Oedipus
Representing Activity
Each student will be given a short summary of events that happen in Oedipus, the
King. Students are to create a visual representation with appropriate captions,
speech bubbles etc. in order to have a storyboard for the play. Each panel is
numbered.
1. (Split panel)


Citizens are grouped in front of the palace. They are begging for help as
Oedipus questions what is wrong.
The priest answers that the city of Thebes is in the grip of untold misery:
plants and animals aren’t thriving, babies are dying; there is a plague in
the city.
2. (Split panel)


The citizens, having been rescued once before by Oedipus and believing
him to be the greatest among men, beg for help.
Flashback (15 years earlier) as the city of Thebes is being destroyed by
the Sphinx. Oedipus answers the riddle of Sphinx, destroys her power, and
is offered Jocasta’s hand in marriage as a reward.
3. Meanwhile, back to present day Thebes

Oedipus assures the Thebans that he has already sent his brother-in-law,
Creon, to ask the sun god, Apollo, what they can do to fix things.
4. Creon returns and says that there is a “pollution in the city” that must be fixed.
Jocasta’s first husband, King Laius, was murdered years earlier, and his attacker
has never been identified or brought to justice.
5. (Split panel)


Oedipus asks why no investigation was held at the time. Creon explains
that there was only one witness, the lone survivor of the murder scene,
who told a story of robbers attacking the king.
Before the inquiry could progress further, though, the Sphinx attacked the
city, and Laius’s murder was sidetracked.
6. (Split panel)


Oedipus commits to reopening the case and assures the citizens that he
will do god’s will
Chorus prays to the gods to rid the city of Thebes from the evil. They are
afraid.
7. Oedipus makes a proclamation. He asks for anyone with information to come
forward. If the murderer confesses, he will be banished only. On the other hand, if
a citizen is protecting the murderer, he will be cursed and cast out, friendless and
alone. Oedipus includes himself in the curse. He will “fight of Laius just as he
would fight for his own father” (dramatic irony).
8. (split panel)


Chorus suggests that Teiresias, a blind seer (irony)and therefore close to
the gods, should be able to help.
Oedipus sends for him and then, upon Teiresias’s arrival, asks him to
reveal the murderer’s identity.
8. Teiresias is reluctant, regretting his decision to come to Thebes “when wisdom
brings no profit, to be wise is to suffer”.
9. Split panel


Oedipus gets mad when Teiresias refuses to speak, accusing him of
“letting the city perish” and of plotting against Thebes.
Teiresias, also angered, accuses Oedipus of being “the cursed polluter of
the land.” He tells Oedipus that the killer is, in fact, Oedipus himself.
10. Oedipus, enraged, then attacks Creon for being in “cahoots” with Teiresias. He
yells that Teiresias is a fraud-as a prophet, Teiresias should have been able to
solve the riddle of the sphinx 15 years earlier.
11. Teiresias, using his democratic right to speak, foretells a dire prophesy. He tells
Oedipus that Oedipus is unable to see the truth; he has not only his own curse, but
his parent’s curse upon him as well.
12. Oedipus is still too proud to listen. Teiresias then adds the following about the
killer of King Laius:







The killer, in Thebes, seems to be a foreigner but is in fact Theban born
He came seeing, but will become blind
He is rich, but will become a beggar
He will be exiled
He is both father and brother to his children
He is both husband and son to his wife
He is a father killer and father supplanter
13. The chorus considers the terrible thing Teiresias has said, the resolves to reserve
judgement as Oedipus is their hero. Until they know otherwise, they’ll give
Oedipus the benefit of the doubt.
14. (split screen)


Creon enters, having heard Oedipus’s accusations against him. He is
furious!
Oedipus will not listen to reason. He accuses Creon of trying to usurp his
kingdom.
15. Creon, the more level-headed, cautions Oedipus against being obstinate. He then
suggests to Oedipus that it would be crazy for him to steal his crown when Creon
now possesses all the benefits of being royal without the problems of “an uneasy
throne”.
16. The two argue bitterly, and the chorus cautions reason as Jocasta enters the scene
demanding to know what’s going on.
17. Jocasta, upon hearing Oedipus’s accusations against her brother Creon, asks him
to be merciful. Oedipus allows Creon to go, but states that in doing so, Oedipus
himself will now be banished for sheltering the guilty.
18. Jocasta asks Oedipus what the fight is about, and Oedipus explains that Creon’s
prophet, Teiresias, has accused Oedipus of having killed Laius. The two men,
Oedipus feels, are involved in some sort of treachery.
19. (Split screen)


