Oedipus The King Test Review
By Nick Salinski
Characters
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Oedipus
Jocasta
Antigone
Creon
Polynices
Tiresias
Haemon
Ismene
Theseus
Chorous
The life Of Sophocles
• Sophocles was born in about 497 B.C. Sophocles
was a very talented play writer. In his first
competition, in 468 B.C, Sophocles took first
prize, defeating Aeschylus. Sophocles wrote more
than 120 plays. He won about 18 first prizes. He
was also a very accomplished actor. He acted in
many of his own plays. He was know for many
famous plays but Oedipus was his most famous
and successful out of all of them.
Sophocles died in 405 B.C.
Summary of Oedipus The King
• King Oedipus, aware that a terrible curse has befallen
Thebes. He sends Creon to seek the advice of Apollo. Creon
tell Oedipus that the only way that Oedipus can remove the
curse from the city is if he can find the murderer. Then the
blind prophet, Teiresias tells him that he is the one that has
kill the old king. Oedipus question a messenger and a
shepherd, both of them have told him about how Oedipus
was abandoned as an infant and adopted by his family in
thebes. Jocasta realizes that she is Oedipus’s mother and
that Laius was his father. Knowing of what has happened,
she kills herself. Oedipus realizes that he was Laius’s
murder and that he’s been married to his mother. Scared of
what has happened he gouges his eyes out and is soon
exiled from Thebes by the new king Creon.
Key Facts
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Author : Sophocles
Tone : Tragic
Tense : Present
Main Character: Oedipus
Setting : Antigone and Oedipus the King are set in Thebes
Setting (time) : All three plays are set in the mythical past of
ancient Greece.
• Themes : The power of unwritten law, the willingness to
ignore the truth, the limits of free will.
• Protagonist : Oedipus
• Publisher : There is no known publisher of original or early
editions
Pictures