thought to have been renamed Oedipus

Tyrannus to distinguish it from another of

Sophocles's plays, Oedipus at Colonus. In
antiquity, the term "tyrant" referred to a
ruler with no legitimate claim to rule, but it
did not necessarily have a negative
connotation.[2][3][4]
 Oedipus Rex

Louis Bouwmeester as Oedipus in a Dutch

production of Oedipus Rex, c. 1896

Written by Sophocles

Chorus Theban Elders

Characters Oedipus
Priest
Creon
Tiresias
Jocasta
 Messenger
Shepherd
Second Messenger

Mute Daughters of Oedipus

(Antigone and
Ismene)

Date premiered c. 429 BC

Place premiered Theatre of Dionysus,

Athens

Original language Classical Greek

Series Theban Plays

Genre Tragedy

Setting Thebes
Of Sophocles's 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 (the previous
king), and marry his mother, Jocasta
(whom Oedipus took as his queen after
solving the riddle of the Sphinx). The
action of Sophocles's play concerns
Oedipus's search for the murderer of Laius
in order to end a 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 light,
Jocasta hangs herself while Oedipus,
horrified at his patricide and incest,
proceeds to gouge out his own eyes in
despair.

Oedipus Rex is regarded by many scholars

as the masterpiece of ancient Greek
tragedy. In his Poetics, Aristotle refers
several times to the play in order to
exemplify aspects of the genre.[5][6]
Background
This section needs additional citations for
verification. Learn more

Painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres depicting

Oedipus after he solves the riddle of the Sphinx.[7] The
Walters Art Museum.

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 own son". Laius
binds the infant's feet together with a pin,
and orders Jocasta to kill him. Unable to
kill her own son, Jocasta orders a servant
to 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

P. Oxy. 1369, a fragmentary papyrus copy of Oedipus

Rex, 4th century BC.
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.

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 retorts that Oedipus 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 repeats 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
Bénigne Gagneraux, The Blind Oedipus Commending
his Children to the Gods

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]

The science revolution attributed to Thales

began gaining political force, and this play
offered a warning to the new thinkers.
Kitto interprets the 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, Irony and motifs

Fate, free will, or tragic flaw …

Fate is a motif 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 the 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.

Oedipus and Antigone, by Charles Jalabert.

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
seems to neglect." The wording of the
Oracle: I was doomed to be murderer 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 …

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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.

Irony …

Dramatic Irony exists in ''Oedipus Rex'', one

big example would be Tiresias hinting at
Oedipus at what he has done: "And he
shall be exposed to his children as both
their father. And their brother; to the
woman who gave him birth. As both her
son and husband; and to his father as his
killer who seeded her after him. So go
within to reason this out and if you catch
me deceiving you, then say that in my
prophecies there is nothing for me to be
proud of." Then by the end of the play,  it is
known by King Laius was, in fact,
Oedipus’s real father and Oedipus’s wife,
Jocasta, is Oedipus's real mother.

Oedipus, after wanting to find the

suspected killer of King Lauis, said "Yet
not in the name of remote kin but for
myself will I banish the abomination since
that person who killed may—and soon—
and by his own hand, wish to avenge me."
This is also ironic because since Oedipus
is the killer, those things will happen to
him. Glassberg explains in his piece,
“Oedipus has clearly missed the mark. He
is unaware that he is the one polluting
agent he seeks to punish. He has
inadequate knowledge, in Butcher’s
words.”[26]  

Sophocles uses irony to show Oedipus's

downfall. At the beginning of this story,
Sophocles portrays Oedipus as "self-
confident, intelligent and strong willed"[27]
and because of those traits, it leads to his
downfall. For instance, when the prophecy
from Tiresias says Oedipus had killed his
father and married his mother, Oedipus
ignores it and continues on his journey of
trying to find the supposed killer.
Meanwhile, the audience knows the whole
time what would be the fate of Oedipus.

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…"[28] 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

A Greek amphora depicting Oedipus and the Sphinx,

circa 450 BC.

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.”[29]

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.”[30][31][32]

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.

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.

Park Chan-wook's 2003 film, Oldboy, was

inspired by the play, while making several
notable changes to allow it to work in a
modern South-Korea setting.[33] The film
even altered the iconic twist, causing
many American critics to overlook the
connection. It received widespread
acclaim, and is seen in South Korea as the
definitive adaptation.
Stage versions …

Play by the Celje Slovene People's Theatre in 1968

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. The work 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).[34]

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.[35] 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.[36]

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 .
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" . 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
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 .
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 . 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. Glassbery, Roy (April 2017). "Uses of
Hamartia, Flaw, and Irony in Oedipus
Tyrannus and King Lear". Philosophy
and Literature. vol. 41 (no. 1): 201–
206.
27. "Use of Irony in Oedipus the King" .
123HelpMe.com. Retrieved 6 Dec
2019.
28. Ziaul Haque, Md. & Kabir Chowdhury,
Fahmida. "The Concept of Blindness in
Sophocles' King Oedipus and Arthur
Miller's Death of a Salesman",
"Archived copy" . Archived from the
original 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.
29. Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of
Dreams. Basic Books. 978-
0465019779 (2010) page 279-280
30. Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of
Dreams. Basic Books. 978-
0465019779 (2010) page 247
31. Fagles, Robert, “Introduction”.
Sophocles. The Three Theban Plays.
Penguin Classics (1984) ISBN 978-
0140444254. page 132
32. Dodds, E. R. “On Misunderstanding the
Oedipus Rex”. The Ancient Concept of
Progress. Oxford Press. (1973)
ISBN 978-0198143772. page 70
33. "Sympathy for the Old Boy... An
Interview with Park Chan Wook" by
Choi Aryong
34. 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]
35. The Chaser Archive (2011-10-13),
CNNNN - Season 2 Episode 10 ,
retrieved 2018-02-14
36. The Chaser Archive (2011-10-13),
CNNNN - Season 2 Episode 10 ,
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
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
Luci Berkowitz and Theodore F. Brunner,
1970 – prose
Anthony Burgess, 1972 - prose and
verse
Stephen Berg and Diskin Clay, 1978 –
verse
Robert Bagg, 1982 (revised ed. 2004) –
verse
Robert Fagles, 1984, The Three Theban
Plays: Antigone; Oedipus the King;
Oedipus at Colonus . Penguin classics.
ISBN 9781101042694
Don Taylor, 1986 - prose
Nick Bartel, 1999 – verse: abridged text
Kenneth McLeish, 2001 - Verse
Ian Johnston, 2004 – verse: full text
George Theodoridis, 2005 – prose: full
text
J. E. Thomas, 2006 - verse
Ian C. Johnston, 2007 - verse: full text
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

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Philoctetes

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Oedipus Rex

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related to this article:
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Oedipus Tyrannus at Perseus Digital
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Background on Drama, Generally, and
Applications to Sophocles' Play
Study Guide for Sophocles' Oedipus the
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Oedipus the King Book Notes from
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at LibriVox

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