Oedipus Rex Simplified

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1. Oracle: An obscure divine message, which predicts someone's future.
2. Prophecy: A clear divine message of someone's future; descent not by a god, through a priest.
3. Apollo: A Greek god of prophecy, disease, light, sun and youth
4. Delphi: The central worshiping place of god Apollo in where he blessed his worshipers with his oracles
5. Athena: The goddess of wisdom and war. Also famous as Pallas
6. Sphinx: A female monster: her head was human-like but her body or trunk of a lion. She had been bothering the people living in Thebes before her riddle was solved by Oedipus.
7. Priest: An agent of god who performs various duties related to Christianity and in Greek mythology, priests used to receive oracles from god Apollo
8. Oedipus as King: Caring, empathetic, vain and pro-active
9. Oedipus' Adoptive Parents: King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth, a shepherd gifted the king with the baby as they were childless
10. Oedipus' Real Parents: King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes. They received the prophecy that the kid will kill his father and will marry his mother. To avoid that prophecy, they decided to kill their newly born child.
11. Cadmus: Founder and first king of Thebes
12. Motives Behind Oedipus' Decision to Find the Murderer of King Laos:
    1. To obey Apollo's prophecy
    2. To prevent himself from getting killed as a king (He thought it was someone else who had killed the former king)
    3. To save the Theban city from plague (as was ordered by god Apollo)

13. Oedipus Expressions to Find the Murderer of the Former King of Thebes: I shall bring what is dark to light.

14. Choragos: Leader of Chorus
15. Oedipus' Tragic Flaws:
    1. Rashness in judging people too early
    2. Disrespectfulness to religious persons and laws
    3. Arrogance: Too much confidence in his ability of solving problems

16. Curse of Oedipus as Declared by Teiresias (in Scene 1):
    1. He shall come across his own plight
    2. He shall be banished from the city of Thebes
    3. He shall be blinded
    4. He shall be cursed by all
    He accuses Oedipus the "defilement and corruption of his country".

17. Teiresias' Prophecy (Scene 1):
    1. Murderer is in Thebes
    2. Murderer will soon be deprived of his eyes and "Kingly position"
    3. Murderer will soon discover his other crimes (which he is unaware of them now)
    Original Text of Teiresias' Prophecy:
    TEIRESIAS:
    I will go when I have said what I have to say.
    How can you hurt me? And I tell you again:
    The man you have been looking for all this time,
    The damned man, the murderer of Laos,
    That man is in Thebes. To your mind he is foreign-
    born,
    But it will soon be shown that he is a Theban,
    A revelation that will fail to please.
    
    
    A blind man,
    Who has his eyes now; a penniless man, who is rich now;
    And he will go tapping the strange earth with his staff
    To the children with whom he lives now he will be
    Brother and father—the very same; to her
    Who bore him, son and husband—the very same
    Who came to his father's bed, wet with his father's blood.
    Enough. Go think that over.
    If later you find error in what I have said,
    You may say that I have no skill in prophecy.
    
18. Caveats by Creon and Chorus to Oedipus
    1. Oedipus should know the facts before he reacts (Creon)

CREON:

Now listen to me. You have talked: let me talk, too.
You cannot judge unless you know the facts.
2. Judgements taken too early are dangerous (Chorus)
CHORAGOS:

This is well said, and a prudent man would ponder it.
Judgments too quickly formed are dangerous.

19. Phokis: A place where king Laos was murdered, the road was divided into the ways for Delphi and Daulia
20. Oedipus Grief (in Scene 2):
    1. He blames gods and fate for his suffering
    2. He accuses gods for being savage and merciless towards him
    3. He resolves not to return to Corinth to prevent from accomplishment his horrible prophecy
21. Chorus Views on Scene 2:
    1. Superiority of Divine knowledge
    2. It condemns the vice of arrogance
    3. They seek punishment for the hubris
    4. Blasphemy must be avoided
22. Prayers of Jocasta (in Scene 3)
    1. Relieve from the defilement
    2. To reduce the mental burden of Oedipus
23. Message by First Messenger/Shepherd (in Scene 3)
    1. Oedipus will be successor of the throne of Corinth
    2. Oedipus' (adoptive) father has died of illness
24. The Reason Behind Oedipus' Happiness (Scene 3)
    1. According to Oedipus, his father died naturally.
25. Oedipus Resolve not to return to Corinth (Scene 3)
    1. To prevent himself from accomplishing the second part of prophecy (incest)
26. First Messenger's Second Message (Scene 3)
    1. Polybus and Merope are not Oedipus' real parents
27. Oedipus Resolve to Find the Truth (Scene 3):
    The truth must be made known
28. Oedipus calls himself the child of luck (Scene 3)
29. Ode 3:
    1. Brevity
    2. Optimistic
    3. Chorus wonders about the parentage of Oedipus
30. Arabinoses and Peripeteia are two main events in Scene 4
31. Ode 4
    Chorus laments on Arabinoses and Peripeteia of Oedipus
    Oedipus position changes from majestic to wrenched
    Chorus condemns the cruelty of fate

Exodos

32. Reasons for Oedipus' Blinding Himself
    1. To punish himself for the inner blindness
    2. To avoid looking at the miseries and horrors after peripeteia
33. Oedipus' Reason not to Commit Suicide
    1. He wanted to give the killer an exemplary punishment
    2. To execute the prophecy of Teiresias
34. Oedipus' punishment is both physical and mental yet he is ready for any other punishment (either banishment or death)