1. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Feature Menu
Introducing the Play
Literary Focus: Dramatic Irony

2. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
King Polybus Rescuing Oedipus

3. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Oedipus Rex is considered one of the world’s greatest tragedies.

4. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
A tragedy is a serious drama featuring a hero or main character, often of noble birth, who strives to achieve something and is ultimately defeated.
“Let them all hear it. It is for them I suffer, more than for myself.”

5. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
The hero’s downfall is often due to an inborn character flaw or weakness—the tragic flaw.
“After exposing the rankness of my own guilt,
how could I look men frankly in the eyes?”

6. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Despite defeat or even death, the tragic hero is ennobled by new self-knowledge and wisdom.
“Ah dearest ones, I had neither sight nor knowledge then . . .”

7. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
The structure of most Greek tragedies presents a tight, formal arrangement of parts, and Oedipus Rex maintains this tight dramatic framework.
Prologue
Parados
Dialogue
Choral odes
Exodos
The Colosseum, Rome, Italy

8. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Prologue
The prologue is the opening scene of the play.

9. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Parados
The parados is the first of the Chorus’s lyric songs, or choral odes.

10. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Dialogue
Dialogue is the conversation of the play’s characters.

11. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Choral odes
The Chorus’s lyric songs are choral odes. In Oedipus Rex, the Chorus—which serves simply as a nameless onlooker and commentator in other Greek tragedies—is transformed by Sophocles into a collective “actor” within the drama itself.

12. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Exodos
The exodos is the concluding scene of a play.

13. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Oedipus Rex is one of Sophocles’ three “Theban plays”—three tragedies about King Oedipus of Thebes and his family.
Antigone
Oedipus Rex
Oedipus at Colonus

14. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Oedipus is the ill-fated king of Thebes whose mysterious past wreaks havoc on all—his family, his kingdom, and Oedipus himself.
The Sphinx at Giza, Egypt
Before the play begins, Oedipus has won the right to marry Queen Jocasta by solving a riddle posed by the Sphinx.

15. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Queen Jocasta’s husband, King Laius, had been killed on the road by an unknown traveler. This unsolved slaying brings a plague on Thebes.
Temple of Luxor, Thebes
King Oedipus vows to find Laius’s killer and bring him to justice.

16. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
The themes, or underlying messages, of Oedipus Rex include
the quest for identity
the nature of innocence and guilt
the nature of moral responsibility
the limitations of human will versus fate
the abuse of power
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17. Oedipus Rex Literary Focus: Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony occurs when the reader or audience knows something important that a character in a story or drama does not know.
“Murder of whom? Surely the god has named him?”

18. Oedipus Rex Literary Focus: Dramatic Irony
The fundamental irony in the play stems from the audience’s knowledge of Oedipus’s true identity, of which Oedipus is completely unaware.
“What is God singing in his profound
Delphi of gold and shadow?
What oracle for Thebes, the sunwhipped city?”

19. Oedipus Rex Literary Focus: Dramatic Irony
Sophocles creates variations of this central irony throughout the play, heightening the audience’s pity and horror.
Greek amphitheater
The main characters gradually come to grips with what the audience knows from the very start of the play.

20. Oedipus Rex Literary Focus: Dramatic Irony
What is left unsaid is often more powerful than what is explicitly stated. Almost every line of the play contains an ambiguity or double meaning.
“Then once more I must bring what is dark to light.”
This verbal irony reinforces the dramatic irony of the play as each character discovers the truth of Oedipus’s identity.
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21. Background

22. Oedipus Rex Background
Early in the Peloponnesian War ( B.C.), when Oedipus Rex was first produced, Athens suffered from political instability and a devastating plague.
Sophocles opened his play with a situation the people of Athens could identify with—a plague on the city of Thebes.
According to the oracle of Apollo, the plague would continue until the murderer of King Laius was caught and punished.

23. Oedipus Rex Background
“The herds are sick; children die unborn,
And labor is vain. The god of plague and pyre
Raids like detestable lightning through the city . . .”

24. Oedipus Rex Background
Casting himself in the role of the city’s savior, Oedipus vowed to find the murderer and save his people, which led him to an encounter with the past and his own darkest secrets.

25. Oedipus Rex Background: The Characters
The Thebans
The Royal Family
Oedipus (ED i pus)
Jocasta (jo KAS tuh)
daughters
Antigone (an TIG uh nee)
Ismene (is MEE nee)

26. Oedipus Rex Background: The Characters
The Thebans
The Royal Family
Laius (LAY oos)
Jocasta (jo KAS tuh)
Creon (KREE ahn)
her brother
Oedipus (ED i pus)
their son

27. Oedipus Rex Background: The Characters
The Thebans
Chorus of Theban Elders
Choragos (koh RAY guhs)—leader of the Chorus
Teiresias (ti REE see uhs)—a blind seer, or prophet
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28. Quickwrite

29. Oedipus Rex Quickwrite
Make the Connection
For the ancient Greeks the Oedipus myth was a striking example of how human fortunes can suffer unexpected, drastic reversals. Can you think of other examples of sharp reversals in literature or real life? Were the people involved responsible, or were they innocent victims? How do people explain and cope with such tragedies? Freewrite your answer.
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30. Vocabulary

31. Oedipus Rex Vocabulary
Previewing the Vocabulary
compunction n.: feeling of remorse or guilt.
decrepit adj.: worn-out by old age.
disdain n.: scorn.
expedient n.: something that is useful or helpful.
primal adj.: original.
supplication n.: humble request.
venerate v.: revere.

32. Oedipus Rex Vocabulary
Activity
Use a dictionary to research the origin, or etymology, of each vocabulary word. Create a chart like the one below to organize your findings.
venerate compunction decrepit disdain
expedient primal supplication
Word Language of Origin Original Word
venerate Latin vener—from “venus”, meaning “to love or desire”
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33. Meet the Writer

34. Oedipus Rex Meet the Writer
Sophocles, born around 496 B.C., was one of Greece’s great tragic playwrights and won Athens’s top prize for tragedy twenty-four times over six decades.
Born into wealth, Sophocles lived during Athens’s Golden Age of achievement and contributed 123 plays, seven of which survive today.
More about the writer.
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