VCCS Litonline Introduction to Literature English 112 (English Composition II)

Click on the sphinx to read the play.

Oedipus the Wreck

Objective for this Page: To summarize episode 1 and stasimon 1.

Click on the earphones at left to hear this page read to you in Real Player.  (After the reading, Real Player may try to open it's message board. Just click the x on the pop-up to close it.)

If you don't have Real Player on your computer, click the Real Player icon at left to go get it.  Follow the links for the "free" player to download and install it.

Summary of Oedipus the King

Episode 1: Oedipus seeks the truth (the murderer's identity) from the local prophet, Tiresias* [teh-REE-see-us]--and gets it. (Lines 245-526)

Oedipus tries a "carrot" and a "stick." He promises to go easy on anyone who helps to shorten the investigation but to be hard on anyone who is found to keep silent to protect the murderer. Having already sent for Tiresias, he expects instantly to find out the identity of the murderer. When Tiresias refuses to reveal the name, Oedipus accuses him of being part of an assassination conspiracy. Having thus lost all credibility, Tiresias blurts out that Oedipus is the murderer--a true statement but too late to be believable.

Stasimon 1: The Thebans weigh the reputations of Tiresias and Oedipus, siding with their savior. (Lines 527-572)

The townspeople reflect on the hunted man, pursued by the gods, and decide that Tiresias's mere accusation is not enough to convince them that Oedipus is the murderer.

* Tiresias blinded by sex: A forum contributor submitted this story supposedly from Ovid, Roman author of The Metamorphosis: "Zeus and Juno were arguing over who enjoys sex more, men or women. Only Tiresias knew and he said men do, so Juno blinded him. Since gods cannot undo what another god has done, Zeus could not undo what Juno did, but he did give Tiresias the ability to see the future."

Prev	Sitemap	Next