is best to be done. Oedipus's two daughters (and
half-sisters), Antigone and Ismene, are sent out, and Oedipus laments their having been born to such a cursed family.
He asks Creon to watch over them and Creon agrees, before sending Oedipus back into the palace.

On an empty stage the chorus repeat the common Greek maxim, that no man should be considered fortunate until he is
dead.[10]

Relationship with mythic tradition
The two cities of Troy and Thebes were the major focus of Greek epic poetry. The events surrounding the Trojan War
were chronicled in the Epic Cycle, of which much remains, and those about Thebes in the Theban Cycle, which have
been lost. The Theban Cycle recounted the sequence of tragedies that befell the house of Laius, of which the story of
Oedipus is a part.

Homer's Odyssey (XI.271ff.) contains the earliest account of the Oedipus myth when Odysseus encounters Jocasta
(named Epicaste) in the underworld. Homer briefly summarises the story of Oedipus, including the incest, patricide,
and Jocasta's subsequent suicide. However, in the Homeric version, Oedipus remains King of Thebes after the
revelation and neither blinds himself, nor is sent into exile. In particular, it is said that the gods made the matter of his
paternity known, whilst in Oedipus the King, Oedipus very much discovers the truth himself.[11]

In 467 BC, Sophocles's fellow tragedian Aeschylus won first prize at the City Dionysia with a trilogy about the House of
Laius, comprising Laius, Oedipus and Seven  against  Thebes (the only play which survives). Since he did not write
connected trilogies as Aeschylus did, Oedipus  Rex focuses on the titular character while hinting at the larger myth
obliquely, which was already known to the audience in Athens at the time.

Reception
The trilogy containing Oedipus  Rex took second prize in the City Dionysia at its original performance. Aeschylus's
nephew Philocles took first prize at that competition.[12] However, in his Poetics, Aristotle considered Oedipus Rex to
be the tragedy which best matched his prescription for how drama should be made.[13]

Many modern critics agree with Aristotle on the quality of Oedipus Rex, even if they don't always agree on the reasons.
For example, Richard Claverhouse Jebb claimed that "The Oedipus Tyrannus is in one sense the masterpiece of Attic
tragedy. No other shows an equal degree of art in the development of the plot; and this excellence depends on the
powerful and subtle drawing of the characters."[14] Cedric Whitman noted that "the Oedipus  Rex passes almost
universally for the greatest extant Greek play..."[15] Whitman himself regarded the play as "the fullest expression of this
conception of tragedy," that is the conception of tragedy as a "revelation of the evil lot of man," where a man may have
"all the equipment for glory and honor" but still have "the greatest effort to do good" end in "the evil of an unbearable
self for which one is not responsible.[16] Edith Hall referred to Oedipus the
King as "this definitive tragedy" and notes that "the magisterial subtlety of
Sophocles' characterization thus lend credibility to the breathtaking
coincidences," and notes the irony that "Oedipus can only fulfill his
exceptional god-ordained destiny because Oedipus is a preeminently
capable and intelligent human being."[17] H. D. F. Kitto said about Oedipus
Rex that "it is true to say that the perfection of its form implies a world
order," although Kitto notes that whether or not that world order "is
beneficent, Sophocles does not say."[18]
Bénigne Gagneraux, The Blind
The science revolution attributed to Thales began gaining political force, Oedipus Commending his Children
and this play offered a warning to the new thinkers. Kitto interprets the to the Gods
play as Sophocles' retort to the sophists, by dramatizing a situation in which
humans face undeserved suffering through no fault of their own, but
despite the apparent randomness of the events, the fact that they have been prophesied by the gods implies that the
events are not random, despite the reasons being beyond human comprehension.[19] Through the play, according to
Kitto, Sophocles declares "that it is wrong, in the face of the incomprehensible and unmoral, to deny the moral laws
and accept chaos. What is right is to recognize facts and not delude ourselves. The universe is a unity; if, sometimes, we
can see neither rhyme nor reason in it we should not suppose it is random. There is so much that we cannot know and
cannot control that we should not think and behave as if we do know and can control.[19]

Themes and motifs

Fate, free will, or tragic flaw

Fate is a theme that often occurs in Greek writing, tragedies in particular. The idea that attempting to avoid an oracle is
the very thing which brings it about is a common motif in many Greek myths, and similarities to Oedipus can for
example be seen in the myth of the birth of Perseus.

