At once, Oedipus sets about to solve the murder. The discovery and punishment of the murderer will end the plague. On his return, Creon announces that the oracle instructs them to find the murderer of Laius, the king who ruled Thebes before Oedipus. Oedipus has already sent his brother-in-law, Creon, to the oracle to learn what to do. Throughout this mythic story of patricide and incest, Sophocles emphasizes the irony of a man determined to track down, expose, and punish an assassin, who turns out to be himself.Īs the play opens, the citizens of Thebes beg their king, Oedipus, to lift the plague that threatens to destroy the city.
Oedipus the King unfolds as a murder mystery, a political thriller, and a psychological whodunit.
The Brown Bibliography and George Wythe's Library on LibraryThing include the first edition (1758-1759) based on E. He later sold a copy to the Library of Congress in 1815, but it no longer exists to verify the edition or Wythe's prior ownership. 4to." This was one of the books kept by Thomas Jefferson. Listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as "Francklin's Sophocles. The works included are Ajax, Electra, Philoctetes, and the Oedipal Cycle: Antigone, Oedipus Tyrannus, and Oedipus Coloneus ( Oedipus at Colonus).Įvidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library It was translated from the original Ancient Greek into English by Thomas Francklin, a fellow of Trinity College and a Greek professor at the University of Cambridge. The Tragedies of Sophocles combines two volumes into one. Only seven of Sophocles' tragedies are extant: Philoctetes, Ajax, Electra, Trachiniae ( Women of Trachis), and the Oedipal Trilogy (also known as the Oedipal Cycle) consisting of Oedipus Tyrannus ( Oedipus the King), Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone. 441/40 BCE), and "is said to have refused invitations to visit the courts of kings (unlike Aeschylus and Euripides)." Sophocles was known as a good tempered man, who just months before his own death, had his chorus and actors perform in mourning garb in honor of the recently deceased Euripides. Sophocles stayed away from politics, though he was twice elected a general with the Athenian ruler Pericles (c. Though an anonymous biography of him exists, little information can be trusted due to lack of verification. 496 – c.406 BCE), born at Colonus to a wealthy manufacturing family, became one of the great Athenian tragedians. Title page from The Tragedies of Sophocles, volume two, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary.
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