Home / Series / Crash Course / Aired Order / Season 18 / Episode 2

Fate, Family, and Oedipus Rex

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 its 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.

English
  • Originally Aired March 6, 2014
  • Runtime 13 minutes
  • Created September 10, 2024 by
    LCE
  • Modified September 10, 2024 by
    LCE