What happened to Thebes in Oedipus?
Many years after the marriage of Oedipus and Jocasta, a plague of infertility struck the city of Thebes, affecting crops, livestock and the people. Oedipus asserted that he would end the pestilence.
Upon discovering the truth, Oedipus blinds himself, and Jocasta hangs herself. After Oedipus is no longer king, Oedipus’s brother-sons kill each other. Some differences with older stories emerge. The curse of Oedipus’ sons was elaborated on retroactively to include Oedipus and his father, Laius.
How does Oedipus save Thebes before becoming its king? Sphinx placed a great plague on Thebes and if someone answered wrong it ate him alive. Oedipus answered the riddle of sphinx and sphinx suicide. This way Oedipus save Thebes.
In Greek mythology, Oedipus first saved the city of Thebes from a plague placed upon it by the Sphinx. He did not defeat the Sphinx through brute force but through intellect when he correctly answered the monster’s riddle. He was pronounced King of Thebes but unknowingly married his mother, Jocasta.
2. Thebes was cursed before, and Oedipus was able to lift that curse by defeating the creature that caused it. 4. He must track down the people who killed Laius, Thebe’s former king, and kill them.
The priests are trying to figure out how to remedy the plague. They came to Oedipus because they feel that since he solved the Sphinx’s riddle, he can remedy the plague. Oedipus liberated Thebes by answering the sphinx’s riddle.
A pitiless, profound and influential Greek myth. Oedipus, King of Thebes, is supported by his daughter (and half-sister) Antigone, as they walk though the plague-ravaged city. Oedipus became ruler after defeating the Sphinx, a creature with the head of a woman, the body of a lioness and the wings of an eagle.
Oedipus the King (429-420 BCE), also known as Oedipus Rex or Oedipus Tyrannos (‘Tyrannos’ signifies that the throne was not gained through an inheritance) is the most famous surviving play written by the 5th-century BCE poet and dramatist Sophocles.
Before the play begins . . . By leaving his home in Corinth, Oedipus thinks he has escaped a terrible prophecy that says that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus has defeated the riddling Sphinx, saved the seven-gated city of Thebes, and married the queen Jocasta.
46. Who will rule Thebes now that Oedipus is exiled? Creon will.
At the beginning of the play Oedipus Rex, Thebes is being devastated by a city-wide plague. Many people are falling ill, and Oedipus begins to believe that there is a divine cause for the plague.
Traveling toward Thebes, he encountered Laius, who provoked a quarrel in which Oedipus killed him. Continuing on his way, Oedipus found Thebes plagued by the Sphinx, who put a riddle to all passersby and destroyed those who could not answer. Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx killed herself.
