Step One Oedipus Exercise
Use the first 510 lines of Sophocles' Oedipus below to tackle the following questions:
How does the first part of the play communicate (or activate) knowledge from the tradition?
How much knowledge does the play assume on the part of the audience?
What power structures are anticipated from the play’s beginning—e.g. what are the assumed relationships between the leader and the led? What are their obligations?
Why is the play called Tyrannos or Rex? What values or beliefs do these terms communicate? If the play were entitled Oedipus, president or Oedipus, mayor, how would that affect your reading?