Two oracles in particular dominate the plot of Oedipus Rex. In lines 711 to 714, Jocasta relates the prophecy that was
told to Laius before the birth of Oedipus. Namely:

(The oracle) told him

that it was his fate that he should die a victim
at the hands of his own son, a son to be born
of Laius and me.

The oracle told to Laius tells only of the patricide; the incest is missing. Prompted by Jocasta's recollection, Oedipus
reveals the prophecy which caused him to leave Corinth (791-93):

that I was fated to lie with my mother,

and show to daylight an accursed breed
which men would not endure, and I was doomed
to be murderer of the father that begot me.

The implication of Laius's oracle is ambiguous. One interpretation considers that the presentation of Laius's oracle in
this play differs from that found in Aeschylus's Oedipus trilogy produced in 467 BC. Helaine Smith argues:
 Sophocles had the option of making the oracle to Laius conditional (if Laius has a son, that son will kill
him) or unconditional (Laius will have a son who will kill him). Both Aeschylus and Euripides write plays
in which the oracle is conditional; Sophocles ... chooses to make Laius's oracle unconditional and thus
removes culpability for his sins from Oedipus, for he could not have done other than what he did, no
matter what action he took.[20][21]

This interpretation is supported by Jocasta's repetition of the oracle at lines 854–55: "Loxias declared that the king
should be killed by/ his own son." In the Greek, Jocasta uses the verb chrênai: "to be fated, necessary." This iteration of
the oracle seems to suggest that it was unconditional and inevitable. Other scholars have nonetheless argued that
Sophocles follows tradition in making Laius's oracle conditional, and thus avoidable. They point to Jocasta's initial
disclosure of the oracle at lines 711–14. In the Greek, the oracle cautions: hôs auton hexoi moira pros paidos thanein/
hostis  genoit  emou  te  kakeinou  para. The two verbs in boldface indicate what is called a "future more vivid"
condition: if a child is born to Laius, his fate to be killed by that child will overtake him.[22]

Whatever the meaning of Laius's oracle, the one delivered to Oedipus is clearly unconditional. Given our modern
conception of fate and fatalism, readers of the play have a tendency to view Oedipus as a mere puppet controlled by
greater forces, a man crushed by the gods and fate for no good reason. This, however, is not an entirely accurate
reading. While it is a mythological truism that oracles exist to be fulfilled, oracles do not cause the events that lead up
to the outcome. In his landmark essay "On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex",[23] E.R. Dodds draws a comparison
with Jesus's prophecy at the Last Supper that Peter would deny him three times. Jesus knows that Peter will do this,
but readers would in no way suggest that Peter was a puppet of fate being forced to deny Christ. Free will and
predestination are by no means mutually exclusive, and such is the case with Oedipus.

The oracle delivered to Oedipus what is often called a "self-fulfilling prophecy", in that the prophecy itself sets in
motion events that conclude with its own fulfilment.[24] This, however, is not to say that Oedipus is a victim of fate and
has no free will. The oracle inspires a series of specific choices, freely made by Oedipus, which lead him to kill his
father and marry his mother. Oedipus chooses not to return to Corinth after hearing the oracle, just as he chooses to
head toward Thebes, to kill Laius, to marry and to take Jocasta specifically as his bride; in response to the plague at
Thebes, he chooses to send Creon to the Oracle for advice and then to follow that advice, initiating the investigation
into Laius's murder. None of these choices are predetermined.

Another characteristic of oracles in myth is that they are almost always

misunderstood by those who hear them; hence Oedipus's
misunderstanding the significance of the Delphic Oracle. He visits Delphi to
find out who his real parents are and assumes that the Oracle refuses to
answer that question, offering instead an unrelated prophecy which
forecasts patricide and incest. Oedipus's assumption is incorrect, the Oracle
does, in a way, answer his question:

"On closer analysis the oracle contains essential information which Oedipus
Oedipus and Antigone, by Charles seems to neglect." The wording of the Oracle: I was doomed to be murderer
Jalabert. of the father that begot me refers to Oedipus' real, biological father.
Likewise the mother with polluted children is defined as the biological one.
The wording of the drunken guest on the other hand: you are not your
father's son defines Polybus as only a foster father to Oedipus. The two wordings support each other and point to the
"two set of parents" alternative. Thus the question of two set of parents, biological and foster, is raised. Oedipus's
reaction to the Oracle is irrational: he states he did not get any answer and he flees in a direction away from Corinth,
showing that he firmly believed at the time that Polybus and Merope are his real parents.
"The scene with the drunken guest constitutes the end of Oedipus' childhood. … he can no longer ignore a feeling of
uncertainty about his parentage. However, after consulting the Oracle this uncertainty disappears, strangely enough,
and is replaced by a totally unjustified certainty that he is the son of Merope and Polybus. We have said that this
irrational behaviour - his hamartia in Aristotle's sense - is due to the repression of a whole series of thoughts in his
consciousness, in fact everything that referred to his earlier doubts about his parentage.[25]

