Oedipus the King
Oedipus the King (Greek Oιδίπoυς τύραννoς, "Oedipus Tyrannos"), also known as Oedipus Rex, is a Greek tragedy, written by Sophocles and first performed in 428 BC. The play was the second of Sophocles' three Theban plays to be produced, but comes first in the internal chronology of the plays, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and then Antigone. Many critics, including Aristotle, consider it the greatest tragedy ever written.
Plot
The main character of the tragedy is Oedipus, son of King Laius of Thebes and Queen Jocasta. Oedipus is a mythical character who was sent to die or be killed with his ankles bound and his feet punctured, where he was left for dead on a mountainside as an infant in an effort to avoid a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. However, he was found by a shepherd and raised in the court of King Polybus of Corinth and his wife Merope. (The Shepherd gave Oedipus to the Messenger who then gave him to King Polybus) Hearing from an oracle that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother, and believing Polybus and Merope to be his real parents, he left Corinth. Meeting Laius by chance on a road and not recognizing him, Oedipus became involved in a fight with Laius and killed him. Oedipus went on to solve the Sphinx's riddle, "What uses four legs in the morning, two in the day, and three at night?"--the answer is Man (infants crawl on their four limbs, adults walk on two legs, and, finally, the elderly walk with the aid of a cane) --and his reward for this is the kingdom of Thebes, and the hand of Jocasta; again, neither recognizes the other.
The play begins after Thebes has been struck with a plague by the gods in outrage at Oedipus' unintentional wrongdoing. The play shows Oedipus' investigation, in which he curses and promises to exile those responsible for the murder. Although the blind prophet Tiresias explicitly tells Oedipus at the beginning of the play that he is the cause of the plague, Oedipus at first does not understand. Instead he accuses Tiresias of conspiring with Creon, Jocasta's brother, to overthrow him.
Oedipus then calls for a former servant of Laius, the only surviving witness of the murder, who fled the city when Oedipus became king. Soon a messenger from Corinth also arrives to inform Oedipus of the death of Polybus, whom Oedipus still believes is his real father, until the messenger informs him that he was in fact adopted. In the subsequent discussions between Oedipus, Jocasta, the servant, and the messenger, Jocasta discovers the truth and runs off; Oedipus learns the truth more slowly, but later runs off-stage as well. A second messenger fills in the unseen details: Jocasta has hanged herself, and Oedipus, upon discovering her body, blinds himself with the brooches of her dress. The play ends with Oedipus entrusting his children to Creon and going into exile, as he promised at the beginning.
See also
Translations
- Thomas Francklin, 1759 - verse
- Edward H. Plumptre, 1865 - verse: full text
- Richard C. Jebb, 1904 - prose: full text
- Francis Storr, 1912 - verse: full text
- David Grene, 1942 (revised ed. 1991) - verse
- E.F. Watling, 1947
- Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald, 1949 - verse
- Theodore Howard Banks, 1956 - verse
- Albert Cook, 1957 - verse
- Paul Roche, 1958 - verse
- Bernard Knox, 1959 - prose
- H. D. F. Kitto, 1962 - verse
- Stephen Berg and Diskin Clay - verse
- Robert Bagg, 1982 (revised ed. 2004) - verse
- Robert Fagles, 1984 - verse
- Nick Bartel, 1999 - verse: abridged text
- George Theodoridis, 2005 - prose: full text
Links
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