Characters
- Oedipus is the king of Thebes, husband of Jocasta, and he is the supposed son of king Polybus of Corinth. He is the main protagonist of the play.
- Jocasta is the widow of the former king Laius, wife of Oedipus and sister of Creon
- Creon is Jocasta's brother, and the chief aid to Oedipus in Thebes
- Teiresias is a blind prophet who is charged by Oedipus to find the killer of king Laius
- Manto is the daughter of Tiresias. She is used in the play to describe Tiresias' sacrifice to him, and therefore also to the audience.
- An Old Man is a messenger from Corinth who comes to tell Oedipus that Polybus is dead, and reveals part of Oedipus' history to him.
- Phorbas is an old shepherd who had given Oedipus to the Old Man when he was a child and who reveals Oedipus' real parentage to him.
- Messenger is the man who relates what has happened to Oedipus in the beginning of Act 5
- Chorus are singers that help the audience understand what emotion they should feel after a scene.
Read more about this topic: Oedipus (Seneca)
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“When the characters are really alive before their author, the latter does nothing but follow them in their action, in their words, in the situations which they suggest to him.”
—Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936)
“My characters never die screaming in rage. They attempt to pull themselves back together and go on. And that’s basically a conservative view of life.”
—Jane Smiley (b. 1949)
“We are like travellers using the cinders of a volcano to roast their eggs. Whilst we see that it always stands ready to clothe what we would say, we cannot avoid the question whether the characters are not significant of themselves.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)