The Story of Oedipus

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THE STORY OF OEDIPUS
Like other dramatists of his time, Sophocles wrote his plays as theatrical interpretations of the well-known
myths of Greek culture — an imaginative national history that grew through centuries. Sophocles and his
contemporaries particularly celebrated the mythic heroes of the Trojan War, characters who appear in
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The myth of Oedipus — which also appears briefly in Homer — represents
the story of a man's doomed attempt to outwit fate. Sophocles' tragedy dramatizes Oedipus' painful
discovery of his true identity, and the despairing violence the truth unleashes in him.
Oedipus the King unfolds as a murder mystery, a political thriller, and a psychological whodunit.
Throughout this mythic story of patricide and incest, Sophocles emphasizes the irony of a man determined
to track down, expose, and punish an assassin, who turns out to be himself.
At the start of the play, the city of Thebes is suffering terribly. Citizens are dying from plague, crops fail,
women are dying in childbirth and their babies are stillborn. A group of priests comes to the royal palace
to ask for help from Oedipus, their king who once saved them from the tyranny of the terrible Sphinx.
Oedipus has already sent his brother-in-law, Creon, to the oracle of the god Apollo to find out what can
be done. (Before Oedipus arrived in Thebes, the previous king, Laius, was murdered under mysterious
circumstances and the murderer was never found. When Oedipus arrived in Thebes and saved the city, he
was made king and married the widowed queen, Jocasta, sister of Creon.) Now Creon returns with the
oracle's news: for the plague to be lifted from the city, the murderer of Laius must be discovered and
punished. The oracle claims that the murderer is still living in Thebes.
Oedipus curses the unknown murderer and swears he will find and punish him. He orders the people of
Thebes, under punishment of exile, to give any information they have about the death of Laius. Oedipus
sends for Tiresias, the blind prophet, to help with the investigation. Tiresias comes, but refuses to tell
Oedipus what he has seen in his prophetic visions. Oedipus accuses Tiresias of playing a part in Laius's
death. Tiresias grows angry and says that Oedipus is the cause of the plague—he is the murderer of Laius.
As the argument escalates, Oedipus accuses Tiresias of plotting with Creon to overthrow him, while
Tiresias hints at other terrible things that Oedipus has done.
Convinced that Creon is plotting to overthrow him, Oedipus declares his intention to banish or execute
his brother-in-law. Jocasta and the chorus believe Creon is innocent and beg Oedipus to let Creon go. He
relents, reluctantly, still convinced of Creon's guilt. Jocasta tells Oedipus not to put any stock in what
prophets and seers say. As an example, she tells him the prophecy she once received—that Laius, her first
husband, would be killed by their own son. And yet, Laius was killed by strangers, and her own infant son
was left to die in the mountains. But her description of where Laius was killed—a triple-crossroad—
worries Oedipus. It's the same place where Oedipus once fought with several people and killed them, one
of whom fit the description of Laius. He asks that the surviving eyewitness to Laius's murder be brought
to him. He tells Jocasta that oracles have played a big part in his life as well—he received a prophecy that
he would kill his father and sleep with his mother, which is why he left Corinth, the city he was raised in,
and never returned.
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An old messenger arrives from Corinth with the news that Oedipus's father, King Polybus, has died of old
age. This encourages Oedipus. It seems his prophecy might not come true, but he remains worried because
his mother is still alive. The messenger tells him not to worry—the king and queen of Corinth were not
his real parents. The messenger himself brought Oedipus as a baby to the royal family as a gift after
a shepherd found the boy in the mountains and gave him to the messenger. The shepherd was the same
man Oedipus has already sent for—the eyewitness to Laius's murder. Jocasta begs Oedipus to abandon
his search for his origins, but Oedipus insists he must know the story of his birth. Jocasta cries out in
agony and leaves the stage. The shepherd arrives but doesn't want to tell what he knows. Only under threat
of death does he reveal that he disobeyed the order to kill the infant son of Laius and Jocasta, and instead
gave that baby to the messenger. That baby was Oedipus, who in fact killed his father Laius and married
his mother. Oedipus realizes that he has fulfilled his awful prophecy. Queen Jocasta kills herself and
Oedipus, in a fit of grief, gouges out his own eyes. Blind and grief-stricken, Oedipus bemoans his fate.
Creon, after consulting an oracle, grants Oedipus's request and banishes him from Thebes.
Since everyone knew the myth, Sophocles' play contained no plot surprises for his audience. Instead, the
tragedy held their interest through new interpretation, poetic language, and, most especially, dramatic
irony.
Dramatic irony arises from the difference between what an audience knows and what the characters on
stage know. In Oedipus the King, for example, everyone in the audience knows from the beginning that
Oedipus has killed his father and married his mother. The tension of the play, then, develops from Oedipus'
slow but inevitable progress toward this terrible self-knowledge.
Watching Oedipus' fate unfold, the audience identifies with the hero, sharing vicariously in the horror of
the reversal he suffers and acknowledging the power of destiny. By connecting with the audience,
Sophocles has achieved the catharsis that Aristotle thought was so important. In accomplishing this
dramatic feat, Aristotle declares, Sophocles' Oedipus the King stands as the greatest tragedy ever written.

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THE STORY OF OEDIPUS

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