Oedipus at Colonus sons, in the end Oedipus is accepted and absolved by Zeus. In the years between the play's composition and its first performance, Athens underwent many changes. Defeated by the Spartans, the city was placed under the rule of the Thirty Tyrants, and the citizens who opposed their rule were exiled or executed. This certainly affected the way that early audiences reacted to the play, just as the invasion of Athens and its diminished power surely affected Sophocles as he wrote it. The play contrasts the cities of Athens and Thebes quite sharply. Thebes is often used in Athenian dramas as
Oedipus Rex widely-known version is, ""what is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening?"" Oedipus correctly guesses, ""man"", who crawls on all fours as an infant, walks upright in maturity, and leans on a stick in old age. Bested by the prince, the Sphinx throws herself from a cliff, thereby ending the curse. Oedipus' reward for freeing Thebes from the Sphinx is its kingship, and the hand of the dowager queen, Jocasta; none then realize that Jocasta is Oedipus' true mother. Thus, unknown to all of the characters, the prophecy