Plot in Oedipus the King

The verb “suborned” means to bribe or otherwise influence someone to commit an unlawful act. By this statement, Oedipus suggests that the only reason a group of robbers would have killed the king is if they were paid by someone within Thebes. He assumes that Laius was killed in a plot against Thebes and the throne.

Phoebus is another name for the Apollo, god of light, plague, medicine, and truth. Apollo was the patron god of Delphi, a city-state originally called “Pytho.” Here, Oedipus claims that he has sent his brother-in-law, Creon, to the temple of Apollo in Delphi to consult the famous oracle who lives there. He hopes Creon will return with instructions from this Oracle about how he can lift the plague of Thebes.

In this context, the adjective “fell” means terrible, evil, or ferocious and the “songstress” is the Sphinx that terrorized Thebes until Oedipus destroyed it. In the Oedipus myth, Oedipus encounters the Sphinx on the road to Delphi. He must answer the Sphinx’s riddle correctly or be killed. When he correctly answers the riddle, the surprised Sphinx drowns herself in the sea and Thebes is free from her rule. As a reward, Oedipus is given a beautiful wife, Jocasta, and he becomes King of Thebes.

The Priest here lists many of the damaging effects of the plague: the crops and cattle are dying, the children are dying in their mothers’ wombs, and the disease that spreads even among the healthiest of men. While many priests and suppliants pray to the gods for relief, this priest comes to Oedipus to help them escape this plague. Notice that the priest is careful to say that Oedipus does not equal the god’s power, a claim that would have caused more divine wrath, but rather that Oedipus is favored by the gods and can therefore uncover some kind of defense against the blight.

Tiresias indicates that the truth about Oedipus’s long-debated parentage will finally be revealed on this day, as will Oedipus’s fate. On this day the truth will both define his identity but also ruin him. In a sense, he will be both created and destroyed.

It is ironic that Teiresias, the blind prophet, accuses Oedipus of not being able to see. In this context, Teiresias’s vision and Oedipus’s blindness are metaphorical and concern the domain of truth. This conception of vision as the capacity to confront truth is one of the play’s central themes. Oedipus will suffer for his own blindness because of his inability to accept Tiresias's prophecy.

Oedipus knows that Teiresias, as a prophet, may have insight into the identity of Laius’s murderer. The question remains whether Teiresias’s knowledge, or any other intervention for that matter, can steer Oedipus away from his fate.