Oedipus Rex

Compassionate, impatient, inconsistent and practicaldescribes Oedipus' character in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus demonstrates compassion in his interactions with his people and his daughters. He exhibits impatience in his arguments with Creon, Teiresias and the Theban shepherd. He expresses inconsistency in his attention to detail during the murder investigation but his neglect of mandatory cleansing rituals. He manifests practicality in defeating the Sphinx and in organizing the murder investigation.

That Creon recommends Teiresias' presence and that Teiresias is late are what Oedipus says about summoning Teiresias in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Creon asks the chorus leader for help in finding the guilty in King Laius' murder. The chorus leader mentions Teiresias the blind prophet as a valuable information source. Oedipus says that Teiresias' presence already is requested due to Creon's prior recommendation. He also states that Teiresias still is not there despite the sending of two messengers.
That he is late is what Oedipus says about summoning Teiresias in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the chorus leader advises Theban King Oedipus to consult with Teiresias the blind prophet on finding the guilty in King Laius' murder. Oedipus answers that two messengers already have been sent to Teiresias' residence. He indicates that Teiresias already should have been at the palace by now.

His own evasive actions against a horrible fate cause Theban King Oedipus' misery. Specifically, Oedipus grows up considering himself the much beloved only son of King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth. Then he's hears the rumor that he isn't the biological son of his parents. He's confused further by his parents' lack of cooperation in answering his understandable questions.

So Oedipus tries to find out the truth from the Delphic Oracle. But his reactions quickly go from confusion to horror. The Oracle tells him of his unenviable fate to kill his father and marry his mother.

Oedipus tries to avoid the playing out of such a ghastly fate by running away from home. But he isn't thinking straight. He visits the Oracle because of his questions over adoptive versus biological parents. Yet when he learns about the prophecy, he forgets about his questions and just accepts the fate as applicable to the Corinthian monarchs.

He runs off to Thebes. But there's a crossroads between Delphi and Thebes. At the crossroads, he allows himself to be drawn into a fatal street brawl with a man who's old enough to be his father and whom he resembles. Once in Thebes, he allows himself to marry, and have children with, a grieving royal widow who's old enough to be his mother and whom he may or may not resemble in certain features or mannerisms.

It's a nightmarish example of the playing out of fate despite, and most ironically because of, the free will actions of the affected individual.

Antigone is the static character in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. -- 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, a static character does not change. Theban Princess Antigone is the only main character who never budges from what she believes, does, says and thinks. She is that way in the course of the play, and Creon characterizes her as always being the same and unchanging foolish self since birth. In contrast, all the other main characters are dynamic in that they undergo changes in behavior and beliefs.

It is most likely during the 13th century B.C.E. that the events occur in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus is the grandfather of King Thersander, a Trojan War contemporary if not participant. The Trojan War occurs between 1194 B.C.E. and 1184 B.C.E. That puts the events of the play at about 90-100 years earlier, somewhere between 1294 B.C.E. and 1284 B.C.E.

The dénouement is the element from Freytag's pyramid that occurs late in the plot in general and in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.) in particular.

Specifically, the term dénouement describes the unraveling of the complications in the plot. It also is called the resolution. On Freytag's pyramid, it occurs between the falling action and the actual ending to the play.

That he tries to change his destiny is the reason why Oedipus is tortured by the Erinnyes, or Furies of fate, in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Oedipus hears that he is fated to kill his father and marry his mother. He makes the decision not to stand idly by and let such a horrifying fate unfurl. But the Furies produce custom designed fates and take it very personally when mortals take arms against destiny.

That he is the person whom he seeks and that he is ensuring his punishment is what is ironic about Oedipus' long speech in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus gives his long speech immediately after the parados and at the very beginning of the first scene. He gives proof of blasphemous and rash tendencies by trespassing into divine decision making on who gets punished how. It is by this trespass that he removes from himself all hope of extenuating circumstances, leniency, lighter sentencing or pardon.

It is worry over the quarrel between Creon and Oedipusthat the chorus leader expresses just before Jocasta's entry in the third scene of "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus accuses his brother-in-law and royal colleague Creon of conspiring with Teiresias the blind prophet to grab all royal powers for themselves. Creon defends himself, but Oedipus does not accept any of Creon's defenses. The chorus leader interrupts to say that the quarrel needs to end now or it for sure will be ended by Queen Jocasta, Oedipus' wife and Creon's brother.

That he is intimate and has children with his own motheris the significance of the image of Oedipus as plowman in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, a plowman prepares the fields for being sown with seed and thereby growing plants. Oedipus and widowed Theban Queen Jocasta marry, are intimate and have children. The imagery is the same for Jocasta and her first husband King Laius as that for her second husband, Oedipus: like father, like son as it turns out.

1) "O my country!"(662)

2) " Woe! woe! woe! woe!! all cometh clear at last"(1225)

3) "And was this seer then practisinfg his art?(589)

4) "Hearken, my king! be calmer, I implore!"(682)
"O light, may I ne'er look on thee again." (1226)
"O light, may I ne'er look on thee again." (1226)

It is from the condition of his feet that Oedipus' name derives in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Oedipus' name in ancient Greek is Οἰδίπους (Oidípous), which means "swollen-footed." His signature look in fact is his shuffling gait from his permanently swollen, scarred feet. As a three-day-old infant, Oedipus has rods run through both his ankles, preparatory to death by exposure on the mountains outside Thebes. The event scars him for life.

Bitterly angry and completely unprepared for the information in the fourth scene are the respective reactions of the chorus in the fourth ode and of Oedipus in the fourth and fifth scenes of "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus becomes bitterly angry at the knowledge that he is the prophesied killer of his father and the prophesied husband of his mother. The chorus exhibit equal disbelief. The members express a wish to never have met Oedipus.