Summary:

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

Oedipus Rex is a Greek tragedy that tells the story of King Oedipus of Thebes, who is
doomed to a dreadful fate that he would kill his father and marry his mother.

Shortly after Oedipus’ birth, his father, King Laius of Thebes, learned from an oracle that he,
Laius, was doomed to perish by the hand of his own son, and so ordered his wife Jocasta to
kill the infant.

However, neither she nor her servant could bring themselves to kill him and he was
abandoned to elements. There he was found and brought up by a shepherd, before being
taken in and raised in the court of the childless King Polybus of Corinth as if he were his own
son.

Stung by rumours that he was not the biological son of the king, Oedipus consulted an oracle
which foretold that he would marry his own mother and kill his own father. Desperate to
avoid this foretold fate, and believing Polybus and Merope to be his true parents, Oedipus
left Corinth.

On the road to Thebes, he met Laius, his real father, and, unaware of each other’s true
identities, they quarrelled and Oedipus‘ pride led him to murder Laius, fulfilling part of the
oracle’s prophecy.

When the Sphinx started tormenting Thebes, Creon proclaimed that anybody who could
solve her riddle could have his crown and the hand of his sister, Jocasta.

The Sphinx was a being with the head of a woman, the body of a lioness, the wings of an
eagle and the tail of a serpent. She guarded the entrance to the city of Thebes and would
pose a riddle to travellers who aimed to enter. If they could not answer it, she would devour
them. The riddle is “What goes on fours in the morning, on twos in the afternoon and on
threes at night?”

When Oedipus travelled to Thebes, the Sphinx posed the riddle to him. He said that the
answer is a human being, because a human being walks on all fours in early life, on two legs
as an adult and with a walking stick in old age. It would seem that the Sphinx regarded the
value of her life as bound up with having a riddle that no mortal could solve, for she killed
herself because of his success.

His reward for freeing the kingdom of Thebes from the Sphinx’s curse was the hand of
Queen Jocasta (actually his biological mother) and the crown of the city of Thebes. The
prophecy was thus fulfilled, although none of the main characters were aware of it at this
point.

Priest of Apollo asks King Oedipus of Thebes to help end the plague that is ravaging the city.
In response, Oedipus reveals that he has already sent his brother-in-law, Creon, to consult
with the oracle of Apollo at Delphi on the matter. 
Creon returns with the message that in order for the plague to end, the murderer of Laius,
the previous king of Thebes, must be brought to justice. According to the oracle, the
murderer still resides within the city.

Oedipus, who arrived in Thebes after Laius’s death, asks Creon for the details of the murder.
Creon explains that Laius was killed by thieves while on his way to consult an oracle. Oedipus
asks why the Thebans made no attempt to find the murderers, and Creon reminds him that
Thebes was then more concerned with the curse of the Sphinx. Oedipus vows to exact
revenge against the murderer and end the plague.

The prophet Teiresias claims the murderer is Oedipus. Oedipus summons the blind prophet
Tiresias, who claims to know the answers to Oedipus‘ questions, but refuses to speak,
lamenting his ability to see the truth when the truth brings nothing but pain.

He advises Oedipus to abandon his search but, when the enraged Oedipus accuses Tiresias
of complicity in the murder, Tiresias is provoked into telling the king the truth, that he
himself is the murderer.

Oedipus dismisses this as nonsense, accusing the prophet of being corrupted by the
ambitious Creon in an attempt to undermine him, and Tiresias leaves, putting forth one last
riddle: that the murderer of Laius will turn out to be both father and brother to his own
children, and the son of his own wife.

Oedipus demands that Creon must be executed, convinced that he is conspiring against him,
and only the intervention of the Chorus persuades him to let Creon live. Oedipus‘ wife
Jocasta tells him he should take no notice of prophets and oracles anyway because, many
years ago, she and Laius received an oracle which never came true.

This prophecy said that Laius would be killed by his own son but, as everyone knows, Laius
was actually killed by bandits at a crossroads on the way to Delphi. The mention of
crossroads causes Oedipus to give pause and he suddenly becomes worried that Tiresias‘
accusations may actually have been true.

When a messenger from Corinth arrives with news of the death of King Polybus, Oedipus
shocks everyone with his apparent happiness at the news, as he sees this as proof that he
can never kill his father, although he still fears that he may somehow commit incest with his
mother. The messenger, eager to ease Oedipus‘ mind, tells him not to worry because Queen
Merope of Corinth was not in fact his real mother anyway.

The messenger turns out to be the very shepherd who had looked after an abandoned child,
which he later took to Corinth and gave up to King Polybus for adoption. He is also the very
same shepherd who witnessed the murder of Laius.

