This paper discusses how "Oedipus the King" ("Oedipus Tyrannus"), by Sophocles, which is set in the remoteness of ancient Greece and has come down to us in the form of a
tragic myth, was allegedly inspired by true events and actual characters. It examines how the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, referred to this play continually in his "Poetics", pointing out features of the ideal tragic poem, and in the later years of the 19th century, Sigmund Freud adapted this myth as the basis for one of his most controversial psychoanalytic interpretations, namely, the "
Oedipal Complex."