Oedipus Rex

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

Specifically, Theban Queen Jocasta experiences reversal when she realizes that her husband is her son and hangs herself. Laius faces reversal when he loses his life by starting a senseless fight over right of way in the Delphi-Daulia intersection. Oedipus undergoes reversal when he realizes that his wife is his mother and he loses his wife, sight, job and home in quick succession.

Examples of foreshadowing and of irony relate Oedipus' "hamartia" and Creon's description of him as not known for idle words in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, "hamartia" may refer to an error in judgment. Theban King Oedipus says that he will make sure that execution or exile is the fate of Laius' killer even if the guilty person is found to be a member of the royal household. Creon knows that Oedipus, his brother-in-law and royal colleague, says what he means and means what he says. Ironically, the killer is found to be a royal, and the punishment will be carried out, but in an unexpected quarter.

Comments and conversations in the episodes and songs in the odes is the structure of "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the play begins with an introductory episode to acquaint the audience with the characters and the themes. The prologue is followed by the parados, which is the first ode sung as chorus members make their first onstage appearance. The parados is followed by an alternating arrangement of episodes and odes. The fourth ode is followed by the exodus, which is the fifth and final scene.

That he must find and punish a killer who may turn out to be himself is the crisis of "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, a crisis is a point at which a critical decision on the order of life and death must be made. The crisis is foreshadowed when Theban King Oedipus promises that he will make or break himself in tracking down King Laius' killer. It occurs when Oedipus keeps realizing more and more that he may be the suspect.

The Theban shepherd gives the baby Oedipus to Polybus' messenger 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. She hands her three-day-old son, Oedipus, over to the shepherd to kill and thereby prevent Oedipus from growing up to his prophesied fate of killing his father. The shepherd then gives Oedipus to a Corinthian shepherd who fosters the infant into the childless Corinthian royal house and who later becomes Corinthian King Polybus' messenger.

That she believes her son dead, the she is distracted by her grief over her first husband's death and that everything about Oedipus screams Corinthian are the reasons why Jocasta does not realize that Oedipus is her son in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Queen Jocasta believes her son to be dead because she gives the three-day-old infant Oedipus to her most trusted servant to kill. Either she never checks up or she does and the servant lies, because Oedipus survives and is fostered into the Corinthian royal house. Jocasta does not seem to either notice or process the similarities between her first husband, King Laius, and her second husband, Oedipus. It may be that in her grief she is comforted, instead of analytical about and threatened, by the likeness. It also may be that Oedipus being so much the product of a Corinthian raising causes her to see or never think or searching for anything Theban within him or his looks.

Suicide by hanging is the way in which Oedipus' mother dies in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Queen Jocasta is Theban King Oedipus' mother. But he only learns of his true parentage many years after he is the respected ruler of Thebes by marrying his royal predecessor's widow. What he does not learn until just before Jocasta's death is that she is the biological mother who gives him up three days after delivering him.

It is Teiresias that the chorus leader advises Oedipus to consult in finding Laius' killer in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the chorus leader identifies Teiresias the blind prophet as a valuable resource. He indicates that Teiresias has the gift of prophecy. He suggests that Teiresias' vast storehouse of past, present and future knowledge are invaluable in collecting clues and details for the investigation that Theban King Oedipus heads.

If he has no intent or previous knowledge then Oedipus is clear of guilt in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Oedipus commits five criminal acts right in a row when he kills Laius and four of the king's five member escort party. He commits the first murder in self-defense. He most likely commits the next four murders in self-defense since he is outnumbered. He then goes on to commit incest with Laius' widowed queen since Jocasta is his mother. But Oedipus has no idea of the incest since he believes his foster parents, Corinthian monarchs Polybus and Merope, to be his biological parents.

Killing his father and marrying his mother is Oedipus' fate in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus hears his fate from the Delphic oracle. The oracle is respected throughout ancient Greece for her insights into divine will and fate. She says that Oedipus is fated to kill his father and marry his mother.

Creon is the person whom Oedipus assumes to be behind Teiresias' claims in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Teiresias the blind prophet says that Theban King Oedipus is King Laius' killer. Oedipus is angered, horrified and terrified at being charged with killing someone whom he never remembers meeting and for which the penalty is execution or exile. He therefore assumes that the claim is made up so that Creon, who stands the most to gain with Oedipus' overthrow, is behind Teiresias' charges.

Craftiness versus straightforwardness and condemnation versus pardon are the differences between Sisyphus and Oedipus in "Oedipus Rex" and "Oedipus at Colonus" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Ephyrian King Sisyphus cannot be trusted. He does not say what he means and vice versa when he goes about tricking the gods. He ends up with an eternal punishment of rolling a boulder up a hill, only to see it fall back down to be pushed back up again, etc. This is in stark contrast to Theban King Oedipus who is pardoned for his unknowing crimes before he dies a special death.

That she is mother to her own son's children is the situational irony regarding Jocasta in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, situational irony refers to an inaccurate or incomplete understanding by a character of a context or situation. The description fits the maternal role that Theban Queen Jocasta plays. She becomes the mother that she always desires to be through her second marriage to Oedipus. But in actuality she acts as mother and grandmother to her four children with King Oedipus, who albeit unknowingly is her only child from her first marriage to King Laius.

End the pestilence in Thebes is what the priest wants of Oedipus in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. -- 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the priest of Zeus is concerned about the suffering of Thebans. Food is scarce because of failing harvests and ailing livestock. Population levels are dropping because of stillborn deliveries. The situation needs to be dealt with before there are no Thebans left.

That she is the mother who believes in infant killing and who marries her own son are reasons why Oedipus plans to kill Jocasta in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus learns that he is the biological son of his wife, Queen Jocasta. He realizes that he is alive because Jocasta's most trusted servant does against orders and does not kill the three-day-old infant Oedipus as he is ordered to do. He sees that Jocasta has the greater blame in the incest since she gives birth to him and should have recognized him as her only child from her first marriage.