Oedipus (Voltaire play) Oedipus (Voltaire play) Oedipus () is a tragedy by the French dramatist and philosopher Voltaire that was first performed in 1718. It was his first play and the first literary work for which he used the pen-name Voltaire (his real name was François-Marie Arouet). Voltaire completed the play in 1717 during his 11-month imprisonment. In a letter of 1731 Voltaire wrote that when he wrote the play he was "full of my readings of the ancient authors [...] I knew very little of the theater in Paris." In adapting Sophocles' Athenian tragedy "Oedipus Rex", Voltaire attempted to rationalise the plot
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