Oedipus Rex

That its success will end the pestilence is the reason why Oedipus agrees to search for Laius' killer in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus cares about his city and his people. He dislikes the pestilence that causes children to die, crops to fail and livestock to ail. He finds out that identifying and punishing the guilty in Laius' murder will end the pestilence. He hears this prediction from the Delphic oracle by way of his brother-in-law and royal colleague King Creon. This fact makes his mission one of fulfillment of divine will.

That she is a child who suffers but who is not known to do great things is the reason why Antigone is not the tragic hero of the play "Oedipus Rex."

Specifically, a person who is tragic meets with a bad end. A person who is heroic is capable of doing great deeds. The job description matches Antigone's father, Theban King Oedipus, in the play "Oedipus Rex" and herself in the play "Antigone".

That the knowledge will be revealed soon enough and that the knowledge will be devastating are what Teiresias answers when Oedipus asks for his father's identity in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Teiresias the blind prophet makes the shocking charge that Theban King Oedipus is the killer of his royal predecessor, King Laius. Oedipus comes up with all sorts of insults and threats in return. Teiresias then announces that his prophecies were good enough for Oedipus' parents, which shocks Oedipus but gives him none but riddling answers.

Three (3) generations before the Trojan War is when Oedipus is King of Thebes in the play "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. -- 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus' grandson Thersander lives at the time of the Trojan War. Various dates are given to the timing of that war. But one of the convincing dates is just before 800 B.C.E. The reason for this date is the friendship between Trojan hero Aeneas and Dido of Carthage, an actual, real-life historical person from around 800 B.C.E.

Divine curses and panic-strickenchoicesexplain why Oedipus' family suffers so much and makes such disastrous mistakes in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus descends from Cadmus, Thebes' founder and first king. Though Poseidon the sea god's grandson, Cadmus irritates the gods, who therefore curse him and his line. Then Cadmus' son Polydorus and grandson Labdacus offend Dionysos, the wine god and Cadmus' nephew. The divine curses pass on to Laius and then to Oedipus. They therefore reach Oedipus in multiplied form from four generations' worth of divine ill will. Additionally, each generation clearly understands the divinely accumulated vindictiveness and understandably makes choices out of extreme desperation and incomplete knowledge.

It is Creon and Teiresias that Oedipus charges with treason in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Teiresias the blind prophet announces that Theban King Oedipus is King Laius' killer. Oedipus does not remember ever meeting Laius and fears the execution or exile promised by the gods for whomsoever is Laius' killer. Oedipus therefore makes the assumption that his royal advisor, Teiresias, and his royal colleague, Creon, are conspiring treasonously against him, their sovereign, to grab royal powers all to themselves.

That he is Laius' killer is the accusation that Teiresias makes against Oedipus in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus asks Teiresias the blind prophet for help in finding the guilty in King Laius' murder. He dislikes Teiresias' answer. Teiresias reluctantly says that Oedipus is the very murderer that all Thebans seek.

Oedipus' blinding is the catharsis in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, catharsis describes an emotional release that leads to cleansing and healing. The description fits Theban King Oedipus' self-blinding. He releases a flood of emotions upon discovering that he is the prophesied killer of his father and husband of his mother. He ultimately turns the emotional experience into healing by taking away the sight that gets in the way of processing what is staring him directly in the face at every unfortunate turn in his life.

Let him go is what Oedipus finally decides to do about Creon in "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 treasonously conspiring with Teiresias the blind prophet to grab all royal powers for themselves. The charge carries a punishment of execution or exile. Oedipus is bent on execution, but finally is dissuaded through the joint efforts of his wife Queen Jocasta and the chorus leader.

That forewarned is not forearmed is what makes Oedipus' horrifying predicament fascinating in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Oedipus gets a head start on life's obstacles when the Delphic oracle warns him of his fate as his father's killer and his mother's husband. But Oedipus has a mistaken self image of himself as a Corinthian instead of a Theban. It is fascinating the way that his and horrifying fate's paths collide when Oedipus runs away from perceived dangers in Corinth to presumed safety in Thebes.

That he is the god of prophecy is the reason why Oedipus asks Apollo for help lifting the plague on Thebes in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus has no idea why a pestilence afflicts Thebes or what to do about it. But he knows that Apollo the sun god can help. Apollo also serves as the god of prophecy and makes past, present and future knowledge available to royals through the Pythia, ancient Greece's best known and most respected oracle.

