Sophocles (497/6–406/5 BC) was the third in the triumvirate of great Athenian tragedians, Aeschylus and Euripides being the other two. Oedipus Rex was the second of his surviving ‘Theban Plays’ to be written (after Antigone, see Story 25), but chronologically the first in the sequence of events portrayed. A terrible plague has swept across Thebes. A prophecy suggests that respite will come only when the Thebans have avenged the murder of their previous king, Laius. Oedipus (literally ‘swollen foot’), who married Laius’ widow Jocasta and had four children by her, seeks to discover who was responsible and punish him. Oedipus is incredulous when the blind prophet Teiresias reveals to him that he, Oedipus, is the blind one, since the murderer he is seeking is none other than himself. This extract from Sophocles’ play, which features a Chorus of elders, describes Oedipus’ terrible moment of realisation. It opens with Jocasta speaking.

[…] An oracle came to Laius once,

I will not say from Phoebus, but from his ministers,

that he was doomed to die by the hand of his own

child sprung from him and me. When his child was

but three days old, Laius bound its feet together and

had it thrown by sure hands upon a trackless moun-

tain; and when Laius was murdered at the place

where three highways meet, it was, or so at least the

rumour says, by foreign robbers. So Apollo did not

bring it about that the child should kill its father,

nor did Laius die in the dreadful way he feared by

his child’s hand. Yet that was how the message of

the seers mapped out the future. Pay no attention

to such things. What the God would show he will

need no help to show it, but bring it to light himself.

OEDIPUS. What restlessness of soul, lady, has come upon

me since I heard you speak, what a tumult of the

mind!

JOCASTA. What is this new anxiety? What has startled

you?

OEDIPUS. You said that Laius was killed where three

highways meet.

JOCASTA. Yes: that was the story.

OEDIPUS. And where is the place?

JOCASTA. In Phocis where the road divides branching off

to Delphi and to Daulia.

OEDIPUS. And when did it happen? How many years

ago?

JOCASTA. News was published in this town just before

you came into power.

OEDIPUS. O Zeus! What have you planned to do unto

me?

JOCASTA. He was tall; the silver had just come into his

hair; and in shape not greatly unlike to you.

OEDIPUS. Unhappy that I am! It seems that I have laid

a dreadful curse upon myself, and did not know it.

JOCASTA. What do you say? I tremble when I look on

you, my King.

OEDIPUS. And I have a misgiving that the seer can see

indeed. But I will know it all more clearly, if you

tell me one thing more.

JOCASTA. Indeed, though I tremble I will answer what-

ever you ask.