Ever hear of the guy who solves the riddle of the sphinx, accidentally kills his dad, marries his mom, and eventually finds out what he's done and blinds himself? This myth was immortalized in Sophocles' ancient Greek play. It shows how Oedipus does all this stuff (pre-blinding) without realizing it, until one day a terrible plague descends on Thebes, the city where he reigns with his lovely mother-wife and their surprisingly developmentally normal (if prone to temper tantrums) kids.
Because in Ancient Greece it was always human folly that was responsible for medical epidemics, Oedipus starts investigating the abomination behind this particular plague, and—mamma mia indeed!—not only has he committed incest, but he also killed his dad. So he takes the logical step and pokes his own eyes out, mommie dearest hangs herself, and Thebes is cured of disease, but pretty much descends into anarchy. And after that, Sophocles started writing sitcoms.
Some questions for you:
(1) Lévi-Strauss did a very famous (for structuralists) structuralist reading of this myth in his book Structural Anthropology. He broke down the myth into binary oppositions, or pairs of opposite elements, and argued that the myth is all about resolving or dealing with those contradictions. In Sophocles' version, what types of oppositions does the play set up? And how does it attempt to resolve them?
(2) If you're reading this play as a structuralist, you'll also want to think about what this tragedy has in common with other tragedies—the ancient Greeks didn't have a monopoly on despair, after all. Think about Shakespearean tragedy or modern tragedy. What are some common elements we find in Oedipus Rex and, say, Shakespeare's King Lear? What about Oedipus Rex and a modern play like August Wilson's Fences? Can we come up with any generalizations about tragic drama as a genre by comparing and contrasting these plays?