An open stage with a minimum of props tends to be the staging of "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the play is set in a clearing in front of the main entrance to the Theban royal palace. The cast is made up of eleven characters and twelve chorus members supplemented by palace attendants, servants and suppliants. Masks may be used in addition to costumes.

Because it is treasonous to criticize a king and because Oedipus has a violent temper and must see for himself that the evidence is true are the reasons why Teiresias hesitates to tell Oedipus the truth about his identity in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Teiresias the blind prophet knows that his sovereign, Theban King Oedipus, is a criminal and an immoralist. But at the same time, Oedipus is beloved by his family and his people. What with Oedipus' violent temper, no wonder Teiresias hesitates to say what Oedipus needs to see, process and accept on his own.

Foreign robbers kill Laius according to Jocasta in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Queen Jocasta tells her second husband Oedipus that her first husband Laius is killed by foreign robbers in a foreign land. Her information comes from an eyewitness account by her most trusted servant. That servant and the guilty are the only survivors of that fatal attack on Laius and his five-member escort party.

No, Jocasta is not wiser than Oedipus in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, neither Theban Queen Jocasta nor King Oedipus is wise. Jocasta just knows when to keep quiet and to stop a fight from beginning or escalating. Otherwise, she tends towards avoidance and escapism whereas Oedipus is confrontational and reactive.

It is in questioning the Theban shepherd that Oedipus discovers his biological mother to be Jocasta in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus is heading a murder investigation into the mysterious death of his royal predecessor, King Laius. The charges of his royal advisor, Teiresias the blind prophet, and details of the crime scene from Laius' widow, Queen Jocasta, make Oedipus a surprise suspect. In the course of interviewing the only eyewitness to Laius' murder, Oedipus must ask questions about his own dubious parentage, which the Theban shepherd confirms as birth in the Theban royal household to Theban monarchs Laius and Jocasta.

It is after his departure from Thebes but before his arrival in Delphi that Laius is killed in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Laius is killed in the Delphi-Daulia intersection in the land of Phocis. The incident occurs somewhere between 15 and 20 years before the onstage events in the play. It takes place sometime during the 13th century B.C.E. since Laius is the great-grandfather of King Thersander, a contemporary if not also a participant in the Trojan War (1194 B.C.E. - 1184 B.C.E.).

Creon, Jocasta, Oedipus and Teiresias are major characters whereas Laius, the messengers, the princesses and the shepherdare minor characters in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, major characters help define the course of events. They therefore include Creon, who consults the oracle and becomes king; Jocasta, who has no problem with child killing but who marries her own son; Oedipus, whose mistaken self-identity is at the core of the story; and Teiresias, who epitomizes the explanation and validation of divine will and inexorable fate in mortal lives. In contrast, minor characters implement helping roles to the major characters. They play supporting roles in replacing misinformation with information. For example, Laius plays the victim. The Corinthian and the second messengers reveal respectively vital information on Oedipus' parentage and the royal couple's fate inside the palace. The Princesses Antigone and Ismene share the stage so that the audience gets Oedipus' and Creon's viewpoints on the play's resolution. The Theban shepherd turns everything into a living nightmare with his eyewitness accounts of key points in the triangular lives of Jocasta and her two husbands, Laius and Oedipus.

That it is Apollo who ruins his life but that it is he himself who ruins his sight is the way in which Oedipus explains his ordeal and present circumstances in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Oedipus loses his friends, home, jobs and reputation for criminal acts and immoral behavior. He objects to the preceding happening to him since he indeed kills his father and marries his mother, but in ignorance of his or their true identities. Oedipus observes that his criminal acts and immoral behavior result from Apollo's relentless carrying out of the prophesied fate of the Furies. At the same time, he states that his blindness is the sole act that throws him into misery for which he alone is responsible.

A servant of the chief god Zeus is who the priest is in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the priest is a minor character who appears only in the play's prologue. He interacts with Theban King Oedipus on behalf of Theban suppliants who gather outside the main entrance to the Theban royal palace. He gives useful background information regarding the high esteem in which Thebans hold Oedipus and shares Oedipus' revered title as the Savior of Thebes.