Oedipus Rex

Murderous details are what Oedipus explains to Jocasta in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus is investigating the unsolved murder of King Laius, his royal predecessor and his wife Queen Jocasta's first husband. Jocasta identifies the murder as taking place at the Delphi-Daulia crossroads in Phocis. Oedipus then explains that the site is the very location where he kills five men while going from Delphi to Thebes.

He himself is the murderer sought by Oedipus in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus seeks to identify and punish the guilty in the murder of his royal predecessor, King Laius. The chorus speaks of a group of travellers as the rumored perpetrators at the time of the long-ago crime. But Teiresias the blind prophet tells Oedipus that he himself is the killer.

It is with Oedipus' investigation of Laius' murder that duty and honor develop in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus demonstrates duty to his city and its people when he heads a murder investigation. He is told that the pestilence ravaging Thebes will end with the identification and punishment of King Laius' unsolved murder. He manifests honor throughout the course of that investigation since he leaves no clue unchecked. He pursues every bit of information even though the clues incriminate him.

Oedipus, Laius and Jocasta are dehumanized in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, dehumanization refers to making someone seem monstrous, not even human. The description fits Theban monarchs Oedipus, Laius and Jocasta. Queen Jocasta and her first husband, King Laius, do not seem human because they try to kill their own son, the three-day-old infant Oedipus. Jocasta and her second husband, King Oedipus, do not seem human because they commit mother-son incest.

Many lines are spoken by Oedipus since he is the protagonist in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus has interactions with every single character in the play. He interacts with the priest of Zeus and the suppliants regarding the recent concerns of his people. He then interacts with the chorus leader, his brother-in-law Creon, his wife Queen Jocasta and his royal advisor Teiresias the blind prophet in his quest for clues into the unsolved murder of his royal predecessor, King Laius. He finally interacts with the Corinthian messenger and the Theban shepherd in his search for his parentage.

Polyneices does not do anything in the play "Antigone."

Specifically, by the time the play begins, Polyneices already is dead. So what he does takes place before the action in "Antigone." When his father Theban King Oedipus loses his job, he manages to keep the throne within the family.

In fact, Oedipus' heirs are his twin sons, Eteocles and Polyneices. The twins are supposed to alternate years of rule in a joint power-sharing arrangement. Eteocles takes the throne first, but refuses to give it up once his year is over. He even goes so far as to exile Polyneices from Thebes.

Polyneices promptly moves to Argos. Once there, he marries the king's daughter and then gets the king to raise an army of invading Argives and disgruntled Thebans. But the army loses, and Polyneices and Eteocles kill each other on the battlefield outside Thebes.

The Theban shepherd holds the key to the truth about Oedipus in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the Theban shepherd is Theban Queen Jocasta's most trusted servant. He is present at the three most critical events in Jocasta's life: the planned killing of her infant son Oedipus, the murder of her first husband King Laius, and her marriage with her second husband Oedipus. Apart from Teiresias the blind prophet, he alone among Thebans is in the know regarding Oedipus' true identity.

Suicide by his own sword is what happens to Theban Prince Haemon in the play "Oedipus Rex" by ancient Greek playwright Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Haemon is upset over the death sentence meted out by his own father, Theban King Creon, to Antigone, the former's first cousin and bride-to-be. Haemon tries to talk his father out of carrying out the sentence. When Creon refuses, Haemon goes to the cave where Antigone is found dead by self-inflicted hanging. Haemon tries to kill Creon, and turns the sword on himself when he fails.

Theban King Oedipus does not kill himself with a brooch or with anything else in the play "Oedipus Rex."

Instead, it is Theban Queen Jocasta who kills herself. She commits suicide once she realizes that her beloved second husband Oedipus is none other than her son from her first marriage with Theban King Laius. When Oedipus finds Jocasta dead, he takes the brooches from her robes and stabs himself in both eyes.

But Oedipus' actual, natural death is not covered until the subsequent play "Oedipus at Colonus."

Theban King Creon does not demand the death of his son Haemon in the play "Antigone" by ancient Greek playwright Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Creon demands unquestioning obedience in all personal and professional interactions. Antigone, his niece and future daughter-in-law, disobeys Creon by burying the body of her dead brother Polyneices. It is Antigone that Creon wants dead, not Theban Prince Haemon.

