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Tag Archives: Oedipus Rex

War and Greek Tragedy (Part Two: Sophocles)

by Andrew Aulner, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom The next of the three great tragedians to be born was Sophocles, who, like Aeschylus before him, served in the Greek military. Sophocles was a general during the war against the island of Samos and later lived through the Peloponnesian War. Both of these events exposed Sophocles to

Was Oedipus Rex a Bad person?

I once knocked over a dwarf. It was an accident… sort of. It happened back in my university days. My roommates and I would go to our favorite club every Thursday to dance. At first, it was the perfect level of ‘cool’ – good selection of dance partners, but not so crowded that you couldn’t

Feeling a Sense of Doom? Time to turn to the Ancients

by Sean Kelly, Managing Editor, Classical Wisdom It’s easy these days to feel overwhelmed by a sense of catastrophe. Whether it’s the on-going pandemic, worries about floods, wildfires and other natural disasters, or just the normal concerns of our daily lives… the world seems filled with doom.  It is in these trying times that we

Aristotle’s Poetics – The Science of Tragedy

Aristotle probably would have liked Titanic. He might have even compared it to Sophocles’ Theban Plays, celebrating Jack and Rose as one might appreciate Antigone and Oedipus. We can’t be sure, of course, but in all likelihood Plato’s student would have praised the late 90’s sob story as an exemplary specimen of tragedy. Maybe that’s

Oedipus at Colonus: The Tale of Two Ancient Deaths

And so it comes to be, that all men must die. Yes, even the old ones. The great poet and dramatist, Sophocles, was approaching his own end when he imagined the glorious finale of the tragic figure, Oedipus in Oedipus at Colonus. This play is thought to be Sophocles’ final one because it was first produced