Sophocles' Trilogy

To Laius, King of Thebes, an oracle foretold that his child would kill him and wed his wife Jocasta. So when in time a son was born, Laius ordered his man to leave the infant, feet pinched together, to die on Mount Cithaeron. But a shepherd found the baby, tended him, and delivered him to another shepherd who took him to his master, Polytbus, the King of Corinth. The childless Polybus adopted the boy Oedipus, who grew up as the Prince of Corinth and, later, also learned his horrifying fate. Thinking Polybus as his father, Oedipus fled from Corinth, encountered Lauis on his way, and unwittingly killed his father in their conflict. 

Arriving at Thebes, Oedipus answered the riddle of the Sphinx and was made king by the grateful Thebans. He married the widowed queen Jocasta and had four children. Thebes prospered under his rule, but a plague fell upon the city. 

Oedipus sends Jocasta’s brother Creon to consult the oracle, which demands Thebes purge its blood crime. Oedipus undertakes to track down the criminal and seeks help from the blind prophet Teiresias. Step by step, despite his denial, the truths of his birth and crime become clear to him and Jocasta. In desperation, Jocasta commits suicide. After making Creon king and asking him to guard his children, Oedipus blinds himself and goes into exile away from Thebes.

Polyneices and Etocles killed each other in battle, fighting over Theban thrown. Creon, the present ruler of Thebes, decreed that the traitor Polyneices remain unburied. But Antigone resolves to bury her brother despite her sister Ismene’s opposition. She was caught in the act by Creon's watchmen and brought before the king. 

Antigone justifies her action, asserting that it was the eternal laws of right and wrong that she obeyed rather than any human ordinance. The enraged Creon condemns her to be immured in a cave. Ismene, in attempt to save her sister, declares herself as an accomplice, but Antigone refutes Ismene’s account as Creon threatens to kill them both. 

Prince Haemon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s fiancé, pleads in vain for her life and threatens to die with her. Creon condemns both of them in his tantrum; however, warned by the blind prophet Teiresias, Creon repents and hurries to release Antigone. But he is too late: Antigone has hanged herself in the cave, and Haemon has killed himself right beside her. Returning to the palace, he learns that his queen Eurydice, on learning of Haemon's death, has also stabbed herself to the heart. Creon laments his decisions, and the Chorus warns against pride and arrogance.