In which John Green teaches you about one of the least family-friendly family dramas in the history of family dramas, Oedipus Rex.
Sophocles’ most famous play sees it’s main character, who seems like he’s got it all together, find out that he’s killed his father, married his mother, had a bunch of incest children, and brought a plague down on his adopted hometown.
He doesn’t take this news well.
John touches on all the classic Oedipus themes, including hamartia, fate, and the wrath of the gods, and even gets into some Freud, although Oedipus was notably not a sufferer of an Oedipus complex.
In any case get ready for mystery, incest, bird entrails, and self-inflicted blindness. Very dramatic.
Note from Among the Fray: We will continue watching Crash Course’s Black American History series as episodes are released on a weekly basis.
An episode of Crash Course’s series on Literature – in chronological order of course – will be posted with the morning news while we wait for a new Black American History video.
Among the Fray 