The Three Theban Plays-Compare Ode 5 of Chorus in Antigone to Ode 1 in Oedipus the King

The Three Theban Plays, written by the Greek philosopher Sophocles, are Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus. The Theban Plays were not written in chronological order.   Antigone was believed to have been written around 441 BC, while Oedipus The King was believed to have been written around 430 BC, and Oedipus at Colonus was assumed to have been produced around 401 BC.   This was after Sophocles had already died.   The chronology of the plays shows how Sophocles grew as a dramatist.   Talking of the plays, “They represent successive stages in Sophocles’ development as a dramatist and tragic poet.”(Knox 30)   Antigone was written prior to the war, Oedipus the King was written during it, but after the plague of Athens, and Oedipus at Colonus was written at the tail end of the war.   This is ironic because Oedipus The King is a play of what happened prior to Antigone.   So, in essence, Oedipus The King is a prequel to Antigone.   The plays were written as odes to Dionysus, god of wine.   The plays were also written to draw attention to the problems in the polis, the greek city-state.   The three plays are separate, as in they do not rely on one another.   However, the characters are the same and it is one story line.   The chorus is a group of male citizens of Thebes, who support the king of Thebes and help communicate the themes of the play to the audience.   Through their odes, they reveal much to the audience about the play.
In Oedipus The King, the 1st ode of the Chorus is one of desperation, for they are suffering.   The Chorus has not heard what news Creon has brought from Delphi. However, they show an apprehension of this oracle of Delphi when they ask “What word from the gold vaults of Delphi comes to brilliant Thebes?” (170-71)   They open with a prayer to Athena, Artemis, and Apollo.   In these prayers, they are begging for salvation, for instance they pray to Apollo, “I cry in your wild cries, Apollo, Healer of Delos/ I worship you in dread...what now, what...