The Theban and the Corinthian shepherds rescue the baby Oedipus in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Oedipus is supposed to be abandoned to ravaging weather and wildlife on the mountains outside Thebes. But the Theban shepherd who is told to leave him there has second thoughts. Instead, he hands the baby Oedipus over to a homeward bound Corinthian shepherd. Back home in Corinth, the shepherd gives Oedipus to the childless Corinthian royal couple to raise as their son and heir apparent.

It is with a spirited but logical and reasonedself-defense that Creon reacts to the charges that Oedipus makes against him in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus accuses Creon, his brother-in-law and royal colleague, of treasonously conspiring with Teiresias the blind prophet to grab all royal powers for themselves. Creon never drops the deference that he consistently shows to Oedipus. He presents his defense and swears an oath as to the truthfulness of his testimony. But it serves for nothing with the hot-headed Oedipus who thinks that he knows everybody better than they know themselves.

That he is the bearer of back luck and that he is the survivor of child abuse are the unusual circumstances of Oedipus' birth in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus is fated to kill his father. His parents, Theban monarchs Laius and Jocasta, make arrangements for him to have a rod run through both ankles and to be left exposed on the mountains outside Thebes. But Oedipus survives even though he carries the traces of murderous and mutilating abuse through his scarred and swollen ankles and his shuffling gait.

That they will find happiness despite their shameful background and that Creon will act as father and protectorto them is what Oedipus wishes for Ismene and Antigone in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Oedipus is concerned about the alternately shunning and in-the-face cruel behavior to which his daughters will be subjected as half-sisters to their own father and children and grandchildren to their own mother. He fears the poor, lonely existence that Antigone and Ismene may lead as unmarried, childless outcasts. The only way out is if Creon, their uncle and Oedipus' brother-in-law, shelters and defends them.

Antigone, her betrothed Haemon, and Haemon's mother Theban Queen Eurydice are the suicides in the play "Antigone."

Specifically, first Antigone hangs herself. Her reasons are not spelled out in the play. But she is sentenced to die alone in a remote, walled-up cave. It is possible that she cannot bear to share her last days on earth with such slimy, sinister, disgusting cave inhabitants as snakes. It also is possible that she decides to get her death over with since she indicates that she values the afterlife far more than the earthly existence.

Then Haemon kills himself with his own sword. His reasons are spelled out. He first tries to kill his father, Theban King Creon. When he fails, he kills himself. He wants to be where Antigone is. He absolutely does not want to be in the same space or on the same time as his father, whom he disrespects and detests.

Finally, Eurydice stabs herself in the heart. Here too, the reasons are spelled out. Haemon is the last of her four children. She blames her husband for the deaths of all four children. She too would rather join her loved ones in the afterlife rather than spend one second more in her husband's obnoxious company.

It is Teiresias who tells Oedipus that he is the murderer in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus can end the pestilence in his city only if he identifies and punishes King Laius' murderer. He counts on help from his royal advisor, Teiresias the blind prophet. Instead, he gets the unexpected news that he himself is the murderer of a man whom he never remembers meeting.

It is by Oedipus' scarred ankles that the shepherd identifies Oedipus as the baby he rescues in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the three-day-old infant Oedipus has a rod run through both ankles. The rod is removed when the Theban shepherd prevents Oedipus' death by exposure on the mountains outside Thebes. But the piercing leaves Oedipus with scarred and swollen ankles as well as with a shuffling gait.

That the accusations are not backed up evidence is what the chorus feels about Teiresias' and Oedipus' accusations in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Teiresias the blind prophet accuses Theban King Oedipus of killing King Laius. Oedipus answers in kind. He charges his brother-in-law and royal colleague Creon and Teiresias of conspiring to grab all royal powers for themselves. The chorus does not find any supporting evidence for any of the claims.

It is to Creon that Oedipus gives his children in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, disgraced Theban King Creon faces either execution or exile as punishment for his criminal acts and immoral behavior. He is worried about the loneliness, poverty and shunning that his daughters, the sister Princesses Antigone and Ismene, will face without a guardian. He requests that his brother-in-law and royal successor Creon take on that guiding, protective role.