Oedipus Rex Full Drama Download (PDF) - by Sophocles

Oedipus Rex

by Sophocles

Oedipus the King (429-420 BCE), also known as Oedipus Rex or Oedipus Tyrannos ('Tyrannos' signifies that the throne was not gained through an inheritance) is the most famous surviving play written by the 5th-century BCE poet and dramatist Sophocles. The play is part of a trilogy along with Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus.

The plot - an old myth already known to most of the audience - was simple: a prophecy claiming he would kill his father and lie with his mother forces Oedipus - whose name means 'swollen foot' after his ankles were pierced as a child - to leave his home of Corinth and unknowingly travel to Thebes (his actual birthplace). En route, he fulfills the first part of the prophecy when he kills a man, the king of Thebes and his true father. Upon arriving in Thebes, he saves the troubled city by solving the riddle of the Sphinx, then he marries the widowed queen (his mother) and becomes the new king. Later, when a plague has befallen the city, Oedipus is told that to rid the city of the plague he must find the murderer of the slain king. Unknowingly, ignorant of the fact that he was the culprit, he promises to solve the murder. When he finally learns the truth, he realizes he has fulfilled the prophecy; he blinds himself and goes into exile.

Sophocles

Sophocles (c. 496 BCE - c. 406 BCE) was born to a wealthy family in the deme or suburb of Colonus outside the heart of Athens. Besides being an author, he was extremely active in Athenian public life, serving as a treasurer in 443-42 BCE and a general 441-40 BCE. When he was in his eighties, he was named a member of the group of special magistrates assigned to the dubious task of organizing both financial and domestic recovery in 412-11 BCE after the disastrous defeat at Syracuse. He had two sons; Iophon by his wife Nicosrate and Ariston (also called Sophocles) by his mistress Theoris. Both sons would eventually become playwrights. Among his close friends were the historian Herodotus and the statesman Pericles.

Bust of Sophocles

Although active in Athenian political circles, his plays rarely contain any references to current events or issues - something that makes the dating of his plays difficult. Classicist Edith Hamilton wrote that he was a passionless, detached observer of life. In her book The Greek Way, she said that the beauty of his plays was in their simple, lucid, and reasonable structure. He was the embodiment of what we know to be Greek. She wrote that “… all definitions of the Greek spirit and Greek art are first of all definitions of his spirit and his art. He has imposed himself upon the world as the quintessential Greek, and the qualities pre-eminently his are ascribed to all the rest” (198-199). She added that he was conservative in politics and believed in the established order of things, even in theology. Author David Grene in his translation of Oedipus the King said that his plays had tightly controlled plots with complex dialogue, character contrasts, an interweaving of spoken and musical elements, and the “fluidity of verbal expression.” 

Main Characters

Greek tragedians performed their plays in outdoor theaters at various festivals and rituals in competitions. The purpose of these tragedies was to not only entertain but also to educate the Greek citizen, to explore a problem. Along with a chorus of singers to explain the action, there were actors, often three, who wore masks. Sophocles’ contemporaries included Aeschylus, author of Prometheus Bound, and Euripides, author of Medea. At the festival of Dionysius, Sophocles won 18 competitions, while Aeschylus won 13, and Euripides only five. Few accurate dates are known for his plays; Oedipus the King was probably written in the mid-420s BCE. This estimate is based on his reference to a plague that beset the city during Oedipus’s time on the throne. Oddly, while it was one of his most popular plays then and now, it did not win first prize.

The play’s characters are few:

• Oedipus, the king

• Creon, his brother-in-law

• Teiresias, an old blind prophet

• Jocasta, Oedipus' wife, and mother

• two messengers

• a herdsman

• a priest

• and, of course, the chorus. 

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