State control
The exploration of this theme in Oedipus Rex is paralleled by the examination of the conflict between the individual
and the state in Antigone. The dilemma that Oedipus faces here is similar to that of the tyrannical Creon: each man
has, as king, made a decision that his subjects question or disobey; each king also misconstrues both his own role as a
sovereign and the role of the rebel. When informed by the blind prophet Tiresias that religious forces are against him,
each king claims that the priest has been corrupted. It is here, however, that their similarities come to an end: while
Creon, seeing the havoc he has wreaked, tries to amend his mistakes, Oedipus refuses to listen to anyone.

Sight and blindness

Literal and metaphorical references to eyesight appear throughout Oedipus Rex. Clear vision serves as a metaphor for
insight and knowledge, but the clear-eyed Oedipus is blind to the truth about his origins and inadvertent crimes. The
prophet Tiresias, on the other hand, although literally blind, "sees" the truth and relays what is revealed to him.
"Though Oedipus' future is predicted by the gods, even after being warned by Tiresias, he cannot see the truth or
reality beforehand because his excessive pride has blinded his vision…"[26] Only after Oedipus has physically blinded
himself does he gain a limited prophetic ability, as seen in Oedipus at Colonus. It is deliberately ironic that the "seer"
can "see" better than Oedipus, despite being blind. In one line (Oedipus the king, 469), Tiresias says:

So, you mock my blindness? Let me tell you this. You [Oedipus] with your precious eyes, you're blind to
the corruption of your life ...

— (Robert Fagles, 1984)

Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud in Interpretation  of  Dreams wrote a notable passage
regarding of the destiny of Oedipus as well as the Oedipus complex. He
analyzes why this play, Oedipus  Rex, written in Ancient Greece, is so
effective even to a modern audience. Freud says,

His destiny moves us only because it might have been ours —

because the oracle laid the same curse upon us before our
birth as upon him. It is the fate of all of us, perhaps, to direct
our first sexual impulse towards our mother and our first
hatred and our first murderous wish against our father. Our
dreams convince us that this is so.”[27]
A Greek amphora depicting Oedipus
and the Sphinx, circa 450 BC.
In the same book, Freud indicates, however, that the “primordial urges and
fears” that are his concern are not found primarily in the play by Sophocles,
but exist in the myth the play is based on; he refers to the play as a “further modification of the legend”, one that
originates in a “misconceived secondary revision of the material, which has sought to exploit it for theological
purposes.”[28][29][30]
Adaptations

Film versions
The play has been filmed several times, twice in English.

The 1957 film version, directed by Tyrone Guthrie, starred Douglas Campbell as Oedipus and had the cast performing
the entire play in masks, as in ancient Greek theatre.

The second English language film version, directed by Philip Saville and released in 1968, was filmed in Greece. This
one showed the actors' faces and boasted an all-star cast, including Christopher Plummer as Oedipus, Lilli Palmer as
Jocasta, Orson Welles as Tiresias, Richard Johnson as Creon, Roger Livesey as the Shepherd, and Donald Sutherland
as the Leading Member of the Chorus. Sutherland's voice, however, was dubbed by another actor. The film went a step
further than the play, however, by actually showing, in flashback, the murder of Laius (Friedrich Ledebur). It also
showed Oedipus and Jocasta in bed together, making love. Made in 1968, this film was not seen in Europe and the U.S.
until the 1970s and 1980s after legal release and distribution rights were granted to video and TV.

In 1967 Pier Paolo Pasolini directed Edipo  Re, a modern interpretation of the play. Toshio Matsumoto's 1969 film,
Funeral  Parade  of  Roses, is a loose adaptation of the play and an important work of the Japanese New Wave. In
Colombia, writer Gabriel García Márquez adapted the story in Edipo  Alcalde, bringing it to the real Colombian
situation. Also in Nigeria, Ola Rotimi (1938-2000) adapted the play and titled it, "The gods are not to Blame" in 1968.
In 2012, the play was further adapted by Rasheed Otun and titled, "The 'Gods' are STILL not to Blame". The film
version of the same title, "The Gods are STILL not to Blame" was produced by Funke Fayoyin. It was premiered at
Silverbird Galleria, Lagos, Nigeria. It has most of the notable film actors in Nigeria and got favourable comments from
the media.

