Oedipus the King Character Map
Sophocles
Sophocles is the writer/author of the
Thebes
Thebes is where the whole story takes place. It was founded by a man named Cadmus, who slew a dragon and was instructed to sow the dragons teeth to form a city.
Cadmus
Cadmus killed/slayed dragon and was instructed to construct the dragon's teeth to form a city. From all these teeth sprung a lot of giants who were fully armed and angry; they fought each other until only five were left, and these five became the fathers of Thebes.
Laius & Jocasta
Laius is the grandson of the great Cadmus. His trouble begins when he receives a prediction from the Oracle of Apollo saying that his own son will kill him. After hearing that Laius and his wife Jocasta give their baby boy to a servant. They order the servant to kill the boy by abandoning him on a mountainside. But the servant doesn't have the heart to kill the baby, instead he gives it to another man, who gives it to the childless king and queen of Corinth. Laius is killed years after at a crossroads outside of Thebes.
Corinth is where king Polybus and Queen Merope lived.
The King and Queen named the adopted child Oedipus as a reference to his feet, which were mangled and swollen when Laius and Jocasta pierced them with an iron pin.
Sphinx
The Sphinx is a winged monster with the head of a woman and the body of a lion who kills everyone who fails to answer her riddle correctly.
Antigone, Ismene, Eteocles, and Polynices are all children of the great Oedipus.
Creon
Creon is sent by Oedipus to the oracle of Apollo to get prediction on how this fight would end.