About the work
"Œdipe" is a tragedy by Pierre Corneille, first performed on 24 January 1659 at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris. With it, Corneille returned to the stage after seven years of silence and the failure of "Pertharite", at the urging of Nicolas Fouquet.
Plot
Plague ravages Thebes while Dircé, daughter of the former king Laius, regards Œdipe as a usurper of her inheritance and fears his alliance with Thésée, whom she loves. Unlike Sophocles, Corneille centres the plot on the political struggle for the Theban throne and adds the love story between Thésée and Dircé. As in the source, Jocasta takes her own life in the end, but Corneille dispenses with Oedipus's self-blinding.
Cultural significance
The play was enthusiastically received at its premiere and returned Corneille to the centre of Parisian theatrical life; at the same time, its free reworking of the Sophocles myth exemplifies how French classical theatre updated ancient myths for contemporary politics.