Oedipus The King is one of the three Theban Plays of the Greek Athenian tragedian Sophocles. The ancient & classical Greek tragedy Oedipus The King was first performed in 429 BC. Of Sophocles three Theban Plays that deal with Oedipus, Oedipus The King was the second to be written. However, in terms of the chronology of events that the plays describe, Oedipus The King comes first, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and then Antigone. In the drama & play Oedipus The King tells the story of Oedipus, a man who becomes the king of Thebes, while unwittingly fulfilling a prophecy that he would kill his father, Laius, and marry his mother, Jocasta. Sophocles' Oedipus The King is considered a literature & fiction classic in the Greek dramas & plays genre and is often required textbook reading in the following disciplines; English, literature & fiction, Ancient & Medieval Literature, ancient & classical, dramas & plays, Greek tragedy, and world literature.