Oedipus (Seneca)

Oedipus is a tragic play that was written by Lucius Annaeus Seneca at some time during the 1st century CE. It is a retelling of the story of Oedipus, which is better known through the play of the Athenian playwright, Sophocles. It is written in Latin and was not intended to be performed, but rather recited at private gatherings.

Plot

Act One

The play opens with a fearful Oedipus lamenting a vicious plague which is affecting Thebes, the city over which he rules. People are dying in such huge numbers that there are not enough of the living to ensure that each of the victims is cremated. He also mentions a prophecy that he had received from Apollo before he came to Thebes that he would kill his father and marry his mother. He had thus fled the kingdom of his father Polybus. However, Oedipus is so disturbed by what is occurring in Thebes that he even considers returning to his home city. Jocasta makes him more resolute though, and he stays.

Act Two

Creon returns from the Oracle at Delphi with the instruction that Thebes needs to avenge the death of the former king Laius for the plague to end. Oedipus utters an ironic curse on, the yet unrevealed killer, by wishing for him "the crimes that I have fled from." The prophet Tiresias appears and is asked by Oedipus to make clear the meaning of the oracle. He then proceeds to carry out a sacrifice, which contains a number of horrific signs. As Tiresias does not have the name he proposed to summon Laius’ spirit back from Erebus to name his slayer.

Act Three

Creon returns from seeing Tiresias’ ghost, but is unwilling to reveal to Oedipus the killer’s name. Oedipus threatens him, and then Creon relents. He says Laius accuses the king of having blood on his hands, and who "has defiled his father’s marriage-bed." He goes on to say that Laius promises the plague will cease if the king is expelled from Thebes. Creon advises Oedipus to abdicate, but Oedipus believes that he has invented this story, along with Tiresias, in order to seize his throne. Despite Creon’s protestations of innocence, Oedipus has him arrested.

Act Four

Oedipus is troubled by the faint memory of a man whom he had killed on the road whilst coming to Thebes for behaving arrogantly before him. An elderly messenger comes from Corinth to tell Oedipus that his father King Polybus has died and for him to come and take his throne. He does not want to return as he still fears the prophecy that he will marry his mother. The messenger then tells him that Corinth’s queen is not his mother, and that he was given Oedipus as a baby on mount Cithaeron. Oedipus then learns, after threatening the shepherd that gave him away, that he is in fact Jocasta’s son.

Act Five

A messenger gives the news that Oedipus considered killing himself and having his body thrown to wild beasts, but then he felt that his crime deserved something worse due to the suffering Thebes has being going through. He decided to find a slow death for himself. He wanted a punishment where he would neither "join the number of the dead nor dwell among the living". He then tore out his eyes. A distraught Jocasta then speaks, and she too wants to die. She then falls upon the sword that Odysseus is holding. Oedipus then departs from Thebes.

Differences between Seneca’s Oedipus and Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex

• The character of Oedipus in Seneca’s play is fearful, "guilt-ridden and open from the beginning to the notion that he may be implicated in the great Theban plague; whereas Sophocles' Oedipus is proud and imperious"
• Seneca’s play has a considerably more violent tone. The sacrifice carried out by Tiresias for example is given in graphic and gory detail
• Sophocles’ play does not contain the character of Manto.
• In Seneca’s play Oedipus blinds himself before the death of Jocasta by pulling out his eyeballs. In Sophocles’ play, Oedipus blinds himself after seeing the corpse of Jocasta and uses golden broaches from her dress to stab out his eyes.
• In Seneca’s play Oedipus is, at best, an aid to the death of Jocasta, and from the ambiguous lines may even have taken her life. In Sophocles’ play, Jocasta hangs herself, and a little later Oedipus comes across her body.
• Laius names his killer in Seneca’s play, but in Sophocles’ Oedipus’ guilt emerges as the play continues.
• In Seneca’s play there is no mention of Oedipus’ feelings towards his children, whereas in Seneca’s play he leaves them to Creon’s guardianship and wants to hold them again.
• Seneca’s play ends with Oedipus leaving Thebes, whereas in Sophocles’ Oedipus is told by Creon that his rule is ended.