the classics pages letters

Loved the Oedipus test - thanks.
I wonder - how long were Oedipus and Jocasta married? How old were their children?

Connie

Dear Connie

The chronology is very difficult - if we're being realistic (and there's no reason why we should be - it's fiction, after all) the earliest J could have had O would have been at age 14 - 15. O could have returned 18 years later to find a very attractive 32-33 year-old! The children are not babies - and Antigone acc to O at Colonus was old enough to leave with her father in exile - say 12? But Sophocles doesn't think we need to know - or he would have told us. See my page on Antigone's age [antigone02.htm].