Apollo's Advice In Oedipus The King

"Oedipus the King" written by Sophocles, is a powerful Greek tragedy story. The protagonist, Oedipus is a heroic mythical king who had it all. Oedipus pursues to find the true answers to his identity and destiny, while at the same time trying to avoid fulfilling his destiny.

Oedipus is the king of Thebes and unknown to him he is married to his mother Jocasta queen of Thebes. He does not realize that many years ago he had killed his real father without knowing it. Oedipus is seen as god like to the people of Thebes because it was him who solved the sphinxes riddles. In the play he is accused by Teiresias of killing the king and Oedipus blames his brother in law and kreon of trying to over throw him. Then his wife Jocasta comes into the scene and tells a story of how the king was killed. It is then that Oedipus learns of his childhood and becomes more suspicious then ever. He then calls a shepherd and a messenger to help answer questions. The people tell him to stop asking about the death because he may not like the answer but Oedipus makes the ultimate sacrifice and continues to

In the beginning of the story, Oedipus is very taken back by the situation. He will not accept the truth of his fate and accuses Tiresias of lying to him so Oedipus’s bother- in- law, Creon, could take the throne. Oedipus is extremely dumbfounded by this news because he had no knowledge of killing his father or marrying his mother, but what he learns later is that who he thought were his parents were not his real parents. When he finally realizes that he did in fact marry his own mother and kill his father, he accepts it and punishes himself in order to uphold his promise to his people. By this point there is no way Oedipus can escape his fate. Tiresias says to Oedipus, “No man in the world can make the gods do more than the gods will” (811). Since he did kill his father, the previous king, Oedipus has to be shunned by all of Thebes. Because there is no way of changing his fate, he accepts his responsibilities by giving himself the punishment he assigned to the murderer of Laius.

Oedipus the King is a tragedy that displays irony throughout the play. In the play, King Laius and his wife Jocasta learn that in the prophecy their newborn son, Oedipus, will kill his father and marry his mother. In order to prevent the prophecy from occurring, they decide to bind and tie his ankles and then abandoned him. When Oedipus grew up, he eventually learned about this prophecy and decided to leave his parents. What he did not realize was that the parents who raised him were not his biological parents. On his voyage to Thebes, Oedipus ended up in a chariot accident

     Oedipus, of course, does not believe this news, and still tries to get to the bottom of this murder mystery. Each person that he questions unravels another piece of information which would eventually confirm Teiresias' accusation that Oedipus was the murderer.

There was an oracle told to Oedipus when he was younger that he would kill his father and wed his mother. Jocasta tells Oedipus that prophets are not correct all the time. She went on to tell him that she once bore a child to Laius, and Apollo told them that this child would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. At that point Oedipus was scared because of the oracle told to him when he was younger. It is ironic that Oedipus could have this much guilt placed on him in this short amount of time. He replied to her, "As I listen, my queen, my thoughts went reaching out and touched on memories that make me shudder..."(lines, 759-760). Oedipus has just reacted to what Jocasta, his wife/mother, has told him. He is terrified because he believes that he may have been the one who killed Laius. Oedipus goes on to ask Jocasta multiple questions about who, what when and where this all happened. After every answered question Oedipus reacted with more and more grief. Every question showed more and more evidence that Oedipus had been the murderer of Laius. When the messenger

When the play opens, the people of the town are asking Oedipus for help. A curse has been cast upon the city and the only way to remove it, is to find the murderer of the last king, Laios.

Early on in the story, Oedipus is the proud and confident king of Thebes; he is a man that is not to be underestimated or degraded. This once undisputed fact becomes more debatable the longer the play continues, however. The conflict begins with Oedipus attempting to lift a curse that has been unleashed on the kingdom of Thebes. This curse was caused by the murder of the previous king, Laius, and the only way for it to be lifted is for the murderer to be exiled from Thebes. Oedipus works fervently to unravel the mystery behind who Laius’ killer was. However, each new discovery ends up incriminating Oedipus as the killer instead. Along the way Oedipus discovers that his supposed parents, the king and queen of Corinth, are not his true parents. This revelation pushes him to begin a new search for his biological parents, a search that eventually leads him to one of Lainus’ shepherds. It is this shepherd that reveals to King Oedipus that his mother is Jocasta, his current wife. Consequently, Oedipus falls into a fit of despair in which he stabs his own eyes out and confronts the consequences of his shameful existence. By the end of the play, Oedipus has not only lost his status as the king of Thebes, but has also been exiled from the kingdom and has become an outcast for all of society to hate. The transition Oedipus undergoes

