Oedipus Rex

Sophocles · c. 429 BCE · Play · Greek · Classical

Plague grips Thebes, and its king swears to find the murderer of the previous ruler and drive him out. The investigation turns inward as a prophet, a shepherd and a messenger supply pieces he would rather not fit together. Recognition and reversal as the engine of tragedy.

Open Oedipus Rex in the archive — filters, lineage graph and full facet browsing.

Lineage

• shares sources with ↑ Seven Against Thebes
  Aeschylus · 467 BCE · Play
• ↓ Antigone
  Sophocles · c. 441 BCE · Play — continues this
• ↓ Death of a Salesman
  Arthur Miller · 1949 CE · Play — responds to this
• ↓ Rostam and Sohrab
  Ferdowsi · c. 1010 CE · Poem — parallels this
• ↓ The Lottery
  Shirley Jackson · 1948 CE · Short Story — parallels this
• ↓ Wise Blood
  Flannery O'Connor · 1952 CE · Novel — alludes to this
• ↓ Chinatown
  Roman Polanski · 1974 CE · Film — parallels this
• ↓ Oldboy
  Park Chan-wook · 2003 CE · Film — parallels this
• ↓ Thunderstorm
  Cao Yu · 1934 CE · Play — influenced by this
• ↓ The Phoenician Women
  Euripides · c. 410 BCE · Play — shares sources with this
• ↓ Oedipus at Colonus
  Sophocles · 401 BCE · Play — continues this
• ↓ The Bride of Messina
  Friedrich Schiller · 1803 CE · Play — modeled on this
• ↓ Oedipus
  Seneca · c. 50 CE · Play — reworks this
• ↓ Oedipe
  Voltaire · 1718 CE · Play — reworks this

Attributes

Closest analogues

• Oedipus
  Seneca · c. 50 CE · Play

  67% · 14 shared
  PlayTragedyFreedom vs FateIdentity & SelfGuilt & ConscienceClassicalTragic HeroRuler / KingTragic ReversalKnowledge / TruthThe Plaguevs Fate / Godsvs SelfTragic
• Oedipe
  Voltaire · 1718 CE · Play

  56% · 12 shared
  PlayTragedyFreedom vs FateGuilt & ConscienceTragic HeroRuler / KingTragic ReversalFall (Tragedy)The Plaguevs Fate / Godsvs SelfTragic
• Macbeth
  William Shakespeare · c. 1606 CE · Play

  56% · 11 shared
  PlayTragedyFreedom vs FateAmbition & HubrisGuilt & ConscienceTragic HeroTragic ReversalLight & Darkvs Fate / Godsvs SelfTragic
• Prometheus Bound
  Aeschylus · c. 460 BCE · Play

  54% · 13 shared
  PlayTragedyFreedom vs FateAmbition & HubrisClassicalTragic ReversalFall (Tragedy)Light & DarkThe Woundvs Fate / GodsTragicMythicGreek
• Throne of Blood
  Akira Kurosawa · 1957 CE · Film

  53% · 10 shared
  TragedyFreedom vs FateAmbition & HubrisGuilt & ConscienceTragic HeroTragic Reversalvs Fate / Godsvs SelfTragicMythic
• Hippolytus
  Euripides · 428 BCE · Play

  51% · 12 shared
  PlayTragedyFreedom vs FateGuilt & ConscienceClassicalTragic HeroRuler / KingTragic Reversalvs Fate / Godsvs SelfTragicGreek