The OEdipus tyrannus of Sophocles; with English notes ... By Howard Crosby ...

6 ARGUMENT.
city of its destroyer. (Edipus, on learning this, solved the riddle, mar
ried Jocasta the widow of Laius, and became King of Thebes.
Such is the history antecedent to the period of the tragedy. The
play opens with the prevalence of a pestilence in Thebes. The people
wait upon CEdipus and beseech him to find some way of relief. lie
answers that he has sent Creon his brother-in-law to Delphi to consult
the oracle on the subject. Creon returns and states that the misery
should cease as soon as the murderer of Laius is discovered and punished. Tile investigation then ensues, when (by the testimony of the
old servant of Laius) it is proved that the exposed child of Laius had
been reared as the son of Polybus, and it is also proved (by the escaped
attendant's testimony), that the man whom (Edipus had slain in Phocis
was Laius. Thus (Edipus is recognized as the unwitting murderer of his
father and husband of his mother. The oracles are fulfilled;-the
tragedy closes with the self-inflicted punishment of the unhappy
aliplm