Oedipus Rex · Concepts

Concepts

Ideas that structure Oedipus Rex by Sophocles — linked to characters, chapters, and questions.

Fate and the oracle
Apollo’s prophecy frames Oedipus’s life before the play begins — and the tragedy shows knowledge arriving too late to change what was already set in motion.
Blindness and sight
Teiresias sees without eyes; Oedipus has perfect vision until truth forces him to gouge his own out — knowledge and physical sight diverge.
Hubris and pride
Oedipus’s confidence — the same force that defeated the Sphinx — becomes tyrannical when he threatens Teiresias, Creon, and the old herdsman.
Kingship and the plague
Thebes’s sickness is moral pollution: until Laius’s killer is found, the city suffers — and the king who saves them is the source.