Oedipus King of Thebes / Translated into English Rhyming Verse with Explanatory Notes

A celebrated Greek tragedy follows a king who seeks to end a plague by finding and punishing the murderer of the previous ruler; his investigation, marked by confrontations with a prophet and mounting evidence, uncovers that he himself killed the former king and, unaware, married his own mother. The revelations destroy his household: the queen takes her life and the king blinds himself, leaving the city to confront fate, divine will, and human ignorance. Themes include fate versus free will, the limits of human knowledge, and the interplay of religious ritual and civic duty, while dramatic structure tightens tension from civic crisis to personal catastrophe.