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INTRODUCTION
OEDIPUS THE KING, Sophocles' masterpiece, is based upon the same
Theban saga which Aeschylus used in his The Seven Against Thebes. Its
date is unknown, though in all probability it must have been written when
the poet's powers were at their zenith. The events of the story antecedent
to the opening of the play emerge as its action advances. We hear of the
oracle which warned Laius, the father of Oedipus, that a son would be
born to him who would slay him. We hear how the son was born, was exposed,
but rescued and reared by Polybus and Merope, King and Queen
of Corinth, whom the boy regarded as his parents. We learn that Oedipus,
in ignorance, slew Laius, came to Thebes, solved the riddle of the Sphinx,
was made king, and married the recently widowed queen, Jocasta, who
actually was his own mother. Many years have passed since their marriage,
and two sons and two daughters were born to them. But presently
a great calamity fell upon Thebes, a plague which was virtually destroying
the city. Sophocles begins his tragedy at this point in the story, as a
group of subjects appeal to their great king, Oedipus, to help them in
their desolation. The action of the play reveals how Oedipus gradually
came to learn the horrible truth that he had actually killed his father and
married his mother.
Purely from the structural or technical point of view, Sophocles' play
is practically unrivalled in dramatic literature. With remarkable skill he
allows Oedipus step by step to become acquainted with the facts of his
past, at the same time exploiting to the full the possibilities for dramatic
irony, since the audience always knows more of the truth than Oedipus
at any given moment in the play. Furthermore, rarely does one find such
perfect motivation for individual actions within the drama. Each move
by each character emerges convincingly from what has happened immediately
before. Such improbabilities as there may be fall outside the
limits of the play itself, as Aristotle noted in his Poetics. Because Oedipus
the King possessed so many formal and technical excellences, it is not
strange that Aristotle used it more frequently than any other Greek
tragedy to illustrate his various critical theories. ."
The principal characters are masterfully drawn. First there is Creon,
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