Stage versions
Composer Igor Stravinsky wrote an opera/oratorio version of Oedipus rex, premiered in 1927 by the Théâtre Sarah
Bernhardt, Paris. It is scored for orchestra, speaker, soloists, and male chorus. The libretto, based on Sophocles's
tragedy, was written by Jean Cocteau in French and then translated by Abbé Jean Daniélou into Latin; the narration,
however, is performed in the language of the audience.

Oedipus rex was written towards the beginning of Stravinsky's neoclassical period, and is considered one of the finest
works from this phase of the composer's career. He had considered setting the work in Ancient Greek, but decided
ultimately on Latin: in his words "a medium not dead but turned to stone."

TV/Radio versions
Michael Pennington starred as Oedipus with Claire Bloom as Jocasta, Sir John Gielgud as Tiresias and John Shrapnel
as Creon in Don Taylor's 1986 translation/adaptation of the play, which formed part of the BBC's The Theban Plays
trilogy.

In 1977, CBS Radio Mystery Theater broadcast a version of the story called "So Shall Ye Reap", set in what was then the
US Territory of New Mexico in 1851.

Other television Oedipus's include Christopher Plummer (1957), Ian Holm (1972) and Patrick Stewart (1977).

In 2017, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a production of Anthony Burgess' translation of the play with Christopher Eccleston as
Oedipus and Fiona Shaw as Tiresias/Second Elder. John Shrapnel, who starred as Creon in the 1986 BBC television
version, played The First Elder.
Parodies
Peter Schickele parodies both the story of Oedipus rex and the music of Stravinsky's oratorio-opera of the same name
in Oedipus  Tex, a Western-themed oratorio purportedly written by P.D.Q. Bach, released in 1990 on the album
Oedipus Tex and Other Choral Calamities.

Chrysanthos Mentis Bostantzoglou makes a parody of this tragedy in his comedy Medea (1993).[31]

In episode ten of the second season of 'CNNNN', an Australian satirical television program made by The Chaser, a
short animation in the style of a Disney movie trailer, complete with jaunty music provided by Andrew Hansen,
parodies Oedipus Rex.[32] Apart from being advertised as "Fun for the whole family", the parody is also mentioned at
other times during that same episode, such as in a satirical advertisement in which orphans are offered a free "Oedipus
Rex ashes urn" as a promotional offer after losing a relative.[33]

See also
Incest
Lille Stesichorus, a papyrus fragment of an alternative version by the lyric poet Stesichorus
Oedipus
Oedipus complex
Patricide

