Oedipus Rex

Outside the main entrance to the Theban royal palace is where the prologue takes place in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the ideal in ancient Greek drama is the unity of time, place and action. The ideal is met in "Oedipus Rex." All onstage action takes place in front of the Theban palace's main entrance within one 24-hour period even though references may be made onstage to offstage and past events, places and times.

Murder, blasphemy and incest are the crimes that Oedipus commits in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus becomes a killer when he lethally defends himself against five of six overbearing people at the Delphi-Daulia intersection in Phocis. He commits blasphemy when he neglects mandatory cleansing rituals after his crime and King Laius' death. He engages in incest when he marries and has children with his mother.

First, Antigone is angry with Ismene for docilely and passively accepting the rule of mortal men. Ismene thinks that men rule and women obey. Antigone doesn't think that way at all.

Second, Antigone is angry with Ismene for not helping to bury their brother Polyneices. Antigone doesn't have the strength to do a below ground burial. Without Ismene's assistance, their brother will get a symbolic burial by being covered with a thin layer of dirt. That isn't going to be much protection against the weather and wildlife.

Third, Antigone is angry with Ismene for suggesting that the illegal partial burial and funeral service be kept secret. Antigone equates that with cowardice and self centeredness.

Fourth, Antigone is angry with Ismene for trying to join her in a death sentence after not joining in on the lawbreaking. Antigone has a strong personality that's motivated by passionately held convictions. As far as she's concerned, you don't change horses in mid stream. So she takes someone at their first word and accepts no flip flopping. You're either with her or against her, with nothing in between.

As the adopted son and intended heir to the throne, Theban King Oedipus also becomes King of Corinth in the play "Oedipus Rex."

Specifically, Oedipus is brought by a trusted shepherd from Thebes to Corinth. In Corinth, the infant is adopted by the childless royal couple, King Polybus and Queen Merope. Much later, as a young man, Oedipus hears of a prophecy that he is fated to kill his own father and marry his own father. He does not share that revolting news with anyone, instead choosing to flee what he thinks is his hometown of Corinth for Thebes, his real hometown. Decades after his flight, Oedipus learns that the man whom he always considered his father is dead. The Corinthian throne is his if he wants it ... until the twists and turns of the plot reveal themselves in their full horror.

That she knows Oedipus' true identity is the reason why Jocasta says to Oedipus "Who thou art mayst thou never know" in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Queen Jocasta realizes that King Oedipus is more to her than her husband and the father of her children. She knows from the information of the Theban shepherd that Oedipus is her own son. She is going to go off and kill herself with the knowledge. But as Oedipus' loving wife, she hopes to spare him the devastating realization that means personal and professional doom.

No, Oedipus does not kill himself at the end of "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Oedipus does not express an interest in killing himself at the play's end. Instead, he indicates that he wants to live in exile instead of being executed. He makes no attempt to escape or change his fated punishment other than to blind himself and then try to influence Creon, his brother-in-law and royal predecessor.

Nothing is what the Delphic oracle tells Laius in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Laius does not consult the Delphic oracle. He gets his disturbing prophecy from an unnamed prophet, possibly Teiresias of Thebes. He is on his way to consult the Pythia at Delphi when he is murdered at the Delphi-Daulia crossroads in Phocis.

The words of the Oracle at Apollo's Shrine and his own self protection get Theban King Oedipus to agree to avenge the death of Theban King Laius. There's a pestilence that's ruining harvests, reducing the Theban population, and ravaging livestock. The Oracle says that the pestilence will end with the identification and punishment of the person or persons who killed Oedipus' royal predecessor and father.

Oedipus says that he'll follow the Oracle's advice. But he appears to be at least as concerned, or more so, over protecting himself. He suggests that tracking down the culprit or culprits may save him from a similar fate.

That they tragically love second husbands but that Gertrude's husband is a villain and Jocasta's is not are the ways in which Gertrude in "Hamlet" and Jocasta in "Oedipus Rex" are respectively similar and different.

Specifically, Danish Queen Gertrude falls in love with Claudius, the brother and killer of her first husband. Theban Queen Jocasta falls in love with Oedipus, the son and killer of her first husband. But Claudius kills his brother knowingly and treacherously, in order to become king. In contrast, Oedipus murders his father unknowingly, in an act of self-defense.

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

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus does not know what causes a pestilence in Thebes. He therefore has Creon, his brother-in-law and royal colleague, take a trip to Delphi. Delphi is the location of the Delphic oracle whose insights are respected throughout all ancient Greece.

That the priest of Zeus achieves his purpose of getting Oedipus involved in ending the current suffering in Thebes is the meaning of "Let us get up, children. For this man has willingly declared just what we came for" in the play "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. -- 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, line counts differ according to the particular edition being consulted. If this is the line in question, then it is what the priest of Thebes says at the end of his interaction with Oedipus. He is referring to those who come as suppliants of Oedipus' help in finding the cause of and solution to failing harvests, declining birth rates and ailing livestock.

Polybus is the king who adopts the boy Oedipus in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Polybus is the king of Corinth and the husband of Queen Merope. They have no children and therefore no heirs to succeed them on throne of Corinth. They therefore are delighted to received Oedipus from a Corinthian shepherd and to adopt him into the royal household as son and heir apparent.

That they will have a hard time in life, that they need a protector such as Creon, and they must try to be happy and successful is what Oedipus says to his daughters in his monologue at the end of "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus knows that his daughters, who also are his half-sisters, will face cruelty and shunning. They also may face spinsterhood, poverty and childlessness. Yet Oedipus suggests that happiness and success are possibilities if the Princesses Antigone and Ismene make the effort and if they have a protector such as King Creon, their uncle and the royal successor to their father and half-brother.

Theban King Laius is murdered in 'Oedipus Rex'. He dies in a street brawl over the right of way at a crossroads. He thinks that he doesn't know his killer. His killer thinks likewise.

But the perpetrator and the victim should have known each other very well. In fact, Laius is the father of his killer, who becomes Theban King Oedipus. But neither one of them knows that.

Suicide is what happens to Antigone, Haemon and Creon's wife in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E,).

Specifically, Theban Princess Antigone hangs herself with her own halter. Theban Prince Haemon, her first cousin and intended husband, kills himself with his own sword. Theban Queen Eurydice, Creon's wife and Haemon's mother, stabs herself with a dagger.

That Oedipus has a proven record of succeeding where others do not and that he must have divine favor are the reasons why the priest thinks that Oedipus is better able than any other individual to help Thebans in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the priest of Zeus describes Theban King Oedipus as figuring out how to defeat the Sphinx despite everyone else's failures. He refers to him as the Savior of Thebes. He says that Oedipus must be the best of humans and has the gods on his side.