Erin Hogshead's List: World Literature: Oedipus Rex Text

• Oedipus the King
• Oedipus  the King

• Sophocles  (495 BC-405 BC) was a famous and successful Athenian writer of tragedies in his  own lifetime. Of his 120 plays, only 7 have survived. Oedipus the King, also  called Oedipus Tyrannos or Oedipus Rex, written around 420 BC, has  long been regarded not only as his finest play but also as the purest and most  powerful expression of Greek tragic drama.

    

  Oedipus,  a stranger to Thebes, became king of the city after the murder of king Laius,  about fifteen or sixteen years before the start of the play. He was offered the  throne because he was successful in saving the city from the Sphinx, an event  referred to repeatedly in the text of the play. He married Laius’ widow,  Jocasta, and had four children with her, two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, and  two daughters, Antigone and Ismene.

  • that this is background information and that means that the play starts in media res
• king of Thebes
• I have  heard that, but I never saw the man.

  • Dramatic Irony
• This polluting stain
          I will remove, not for some distant friend,
          but for myself. For whoever killed this man
          may soon enough desire to turn his hand                                             [140]
          in the same way against me, too, and kill me.
          Thus, in avenging Laius, I serve myself.        

  • dramatic irony

4 more annotations...

• title emphasizes the character's role, importance - Erin Hogshead on 2012-08-09
• Tragedy: rule of being of high status set with character list and title - Erin Hogshead on 2012-08-09
• starts in media res - Erin Hogshead on 2012-08-15