Oedipus Rex, a play by Sophocles is a classic tragedy according to Aristotle.  Many theater and English teachers require their students to read or familiarize themselves with the important events in the text.  It is from this play that the term, “Oedipal Complex,” is derived.  Readers soon discover why.

 The play is set in Thebes. Oedipus, whose name means swollen foot, has recently been elected king. He has solved the Sphinx’s riddle and saved the town, thereby winning his right to be king and marry the queen Jocasta. The riddle: “What is it that walks on four feet and two feet and three feet and has only one voice; when it walks on most feet, it is weakest?” Oedipus’ reply was man: when we are children we crawl on all fours, when we are adults we walk on two feet, when we are old we use a cane. 

The town’s people are thrilled with Oedipus until the next disaster comes. There cattle are dying, the woman are dying in child birth and giving birth to stillborn babies, the crops are not growing, people are dying everywhere. It is in this context that the first scene opens. The priests and supplicants come to Oedipus. He asks a priest to be the spokes person for the people. The priest begs Oedipus to do something about the plague. He recalls how Oedipus relieved the town of the Sphinx and asks the king to come up with a plan to rid them of this new trouble. Oedipus reveals that he has been thinking long and hard on the subject, devoting nights to it. He tells the people that he has sent his brother’s wife, Creon, to see Apollo’s Oracle at Delphi.

It turns out, that Creon is late, but according to Oedipus, “today’s the day” he will return, (Fagles 575). Just as the priest and king are talking, Creon arrives wearing a laurel with bright berries, signifying that he has good news. The king greets him and asks him what the god has told him. Creon at first is hesitant to share what the Oracle has spoken in front of the townspeople, priests, and supplicants. The king instructs him to speak and let everyone hear him. Creon then tells the listeners that Apollo requires that they find and rid themselves of Laius’s murder. Laius was the king before Oedipus.  The priests began to pray and Oedipus jumps on the mystery immediately.  He addresses the entire town of Thebes, the Chorus, and states that they will only find relief when they find the old king’s murder. He tells them to speak up if they know anything at all about the murder. No one answers. Seeing this, Oedipus curses the murder condemning him to a lifetime of exile in agony, and he adds that if the murder lives with him in the castle, that the same curse fall on himself as well.

A leader of the people speaks up and swears that he is not the killer. He also tells Oedipus of a prophet in the land: Lord Tiresias.  Oedipus tells the leader that he has sent two escorts in the same hour. Finally, after a long wait, Tiresias comes before the king. His words are not pleasing. The blind prophet, led by his guide boy tells the king that he will not reveal that he knows. Oedipus is enraged and lights into the blind man. The prophet and the king go back and forth until Oedipus accuses the prophet of murdering the old king. It is then that the blind prophet reveals that Oedipus is the murder that he seeks, the blight on the land. Oedipus again becomes enraged and accuses Creon of conspiring against him with the prophet. The prophet tells Oedipus that his marriage and his children are horrors. Oedipus in a rage tells the prophet to leave and returns to his castle. He misses the prophet’s crucial words: the man reveals that the town’s people may think that Oedipus is a stranger, but he is really Theban born. He also says that Oedipus will not find joy in this revelation, because he will be revealed as both brother and father to his children, and son and husband to his wife.

Creon hears of Oedipus’ hurtful accusation and confronts the king. Oedipus remains stubborn in his view, but his wife Jocasta comes in and tries to soothe the two men. Creon leaves the palace. Jocasta learns a little bit about the fight from the Chorus, but not what the two men said.

Oedipus tells his wife about what the blind prophet said about him. She scoffs and tells him that her former husband, Laius went to see the Oracle as well. It told the Laius that his son would kill him. Jocasta reassures him that this did not come to pass because they put the boy on Mount Cithaeron to die with his ankles fastened.  She concludes that there is nothing to worry about. Her words strike a chord in Oedipus when she says that the king was killed at a place where three roads meet on Cithaeron.  He interrogates her, asking her to be precise.  She informs him that it was in a place called Phocis where to two roads meet, one from Daulia and one from Delphi. He asks her how long ago it was. She tells him that as soon as Laius was reported dead, Oedipus showed up and solved the riddle and became king.

Oedipus is deeply troubled by this new information. He asks his wife to describe the king to him. She tells him that the king was on a wagon with a herald and an armed guard.  He is even more disturbed. He tells his wife that he thinks that he has called down a dreadful curse on himself and his family. Oedipus asks his wife exactly where she heard this story and she tells him of the servant who alone survived the attack on the king.  He asks where the man is now and Jocasta reveals that she sent him away at his request after he saw Oedipus on the throne. Oedipus demands that an escort be sent to bring him back, quickly. Jocasta, still feeling at ease, does as he says.

Oedipus explains his worries to her. He recounts his lineage, telling her that his Polybus, king of Corinth and Merope are his parents. He also reveals that once at a banquet, a drunken man told him that the king and queen of Corinth were not his real parents. Disturbed by this outburst, Oedipus tells Jocasta that he went to the Oracle at Delphi to find out. Apollo, he tells her, spurned him and told him that he was fated to marry his mother and produce incestuous children. It also told him that he was doomed to kill his father. After hearing that, he continues, he ran from Corinth to keep the prophecy from coming true.

He then reveals that as he was making his way toward the triple crossroad where the king died, he saw a herald, a wagon, and a man sitting on a bench in the wagon. The man, he reveals was very much like the King Laius Jocasta described. He tells Jocasta that the men were going to force him from the path and that the driver struck him in the head, rousing his anger. He kills everyone except one survivor. Now afraid, tells his wife of the curse: no one can welcome him into their house and he is to wander in exile.

Jocasta tries to get him to drop his worries. The old servant, she assures him, told her that thieves attacked the king, not a single man. Jocasta then goes out to pray with the Chorus. While they are praying a messenger from Corinth shows up with news that Oedipus’ father Polybus is dead and has left him the kingdom.

Jocasta, overjoyed tells her husband. He shares his fear about accidently murdering his father and marrying Merope. He reveals that this is the reason he ran from Corinth. Hearing this, the messenger reveals that Merope and Polybus were not his birth parents.

Slowly the story surrounding Oedipus’ birth and family unfolds. He learns that he was left on Mount Cithaeron with his ankles bound. The messenger tells him that a shepherd gave Oedipus to him. Oedipus learns that the servant belonged to Laius.  Jocasta hears this and suddenly turns.  She begs Oedipus to call off the search for the murder. He refuses. Jocasta runs into the castle.

The shepherd servant of Laius finally arrives. Oedipus questions him and learns that his wife gave the child to him and told him to bind his ankles and leave him on Cithaeron. He learns that the shepherd servant took pity on the babe and gave him to the messenger from Corinth. He learns that the messenger gave him to Polybus and Merope.  Oedipus asks the shepherd straight out who the child’s father was. The shepherd, regretting to tell it to him finally says that Laius is the father. With this the mystery is solved.  With this the prophecy of the Oracle comes full circle. He has killed his father. He has married his mother and they have four children.

In agony, he rushes into the castle, asking for his sword. The servants do not go near him. Jocasta hangs herself once she puts the pieces together. Taking her down from the beam, Oedipus takes two brooches from her robes and gouges his eyes out with them, dooming himself to wander blind, in exile, in suffering.  Creon returns to the castle and takes over the affairs of the kingdom. Oedipus begs him to take care of his daughters, Antigone and Ismene. He hugs them one last time and Creon banishes Oedipus from the kingdom, giving Oedipus no promise concerning his daughters