Sophocles Oedipus The King

Oedipus the King is a Greek tragedy written around 430 B.C. by playwright Sophocles. It takes place in Thebes, where Oedipus is the king. The play starts out with a plague hitting Thebes and the people who live there start dying. Priests, who ask him to save Thebes, greet Oedipus. Oedipus tells them he sent his brother-in-law, Creon, to the oracle of Apollo to find out how to stop the plague from killing more people. Not long later, Creon comes back and tells them in order to stop the plague; the murderer of Laius must be driven out of Thebes. Oedipus wonders why no one made an attempt to find the murderer until now. He tells the Chorus he will stop the plague himself and calls for the help of Tiresias, who is a great prophet. The blind prophet, Tiresias, comes in and Oedipus tries to ask to reveal the

Going nowhere, Oedipus accuses Tiresias of the murder but soon finds out that he himself is the murderer. He does not believe it and then accuses Tiresias and Creon are conspiring to overthrow him. The Chorus does not know who to believe and decide to wait until they are given further proof. Jocasta, Oedipus’ wife, tells him not to blame Creon and that prophets are not real. She explains that she was told her husband would be murdered by son, however, she abandoned her son and Laius was still murdered. Her story of how Laius was murdered seemed familiar to Oedipus. He told her his story of how he was told by the oracle that he would murder his father and sleep with his mother, so he ran away from home. While running away, he killed some travelers who harassed him near the spot where Laius was murdered. Later, a messenger comes to tell Oedipus that his father died of natural causes and he is now the new ruler. However, he still fears what the oracle said. He was told that would not happen since his mother is not really his birth