Oedipus the King

ARGUMENT

To Laius, King of Thebes, an oracle foretold that the child  born to him by his queen Jocasta would slay his father and wed his  mother. So when in time a son was born the infant's feet were riveted together and  he was left to die on Mount Cithaeron.  But a shepherd found  the babe  and tended him, and delivered him to another shepherd  who took him  to  his  master, the King or Corinth.   Polybus  being  childless adopted  the boy, who grew up believing that he was indeed the  King's son.  Afterwards doubting his parentage he inquired of the Delphic god and  heard himself the weird declared before to Laius.   Wherefore  he fled  from  what  he deemed his father's house and in  his  flight  he encountered and unwillingly slew his father Laius.  Arriving at Thebes he  answered  the riddle of the Sphinx and the grateful  Thebans  made their  deliverer  king.   So  he reigned in the  room  of  Laius,  and espoused  the  widowed queen.  Children were born to them and  Thebes prospered  under his rule, but again a grievous plague fell  upon  the city. Again  the  oracle  was  consulted  and  it  bade  them  purge themselves of blood-guiltiness.  Oedipus denounces the crime of  which he  is  unaware, and undertakes to track  out the criminal.   Step  by step it is brought home to him that he is the man.  The closing  scene reveals  Jocasta slain by her own hand and Oedipus blinded by his  own act and praying for death or exile.

Scene:  Thebes.  Before the Palace of Oedipus.

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