# Oedipus Rex — Key Concepts & Themes

> Key concepts in Oedipus Rex by Sophocles.

- [Fate and the oracle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/oedipus_rex_se/concepts/fate-and-oracle.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/oedipus_rex_se/concepts/blindness-and-sight.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/oedipus_rex_se/concepts/hubris-and-pride.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/oedipus_rex_se/concepts/kingship-and-plague.md): Thebes’s sickness is moral pollution: until Laius’s killer is found, the city suffers — and the king who saves them is the source.

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