The Story Before the Story

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The Story Before the Story

• What happened before the play Oedipus Rex begins

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A long time ago in a land far, far away(Greece)

• Cadmus was told by the Oracle at Delphi to follow
  a cow and where the cow stopped he should build a
  city and call it Thebes.
• So he did.

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Everything was going well

• Until Cadmus discovered a nasty dragon who was
  guarding the well.
• So, he killed it.
• Unfortunately, this particular dragon was the god
  Apollos favorite.

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Apollo got really mad

• And cursed Cadmus family for generations to
  come.
• The Oracle at Delphi (Apollos oracle) said that
  at some point in time a king and queen of Thebes
  would have a son who would kill his father and
  marry his mother.

Apollo - God of light -and the sun. Also of
truth, prophecy, healing, plague,and music.
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Fast Forwardseveral generations
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Once upon a time there were a King and Queen of
Thebes

• King Lauis and Queen Jocasta had a baby. Sadly,
  King Lauis knew of the curse put on his family by
  Apollo.

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So they did what any parents would do

• And put a metal bar between the babys feet and
  gave him to a Messenger (1) who put the baby out
  in the woods to die.
• Feeling sorry for the baby, the Messenger (1)
  gave the baby to a shepherd who took him home.

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Nearby, the King and Queen of Corinth were also
having baby troubles

• The Queen, Merope, was having trouble conceiving
• The Shepherd gave the baby to Queen Merope and
  King Polybus
• The King and Queen were elated and never told the
  baby he was adopted.
• The named him Oedipus or Swollen foot

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The teen years are always awkward

• But poor Oedipus had to deal with rumors that he
  was not his parents real son.
• He defied their wishes and went to the Oracle at
  Delphi for answers.
• They told him that he would murder his father and
  marry his mother.

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So Oedipus ran away from home

• He traveled away from Corinth and got into a
  fight with a man on the road
• Oedipus, enraged that the man would not move out
  of the way, killed him
• The next town he came to was Thebes.

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Sphinxes are the worst

• And poor Thebes was dealing with one who went
  about burning buildings and killing people.
• According to legend, a sphinx has the head of a
  woman, body of a lion, tail of a serpent and
  wings.
• No one could solve her riddle What goes on four
  legs in the morning, two at midday, and three in
  the evening?

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A man, of course!

• Said Oedipus and so they made him King of Thebes,
  since the previous king had never come back from
  a trip he had taken.
• Oedipus also married the Queen, Jocasta, and had
  several children.

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And yet

• Even after the sphinx left town there was still a
  plague. People were dying, crops were failing,
  and nothing seemed to be going right.
• So begins Oedipus Rex