Notes
1. Although Sophocles won second prize with the group of plays that included Oedipus Rex, its date of production is
uncertain. The prominence of the Theban plague at the play's opening suggests to many scholars a reference to
the plague that devastated Athens in 430 BC, and hence a production date shortly thereafter. See, for example,
Knox, Bernard (1956). "The Date of the Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles". American Journal of Philology. 77 (2):
133–147. JSTOR 292475 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/292475).
2. Bridgewater, William, ed. "tyrant". The Columbia Encyclopedia. Columbia University Press. (1963) p. 2188
3. Lloyd-Jones, Hugh. Introduction and trans. Sophocles: Ajax, Electra, Oedipus Tyrannus. By Sophocles. Loeb
Classical Library ser. vol. 20. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674995574.
4. Mulroy, David. trans. “Introduction”. Sophocles, Oedipus Rex. Univ of Wisconsin Press, (2011)
ISBN 9780299282530. p. xxviii
5. Aristotle: Poetics. Edited and translated by St. Halliwell, (Loeb Classical Library), Harvard 1995
6. Belfiore, Elizabeth (1992). Tragic Pleasures: Aristotle on Plot and Emotion. Princeton. p. 176.
7. "Oedipus and the Sphinx" (http://art.thewalters.org/detail/7916). The Walters Art Museum.
8. Ahl, Frederick. Two Faces of Oedipus: Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus and Seneca's Oedipus. Cornell University
Press, 2008. page 1. ISBN 9780801473975.
9. Johnston, Ian. "Background Notes", Vancouver Island University (https://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/sophocles/oedipu
stheking.htm)
10. Herodotus, in his Histories (Book 1.32), attributes this maxim to the 6th-century Athenian statesman Solon.
11. Dawe, R.D. ed. 2006 Sophocles: Oedipus Rex, revised edition. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. p.1
12. Smith, Helaine (2005). Masterpieces of Classic Greek Drama. Greenwood. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-313-33268-5.
13. Thomas, J.E. & Osborne, E. (2004). Oedipus Rex: Literary Touchstone Edition. Prestwick House Inc. p. 69.
ISBN 978-1-58049-593-6.
14. Jebb, R.C. The Oedipus Tyrannus (https://books.google.com/books?id=ofi9Ipq3YNMC&pg=PR18&dq=jebb+oedip
us+rex+commentary&ct=result#v=onepage&q&f=false). p. v. ISBN 978-1-4460-3178-0.
15. Whitman, C. (1951). Sophocles. Harvard University Press. p. 123.
16. Whitman, C. (1951). Sophocles. Harvard University Press. p. 143.
17. Hall, E. (1994). "Introduction". Sophocles: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra. Oxford University Press. pp. xix–
xxii. ISBN 0-19-282922-X.
18. Kitto, H.D.F (1966). Greek Tragedy. Routledge. p. 144. ISBN 0-415-05896-1.
19. Kitto, H.D.F (1966). Poiesis. University of California Press. pp. 236–242.
20. Smith, Helaine (2005). Masterpieces of Classic Greek Drama. Greenwood. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-313-33268-5.
21. See Dodds 1966; Mastronarde 1994, 19; Gregory 2005, 323.
22. Thus Sir Richard Jebb in his commentary (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A19
99.04.0016%3Acommline%3D714). Cf. Jeffrey Rusten's 1990 commentary.
23. Greece & Rome, 2nd Ser., Vol. 13, No. 1 (Apr., 1966), pp. 37–49
24. Strictly speaking, this is inaccurate: Oedipus himself sets these events in motion when he decides to investigate
his parentage against the advice of Polybus and Merope.
25. Brunner M. "King Oedipus Retried" Rosenberger & Krausz, London, 2001. ISBN 0-9536219-1-X
26. Ziaul Haque, Md. & Kabir Chowdhury, Fahmida. "The Concept of Blindness in Sophocles' King Oedipus and
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman", "Archived copy" (https://web.archive.org/web/20140525214338/http://www.ij
alel.org/view.aspx?articleid=269). Archived from the original (http://www.ijalel.org/view.aspx?articleid=269) on
2014-05-25. Retrieved 2015-04-01., International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, vol. 2, no. 3;
2013, p. 118, Retrieved on April 01, 2015.
27. Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. Basic Books. 978-0465019779 (2010) page 279-280
28. Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. Basic Books. 978-0465019779 (2010) page 247
29. Fagles, Robert, “Introduction”. Sophocles. The Three Theban Plays. Penguin Classics (1984) ISBN 978-
0140444254. page 132
30. Dodds, E. R. “On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex”. The Ancient Concept of Progress. Oxford Press. (1973)
ISBN 978-0198143772. page 70
31. Kaggelaris, N. (2016), "Sophocles' Oedipus in Mentis Bostantzoglou's Medea" [in Greek] in Mastrapas, A. N. -
Stergioulis, M. M. (eds.) Seminar 42: Sophocles the great classic of tragedy , Athens: Koralli, pp. 74- 81 [1] (http
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_%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B7_%CE%9C%CE%AE%CE%B4%CE%B5%CE%B9%CE%B1_%CF%84%CE%BF%
CF%85_%CE%9C%CF%80%CE%BF%CF%83%CF%84_Sophocles_Oedipus_in_Mentis_Bostantzoglous_Mede
a_.pdf)
32. The Chaser Archive (2011-10-13), CNNNN - Season 2 Episode 10 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrjgw2HSF
I8&t=3m50s), retrieved 2018-02-14
33. The Chaser Archive (2011-10-13), CNNNN - Season 2 Episode 10 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrjgw2HSF
I8&t=16m32s), retrieved 2018-02-14

