About the work
Tragedy by Euripides, probably first performed between 411 and 409 BC; ancient sources give no exact date. In late antiquity the play was part of the so-called Byzantine triad of the three most widely read Euripides tragedies, which is why it survives unusually well, though also with later textual additions.
Plot
During the war of the 'Seven against Thebes', Jocasta tries in vain to reconcile her warring sons Eteocles and Polynices, who are fighting over the Theban throne; the brothers kill each other in single combat. Creon's son Menoeceus has earlier sacrificed himself, as a prophecy demanded, to save the city, and Jocasta kills herself over her sons' bodies. The still-living, blind Oedipus is finally banished from Thebes together with his daughter Antigone.
Cultural significance
With its chorus of Phoenician women stranded in the besieged city on their way to Delphi, the play gives the Theban myth an unusual outside perspective and was one of the most frequently performed tragedies of antiquity.