Oedipus (Euripides)
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| Oedipus | |
|---|---|
 Oedipus confronting the Sphinx | |
| Written by | Euripides |
| Characters | Oedipus Jocasta Creon Servant of Laius Periboea, wife of Polybus? Menoetes? |
| Date premiered | Estimated between 415 and 406 BCE |
| Place premiered | Athens |
| Original language | Ancient Greek |
| Genre | Tragedy |
| Setting | Thebes |
Oedipus (US: /ˈɛdɪpəs/ or UK: /ˈiːdɪpəs/; Ancient Greek: Οἰδίπους, Oidípous) is a play by the 5th-century BCE Athenian dramatist Euripides. The play is now lost except for some fragments. What survives of the play covers similar ground as Sophocles' acclaimed Oedipus Rex, but scholars and historians have found there are significant differences. In Oedipus Rex, the title character blinds himself upon learning his true parentage, accidentally killing his father and marrying his mother Jocasta. In Euripides' play, however, it appears Oedipus is blinded by a servant of his father Laius, Oedipus' predecessor as king of Thebes. Furthermore, Euripides' play implies Oedipus was blinded before it was known that Laius was his father. Also, while in Sophocles' play Jocasta kills herself, remaining fragments of Euripides' play depict Jocasta as having survived and accompanied Oedipus into exile.
A number of fragments of Oedipus and of ancient writings about Oedipus are extant. In one fragment, John Malalas writes that Euripides wrote a drama about Oedipus, Jocasta and the Sphinx.[1] Another fragment (539a) gives the beginning of a hypothesis of the play, which states that Laius fathered a child despite the fact that the god Apollo forbade him from doing so.[1][2] A papyrus fragment recently reconstituted from five smaller ones (540, 540a-d) describes the Sphinx preparing to pose her riddle, presumably to Oedipus in the confrontation in which Oedipus defeats her by answering the riddle correctly.[1][2][3][4]
A key fragment (541) is spoken by a servant of Laius, boasting of blinding Oedipus.[1][5][6] This fragment is translated by Collard and Cropp as "We pressed the son of Polybus to the ground, destroying his eyes and blinding him."[7] An illustration on a 2nd-century BCE Etruscan alabaster urn might depict this scene.[8] The illustration shows Oedipus held down as described in the fragment, watched by a figure holding a scepter, presumably his brother-in-law and uncle and eventual successor Creon.[8] However, the illustration also shows Jocasta, who probably would not be at Oedipus' blinding in the play, and also shows Oedipus' children, whom we do not know were characters in the play at all.[8]
Several fragments appear to involve the characters' reactions to the revelations in the play. It is not always clear who the speaker is, but in one fragment (549) Oedipus might be commenting on how much can change in a single day, and in another (554a) Creon apparently states his view that "a bad man should always be treated badly," and that he would violate sanctuary and risk the wrath of the gods in order to accomplish this.[1][2] Several of these fragments have been ascribed to Jocasta. In one of these fragments (551), she notes that envy destroyed Oedipus, destroying her too.[2] In at least two fragments (545 and 545a), Jocasta describes what a sensible wife should do, particularly serving and supporting her husband.[1][2]
