Essay on Oedipus The King: Role Of Gods

Equally important to the role of fate in bringing about the downfall of Oedipus is the human flaw of arrogance that clouded Oedipus’ intellect to reason. One can ultimately see this human flaw in the beginning of the play as he says “Here I am myself – you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus” (p 262, line 7-9). One day Oedipus heard someone say that he wasn’t his father’s son in which bothered him greatly and triggered his curiosity in whether Polybus and Merope were his biological parents. So, as a way to figure out his identity and true origins, he left to Delphi to see the Oracle. However, instead of answering Oedipus’ answer of who his true parents were, the Oracle told him of his fate that “You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see – you will kill your father the one who gave you life” (p. 297, lines 873-875). Hence, his arrogance is clearly showed as he disregards the prophecy, similar to the actions of Laius and Jocasta by escaping it, as he abandons Corinth and sets forth to a place where he “would never see the shame of all those oracles come true” (p. 297, lines 879-880). His flaw of

During his life time, Oedipus was blind to truth, at first, he did not know that Jocasta and Laius were his actual parents. He even rebelled against anyone that would not give him the reason or someone that would contradict him. After so many attempts to evade the truth, he ends up giving up about what is the actual truth. He agrees and accepts that Liaus and Jocasta were his parents, and he ended up killing his father and marrying his mother; he was the one causing hopelessness in Thebes. After he starts to realize all these truths, he decided to blind himself, and become in Teiresias same position. “ And since you have reproached me with my blindness, I say – you have your sight, and do not see what evils are about you, nor with whom, nor in what home you are dwelling.” In this quote, a theme such as blindness is shown through Teiresias’ words to Oedipus, to whom he is telling that even with his physical sight, in the inside he is blind because he is unwilling to know the truth about his life. He also tells Oedipus that since he does not see the truth about his life, he doesn’t see the anguish of his life either.

Many times in life, people think they can determine their own destiny, but, as the Greeks believe, people cannot change fate the gods set. Though people cannot change their fate, they can take responsibility for what fate has brought them. In the story Oedipus, by Sophocles, a young king named Oedipus discovers his dreadful fate. With this fate, he must take responsibility and accept the harsh realities of what’s to come. Oedipus is a very hubris character with good intentions, but because he is too confident, he suffers. In the story, the city of Thebes is in great turmoil due to the death of the previous king, Laius. With the thought of helping his people, Oedipus opens an investigation of King Laius’s murder, and to solve the mystery,

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

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.

The display of god’s power over one’s fate demonstrates that the will of the gods is what determines the future. Furthermore, in Antigone, the chorus says, “Fortunate is the man who has never tasted God’s vengeance! / When once the anger of the heavens has struck, that house is shaken” (I.ii.465-466). Oedipus incurred god's vengeance which determines his and his children’s fate.

Oedipus’ destiny or fate had little to do with his downfall. The prophet told Oedipus that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother, but the prophet never mentioned Oedipus murdering Laius on the highway, or solving the Sphinx’s riddle, or accepting and taking advantage of his kingship. Oedipus blinding himself was an example of free will, “for he removed from…[Jocasta’s] garment the golden brooches which she was wearing…” by choice “…and struck the sockets of his own eyes..” blinding himself Free will and hubris, according to the ancient Greeks, were separate from unavoidable fate. Oedipus’s fate was to kill his father and marry his mother. However, everything else, including fleeing Corinth, solving the Sphinx’s riddle, and finally pursuing the truth about his life, was by his own free will, a direct result of his ego and pride. Oedipus Rex is a story about the dangers of pride and arrogance, one teaching about the importance of humility and tolerance, and one stressing about the control of hubris, a potentially perilous quality that destroyed Oedipus’s vision and his life.

King Oedipus’ problem is that he is too arrogant. His arrogance is what causes him to be “blind”. Not knowing he was the killer of Laius made him blind. He was also blind to the fact that Jocasta, his wife, who actually his mom, and Laius was his dad. Although people kept dropping hints to him, but his ignorance and his overbearing attitude didn’t allow him to see the truth. For instance, a blind prophet named Tiresias tried to point out to Oedipus who the killer was, hoping he’d catch on. While having a conversation about the killer with the seer Tiresias, Oedipus states, “All right King, you mock my blindness…You think you know your parents, but you are blind to the fact that you are their worst enemy!” (Oedipus the King 46). Even though the blind prophet basically told him everything, his arrogance got in his way. Therefore, Oedipus is torn when he finds out about his parents.

