Oedipus Rex Book Summary

Oedipus Rex is the greatest of the Greek tragedies. The story of the mythological king, who is doomed to kill his father and marry his mother, has resonated in world culture for almost 2,500 years.

Only the insensate among us can dwell on the Book of Job without feeling horror at the suffering this man endured as the result of a divine wager. And so, too, one does not finish Sophocles’ Oedipus ...

Oedipus Rex. The man with the complex. The dude who killed his father and married his mother. Everybody — thanks to Sigmund Freud — knows that story. But what is "Oedipus Rex," the grandaddy of all ...

Los Angeles Times: An impassioned musical revival of ‘The Gospel at Colonus’ draws from the book of Oedipus

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An impassioned musical revival of ‘The Gospel at Colonus’ draws from the book of Oedipus

Oedipus, son of Laius and Jocasta, was a Theban hero and king, destined to unknowingly kill his father and marry his mother. He was also famous for defeating the Sphinx.

The Sphinx was a hybrid creature, usually represented with the features of a woman and a lion, as well as (sometimes) the wings of a bird. The Sphinx plagued the Greek city of Thebes until she was finally outmatched by Oedipus.

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Ismene was one of the children of Oedipus and Jocasta. She tried to prevent her sister Antigone from burying their fallen brother Polynices, as this was against the law.

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Eteocles was a son of Oedipus, though he and his brother Polynices were both cursed by their father for dishonoring him. When Eteocles failed to respect a prior agreement to share the Theban throne with Polynices, a war broke out between the two brothers, claiming both their lives.