Structure of Sophocles' Oedipus the King

***Prologue: Oedipus addresses Suppliants,

accepts plea of the Priest,

explains the mission he has has sent Creon on.

Creon reports the Delphic Oracle’s revelation.

***Parodos: Chorus’ lament, and prayer to various Gods.

***Episode I: Oedipus’ exhortation and oath/curse

Agon between Tiresias and Oedipus (Oedipus’ interrogation of Tiresias).

***Ode I:

***Episode II: Agon between Creon and Oedipus

a) Jocasta mediates this conflict, then

b) seeks to ally Oedipus’ anxiety

c) by dismissing Tiresias’ prophecy

d) by dismissing prophecy in general

e) by adducing a case in point (reporting a particular history).

f) Oedipus (however) is disturbed by Jocasta’s proof.

g) Oedipus & Jocasta resolve to call the old servant for interrogation.

***Ode II:
***Episode III:

a) Jocasta invokes the aid of Apollo.

b) Messenger brings news from Corinth:

c) King Polybdos has died (of natural causes),

d) and Oedipus is called back to Corinth to be king there.

e) Oedipus is still reluctant to return (since his mother is still alive).

f) Messenger seeks to allay his fears by offering a further revelation (Oedipus

is not the son of Polybdos & Meropê.

g) Oedipus wants confirmation from the old shepherd.

h) Jocasta realizes the truth, and begs Oedipus to desist.

I) Oedipus persists.

***Ode III:

***Episode IV: Brief agon between Oedipus and the Old Shepherd
(Oedipus interrogates the Old Shepherd).

Oedipus realizes the truth,

rushes into the palace.

***Ode IV: "O the generations of men / the dying generations...." [Fagles] /
"Alas for the seed of men...." [Fitzgerald].

***Exodos:

(Second Messenger enters from palace, reports to Choragos)

a) the death of Jocasta and

b) Oedipus’ self-blinding..

c) Oedipus enters: dialogue with Choragos: lament & petition.

d) Creon enters: dialogue with Oedipus.

e) Oedipus’ repents his treatment of Creon; Creon accepts this.

f) Oedipus requests to see daughters; Creon agrees.

g) Antigone & Ismene enter. [They speak no lines.] Oedipus addresses them

h) Mini-agon with Creon: Oedipus relents and is led away.

I) Choragos: "People of Thebes...look upon Oedipus...."

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Notes on terminology
***Prologue (prologos): the initial speech or address in a Greek tragedy. It
has the function of setting forth the situation that gives rise to the subsequent
action of the play.

In modern terms: it accomplishes the exposition (by summarizing the morbid

condition that has befallen Thebes) and introduces the precipitating incident
(Apollo's diagnosis, through the Delphic Oracle, that this sickness is due to a
corruption within the city, in the person of the murderer of its former king,
and his prognosis that this will continue until the murderer is eliminated by
expulsion or death).

***The prologue is followed by the parados, the entry of the Chorus (cf. our
derived term "parade").

***The Chorus (choros) is a group, often identified as the citizens of the city
where the action takes place. It can be a silent witness to the dialogues that
take place between the characters, but periodically it will perform a dance
that it accompanies with words -- a stasimon or ode (odos). Odes serve to
punctuate the action into distinct episodes, by commenting on what has just
happened -- expressing thoughts and feelings it has aroused in the witnesses.

While the characters in tragedy came to be played by professional actors, the

members of the chorus were amateurs, often stemming from the tribe of the
playwright.

***The personage who speaks on behalf of the Chorus, in dialogues, is the

Choragos, in some translations (e.g., that of Fagles) referred to as Leader.

***The term agon means "struggle" (cf. our derived term "agony"), and in
Greek tragedy refers to an episode in which two or more characters come into
conflict, when one character tries to extract information from another who is
at pains to withhold it (e.g., the Oedipus's interrogation of Tiresias.

***An episode (episodos), in Greek tragedy, is the part of the play between
two choric songs. Since it is the equivalent to a unit of developed situation in
modern theater, it is sometimes designated as a "scene," even though the
Greek word skenos refers to a physical part of the theater itself.

***The exodos is the part of a Greek drama that follows the last song of the
Chorus. (Compare the English word exodus, taken directly from Latin,
meaning "departure." At the end of the exodos, in fact, the actors and chorus
leave the playing area (orchestra).