By now, Jocasta is beginning to realize the truth, and desperately begs Oedipus to stop
asking questions. But Oedipus presses the shepherd, threatening him with torture or
execution, until it finally emerges that the child he gave away was Laius’ own son, and that
Jocasta had given the baby to the shepherd to secretly be exposed upon the mountainside,
in fear of the prophecy that Jocasta said had never come true: that the child would kill its
father.
Oedipus survived and unknowingly killed his father before marrying Jocasta and becoming
king.

With all now finally revealed, Oedipus curses himself and his tragic destiny and stumbles off,
as the Chorus laments how even a great man can be felled by fate. A servant enters and
explains that Jocasta, when she had begun to suspect the truth, had ran to the palace
bedroom and hanged herself there.

Oedipus enters, deliriously calling for a sword so that he might kill himself and raging
through the house until he comes upon Jocasta‘s body. In final despair, Oedipus takes two
long gold pins from her dress, and plunges them into his own eyes.

With blood streaming from his blind eyes, he fumes and rants at his fate, and at the infinite
darkness that embraces him. He claims that though Apollo ordained his destiny, it was he
alone who pierced his own eyes. He asks that he be banished from Thebes. The Chorus
shrinks away from Oedipus as he curses his birth, his marriage, his life, and in turn all births,
marriages, and lives.

Now blind, Oedipus begs to be exiled as soon as possible. He says that his two sons are men
and can take care of themselves, but asks that Creon take care of his girls, Antigone and
Ismene, whom he would like to see one final time.

Creon counsels that Oedipus should be kept in the palace until oracles can be consulted
regarding what is best to be done, and the Chorus expresses hope that he can restore order.
Creon forgives Oedipus for his past accusations of treason and asks that Oedipus be sent
inside so that the public display of shame might stop.

Creon agrees to exile Oedipus from the city, but tells him that he will only do so if every
detail is approved by the gods. Oedipus embraces the hope of exile, since he believes that,
for some reason, the gods want to keep him alive. The play ends as the Chorus wails: ‘Count
no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last’.

Oedipus left Thebes a blind and broken man. Creon took over the throne because Oedipus’
two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, were too young to become rulers.

As time passed, and the two sons aged, Eteocles claimed the throne for himself, exiling his
older brother Polyneices. Antigone is the one that stays with Oedipus when he is banished
from Thebes. While Ismene went to ask Apollo to find mercy and prayed for her father and
sister.

After several hard years, Antigone and Oedipus end up in the town of Colonus, where
Oedipus is fated to peacefully die in a grove sacred to the Furies. Ismene looked for Oedipus
and Antigone and wept for seeing them.

She told them bad news about her brothers who were busy with their own affairs, both
claiming they have the right to rule Thebes. They'd agreed to switch off ruling Thebes every
year. Polyneices went off and married a princess whose dad had a big army, and now he's at
the gates determined to take back the throne.
Creon shows up, representing Eteocles, and tries to convince the dying Oedipus to come
back to Thebes to be buried, because a prophecy has said that wherever Oedipus is buried
will be blessed.

After guiding her blind father Oedipus, the ex-king of Thebes, around the countryside until
his death, Antigone returns home to Thebes to find out that her brothers, Eteocles and
Polyneices, have killed each other in a battle for the throne. She then learns such news and
decides that she must give her brother a proper burial.

Her sister, Ismene, warns her against the dangers and consequences and states that she will
not have any part in helping her sister with her scheme. Antigone then goes to her brothers’
guarded body and pours dirt and sand over him, performing the proper burial rights.

Antigone's uncle, Creon, declares that Eteocles will be buried with honor, but that
Polyneices' body will be left for the dogs. Despite her uncle's decree, Antigone buries
Polyneices and is sentenced by Creon to be buried alive.

As guards brush the dirt off the body, she reveals herself willingly. Creon is enraged and
imprisons both Antigone and Ismene, who he believes to be an accomplice. Creon’s son,
Haemon, pleads with his father to release Antigone, his bride-to-be.

Creon ridicules Haemon for his ridiculous thoughts of freeing Antigone. Haemon then runs
off, crushed that his father would treat him so badly. Creon then states that Ismene’s
innocence is clear and that only Antigone should be punished, so he takes Antigone to a cave
outside the city and buries her alive.

Teiresias, the blind prophet then warns Creon that the gods are unhappy for the lack of
proper burial and that his son’s death shall be the punishment. Creon mocks Teiresias, but
the chorus reminds Creon that the prophet has never been wrong.

Now worried for his son’s life, Creon performs the proper burial rituals for Polyneices’ body.
Creon then rushes to free Antigone, but it is too late, she is dead, and Haemon has killed
himself for her.

A broken man, Creon returns to the kingdom only to learn that his wife, Eurydice, has killed
herself after learning about her son’s death. Creon is then lead away by the chorus,
lamenting in his own self misery.