LibGuides: English: Oedipus The King

Introduction to Greek Tragedy

An Introduction to Greek Tragedy
This film explores the defining aspects of Greek tragedy and why the plays resonate with audiences today. Featured in this film are experts Edith Hall, professor of Classics at Kings College, London, Laura Swift from the Open University and Dr Sean McElvoy from Varndean College, Brighton. Via YouTube. Duration: 6:32

Context

Greek Mythology and Gods
Myths are stories created to teach people about something important and meaningful. They were often used to teach people about events that they could not always understand, such as illness and death, or earthquakes and floods. Legends are like myths, but they are slightly different. While myths are completely made up, legends are based on events that really happened.

The Greeks believed in gods and goddesses who, they thought, had control over every part of people's lives. The Ancient Greeks believed that they had to pray to the gods for help and protection, because if the gods were unhappy with someone, then they would punish them. They made special places in their homes and temples where they could pray to statues of the gods and leave presents for them.

The Greeks had a different god for almost everything. They imagined that the gods lived together, as a family, up on the top of Mount Olympus. They did not see them as perfect, but just like people. In the Greek myths the gods argue, fall in love, get jealous of each other and make mistakes.
Britannica: 12 Greek Gods and Goddesses
Cruel and fickle, passionate and vindictive, jealous and insecure, petty and insane: the inhabitants of Mount Olympus represent an attempt by the ancient Greeks to explain the chaos of the universe through human nature.
Orphic Mysteries and Dionysian Roots
Beneath the Parthenon, on the southern side of the most famous hill in Athens, Greece, there stands today the Theater of Dionysus. Two millennia ago a Dionysian festival gathered here each year at harvest time for a series of remarkable dramatic performances. The great tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides and the great comedies of Aristophanes and Menander were first performed at this festival, in this theater, where these ruins stand today. We have the ecstatic God Dionysus to thank for Greek comedy and Greek tragedy. Today, as befits Dionysus’s reputation for impulsive doomed flights, the theater is a gentle ruin.

The Gods in Greek Tragedy

Video: The Gods in Greek Tragedy
Edith Hall (Professor of Classics, King's College London) discusses the gods in Greek Tragedy. Via YouTube. Duration: 2:05

Greek Tragedy and Suffering

Video: Edith Hall on Greek Tragedy and Suffering
Edith Hall (Professor of Classics at King's College London) introduces the topic of Greek tragedy. Via YouTube. Duration: 2:52

The Play

Arguably the most famous of the surviving Greek tragedies, Sophocles’ masterpiece centres on an unbearable tension: the crimes Oedipus is determined to uncover are crimes that he himself has unwittingly committed. In his quest to rid the city of the plague by identifying what had displeased the Gods, he must destroy himself. And, of course, the crimes in question are not ‘ordinary’. Oedipus has broken two of our greatest cultural and social taboos – he has murdered his own father and married his own mother. With such shocking events and a memorable protagonist who seeks truth at any cost, this play offers many entry points to explore character, concerns and language, and contains strong threads of imagery and symbolism. The translation by Robert Fagles has been selected for its richness and authority. This edition has some interesting supporting material, including a detailed introduction.

VCAA 2024 English Text List

Plot Summary

Oedipus The King Summary by Shmoop
Did you hear the one about the guy who killed his dad and married his mom? Yeah, that’s not a joke, it’s Oedipus’ life. This video summarizes the Greek tragedy Oedipus the King as Oedipus investigates who murdered the old king (spoiler alert: he did). The moral of the story? Don’t investigate something you don’t want to know the answer to and believe the blind fortune teller Teiresias—he’s probably right. Via YouTube. Duration: 3:30

"Oedipus Rex" | Plot Summary & Analysis
If Oedipus has just accepted the truth, the plot of this play would have been so straightforward. Instead—and, much to 60sR's chagrin—Oedipus is quite versed in the art of denial. And that means you'll have to stick out a few plot loop-de-loops before the truth becomes clear. Via YouTube. Duration: 1:19
Oedipus Rex: Study Guide
Oedipus Rex is Latin and means "Oedipus the King," which is the title of later translations of the play.

Useful links

Extra resources in addition to your class notes:

Cliff Notes: Oedipus the King play summary, character list and analysis

LitCharts: Oedipus Rex plot summary, characters, themes, quotes and symbols

Video: Oedipus Rex Summary and Analysis

Character Map

Character map: Insight Text Guide

Timeline

Timeline of Events Oedipus the King
‘Oedipus the King’ written by Sophocles for the Great Dionysia celebration, is a Greek tragedy that is read like a kind of ancient murder mystery.

Books available in the NCC

The Three Theban Plays: Antigone; Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles; Robert Fagles (Translator); Bernard Knox (Introduction by, Notes by)
ISBN: 9780140444254
Publication Date: 1984
The heroic Greek dramas that have moved theatergoers and readers since the fifth century B.C. Robert Fagles's authoritative and acclaimed translation conveys all of Sophocles's lucidity and power- the cut and thrust of his dialogue, his ironic edge, the surge and majesty of his choruses and, above all, the agonies and triumphs of his characters.This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction and notes by the renowned classicist Bernard Knox.
The Three Theban Plays: Antigone; Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus (eBook) by Sophocles (translated by Robert Fangles)
ISBN: 9781101042694
This ebook version is via our ebook platform Sora.
Oedipus: trapped by destiny: TOON Graphics (ebook graphic novel) by Yvan Pommaux
ISBN: 9781954084506
Publication Date: 2016
Oedipus is born to a terrible fate. Can he escape it? An oracle makes a ghastly prediction: the young prince will kill his father and marry his mother. Horrified, the father decides to murder his infant son before he can grow up to carry out the prophecy–but destiny can't be avoided so easily. The son is Oedipus who, rescued by a shepherd, unwittingly fulfills the gods' plans–while doing everything he can to escape his fate. With style, originality, and a wealth of informative details, graphic novelist Yvan Pommaux brings to a new generation the tragic tale which has thrilled and terrified everyone for thousands of years. A must to nourish young readers' imaginations.
CliffsNotes on Sophocles' Oedipus Trilogy (ebook) by Charles Higgins; Regina Higgins
ISBN: 9780764586989
Publication Date: 2000
CliffsNotes on The Oedipus Trilogy is your ticket to a greater understanding of three tragic dramas from Sophocles.
A Commentary on the Plays of Sophocles (ebook) by James C. Hogan
ISBN: 9780585029719
Publication Date: 1991
Sophocles' first victory in the dramatic competitions at the festival of Dionysus came in 468 B.C. He would have been between twenty five and thirty. For the next sixty years and more he wrote and directed over a hundred plays, seven of which survive.