Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex is the most influential play in Western dramatic history. Aristotle held it up in his Poetics as the perfect tragedy, the supreme example of dramatic structure and emotional power. Sigmund Freud's naming of the Oedipus complex after its protagonist made the play central not only to literature but to modern psychology as well.

Written during the Peloponnesian War era, Oedipus Rex served as the model tragedy in Aristotle's Poetics, defining the principles of dramatic unity that governed Western theater for centuries. Freud's identification of the Oedipus complex placed the play at the heart of psychoanalytic theory and modern culture. Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1967 film is among its most notable adaptations, and the play has been performed continuously for over 2,400 years.