Theatre
Oedipus Rex
Οἰδίπους τύραννος
Sophocles · -429
Synopsis
Thebes is struck by plague, and the oracle decrees that it will end on the day the murderer of the former king is found. Oedipus, who has reigned since, takes charge of the inquiry and swears not to stop. Each witness he summons brings him closer to an answer that all those around him would prefer he never reach.
Context
The play shows none of the acts it recounts: all are committed before it begins, and it consists entirely of the inquiry that uncovers them. Its date is not known with certainty, estimates ranging from 430 to 420 BCE, the years when the plague struck Athens. In France, the first scholarly edition appeared in 1922 from Les Belles Lettres in Paul Masqueray's translation, replaced in 1958 by that of Paul Mazon.
Who it is for
A short tragedy, in verse, to be read in one go, in a bilingual edition or in paperback.
Prizes and reception
Placed second in the contest, behind Philocles, a relative of Aeschylus, it became for Aristotle the model of tragedy, and Freud borrowed from it the name of a complex.
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