Oedipus (Seneca) Oedipus (Seneca) Oedipus is a "fabula crepidata" (Roman tragic play with Greek subject) of c. 1061 lines of verse that was written by Lucius Annaeus Seneca at some time during the 1st century AD. It is a retelling of the story of Oedipus, which is better known through the play "Oedipus Rex" by the Athenian playwright, Sophocles. It is written in Latin. The play is generally considered one of Seneca's weaker works. The play opens with a fearful Oedipus lamenting a vicious plague which is affecting Thebes, the city over which he rules. People are dying in such huge numbers
Oedipus Rex lead him to kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus "chooses" not to return to Corinth after hearing the oracle, just as he chooses to head toward Thebes, to kill Laius, to marry and to take Jocasta specifically as his bride; in response to the plague at Thebes, he "chooses" to send Creon to the Oracle for advice and then to follow that advice, initiating the investigation into Laius's murder. None of these choices are predetermined. Another characteristic of oracles in myth is that they are almost always misunderstood by those who hear them; hence Oedipus's misunderstanding the significance