Aristotle's favorite tragedy was Sophocles' Oedipus the King. The work begins with Laius and Jocasta, king and queen of Thebes. At the birth of his son Oedipus, an oracle announces that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Petrified, the king and queen abandon their son to die in the desert, but he is picked up and cared for by a shepherd. The shepherd takes Oedipus to the city of Corinth where he is adopted by the king and queen. One day, when Oedipus has grown up, he discovers that he has been adopted and goes to an oracle in search of answers. Instead the oracle tells him the prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Not believing that he has truly been adopted, Oedipus leaves Corinth to avoid killing who he thinks is his father and marrying who he thinks is his mother. At a road crossroads he clashes with a group of Thebes and ends up killing King Laius who was traveling in disguise. Not knowing what he has done, he continues on to Thebes and eventually ends up marrying Queen Jocasta and becoming king. He rules well and he and Jocasta end up having four children together. Then one day a fortune teller tells them the truth about their situation and Jocasta commits suicide. Meanwhile, Oedipus gouges out his eyes and banishes himself from Thebes, destined to become a wandering beggar. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay For Aristotle, Oedipus the King is the perfect tragedy. It has a worthy main character and a complicated plot. Through a succession of coincidences and unpredictable events, Oedipus is reduced to a pitiful end because he committed a horrible act without knowing it. The possibility that such an inevitable mistake could cause such a catastrophe is meant to illustrate the fragility of human life. Because the play “shows how a good person faces adversity, it elicits a purification…through emotions of fear and pity” (Freeland, p 32). Eventually, after many years spent wandering the land as a blind beggar, Oedipus achieves a kind of saintly stature in the eyes of his fellow Greeks. In Aristotle's most general conception of art, Oedipus counts as an imitation of what could plausibly happen to anyone in Greek society. The third tragedy of Sophocles' Oedipus trilogy is called Antigone. The setting is a few decades after the tragic fall of Oedipus in the midst of the civil war. Oedipus' two sons, Polyneices and Eteocles, are killed in battle and Creon takes over the expulsion of Thebes. To insult his opponents, Creon orders that Eteocles be buried with honor, but that Polyneices be left to rot on the battlefield. Oedipus' two daughters, Antigone and Ismene, plot to disobey Creon and bury their brother Polyneices. Under threat of death Ismene decides not to help her sister in the undertaking. After burying her brother Antigone is captured and brought before Creon to face judgment. Although Antigone proclaims her sister innocent, Creon imprisons them. Haemon, Antigone's fiancé and Creon's son, comes to show his support for his father and at the same time beg him to spare his bride. Creon refuses and Haemon vows never to see him again. Although he decides to spare Ismene, Creon orders Antigone to be locked up forever in a cave. The blind soothsayer Tiresias arrives and warns Creon that the gods wish him to free Antigone and bury Polyneices' body, otherwise they will take away one of his sons and all of Greece will turn against him and Thebes. Creon, frightened, agrees to release her, but unfortunately it is too late. A messenger arrives and tells him that Haemon and Antigone have both committed suicide and soon after Creon's wife also takes her own life. Broken by guilt, the drama ends with).