OEDIPUS REX Main Characters Oedipus - The story revolves around Oedipus and his search for the

cause of the blight on his city finding it to be himself. Iocaste - Iocaste is Oedipus wife and mother who was very supportive of Oedipus search of the truth until she found out that she was part of that truth when she committed suicide. Creon - Creon, Iocastes brother, helps Oedipus find the murderer, but when the truth begins to come out through Teiresias, Oedipus believes that Creon is trying to overthrow him. Teiresias - He is a blind prophet who knows the truth but doesnt want to tell Oedipus but does so after being forced to, however, Oedipus does not believe him. Minor Characters Laios - Although he never physically appears in the play, he is the one that is murdered and his story is told during the search of his murderer. Shepherd - This is the man that gave Oedipus to another shepherd who gave Oedipus to Polybos. This man later told Oedipus without a doubt that Oedipus was actually Laios son, his murderer, and Iocastes son. Settings Oedipus palace in Thebes - The entire play takes place here where people come and go revealing parts of the complete story. Corinth - The city where Oedipus grew up with the people he thought to be his parents. Iocastes room - Although not actually shown on stage, Iocaste committed suicide and Oedipus gouges out his eyes here. Plot The city of thebes is suffering and Oedipus the king wants to know why. Creon is sent to ask the oracle and Teiresius, a prophet is sent for. The oracle says that the murderer of Laios must be found and punished so Oedipus proclaimed that he would do everything he could to find the murderer. Teiresius says that the murderer is Oedipus, but Oedipus does not believe him. Oedipus charges Creon of sending the prophet to overthrow him. Oedipus tells Iocaste of his leaving Corinth. He tells her that it was prophesied that he would kill his father and marry his mother, but so that it would never happen, he ran from Corinth. On the trip, he met some people on the highway, got in an argument, and killed them. He also solved the riddle of the sphinx, and became the king of Thebes. A messenger came from Corinth to tell Oedipus of Polybos death and that he would now become the king of Corinth. The messenger also tells Oedipus that he is not the son of Polybos, but that the messenger was given Oedipus by another man and that he gave Oedipus to Polybos. The person that gave Oedipus to the messenger was sent for. The shepherd arrives and tells Oedipus that he was a servant of Laios and that Laios gave him his child to kill because of the prophecy that his son would kill him. Since the shepherd felt sorry for the child, he did not kill him, but gave him to the other shepherd. After this, Oedipus finds out that the prophecy came true. Iocaste commits suicide, and Oedipus gouges out his eyes. Then he says bye to his children, and leaves the city. Symbols The scar on Oedipus foot - Oedipus got this scar when the servant from Laios tied him by his foot and left him to die. This is where Oedipus (which means swollen foot) got his name. Messenger: I cut the bonds that tied your ankles together. / Oedipus: I have had the mark as long as I can remember. / Messenger: That is why you were given the name you bear.

Teiresias - He symbolizes Oedipus blindness to the truth in the beginning of the play and shows Oedipus temper. His title of the blind seer exemplifies the theme of blindness and sight. Teiresias: ... A Blind man, / Who has his sight now. Style The style is simple and like normal speech for the most part. The sentences are not complicated and they are easy to understand. Sophocles wrote the play in the typical five part tragedy fashion. Philosophy The story seems to say that a man cannot run from his fate. It was prophesied that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother, and although he tried to run from that, it happened anyway. The same is true for Laios who tried to get rid of his son to run from the prophecy that his son would murder him. Quotations Oedipus: Wealth, power, craft of statesmanship! / Kingly position, everywhere admired! / what savage envy is stored up against these, Oedipus says this to Creon after the fortune from Teiresias. Teiresias: ... But I say that you, with both your eyes, are blind: / You can not see the wretchedness of your life, / Nor in whose house you live, no, nor with whom. / Who are your father and mother? Can you tell me? Teiresias says this to Oedipus after Oedipus starts getting angry with him. Teiresias: A blind man, /Who has his eyes now; a penniless man, who is rich now; / And he will go tapping the strange earth with his staff; / to the children with whom he lives now he will be / Brother and father - the very same; to her / Who bore him, son and husband - the very same / Who came to his fathers bed, wet with his fathers blood. Teiresias tells this to Oedipus prophesying what Oedipus will find out. Oedipus: Let it come! / However base my birth, I must know about it. The Queen, like a woman, is perhaps ashamed / To think of my low origin. But I / Am a child of Luck; I can not be dishonored. Oedipus says this to Iocaste trying to encourage her to continue with the search of the truth when she was beginning to fear the truth. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------When Laius (LIE-us) and Jocasta, the king and queen of Thebes, had a baby, Laius went to the oracle at Delphi (DELL-fee) to ask about it. But the oracle told Laius that his son would murder him. Horrified, Laius ordered that his baby son should be exposed in the woods with a pin through his feet to keep him from crawling away. And a shepherd did this. But the baby was rescued and taken to the king and queen of Corinth, who wanted a son and couldn't have one, and he adopted him. The queen of Corinth called the baby Oedipus, which means swollen foot, on account of the pin through his feet. But she didn't tell Oedipus that he was adopted. When Oedipus grew up, he also listened to an oracle, and the oracle told him that he would kill his father and marry his mother. He was horrified, and ran away from Corinth that night, trying to escape his fate. As he travelled down the road in his chariot, with his horses, he came to a crossroads. Another chariot came to the crossroads at the same time, but it went through without letting Oedipus go. Oedipus was angry at this and got out and killed the other man. When Oedipus got to the town of Thebes, a little later, he found the great Sphinx there. The Sphinx sat in front of Thebes and asked everyone who came there a riddle. If you could answer it, the Sphinx let you go,

