The most important innovations Sophocles brings to Oedipus the King, is the way he brings religious paradox and dramatic irony together making fate a new concept and relating that to a monotheistic theology as apposed to a polytheistic one. Sophocles uses dramatic irony in the play by showing irony and profoundness of fate, as it plays out in this story. Before the play began, an oracle was brought to king Laios, and queen Jocasta, telling …showed first 75 words of 447 total…

…showed last 75 words of 447 total…It is a deadly thing, beyond cure. We must not let feed upon us longer." (Sophocles 99-102) and, "Apollo commands us now to take revenge upon who- ever killed him." (Sophocles 110-111) Oedipus thinks that the god will help him(Sophocles148). In all actuality there is nothing that can be done to help the city, until Oedipus and all that are under his rule, realize that Oedipus himself is the murderer of his own father.