Scene 1 Summary

The scene opens in Thebes in front of the palace of Oedipus. A priest leads a group of worshipers by the altar at the palace doors. Oedipus, the king, enters and asks the worshipers why they are there, and why they are grieving. He asks the priest to be the spokesman and tell him what is wrong.

The priest tells Oedipus that the young and the old have come to him. Others are praying to the shrines of Pallas. The kingdom is undergoing disaster. The crops and herds are dying, and the people are suffering from plague.

The people have come to the palace of their beloved king, hoping that he can find some way to free them of the plague on the kingdom. Oedipus has saved the kingdom before, by answering the riddle of the Sphinx, and they call on him to...