Oedipus the King
The most canonical entry point to Sophocles and the first part of the Theban narrative.
Author guide
Sophocles Books in Order
Sophocles was an Athenian poet, dramatist, and public official whose career extended across the fifth century BCE. He is traditionally credited with approximately 123 plays, though only seven tragedies survive complete. His drama is noted for powerful individual protagonists, moral conflict, and tightly constructed plots. The dates below are first-performance dates or scholarly estimates; Oedipus at Colonus was produced posthumously by his grandson in 401 BCE.
tragedysatyr play
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
Antigone
A concise, widely taught tragedy that introduces Sophocles' central conflicts between individual conscience, divine law, and political authority.
Read in order
Books by series
thematic cycle · informal
The Theban Plays
An informal modern grouping of three Sophoclean tragedies connected by the Oedipus myth; they were not composed as a single trilogy.
Outside the series
