Oedipus Rex Trivia Quiz

Answer: That he would kill his father

When Laius' son is born, he consults an oracle as to his fortune. To his horror, the oracle reveals that Laius "is doomed to perish by the hand of his own son."

Laius binds the infant's feet together with a pin and orders Jocasta to kill him. Unable to do so to her own son, Jocasta orders a servant to slay the infant instead. The servant exposes the infant on a mountaintop, where he is found and rescued by a shepherd. (In other versions, the servant gives the infant to the shepherd.)

The shepherd names the child Oedipus, "swollen foot", as his feet had been tightly bound by Laius. The shepherd brings the infant to Corinth, and presents him to the childless king Polybus, who raises Oedipus as his own son. Oedipus is ignorant of the identity of his actual parents.

Answer: Thebes

On his voyage, he has a quarrel with an old man and kills him. This fulfills the prophecy, as the man was in fact Laius, the King of Thebes and his natural father. He arrives in Thebes, where he frees the city from the reign of terror imposed by the Sphinx be answering its riddle. while Sophocles does not give details of the question, it is popularly given as: "What creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?" The answer is a human being, who crawls as an infant, walks upright for most of their life, and leans on a cane or other support when elderly.

The Thebans are so grateful that he is declared their king, and given the hand in marriage of the dowager queen (his mother, Jocasta).

Answer: plague

Oedipus took control of a city in turmoil due to the unexpected death of Laius, and the unsettling problem of the Sphinx eating the citizens. Things only got worse with a plague setting in, and widespread illness and death. Oedipus sent Creon, his brother-in-law (and uncle) to consult the oracle at Delphi, seeking for a solution to the problem.

The play opens with a description of the sad state of events, and the anticipation of Creon's return.

Answer: punish Laius' murderer

Creon returns from his mission, and announces that Apollo, through his oracle, has decreed that the plague will not be lifted until the moral abomination infecting its society is removed. They must find and punish the murderer of King Laius, which Oedipus vows to do.

Answer: Tiresias

At first, Tiresias declines to answer Oedipus' questions, saying that he knows the answer but refuses to tell. When pressed, he identifies Oedipus himself as the murderer who must be brought to justice. This does not make sense to Oedipus, who accuses Tiresias of being the puppet of Creon, in an attempted coup. He summons Creon for a confrontation.

Answer: where the murder happened

Jocasta mentions, almost as an aside to her story, that Laius was slain at a place where three roads meet. This stirs something in Oedipus's memory, and he suddenly remembers the men that he fought and killed one day long ago at a place where three roads met.

He realizes, horrified, that he might indeed be the man he's seeking. He sends for the only surviving witness of the attack, to get more details.

Answer: King Polybus is dead

While he is still waiting for the shepherd to arrive, a messenger arrives from Corinth to declare that King Polybus of Corinth is dead. Oedipus, when he hears this news, feels much relieved, because he believed that Polybus was the father whom the oracle had destined him to murder, and he momentarily believes himself to have escaped fate.

Not for long. The messenger provides more details of how Oedipus came to be raised in Corinth, and the truth becomes clear.

Answer: hangs herself

She runs offstage as the messenger from Corinth is telling his story, after Oedipus refuses to stop asking more questions. She has already realised the true state of affairs, well ahead of Oedipus. When he gets there, he is horrified, and curses his fate before heading into the palace to try and punish the queen for her part in the story. However, he discovers that she has hanged herself in remorse.

Answer: gouges his eyes out

After taking her body down from where it is suspended, he removes a brooch from her dress, he uses its sharp point to gouge out his eyes, leaving himself blinded. He then plans to go into exile, but Creon (taking over control) decrees that he must stay in the palace until the oracles have been consulted as to the best course of action.

Answer: his daughters/half sisters

Although he can no longer see their faces, Oedipus begs Creon to let him feel their faces one last time, and asks him to take good care of them, bemoaning their fate to have been born into his cursed family.

Antigone and Ismene feature in the second part of the trilogy, 'Oedipus at Colonnus', as escorts of their blind father. The third play (albeit the first one written), 'Antigone', sees Antigone trying to bury the body of one of her brothers against the orders of Creon. It does not end well.