Jocasta responds that people shouldn’t pay any heed to prophets; they
aren’t really able to see into the future and she can prove it.
Flashback to an earlier time. An oracle once told King Laius that he
would die at the hands of his own son. Laius, however, was actually killed
by robbers at place where three roads meet. Clearly, then, the prophesy
was false.
20. Oedipus is troubled, however, by Jocasta’s words, especially the description of
where the three roads meet. He says: “O dear Jocasta, as I hear this from you, I
could go mad.” He insists on having more details, becoming more and more
convinced that it was he, in fact, who had killed the king.
21. Jocasta confirms that Laius traveled with 5 men, only one of whom escaped the
attack-a servant who, upon returning to Thebes, discovered Oedipus in power. He
begged Jocasta to let him work as a shepherd, far away, in the fields
(foreshadowing)
22. Upon Oedipus’s insistence, they send for the shepherd as Oedipus decides to tell
of his own prophesy
23. (split panel 4 ways)




Flashback King Polybus and Queen Merope were Oedipus’s parents and
he grew up, well respected, in the city of Corinth.
One day, though, a drunk told Oedipus that he was not the real son of
Polybus.
Seeking answers, Oedipus went to the oracle who told him that Oedipus
was destined to murder his own father and marry his mother.
Oedipus fled Corinth, trying to escape that horrible fate.
24. (split panel)




Flashback continued… In his travels, Oedipus came to a place where 3
roads met (uh oh ).
There, he encountered 5 men-a carriage driver and passenger along with
some footmen.
Oedipus was shoved to the side and then struck with a staff by the man in
the carriage.
In a fit of road rage, Oedipus killed all excepting one who escaped.
25. (Split panel)


Oedipus now realizes that he is likely guilty of killing Laius and has, in
fact, brought his own curse of banishment or death upon his own head
(irony).
The chorus cautions Oedipus to await the shepherd as he and Jocasta cling
to the small hope that the shepherd, whose original story was that robbers
had attacked the king, will stick to his story.
26. The chorus gives a speech on pride-that the man too proud to fear the gods must
suffer a downfall. Man must respect the gods: “If the oracles are forgotten and
slighted, Apollo is diminished and man turns his face away from heaven.”
27. (Split panel)


Jocasta enters with garlands to pray to the gods just as a messenger comes
with news that Polybus is dead. Oedipus is to be the king of Corinth.
Oedipus, like Jocasta, also now questions his own prophesy (and, by
connection, the gods). He states that his own prophesy did not come about;
Polybus died of old age rather than being killed by his son. He still fears,
though, the second part of the prophesy-that he will marry his mother.
28. (Split panel)


The messenger, thinking to alleviate Oedipus’s fears, ironically speaks the
words that bring out the truth that will destroy Oedipus (but hey, don’t
shoot the messenger). He tells Oedipus that Polybus and Merope weren’t
his real parents-the messenger himself had brought Oedipus, a young tot,
to the palace as a gift for Polybus and Merope.
A shepherd of King Laius, in fact, had given the messenger the baby who,
cruelly, had his feet pierced together.
29. (Split panel three ways)

Oedipus insists on finding the shepherd so he can learn the truth of his
own birth.

Jocasta, now recognizing the truth herself, shouts “God help you! Keep
you from the knowledge of who you are!” as she leaves the steps.

The chorus is fearful of Jocasta’s reaction.
30. (split screen 4 ways)




The shepherd arrives and, upon speaking to the messenger, pretends not to
know him. Under threat of death, though, he tells the truth
Flashback: Jocasta, because of the horrible prophesy that Laius would be
killed by his own son, pinned the baby’s legs together and told the
shepherd to leave him to die on the mountainside.
The shepherd, pitying the baby, gave him instead to the messenger who, in
turn, presented him to King Polybus.
The shepherd now says to Oedipus, “If you are the man he (the messenger)
says you are, you were born to misery.”
31. Oedipus, cursed, finally knows the truth. He cries out, “Light of the sun, let me
look at you no more!” and runs into the palace.
32. (split panel three ways)



A second messenger enters with the chorus.
The queen, Jocasta, has hanged herself.
Oedipus has cut her down and then used the pins of her brooches to poke
out his eyeballs repeatedly. He’s blind.
33. Split panel

Creon enters and says he’s not there to gloat.


Creon agrees to look after Oedipus’s daughters, Ismene and Antigone,
feeling that it would be kinder to leave them at the palace.
Oedipus leaves, blind and banished from the land.
34. The chorus sums up the theme of the play: Oedipus was powerful, but is now laid
low. No mortal can be happy until his end.
Use the following template to make your panel (s):
Oedipus
Creon
Jocasta
Chorus
Teiresias
Shepherd
Messenger # 1
Messenger # 2