《伊底帕斯王》開場描繪底比斯城爆發大瘟疫，很容易使人聯想到西元前四三〇年的雅典瘟疫。然而，至今仍無法確定《伊底帕斯王》首次登臺時間，也無法完全排除此劇仍有可能在雅典瘟疫爆發前就已上演。本文先整理關於《伊底帕斯王》演出年代、相關論點的假設前提，說明《伊底帕斯王》中的瘟疫場景不一定直接指涉雅典瘟疫。然而索福克里斯的悲劇作品，就像大多數希臘悲劇，經常取材取景於史詩時代，並融合其當代歷史、社會、文化與政治現象；《伊底帕斯王》並非投射特定的事件或人物，而是反映整個西元前五世紀知識與思想承先啟後的蛻變過程。由此觀之，如Knox 所言，索福克里斯筆下的瘟疫、疾病與災難等描繪，並非時代錯置（anachronism）的例子。此外，本文將進一步探討anachronism 一詞所隱藏之意涵與歷史、疾病等關聯。

The statement that the plague at Thebes depicted in Oedipus Tyrannus alludes to the plague at Athens is highly speculative, since the date of this play is uncertain. Admittedly, Oedipus Tyrannus, like most classical Greek tragedies, grafts the fifth-century scenario unto its heroic background; however, the plague scene in this play does not necessarily refer to any specific event. Based on the observation that the entire intellectual, cultural, and social situation of the fifth century B.C. may well be reflected in the tragedy, this paper attempts to explore the multiple senses of Sophocles’ inventive portrayal of the plague, of the quest for the cause of disease and human suffering, and of the conflicting attitudes towards the religious medical treatment. In this light, the term anachronism revealed in Oedipus Tyrannus may integrate the following concepts: to impose the past onto the present, to reverse the order of time, to conduct a retrospective investigation, and to re-map a chronological etiological trajectory.