Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex, also known as, Oedipus the King, is a Greek classical play about a murder mystery in which Sophocles emphasizes the irony of a man determined to track down, expose, and punish an assassin, who turns out to be himself.

The play opens with the citizens of Thebes begging their king, Oedipus, to lift the plague that will be destroying the city. Not knowing what to do, Oedipus then sends his brother-in-law, Creon, to visit the oracle to find about what course of action they should take. The oracle then mentions about Laius, the previous king before Oedipus. She explains that if the murderer of Laius is killed, the plague will be lifted. Creon immediately returns and tells Oedipus the oracle’s words; Oedipus takes haste to solve the murder.

After his many efforts to solve the mystery, he then comes to find that his parents weren’t his real parents. He also discovers that he was the murderer of Laius, his true father, and that he has married his own mother, who killed herself before Oedipus knew of the truth. Being tortured and frenzied, he rakes out his own eyes with pins so that he will not see the misery he has caused. The prophecies given to him since he was young became true – he had an incestuous marriage, was blind, had infamy, and wandered about through his life.