The story begins with a dialogue between King Oedipus and the priest. The latter reports that the people of Thebes are suffering from numerous disasters and seek help from Oedipus. The king tells how he sent to the Delphic oracle on the advice of Creon, but he was late and Oedipus is seized by anxious thoughts.
Despite his fears, Creon soon returned to Thebes in joy. He reports the oracle’s prophecy: Thebes will be cleansed of disasters when the murderer of the former king Laius, who remains unknown, is found and punished. Oedipus gathers the people to find the killer, promising revenge for Laius. The seer Tiresias is cited, but he avoids answering who is to blame for the disasters in the city. An angry Oedipus quarrels with Tiresias, suspecting him of the crime. The soothsayer finally hints that Oedipus himself caused misfortune to Thebes, and the murderer of Laius is very close.
In a conversation between Oedipus and Tiresias and his wife (the widow of Laius) Jocasta, the king reveals his past. Oedipus remembers how, growing up at the court of his father, King Polybus, he learned about the oracle’s warning to avoid the homeland, otherwise he would become the murderer of his father and marry his mother. Hoping to avoid an evil fate, Oedipus went to Thebes, where he was almost hit by a chariot, whose riders began to insult and beat the boy. In a chariot fight, Oedipus killed the eldest and three of his four companions. After that, Oedipus became the ruler of Thebes and married the widow of the murdered unknown king of Thebes – Jocasta.
Jocasta tries to distract the man from the search, knowing the terrible truth. This only angers the king, who is proud of his rule. A messenger from Corinth reports that Polybius is dead. Oedipus rejoices that the oracle’s prophecy did not come true and his real father died. However, the messenger says that he once brought little Oedipus to the house of Polybius, who adopted the boy. Oedipus thinks he was of humble origins and forces the messenger to tell everything he knows. He says he got the boy from a shepherd.
Oedipus sends to find this shepherd and soon he is brought. The frightened shepherd admits that Oedipus’ father is Lai. Oedipus’s parents, fearing the prophecy that their son would kill his own father and marry his mother, decided to kill the child, leaving the baby to feed on wild beasts. But thanks to the pity of the perpetrator, a shepherd, the boy was handed over to a messenger from Corinth and adopted by the Corinthian king Polybius.
Realizing that he had killed Lai, his father, and Jocasta, his mother, Oedipus realized that the prophecy had come true despite attempts to avoid it. Jocasta, unable to bear the shame, kills himself by hanging himself. Oedipus pokes his eyes out, considering himself unworthy even of death, and runs away from the city in despair. The choir concludes the tragedy by singing: let the fate of Oedipus be a science to all – not to be proud of your happiness, because at any moment it can be minutes.
