Verse tragedy · c. AD 50

Oedipus

by Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Translated by Frank Justus Miller (1907)

A plague is killing Thebes, and King Oedipus, who once saved the city by solving the Sphinx's riddle, sends Creon to Delphi to learn the cause. The god's answer is that the murderer of the old king Laius must be found and driven out. After a grim sacrifice and a summoning of Laius's ghost, the evidence closes in on Oedipus himself, and an old herdsman from Corinth completes the proof: Oedipus is the son of Laius and Jocasta. Jocasta kills herself, and Oedipus blinds himself and goes into exile.

Contents · 6 parts

• Persons of the Play11 lines
• Act Iabout 260 lines
• Act IIabout 380 lines
• Act IIIabout 330 lines
• Act IVabout 200 lines
• Act Vabout 200 lines

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