Editing Oedipus Rex (section)

==Reception==
[[File:Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1369 - Bridwell Papyrus 4 - Sophocles, Oedipus the King - recto.jpg|thumb|left|[[Oxyrhynchus Papyri|P. Oxy.]] 1369, a fragmentary papyrus copy of ''Oedipus Rex'', 4th century BC]]
The trilogy containing ''Oedipus Rex'' took second prize in the [[City Dionysia]] at its original performance. Aeschylus's nephew [[Philocles]] took first prize at that competition.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=Helaine|year=2005|title=Masterpieces of Classic Greek Drama |url=https://archive.org/details/masterpiecesclas00smit|url-access=limited|page=[https://archive.org/details/masterpiecesclas00smit/page/n14 1]|publisher=Greenwood|isbn=978-0-313-33268-5}}</ref> However, in his ''[[Poetics (Aristotle)|Poetics]]'', [[Aristotle]] considered ''Oedipus Rex'' to be the tragedy which best matched his prescription for how drama should be made.<ref>{{cite book|title=Oedipus Rex: Literary Touchstone Edition|author1=Thomas, J.E.  |author2=Osborne, E. |name-list-style=amp |page=69|publisher=Prestwick House Inc.|year=2004|isbn=978-1-58049-593-6}}</ref>

Many modern critics agree with Aristotle on the quality of ''Oedipus Rex'', even if they don't always agree on the reasons. For example, [[Richard Claverhouse Jebb]] claimed that "The ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' is in one sense the masterpiece of Attic tragedy. No other shows an equal degree of art in the development of the plot; and this excellence depends on the powerful and subtle drawing of the characters."<ref>{{cite book|title=The Oedipus Tyrannus|author=Jebb, R.C.|date=July 2010|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ofi9Ipq3YNMC&q=jebb+oedipus+rex+commentary&pg=PR18|page=v|publisher=Read Books Design |isbn=978-1-4460-3178-0}}</ref> [[Cedric Whitman]] noted that "the ''Oedipus Rex'' passes almost universally for the greatest extant Greek play".<ref>{{cite book|title=Sophocles|url=https://archive.org/details/sophoclesstudyof0000whit|url-access=registration|author=Whitman, C.|page=[https://archive.org/details/sophoclesstudyof0000whit/page/123 123]|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1951|isbn=9780674821408}}</ref> Whitman himself regarded the play as "the fullest expression of this conception of tragedy," that is the conception of tragedy as a "revelation of the evil lot of man," where a man may have "all the equipment for glory and honor" but still have "the greatest effort to do good" end in "the evil of an unbearable self for which one is not responsible."<ref>{{cite book|title=Sophocles|url=https://archive.org/details/sophoclesstudyof0000whit|url-access=registration|author=Whitman, C.|page=[https://archive.org/details/sophoclesstudyof0000whit/page/143 143]|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1951|isbn=9780674821408}}</ref> [[Edith Hall]] referred to ''Oedipus the King'' as "this definitive tragedy" and notes that "the magisterial subtlety of Sophocles' characterization thus lend credibility to the breathtaking coincidences," and notes the irony that "Oedipus can only fulfill his exceptional god-ordained destiny because Oedipus is a preeminently capable and intelligent human being."<ref>{{cite book|title=Sophocles: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra|author=Hall, E.|author-link=Edith Hall |pages=xix-xxii|chapter=Introduction|year=1994|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-282922-X|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/antigoneoedipusk00soph}}</ref> [[H. D. F. Kitto]] said about ''Oedipus Rex'' that "it is true to say that the perfection of its form implies a world order," although Kitto notes that whether or not that world order "is beneficent, Sophocles does not say."<ref>{{cite book|title=Greek Tragedy|url=https://archive.org/details/greektragedylite00kitt_372|url-access=limited|author=Kitto, H. D. F|page=[https://archive.org/details/greektragedylite00kitt_372/page/n154 144]|year=1966|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-05896-1}}</ref>

The science revolution attributed to [[Thales]] began gaining political force, and this play offered a warning to the new thinkers. Kitto interprets the play as Sophocles's retort to the [[sophist]]s, by dramatizing a situation in which humans face undeserved suffering through no fault of their own, but despite the apparent randomness of the events, the fact that they have been prophesied by the gods implies that the events are not random, despite the reasons being beyond human comprehension.<ref name=poiesis>{{cite book|title=Poiesis|url=https://archive.org/details/poiesisstructure0000kitt|url-access=registration|author=Kitto, H.D.F|pages=[https://archive.org/details/poiesisstructure0000kitt/page/236 236]–242|year=1966|publisher=University of California Press}}</ref> Through the play, according to Kitto, Sophocles declares "that it is wrong, in the face of the incomprehensible and unmoral, to deny the moral laws and accept chaos. What is right is to recognize facts and not delude ourselves. The universe is a unity; if, sometimes, we can see neither rhyme nor reason in it we should not suppose it is random. There is so much that we cannot know and cannot control that we should not think and behave as if we do know and can control."<ref name=poiesis/>

''Oedipus Rex'' is widely regarded as one of the greatest plays, stories, and tragedies ever written.<ref>[[Don Nardo]], Greek and Roman Mythology, p 205.</ref><ref>Thomas Wolfe, Arlyn Bruccoli, Matthew Joseph Bruccoli, O Lost: A Story of the Buried Life, p 460.</ref> ''[[The Guardian]]''{{'}}s [[Theatre criticism|theatre critic]] [[Michael Billington (critic)|Michael Billington]] included it in his list of the 101 greatest plays ever written.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=From Oedipus to The History Boys: Michael Billington's 101 greatest plays|encyclopedia=The Guardian|date=2 September 2015|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/sep/02/michael-billington-101-greatest-plays|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723190040/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/sep/02/michael-billington-101-greatest-plays|archive-date=  23 July 2021}}</ref>