Oedipus Trilogy Resources : Primarily Rex and Colonus

The Oedipus Trilogy By Sophocles Play Summary Oedipus the King
Oedipus the King unfolds as a murder mystery, a political thriller, and a psychological
whodunit. Throughout this mythic story of patricide and incest, Sophocles emphasizes
the irony of a man determined to track down, expose, and punish an assassin, who
turns out to be himself.
As the play opens, the citizens of Thebes beg their king, Oedipus, to lift the plague that
threatens to destroy the city. Oedipus has already sent his brother-in-law, Creon, to the
oracle to learn what to do.
On his return, Creon announces that the oracle instructs them to find the murderer of
Laius, the king who ruled Thebes before Oedipus. The discovery and punishment of the
murderer will end the plague. At once, Oedipus sets about to solve the murder.
Summoned by the king, the blind prophet Tiresias at first refuses to speak, but finally
accuses Oedipus himself of killing Laius. Oedipus mocks and rejects the prophet
angrily, ordering him to leave, but not before Tiresias hints darkly of an incestuous
marriage and a future of blindness, infamy, and wandering.
Oedipus attempts to gain advice from Jocasta, the queen; she encourages him to
ignore prophecies, explaining that a prophet once told her that Laius, her husband,
would die at the hands of their son. According to Jocasta, the prophecy did not come
true because the baby died, abandoned, and Laius himself was killed by a band of
robbers at a crossroads.
Oedipus becomes distressed by Jocasta's remarks because just before he came to
Thebes he killed a man who resembled Laius at a crossroads. To learn the truth,
Oedipus sends for the only living witness to the murder, a shepherd.
Another worry haunts Oedipus. As a young man, he learned from an oracle that he was
fated to kill his father and marry his mother. Fear of the prophecy drove him from his
home in Corinth and brought him ultimately to Thebes. Again, Jocasta advises him not
to worry about prophecies.