Translations
Thomas Francklin, 1759 – verse
Edward H. Plumptre, 1865 – verse: full text at Wikisource, rev. edition of 1878
Richard C. Jebb, 1904 – prose: full text at Wikisource
Sir George Young, 1906 - verse
Gilbert Murray, 1911 – verse
Francis Storr, 1912 – verse: full text (http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus.html)
W. B. Yeats, 1928 – mixed prose and verse
David Grene, 1942 (revised ed. 1991) – verse
E. F. Watling, 1947 – verse
Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald, 1949 – verse
F. L. Lucas, 1954 — verse
Theodore Howard Banks, 1956 – verse
Albert Cook, 1957 – verse
Bernard Knox, 1959 – prose
H. D. F. Kitto, 1962 – verse
Anthony Burgess, 1972 - prose and verse
Stephen Berg and Diskin Clay – verse
Robert Bagg, 1982 (revised ed. 2004) – verse
 Sophocles (1984) The Three Theban Plays: Antigone; Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=IeBg8fWUmY4C&lpg=PP1), Translated by Robert Fagles. Penguin classics.
ISBN 9781101042694
Don Taylor, 1986 - prose
Nick Bartel, 1999 – verse: abridged text (https://web.archive.org/web/20060909165724/http://www.sfusd.edu/schw
ww/sch618/GreeksMultimediaProject/Oedipus/OedipusReadersTheater.html)
Kenneth McLeish, 2001 - Verse
Luci Berkowitz and Theodore F. Brunner, 1970 – prose
Ian Johnston, 2004 – verse: full text (http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/sophocles/oedipustheking.htm)
George Theodoridis, 2005 – prose: full text (http://bacchicstage.wordpress.com/sophocles/oedipus-rex/)
J. E. Thomas, 2006 - verse
David Mulroy, 2011 – verse
Rachel Pollack and David Vine, 2011 - verse

Further reading
Brunner, M. 2001. King Oedipus Retried. London: Rosenberger & Krausz.
Cairns, D. L. 2013. "Divine and Human Action in the Oedipus Tyrannus." In Tragedy and Archaic Greek Thought.
Edited by D. L. Cairns, 119–171. Swansea, UK: Classical Press of Wales.
Coughanowr, Effie. 1997. "Philosophic Meaning in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex." L'Antiquité Classique 66: 55-74.
Easterling, P. E. 1989. "City Settings in Greek Poetry." Proceedings of the Classical Association 86:5–17.
Edmunds, L. 2006. Oedipus. London and New York: Routledge.
Finglass, P. J. 2009. "The Ending of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex." Philologus 153:42–62.
Halliwell, S. 1986. "Where Three Roads Meet: A Neglected Detail in the Oedipus Tyrannus." Journal of Hellenic
Studies 106:187–190.
Lawrence, S. 2008. "Apollo and his Purpose in Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus." Studia Humaniora Tartuensia 9:1–
18.
Macintosh, F. 2009. Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannus. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Segal, C. P. 2001. Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge. 2d ed. New York and Oxford:
Oxford Univ. Press.
Sommerstein, A. H. 2011. "Sophocles and the Guilt of Oedipus." Cuadernos de Filología Clásica. Estudios griegos
e indoeuropeos 21:103–117.

External links
Oedipus Tyrannus at Perseus Digital Library (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults?q=+at+tyrannus)
Aristotle's Poetics: Notes on Sophocles' Oedipus (http://search.leeds.ac.uk/search?q=cache:www.leeds.ac.uk/clas
sics/resources/poetics/poet-ot.htm&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&client=corporate&proxystylesheet=corporate&
site=default_collection), cached version of the original (http://www.leeds.ac.uk/classics/resources/poetics/poet-ot.h
tm)
Background on Drama, Generally, and Applications to Sophocles' Play (https://web.archive.org/web/20070629133
752/http://www.aug.edu/~nprinsky/Humn2001/oed-nq.htm)
Study Guide for Sophocles' Oedipus the King (https://web.archive.org/web/20070503031917/http://www.temple.ed
u/classics/oedipus.html)
Full text English translation of Oedipus the King by Ian Johnston, in verse (http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/sophocle
s/oedipustheking.htm)
Oedipus the King Book Notes (http://literapedia.wikispaces.com/Oedipus+the+King) from Literapedia
Oedipus the King (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/27673) from Project Gutenberg
Oedipus Rex (https://librivox.org/search?title=Oedipus+Rex&author=SOPHOCLES&reader=&keywords=&genr
e_id=0&status=all&project_type=either&recorded_language=&sort_order=catalog_date&search_page=1&search_
form=advanced) public domain audiobook at LibriVox

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