but if you could not answer the riddle, then the Sphinx ate you. Nobody ever knew the answer. This was the Sphinx's riddle: What goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon, and three feet in the evening? The answer is: a man. A man is a baby in the morning of his life and he crawls on four feet. He is an adult in the noon of his life and he walks on two feet. But when he is old, in the evening of his life, he walks with a cane, on three feet. When Oedipus answered the riddle correctly, the Sphinx was so upset that she killed herself. Oedipus went on into Thebes. When he got there, the Thebans were very upset because somebody had killed their king, Laius. But they were happy to hear that Oedipus had figured out the riddle of the Sphinx. So they made Oedipus their new king. As part of becoming the new king, Oedipus married the queen, Jocasta. Many years went by. Oedipus and Jocasta had four children, two boys and two girls, and they got old. One day a plague came to Thebes. All over Thebes, people were dying of the plague. King Oedipus sent a messenger to the oracle at Delphi to find out why the gods had sent this terrible plague. The oracle told the messenger that Thebes had a bad man in it, and they had to find him and get rid of him or the plague would go on killing people. This is where Sophocles began his play. In the play, Oedipus tries to find out who this bad man might be, and with the help of the blind seer Tiresias he gradually realizes that he himself, Oedipus, is the bad man, because he has killed his father (the man at the crossroads) and married his mother, just as the oracle said he would. When he finds out that even though he tried hard to escape his fate it has found him anyway, he is very upset. He pokes out his own eyes with a stick. When Jocasta hears the news, she hangs herself until she is dead. Finally, Oedipus leaves Thebes with his children, so that the gods will take the plague away, and wanders off toward Athens.

FULL TITLE

Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at

rising action of Antigone is Antigones decision to defy Creons orders and bury her brother.
CLIMAX

Colonus
AUTHOR

Sophocles Play

The climax of Oedipus the King occurs when

TYPE OF WORK LANGUAGE

Oedipus learns, quite contrary to his expectations, that he is the man responsible for the plague that has stricken Thebeshe is the man who killed his father and slept with his mother. The climax of Oedipus at Antigone is believed to have

Ancient Greek

TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN

been written around 441 B.C., Oedipus the King around 430 B.C., and Oedipus at Colonus sometime near the end of Sophocles life in 406405 B.C. The plays were all written and produced in Athens, Greece.
TONE TENSE

Colonus happens when we hear of Oedipuss death.

The climax of Antigone is when Creon, too late to avert tragedy, decides to pardon Antigone for defying his orders and burying her brother.
FALLING ACTION

Tragic Present All three plays are set in the mythical past

In Oedipus the King, the consequences

of Oedipuss learning of his identity as the man who killed his father and slept with his mother are the falling action. This discovery drives Jocasta to hang herself, Oedipus to poke out his own eyes, and Creon to banish Oedipus from Thebes. The falling action of Oedipus at

SETTING (TIME)

of ancient Greece.
SETTING (PLACE)

Antigone and Oedipus the King are set

in Thebes, Oedipus at Colonus in Colonus (near Athens).

PROTAGONIST

Colonus is Oedipuss curse of Polynices. The curse is

followed by the onset of a storm, which Oedipus recognizes as a signal of his imminent death. The falling action of Antigone occurs after Creon decides to free Antigone from her tomblike prison. Creon arrives too late and finds that Antigone has hanged herself. Haemon, Antigones fianc, attempts to kill Creon but ends up killing himself. Creons wife, Eurydice, stabs herself.
THEMES

Oedipus is the protagonist of both

Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus. Antigone is

the protagonist of Antigone.
MAJOR CONFLICT

Antigones major conflict is between

Creon and Antigone. Creon has declared that the body of Polynices may not be given a proper burial because he led the forces that invaded Thebes, but Antigone wishes to give her brother a proper burial nevertheless. The major conflict of Oedipus the King arises when Tiresias tells Oedipus that Oedipus is responsible for the plague, and Oedipus refuses to believe him. The major conflict of Oedipus at Colonus is between Oedipus and Creon. Creon has been told by the oracle that only Oedipuss return can bring an end to the civil strife in ThebesOedipuss two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, are at war over the throne. Oedipus, furious at Thebes for exiling him, has no desire to return.
RISING ACTION

The power of unwritten law, the willingness to

ignore the truth, the limits of free will

MOTIFS

Suicide, sight and blindness, graves and tombs Oedipuss swollen foot, the three-way

SYMBOLS

crossroads, Antigones entombment

FORESHADOWING

Oedipuss name, which literally means

swollen foot, foreshadows his discovery of his own identity. Tiresias, the blind prophet, appears in both

Oedipus the King and Antigone and announces what

will happen to Oedipus and to Creononly to be completely ignored by both. The truth that comes from Tiresiass blindness foreshadows the revelation that inspires Oedipus to blind himself. Oedipuss command in Oedipus at Colonus that no one, not even his own daughters, know where he has been buried foreshadows the problems surrounding burial in

The rising action of Oedipus the King

occurs when Creon returns from the oracle with the news that the plague in Thebes will end when the murderer of Laius, the king before Oedipus, is discovered and driven out. The rising action of Oedipus

at Colonus occurs when Creon demands that Oedipus

return to Thebes and tries to force him to do so. The

Antigone.