Oedipus Rex

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.

It is in careful defense of Creon that the chorus responds when Oedipus becomes angry with Creon in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the chorus characterizes Creon as reasonable. The members describe Theban King Oedipus as rash and uncontrolled. They suggest that Creon is behaving deferentially and sanely, in line with an individual fighting for his life against false charges.

No, Jocasta has no idea before her marriage that Oedipus is her son in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Queen Jocasta describes her first husband as an older version of her second husband, Theban King Oedipus. She does not consider the two to be father and son since her only child by Laius is supposedly killed in order not to grow up to a miserable fate. When she realizes that Oedipus is her husband's killer, her own son, and her children's half-brother, she kills herself.

Apollo's wisdom, Teiresias' apparent anger, Creon's believability, and Oedipus' fate are components of the chorus leader's analysis in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the chorus leader announces that Apollo the god of prophecy and Zeus the chief god are all wise. He initially cannot accept Teiresias the blind prophet's identification of Theban King Oedipus as King Laius' murderer. But he dislikes the way in which Oedipus makes groundless charges of treasonous conspiracy between his brother-in-law and royal colleague Creon and his royal advisor Teiresias. He is increasingly uncomfortable with Oedipus' emotional outbursts and stubborn pride. He finally realizes that the prophecies all are true about Teiresias. He thinks that it is better not to be born than to have Oedipus' fate and that it is better to die than cling on as a blind exile.

An unnamed dinner guest is the person who makes Oedipus question his identity and that of his parents in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. -- 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the guest drinks too much at a dinner in Corinth. He says that Oedipus is not really Corinthian King Polybus' son. Despite the fact that the man is drunk from too much wine, Oedipus is upset and begins to question who he really is and who his parents really are.

That he may have crawled far longer than normal because of his injured feet, that he was successful in youth and middle age, and that he became blind and needed a cane to get around in old age is the way the riddle of the Sphinx is a metaphor for Oedipus in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. -- 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the monstrous Sphinx asks what living being moves around on fours in the morning, on twos in the afternoon and on threes in the evening. Oedipus understands morning to mean childhood, afternoon to mean youth and maturity, and evening to mean old age. So he guesses the correct answer of man, but has no realization that the riddle foreshadows, and serves as a metaphor to, his entire life.

King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes were guests at the court of Pelops. While there, King Laius fancied Pelops' young son, Chrysippus, and took sexual advantage of the boy. Enraged by this act of violation, Pelops laid a curse upon the royal house of King Laius that any son borne by Jocasta would kill him.

Years passed, and King Laius and his wife abstained from the marriage bed in fear of the curse, until one night while intoxicated they abandoned caution. When the infant son was born, King Laius pierced his tiny, tender feet with a spear and left him exposed on a distant mountainside to die. But fate soon stepped in for a shepherd found the poor abandoned infant and immediately brought him to King Polybus of Corinth.

Polybus, having no children of his own, adopted the little babe and named him for his damaged feet - Oedipus (swell foot).

That he will find out the cause of and solution to the pestilence in Thebes and that he will identify and punish Laius' killer are the pledges made by Oedipus to the people of Thebes in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the Apolline oracle says that the pestilence will end when the killer of Theban King Laius is identified and punished. Oedipus promises that he will do precisely that. He even goes so far as to add that the punishment of execution or exile will be applied to whomsoever has information but does not share and whomsoever helps or harbors the guilty.

The information from Teiresias, Jocasta and the Corinthian and Theban shepherds are three climaxes in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the term climax describes a turning point that leads to dropping fortunes and rising misfortunes for the hero. Theban King Oedipus' fortunes drop when he is accused by Teiresias the blind prophet of being King Laius' killer. They fall again when Laius' death place per Queen Jocasta is the location of a similar crime committed by Oedipus at about the same time and against similar persons. They hit rock bottom when the eyewitness accounts of the Corinthian and Theban shepherds place his birth in the Theban royal household.

That he kills someone at the same place as Laius dies is what Oedipus knows and that he may be Laius' killer is what Oedipus suspects by the end of the first half of "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles(495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus must identify and punish the guilty in the murder of his royal predecessor, King Laius. In the course of the investigation, Oedipus learns that the crime scene is the very Delphi-Daucis crossroads where he himself commits a similar crime to a similar person at about the same time. He therefore begins to suspect that Teiresias the blind prophet is correct in accusing him of being Laius' killer.

It was in the year 429 B.C.E. that the first performance of "Oedipus Rex" was held.

Specifically, the performance was held at the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, Greece. It is assumed that the play was written in the previous year. But very little information is available about any of the handful of surviving plays by ancient Greek playwright Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Monstrous attack, pestilence, pollution and war are what happens to the city of Thebes in "Oedipus Rex" and "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, a monstrous Sphinx asks a riddle that no Theban can answer. She therefore can draw on an unlimited supply of freshly killed Thebans for her daily meals. But Oedipus defeats her. He ends such problematic happenings until a pestilence afflicts his city. He follows every lead until he ends the horror of ailing livestock, dying children and failing crops. But shortly after his downfall, a bloody civil war is fought. When he becomes sole king, Creon leaves the bodies of the disloyal Theban dead above ground and exposed to weather and wildlife. His decision opens Thebes up to environmental pollution and plague from unburied body parts and scrounging birds and dogs.

Yes, Theban King Creon is tragic. But no, he isn't a hero. The adjective 'tragic' refers to an unhappy ending or outcome. Creon indeed ends up unhappily. Except for his life, he loses all that gives his life meaning. Specifically, he ends up without reputation, possessions, job, home, friends or family.

But his suffering doesn't make him a hero. A 'hero' is someone who does great deeds and also may have great powers. Creon doesn't fit the position description. He does no great deeds. Neither does he show himself to be in the possession of any great powers.

The fact that the main character meets with an unfortunate end makes "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.) a tragedy.

Specifically, a tragedy is a recounting of an unfortunate series of events that bring down the main character. The description fits the play's telling of the life and times of Theban King Oedipus. For example, Oedipus begins as a role model of personal happiness and professional success, but ends up sightless, jobless, homeless and friendless.

Ares is the fever god in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Ares is the ancient Greek god of war. He is the least popular of the gods mentioned in the play. He is nicknamed the fever god because of the way in which participants in armed conflict work themselves up to such an unlikable frenzy for maiming, mayhem and murder.

That his death place is sacred to the Furies is what the oracle says to Oedipus about the end of his life in "Oedipus at Colonus" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus is in exile with his daughters, Princesses Antigone and Ismene. They come to a grove that is sacred to the Furies. Oedipus calls to mind that the Delphic oracle prophesied that Oedipus would kill his father, marry his mother, and merit a good death at a place sacred to the Furies of fate.

That all prophecies come true is what Oedipus realizes at the climax of "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the climax happens when Oedipus processes two eyewitness accounts. The Corinthian messenger identifies Oedipus as the adopted or foster son of Corinthian monarchs Polybus and Merope. The Theban shepherd indicates that Oedipus is the biological son of Theban monarchs Laius and Jocasta, the killer of the former and the spouse of the latter. Oedipus witnesses the realization of his prophesied fate as his father's killer and his mother's husband.