Oedipus Rex & Antigone recap

A plague drives King Oedipus to investigate the unsolved killing of his predecessor, Laius. His search proves that he himself unknowingly killed Laius, his father, and married Jocasta, his mother. Jocasta dies by suicide, Oedipus blinds himself, and Creon assumes power. In the later play, Oedipus's sons kill each other fighting over Thebes. Creon honors Eteocles but forbids burial of Polynices. Their sister Antigone defies him, accepts arrest, and is sealed in a tomb. Creon rejects warnings from Haemon and Tiresias until he finally agrees to bury Polynices and free her. He arrives too late: Antigone has hanged herself, Haemon dies by suicide beside her, and Eurydice also takes her own life. Creon survives to accept responsibility for the destruction of his family.

Thebes is suffering from plague, and an oracle says the city must punish the killer of the former king, Laius. Oedipus, who earned the throne by defeating the Sphinx, vows to find the murderer. The prophet Tiresias accuses Oedipus himself, but Oedipus treats the charge as a plot involving Creon. Jocasta tries to discredit prophecy by explaining that Laius was supposedly killed by strangers at a crossroads, while their infant son had been abandoned to prevent an oracle that he would kill his father. Her details disturb Oedipus, who remembers killing an older man and his attendants at a crossroads before reaching Thebes. A messenger from Corinth announces the death of Polybus, whom Oedipus believes to be his father, but also reveals that Oedipus was adopted. The messenger received the infant from a Theban shepherd. Under questioning, that shepherd confirms the child was the son of Laius and Jocasta. Oedipus has therefore fulfilled the prophecies without knowing it: he killed his father and married his mother. Jocasta hangs herself. Oedipus blinds himself with pins from her clothing, accepts exile as his proper fate, and grieves for his daughters Antigone and Ismene. Creon takes control of Thebes as the ruined king awaits the oracle's judgment.

Oedipus's investigation of Laius's murder exposed the king's own hidden history: he had unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. Jocasta died by suicide, Oedipus blinded himself, and Creon took control of Thebes. Later, Oedipus's sons Eteocles and Polynices kill each other in a struggle for the city. Now king, Creon orders honors for Eteocles but forbids anyone to bury Polynices, whom he declares a traitor. Antigone tells Ismene that divine and family duty require burial, performs the rites, and openly admits her defiance when guards catch her. Ismene tries to share responsibility, but Antigone will not accept the claim. Creon sentences Antigone to be sealed alive in a tomb. His son Haemon, Antigone's intended husband, warns that the people sympathize with her and urges his father to listen, but Creon treats disagreement as disobedience. Tiresias then reports that the gods reject Thebes' sacrifices because of Creon's actions and warns of a death within Creon's own family. Creon at last buries Polynices and goes to free Antigone. She has already hanged herself. Haemon attacks his father and then kills himself beside her, and Eurydice also takes her own life after hearing that Haemon is dead. Creon survives, bereaved and aware that his inflexibility caused the disaster.

In the second play, Tiresias warns Creon that the gods reject both the exposure of Polynices and the living burial of Antigone. Creon finally changes course, but the correction is too late. Antigone has hanged herself inside the tomb. Haemon confronts his father beside her body and then kills himself, and Eurydice takes her own life after learning of their son's death. Creon, who became ruler after Oedipus's downfall and the later deaths of Oedipus's sons, ends the volume bereaved and broken by his own decree. He recognizes that his insistence on royal authority over religious duty, family bonds, and contrary advice has destroyed his household. The royal family's catastrophe has therefore passed from Oedipus's discovery of inherited crimes to a new disaster caused by Creon's conscious refusal to listen.