Sublime

when you approach any of these great men, keep this in mind, that you’re meeting a figure from tragedy, and no mere actor either, but Oedipus in person.

The story of Oedipus is well known: Abandoned as an infant, he was taken to King Polybus, who raised him. One day, when he had grown into a youth, he came upon a dignitary riding along a mountain path. A quarrel arose, and Oedipus killed the dignitary. Later he became the husband of Queen Jocasta and ruler of Thebes. Little did he know that the man

We do not know when Seneca composed the eight tragedies that have come down to us under his name: Oedipus, Agamemnon, Phaedra, Medea, Hercules Furens, Trojan Women, Thyestes, and the unfinished Phoenissae. 41 But it is likely that they were written over many years; internal stylistic considerations suggest that some are relatively early and may hav

A messenger arrives from Corinth and reveals that Oedipus was actually adopted; it’s then exposed that his true father was the man he murdered and that the old king’s widow is now, in fact, his wife, fulfilling the prophecy after all. In grief and despair, Oedipus stabs gold pins into his eyes and spends the rest of his days wandering in exile.