Oedipus Rex
By: Sophocles (Ancient Greek
about 429 BC)
Presentation by: Angela Pender
and Semijah Smith
Setting
- In a mythical past of ancient greece
- Oedipus, the King, is set in Thebes(Near
Athens)
Who was in it?
-
Oedipus-(has swift actions and great sight)
Chorus- (elders who comment on situations)
Shepard-(a herder, used to serve previous King)
Messenger- (tells Oedipus the news of royal family)
Creon- (brother-in-law/ uncle)
Second Messenger-(announces death of Queen and
blindness of Oedipus)
- Teiresias-(guides the king with advice)
- Jocasta- (Queen of Thebes, mother/wife of Oedipus)
Now let’s recap
-
There was Prophecy
Oedipus’s parents tried to kill their son
The child is saved
Years later the prophecy is filled
Oedipus finds out about his prophecy
More deaths happen and he steps down
from the throne
Important Quotes
● “I curse myself as well…if by any chance he proves to be an intimate
of our house” (Line 284-285) - Oedipus
● “The pains we inflict upon ourselves hurt the most of all” - Messanger
● “So I will fight for him as if he were my own father, stop at nothing,
search the world to lay my hands on the man who shed his blood”
(Line 302) - Oedipus
● “Listen to me. You mock my blindness, do you? But I say that you, with
both your eyes, are blind: You can not see wretchedness of your life,
Nor in whose house you live, no, nor with whom…you do not even
know the blind wrongs that you have done them, on earth and in the
world below” (Line 195) - Tiresias
So I will fight for him as if he were my father, stop at nothing, search the world to lay my
hands on the man who shed his blood.
Themes
● Prophecies/ Oracles /Fate
● The Willingness to Ignore the Truth
● The Limits of Free Will
Author’s Technique
● Irony (Dramatic)
● Oedipus doesn’t know his
real parents
● As the reader’s we know the
truth
Characterization
● Oedipus’s determination to find Laius’s
murderer
● Oedipus is known as arrogant because of
how he talks to prophet Teiresias and his
tone of voice
● Oedipus is notable king because he
acknowledges his mistakes