In this case, Oedipus has a certain prophecy that he needs to kill his father and sleep with his mother. Doing so, he can break the curse on Thebes and he will not be shamed upon for being a king and letting his city fall. Oedipus was trying to avoid the absurd prophecy by leaving his adopted parents and living a life on his own. But, on his journey, Oedipus killed his father and married his mother. Oedipus believed they were strangers until Creon explained everything. The love of his life Jocasta, was revealed to be his birth mother. He had fulfilled his prophecy without intention. Jocasta could not take the stressful humiliation and life she had just taken on, so she committed suicide. When Jocasta's death occurred, Oedipus was filled with sorrow and decided he couldn't dare show go out in the world knowing what he just did. So Oedipus unpinned the golden brooches from the robe Jocasta was hanging in, and stabbed his eyes repeatedly while pleading “they will never see the crime I have committed or had done upon me! Dark eyes, now in the days to come look on forbidden faces, do not recognize those who those you long for.” On page 516 lines 192-196, this shows his unhappy fate from the hardships in life.

If we examine his quest for identity, it becomes quite apparent that the sequence of events are quite coincidental. First, he summons Tiresias to name the killer, whom Oedipus does not at the time believe to be himself. Second, the tragic hero emerges as anything but a

As the play proceeds and Oedipus is passed from hand to hand, he eventually ends up in the home of King Polybus and Queen Merope were he grows into a young man being fed the lie that they were his true parents. When Oedipus is told the prophecy that he will kill his father he flees in an attempt to avoid the murder. However, as fate would have it he ran to a crossroad where he fulfilled the prophecy killing King Laius, his true father. While Oedipus continues to run he meets Jocasta, his birth mother, whom he eventually marries and has children with. If Jocasta had kept Oedipus as a baby and raised him or just killed him herself there would have been no chance of the prophecy coming true.

Finding out who his true father is seems important for someone who has just been told he will kill his father. Nor is Oedipus particularly intelligent about the way he conducts himself. Even though he did not know that Laius and Jocasta were his parents, he still does kill a man old enough to be his father and marry a woman old enough to be his mother. One would think that a man with as disturbing a prophesy over his head as Oedipus would be very careful about who he married or killed. Blindly he pursues the truth when others warn him not to; although he has already fulfilled the prophesy, he does not know it, and if he left well enough alone, he could continue to live in blissful ignorance. But instead he stubbornly and foolishly rummages through his past until he discovers the awful truth. In this way, Jocasta 's death and his blindness are his own fault.

Also, this made Oedipus lonely and feel more guilty and grief of his actions. The second messenger says “the greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves”(exodos 67). Jocasta should’ve not married her son if she did not want to face all those trouble in her life. I believe she made the wrong choice to marry Oedipus. However, Oedipus is now left alone with the death of his mother. First was the mystery of the death of Laius and know Jocasta have committed suicide, to end all sorrow and problems in her life. The death of Jocasta is what made Oedipus very anxious, realize his flaws and find the truth about his life. Oedipus blames Apollo for his monstrous fate and destiny. “Dear Children, the god was Apollo. He brought my sick, sick fate upon me” (Sophocles 72). Oedipus cries out loud and says “How could I bear to see when all my sight was horror everywhere? (72 line 12-13). Oedipus now wishes to die “If only I had died, this weight of monstrous doom” (73 line 4-5). This was the end of Oedipus’s life as he is left with no love, friends, hope, and bliss. He had ruined the life of many people. At the end you can see more of the grief Oedipus faces as

Sophocles ' play “Oedipus Tyrannus” is an enigma. His play includes incest, murder and self-enlightenment all leading into the main theme of fate. Athenians believed that fate is not left up to man, but that is provided solely on the whims of the gods. Because of his dramatic approach to his plays Sophocles was considered one of the most brilliant and creative writers of his time.

Oedipus’ intense amount of self confidence is so great that Oedipus actually curses whoever the killer is, this is an example of irony, because Oedipus later finds out that he was the killer all along, and that he ended up cursing himself. Another clue of this is a quote from Oedipus while he was talking to the prophet Teiresias, “Yea, I am wroth, and will not stint my words, But speak my whole mind. Thou methinks thou art he, Who planned the crime, aye, and performed it too, All save the assassination; and if thou Hadst not been blind, I had been sworn to boot That thou alone didst do the bloody deed.” (Sophocles 345-350). In this quote, Oedipus’ ego is once again affecting him, as he refuses to even consider what the prophet Teiresias is saying about not looking into who the murderer is, but Oedipus ironically does accuse him of being the killer. These quote help the reader realize that the mystery of Oedipus Rex for Oedipus is to discover who Laius’ killer