Major Works Data Sheet

Title:Oedipus Rex and Antigone

Author: Sophocles

Date of Publication: 430 B.C. and 441 B.C.

Genre: drama/tragedy

1. Characterize the author’s style: Sophocles demonstrates great insight into human suffering. He assumes a pontifical role in an attempt to present a moral lesson to the general masses.

2. Cite a sample passage that exemplifies the style (provide page number):

Chorus: “People of Thebes, my countrymen, look on Oedipus. He solved the famous riddle with his brilliance, he rose to power, a man beyond all power. Who could behold his greatness without envy? Now what a black sea of terror has overwhelmed him? Now as we keep our watch and wait the final day, count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last” (322).

3. Rhetorical Observation: minimum of five rhetorical observations (Make an observation about the author’s style and how it contributes to character, plot, or theme. Go to for a list of common rhetorical devices. Please include a page number).

Personification: “Thebes is dying, look her children.” Page 271 (Oedipus)

Epithet: “O Tiresias, master of all mysteries of our life…” Page 275 (Oedipus)

Apostrophe: “O golden daughter of god, send rescue, radiant as the kindness in your eyes!” Page 272 (Oedipus)

Rhetorical question: “What! Has not Creon to the tomb preferred one of our brothers and with contumely withheld it from the other?” Page 2 (Antigone)

Analogy: “You see how all the trees on winter torrent banks, yielding, preserve their sprays; those that would stem it break, roots and all; the shipman too, who keeps the vessel’s main-sheet taut, and will not slacken, goes cruising, in the end, keep uppermost.” Page 27 (Antigone)

All of the quotes represent Sophocles’ style of writing by demonstrating the suffering humans endure by their own hands. Sophocles illustrates that others are affected by the actions of others. Also, the quotes represent the tendency humans have to rely on others in their time of distress.

4. Memorable or Significant Quotes: minimum of five quotes (write the quote, the page number, and why it is significant)

5. Symbols and Significance: minimum of five symbols (write the symbol, the page number, and what it is a symbol of)

Oedipus’s swollen foot (page 304) is a symbol of his true identity and represents the scars of his childhood.

The three crossroads (page 317) is a symbol of the fulfillment of Oedipus’s fate.

Physical blindness (page 31) is symbolic of the contrast between those who can physically see but are literally blind and those who are physically blind but are capable of seeing.

Antigone’s wedding veil (page 46) is a symbol of the wedding day that will never occur because of Antigone’s decision to follow the laws of the gods and not man’s law.

 Antigone’s prison tomb (page 29) represents Creon’s prideful nature and his refusal to be challenged by a woman’s actions.

6. Setting and significance: provide a minimum of five examples from the novel (include page number)

7. Opening scene and its significance: The opening scene in Oedipus Rex introduces the audience to the precarious situation facing the citizens of Thebes. The citizens express their pain to Oedipus, their hero and king. They explain that citizens are dying and the land is barren. Oedipus tells his people he knows “you are sick to death, all of you, but sick as you are, not one is sick as I” (266). Oedipus tells the people he has sent Creon to Delphi in an attempt to determine what needs to be done to end the plague. During the opening scene, Oedipus learns the plague will end when the identity of Laius’s killer is revealed. Oedipus proclaims that the murderer will be exiled or killed. The opening scene is significant because the edict Oedipus declares to the citizens of Thebesrelates directly to the outcome of the play.

8. Closing scene and its significance

9. Themes/Topics for Discussion: minimum of five(Remember that themes are statements, which contain both SUBJECT and VERB. Themes also are UNIVERSAL statements that can apply to more than one work of literature.)

Characters struggle between the dynamics of free will versus fate.

Prideful tendencies will inevitably lead to a character’s ruin.

God’s law and man’s law do not always coincide which creates conflict.

Those who have sight are not always capable of seeing.

The age of a person does not always prove to be an indicator of good judgment.

10. Characters: include name, role, significance, and any adjectives that describe the character (include all characters from the novel)