Sophocles' masterpiece in which Oedipus, King of Thebes, investigates the plague afflicting his city and -- through relentless, ironic inquiry -- discovers that he himself is the cause: he has unknowingly killed his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta. The tragedy enacts the terror of self-knowledge. Aristotle considered it the perfect tragedy.
Established the paradigm of dramatic irony and peripeteia (reversal of fortune) in Western drama. Dramatized the relationship between fate, knowledge, and agency in a way that no subsequent work has surpassed. Generated Freud's 'Oedipus complex' and provided Levi-Strauss's most famous structural analysis. Remains Aristotle's canonical example of tragic excellence.
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