Sophokles, Roland Schimmelpfennig

The most famous riddle of all time is solved by Oedipus. When asked by the Sphinx which creature has only one voice and sometimes two legs, sometimes three, sometimes four and the more legs it has, the weaker it is, Oedipus answers: "Man". The age of the Anthropocene has begun on a mythical level. The Sphinx is dead. But now that the riddles have been solved, the problems begin. Oedipus, who has just been prophesied to kill his father and marry his mother, is given the rule of Thebes as a reward for his triumph. An unprecedented decision by the city to hand over power to a stranger. At first, his "reasonable" reign seems to prove the citizens' petition right. The city prospers under his rule. But unknowingly, he slips deeper and deeper into his fate. With his mother Iocaste, he fathers four children: the sons Eteocles and Polyneikes and the daughters Antigone and Ismene. Then a plague epidemic breaks out in Thebes. This is the hour of the return of religion. Apollo, the priestess and the seer Teiresias strike back. The enlightened Oedipus leads the first circumstantial trial in world literature against himself. But in a final act of self-empowerment, he defends himself against the legacy of an absolute truth. In vain?
With Oedipus, Sophocles has written a masterpiece of literary history. To this day, the tragedy inspires numerous reinterpretations of the power and truth complex to which a society is subject.
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