Today my people of Thebes called for my aide; a plague has struck them harshly. The skies are dim and thunder claps. The bodies of poor Theban souls lay astray on the ground, the life sucked from their bodies, now hollow. I know what to do to stop this disaster, and I have sent my brother-in-law, Creon, to gather information on the cause of the city’s pain.
The local priests, harbingers of Apollo’s word, begged me for my help. I have no choice but to return this city to its previously peaceful state.
King Oedipus has volunteered to do that we came to ask. May Apollo, who sent the message from his oracle, come as our savior, and put an end to the plague. We are hopeful due to this, oh King Oedipus. There is no doubt you will save Thebes, just as you saved it from the Sphinx so long ago. You are the stainless leader Thebes has been waiting for, a man who can commit no crime and only do good for his city. [“There is no doubt you will save Thebes,” is a demonstration of the literary element irony in Oedipus the King. This bit of text is ironic because the priests believe Oedipus will save Thebes, even though he is the actual cause of Thebes’ problems. This is situational, verbal, and dramatic irony all in one because of the fate of Thebes, what the priest(s) say, and that the audience knows that Oedipus is in fact the cause of Thebes’ problems while the characters do not.]
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