Oedipus (Dryden play) the drama were inferior to the original work by Sophocles. In our Age, Corneille has attempted it, and it appears by his Preface, with great success: But a judicious Reader will easily observe, how much the Copy is inferiour to the Original. Dryden disapproves of the way Corneille has treated the subject, but not the subplot – a love story involving Theseus and Dirce: in "Oedipus, a Tragedy", Dryden himself uses a love story as subplot. According to Dryden, however, the French dramatist failed to create a heroic Oedipus. Instead of showing Oedipus as a just and merciful monarch, Corneille
Oedipus Rex many Greek myths, and similarities to Oedipus can for example be seen in the myth of the birth of Perseus. Two oracles in particular dominate the plot of "Oedipus Rex". In lines 711 to 714, Jocasta relates the prophecy that was told to Laius before the birth of Oedipus. Namely: "(The oracle) told him" "that it was his fate that he should die a victim" "at the hands of his own son, a son to be born" "of Laius and me." The oracle told to Laius tells only of the patricide; the incest is missing. Prompted by Jocasta's recollection, Oedipus