Oedipus the King, is an
Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC.
Originally, to the ancient Greeks, the title was simply Oedipus, as it is
referred to by Aristotle in the Poetics. It is thought to have been renamed
Oedipus Tyrannus to distinguish it from another of Sophocles's plays, Oedipus
at Colonus. In antiquity, the term "tyrant" referred to a ruler with
no legitimate claim to rule, but it did not necessarily have a negative
connotation.