Aristotle's favorite tragedy was Sophocles' Oedipus the King. The play begins with Laius and Jocasta, the king and queen of Thebes. When their son, Oedipus, is born, an oracle proclaims that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Petrified, the king and queen abandon their son to die in the desert, but he is recovered and cared for by a shepherd. The shepherd takes Oedipus to the city of Corinth where he is adopted by the king and queen. One day, Oedipus grows up, learns that he was adopted and goes to an oracle in search of answers. Instead, the oracle tells him the prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Not believing he was truly adopted, Oedipus leaves Corinth to avoid killing the man he believes to be his father and marrying the woman he believes to be his mother. At a crossroads, he fights with a group of Thebes and ends up killing King Laius who was traveling in disguise. Not knowing what he has done, he continues towards Thebes and eventually marries Queen Jocasta and becomes king. He rules well and he and Jocasta end up having four children together. Then one day a soothsayer reveals the truth about their situation to them and Jocasta commits suicide. Meanwhile, Oedipus gouges out his eyes and banishes himself from Thebes, destined to become a wandering beggar. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay For Aristotle, Oedipus the King is the perfect tragedy. It has a worthy main character and a complicated plot. Through a series of coincidences and unpredictable events, Oedipus is reduced to a pitiful end because he unknowingly committed a horrible act. The ability of such an inevitable mistake to cause such catastrophe is intended to illustrate the fragility of human life. Since drama “shows how a good person faces adversity, it elicits cleansing…through emotions of fear and pity” (Freeland, p 32). Eventually, after many years of wandering the land as a blind beggar, Oedipus attains a sort of saintly stature in the eyes of his fellow Greeks. According to Aristotle's more general conception of art, Oedipus is worth being an imitation of what could happen to anyone in Greek society. Sophocles' third tragedy, the Oedipus trilogy, is called Antigone. The setting takes place a few decades after the tragic fall of Oedipus in the middle of a civil war. Oedipus' two sons, Polyneices and Eteocles, were killed in battle and Creon assumes the fall of Thebes. In order to insult his opponents, Creon orders that Eteocles be buried honorably but that Polyneices be left to rot on the battlefield. Oedipus' two daughters, Antigone and Ismene, plot to disobey Creon and bury their brother Polyneices. Under threat of death, Ismène decides not to help her sister in this task. After burying her brother, Antigone is captured and brought before Creon to stand trial. Although Antigone proclaims her sister innocent, Creon imprisons them both. Haemon, Antigone's fiancé and Creon's son, comes to show his support for his father while begging him to spare his wife. Creon refuses and Hémon swears never to see him again. Although he decides to spare Ismene, Creon orders that Antigone be locked in a cave forever. Then arrives the blind soothsayer Tiresias who warns Creon that the gods want him to free Antigone and bury the body of Polyneices, otherwise they will take one of his children and all of Greece will turn against him and Thebes. A frightened Creon agrees to free her, but alas it is too late. A messenger arrives and tells him that Haemon and Antigone have both committed suicide and that shortly after, Creon's wife also commits suicide. Broken by self-accusation, the drama unfolds).