Oedipus (Euripides) Oedipus (Euripides) Oedipus ( or ; , "Oidípous") is a play by the 5th-century BCE Athenian dramatist Euripides. The play is now lost except for some fragments. What survives of the play covers similar ground as Sophocles' acclaimed "Oedipus Rex", but scholars and historians have found there are significant differences. In "Oedipus Rex", the title character blinds himself upon learning his true parentage, accidentally killing his father and marrying his mother Jocasta. In Euripides' play, however, it appears Oedipus is blinded by a servant of his father Laius, Oedipus' predecessor as king of Thebes. Furthermore, Euripides' play implies Oedipus was
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