Sophocles

The Three Theban Plays Sophocles

The Theban Trilogy is comprised of Sophocles' plays Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone - together these tell the tragic story of Oedipus the king of Thebes, and his daughter Antigone.

Oedipus the King (in Latin Oedipus Rex) sees the youthful Oedipus consults the Oracle at Delphi, wherein it tells him he will "Mate with [his] own mother, and shed/With [his] own hands the blood of [his] own sire". Terrified of this prophecy, he flees those he believes are his biological parents, only to unwittingly encounter - and kill - his biological father, King Laius. This incident sets in motion the events that will see the Delphic prophecy proven terribly correct: Oedipus unwittingly marries Jocasta, his own mother, who bores him four children.

Oedipus at Colonus has the elderly Oedipus, by now ostracised and distrusted by society at large for his earlier, unintended wrongdoing. Now blind after gouging out his own eyes in reaction to the revelations of the first play, it is his daughter/sister Antigone who escorts him to King Theseus, with whom he desires to speak prior to death. In the dramatic conclusion leading to the death of Oedipus, the Gods themselves pass judgement upon his terrible sins of patricide and incest.

The final play in the Trilogy is Antigone - this title sees Oedipus offspring navigate the drama of a Civil War in Thebes, alternating between verbal engagement and vying with the proud monarch Creon. Portrayed as a heroine, Antigone's steels her resolve in a time of upheaval and tragically destructive infighting between the Theban elite.

This celebrated and authoritative translation was composed by the classical scholar F. Storr.