title: The plague of Thebes, a historical epidemic in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex.
abstract: Sophocles, one of the most noted playwrights of the ancient world, wrote the tragedy Oedipus Rex in the first half of the decade 430-420 bc. A lethal plague is described in this drama. We adopted a critical approach to Oedipus Rex in analyzing the literary description of the disease, unraveling its clinical features, and defining a possible underlying cause. Our goals were to clarify whether the plague described in Oedipus Rex reflects an actual historical event; to compare it with the plague of Athens, which was described by Thucydides as occurring around the same time Sophocles wrote; and to propose a likely causative pathogen. A critical reading of Oedipus Rex and a comparison with Thucydides' history, as well as a systematic review of historical data, strongly suggests that this epidemic was an actual event, possibly caused by Brucella abortus.
authors.affiliation: History of Medicine Department, School of Medicine, University of Athens, 131 Lambrou Katsoni Str., Athens, 18344 Greece. antonis.kousoulis@gmail.com
authors.forename: Antonis A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Kousoulis
authors.forename: Konstantinos P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Economopoulos
authors.forename: Effie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Poulakou-Rebelakou
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Androutsos
authors.forename: Sotirios
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tsiodras
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002003:Brucella abortus; D002006:Brucellosis / Q000266:history*; D002417:Cattle; D004324:Drama / Q000266:history*; D058872:Epidemics / Q000266:history*; D000076145:Greece, Ancient / Q000453:epidemiology; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D008513:Medicine in Literature