Charles Jalabert Charles Jalabert Charles François Jalabert (1819–1901) was a French painter in the academic style. He rapidly gained renown as an artist among Parisian high society in the second half of the 19th century and attended the salon of Madame Sabatier. Some of his works are now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes. Jalabert was born in Nîmes. One of his most famous works was the oil on canvas painting called "The Plague of Thebes". The painting referred to the Athenian tragedy 'Oedipus Rex' by Sophocles. Thebes is ravaged by plague as a result of the corruption in the place
Oedipus Rex of the Delphic Oracle. He visits Delphi to find out who his real parents are and assumes that the Oracle refuses to answer that question, offering instead an unrelated prophecy which forecasts patricide and incest. Oedipus's assumption is incorrect, the Oracle does, in a way, answer his question: "On closer analysis the oracle contains essential information which Oedipus seems to neglect." The wording of the Oracle: I was doomed to be murderer of the father that begot me refers to Oedipus' real, biological father. Likewise the mother with polluted children is defined as the biological one. The wording of the