Crime and Punishment
In Sophocles' work, Oedipus flees Corinth to avoid a prophecy that he would kill his father; incidentally, on the road he kills Laius without knowing who he is. Some time later, having become king of Thebes and married to the widow Jocasta -his biological mother- a plague devastates the kingdom, and to mitigate it Creon, sent by the oracle, urges him to investigate Laius' death. Oedipus, determined to find the culprit, interrogates witnesses until the pieces fit: the old man he killed on the road was his real father, and he discovers he himself is the murderer. As self-punishment, Oedipus blinds himself and Jocasta commits suicide.