He advises Oedipus to abandon his search but, when the enraged Oedipus accuses Tiresias of complicity in the murder, Tiresias is provoked into telling the king the truth, that he himself is the murderer. Oedipus also summons the blind prophet Tiresias, who claims to know the answers to Oedipus‘ questions, but refuses to speak, lamenting his ability to see the truth when the truth brings nothing but pain. Oedipus vows to find the murderer and curses him for the plague that he has caused. Oedipus has already sent Creon, his brother-in-law, to consult the oracle at Delphi on the matter, and when Creon returns at that very moment, he reports that the plague will only end when the murderer of their former king, Laius, is caught and brought to justice. The prophecy was thus fulfilled, although none of the main characters were aware of it at this point.Īs the play opens, a priest and the Chorus of Theban elders are calling on King Oedipus to aid them with the plague which has been sent by Apollo to ravage the city. Later, he solved the riddle of the Sphinx and his reward for freeing the kingdom of Thebes from the Sphinx’s curse was the hand of Queen Jocasta (actually his biological mother) and the crown of the city of Thebes.

On the road to Thebes, he met Laius, his real father, and, unaware of each other’s true identities, they quarrelled and Oedipus‘ pride led him to murder Laius, fulfilling part of the oracle’s prophecy. Desperate to avoid this foretold fate, and believing Polybus and Merope to be his true parents, Oedipus left Corinth. Stung by rumours that he was not the biological son of the king, Oedipus consulted an oracle which foretold that he would marry his own mother and kill his own father. There he was found and brought up by a shepherd, before being taken in and raised in the court of the childless King Polybus of Corinth as if he were his own son. However, neither she nor her servant could bring themselves to kill him and he was abandoned to elements.

Shortly after Oedipus’ birth, his father, King Laius of Thebes, learned from an oracle that he, Laius, was doomed to perish by the hand of his own son, and so ordered his wife Jocasta to kill the infant. To briefly recap on the background to the play:

Miser Catulle, desinas ineptire (Catullus 8).

Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus (Catullus 5).

Passer, deliciae meae puellae (Catullus 2).

Antigone oedipus rex