Summary of Oedipus Rex

Brief Summary of Oedipus Rex

The Backstory

Oedipus was a strong, young man who was walking down the road when all of a sudden, an arrogant rich guy nearly runs him over with a chariot. The two fight- The rich guy dies.

The Play Begins

• The setting is Thebes and Oedipus has been king for over a decade.
• The citizens are complaining about a terrible plague.
• King Oedipus wants to solve the city's problems
• Zeus and the rest of the Olympian Gods are angry that the previous king was murdered and no one bothered to find the murderer

The Plot Thickens

• Oedipus requests help from a local prophet, an old timer named Tiresias.
• The aging psychic tells Oedipus to stop looking for the killer.
• This just makes Oedipus all the more determined to find out who slew the previous king.
• Finally, Tiresias gets fed up and spills the beans.
• The old man claims that Oedipus is the murderer.
• Then he declares, the murderer is Thebian born, and that he killed his father and married his mother!

• Oedipus is a bit freaked out by Tiresias' claims.
• This isn't the only time he has heard this sort of prophesy.
• When he was a young man living in Corinth, another soothsayer claimed the he would kill his father and marry his mother.
• So, he ran away from Corinth to save his parents and himself from murder/incest.

Wrapping things up

The people are filled with shock and pity. Jocasta hangs herself. Oedipus then uses the pins from her dress to gauge out his eyes. Creon, Jocasta's brother, takes over the throne.

Oedipus is Antigone's Father

More Bad News:

And Thickens...

• Just when they think that life is fine (except for the deadly plague, of course) a shepherd arrives with a story to tell.
• The shepherd explains that long ago he found Oedipus as a child, a little baby left out in the wilderness. The shepherd took him back to Corinth where young Oedipus was raised by his adopted parents.

With a few more disturbing puzzle pieces, Oedipus figures out that when he ran away from his adoptive parents, he bumped into his biological father and killed him in their roadside argument.Then, when Oedipus became king and married Jocasta, Laius' wife, he was actually marrying his biological mother

Oedipus vows to find the killer and bring justice.

He will punish the killer no matter who the culprit is... even if it is a friend, or a relative, even if he himself turns out to be the killer.

Further down the road, Oedipus meets a Sphinx who has been plaguing the city of Thebes, and challenging pedestrians with riddles. (Anyone who guesses wrong gets gobbled up.) Oedipus solves the riddle correctly, and becomes the King of Thebes. Not only that, he marries an attractive older gal named Jocasta - the recently widowed queen of Thebes.