A citizen of Periclean Athens may not have been familiar with the term entrapment, but he or she would surely have recognized the case of Oedipus as such.  The tragedy of Oedipus is that he was ensnared by the gods.  As Teiresias points out, "I say that with those you love best you live in foulest shame unconsciouslyÖ" (italics mine)  God is continuously indicted for having caused Oedipusí troubles.  The chorus asks, "What evil spirit leaped upon your life to your ill-luckÖ?"  And Oedipus himself is well aware of the source of his troubles:  "It was Apollo, friends, Apollo, that brought this bitter bitterness, my sorrows to completion."  Blinded and humiliated, Oedipus thanks Creon for

In ancient Greece, there was veneration for the gods as mystical powers who governed the universe. There were gods for all the important aspects of life and the ancient Greeks believed the gods influenced all human activity. Today we would generally refer to such beliefs as religion. Interestingly, the Greeks did not have a word for “religion”. Such beliefs were not a distinct aspect of everyday life, but rather a fundamental part of it (Garland). It may seem ironic to analyze “religion” in Oedipus Rex; but, in reality, the Greek’s relationship with the gods is a fundamental aspect of the story of Oedipus. “Certain forms of behavior did offend

There are definitely two arguments on whether or not Oedipus had fallen to fate or made his own decisions, but if you think about it, the prophecy stated literally everything that was going to happen, and maybe it would not had happened if Oedipus did not seek out everything because the prophecy only unfolded when he began to venture out and look for the problem trying to solve his own problems. Him doing this unraveled something much worse and is what led him to his banishment, so if you think about it, maybe fate did bring him to this terrible ending, but how can we be for sure because he did make these decisions himself. Jocasta and Laius were the two to blame for believing in such a thing and leaving their child to die a terrible death, only to come back and have the prophecy happen anyways.

In scene 3 on lines 359-360, Teiresias calls out Oedipus by stating “you child of endless night! You cannot hurt me or any other man that sees the sun ”. Teiresias a servant of god, knows the truth just as he knows what will come of it, if it shall ever be known to others. The truth being that Oedipus was the child who was condemned to death, the child who has now killed his father and wed his mother. Teiresias tells Oedipus “how dreadful knowledge of the truth can be when there’s no help in truth! I knew this well, but made myself forget”(1.304-306). As a servant of Apollo Teiresias knows as much as Apollo would allow him to know. If Apollo knew who the killer was from the beginning of the play then why send a plague to the city of Thieves, if not for his own amusement. Apollo wanted to push Oedipus out of his high throne as well as forcing him to accept the power of the gods, even if that also meant throwing a whole city into an

Oedipus displayed his faulty character throughout the play by showing how he is filled with ill-temper and pride, especially during his confrontation with Apollo’s blind prophet, Tiresias. He allowed his own hubris to take over him, eventually leading to his disaster at the end of the story. Now, some critics may argue that Oedipus did not actually go through a downfall in the play, but when looking back at the definition of a tragic hero, it can be seen that there are evidence to prove that Oedipus is a tragic hero.

Although it is usually known that all gods should be fair and display justice and equality amongst human beings, the gods in the poem Oedipus the King decided to destroy Oedipus together using his own family with no real reason behind their actions. This is the opposite of what people expect gods to do, because we like to think that gods posses more humanistic traits like sympathy and love. For instance, I would consider the gods in the poem as evil, since they destroyed man’s life and their families. This is against the people’s wish about the gods because people expects gods to protect them and not to destroy their life and the life of their families, hence this acts of the gods are

The ancient Greeks accepted the fact that their gods possessed the ability to foresee future events, and that certain people, seers, could access this information. Oracles, priests often associated with a certain god-such as the oracle to Apollo at Delphi-were believed to be able to interpret visions from the gods and provide prophecies to people seeking knowledge of the future. Oracles were a part of Greek life -many people, including famous leaders and common folk, consulted them for help when making difficult decisions. Many years before Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus fulfills one of the most famous and tragic prophecies in literature-that he would kill his father marry his mother. Despite all the efforts undertaken to prevent this horrid fate, the prophecy comes true. Oedipus killed his father and married his mother, which drove her to suicide, yet Oedipus did not knowingly commit these sins. As he realizes what he has done, his overwhelming guilt induces him to gouge out his eyes and become an outcast and a beggar. The reaction when he discovers what he has done in Oedipus Tyrannus is violent and chaotic; however, in Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus’s sense of guilt for his famous sins is more complex. He has suffered much for what he did, and he still feels guilt and repulsion. He is still too ashamed to talk about his past when asked by the citizens of Colonus; however, Oedipus has a better perspective of his actions through time. He understands that his intent was