Oedipus Rex reveals the prophecy which caused him to leave Corinth (791-93): "that I was fated to lie with my mother," "and show to daylight an accursed breed" "which men would not endure, and I was doomed" "to be murderer of the father that begot me." The implication of Laius's oracle is ambiguous. One interpretation considers that the presentation of Laius's oracle in this play differs from that found in Aeschylus's Oedipus trilogy produced in 467 BC. Helaine Smith argues: Sophocles had the option of making the oracle to Laius conditional ("if" Laius has a son, that son will kill him) or
Oedipus Rex larger myth obliquely, which was already known to the audience in Athens at the time. 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. However, in his "Poetics", Aristotle considered "Oedipus Rex" to be the tragedy which best matched his prescription for how drama should be made. 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