The Three Theban Plays brings together Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. Though written separately, the tragedies can be read as a connected account of the destruction of the Theban royal house, beginning with Oedipus’s discovery that he has unknowingly fulfilled the prophecy he tried to escape.
Oedipus at Colonus follows the blinded former king in exile as rival powers compete over the significance of his death. Antigone then turns to the aftermath of the civil war between his sons, when Creon forbids the burial of Polynices and Antigone defies him. Across the plays, Sophocles examines fate, guilt, kinship, burial rites and the danger of political authority hardened into certainty.
Aeschylus
1 book
Aristophanes
1 book
Homer
2 books