Sins Of The Fathers : Man 's Hubris Vs. Fate 's Intervention

The city of Thebes, and by extension Creon’s rule, is praised by the chorus in reference to a “tribute to Zeus” (p130) and the grandeur of divine blessings bestowed upon the city. Creon, despite being the king of Thebes, makes his claim to power in the context of the divine, backing up his statements with “God above [as] my witness” (p131). Creon’s attempts to control Thebes as the gods are ultimately futile, as despite his worldly power, it is Zeus and the other gods who hold true power. King Lauis, the father of Oedipus, is also referenced as an example of moral virtue by Creon, as well as King Oedipus, who “so wisely ruled us” (p131), which serves as a counterpoint to the divine virtue held by the gods. The importance of religious values in society is shown by the sentry’s “swear[ing] by God and heaven” (p133), as well as Creon’s oath with “Zeus as my

Oedipus Rex is a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles around 400 BC. The play is about the king of Thebes, Oedipus and his discovery on how fate is inevitable. In the play, Thebes is under a curse because their last king was murdered and no one knows who the murderer is. Oedipus takes it upon himself to discover who had killed the king and in doing so he discovers that the murderer is indeed himself. He learns this through a prophecy he had heard that stated: he would kill his father and marry his mother. Which occurs when he kills a traveler on the road and marries the queen of Thebes, who is his biological mother. In the play, Oedipus is a man full of hubris as the reader observes him denying the truth, time and time again until the evidence is undeniable. The other characters in

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,

In Sophocles play Oedipus the King, Sophocles depicts the horrible fate of Oedipus, a pompous, arrogant young ruler. The story begins in the Greek town of Thebes. A plague has descended upon the Thebians causing death and famine throughout the land. Oedipus, being the heroic king, takes full responsibility to find out the cause of their aliments. While working to discover the source of the plague, Oedipus stumbles upon the tragic truth of his heritage and the horrifying implications of his appointment to the throne. Unfortunately for Oedipus, everything ends in tragedy. With the suicide of his mother/wife and the self-inflicted blindness followed by exile from Thebes, Oedipus paved the path to his own

Starting with Sophocles primary play, “Oedipus Rex,” the relationship between Oedipus and his parents support the works theme of fate and pride. Through antecedent action told throughout “Oedipus Rex,” Oedipus received a prophecy that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother. Jocasta, his biological mother additionally received a prophecy long before Oedipus pronouncing her child to kill her husband. Both, Jocasta and Oedipus recall that they can outsmart the prophecies by avoiding the fate in which they write. With extreme pride that they carry out avoidance plans that contribute to the plot and irony of Sophocles work. Jocasta sentenced her son to death to avoid her prophecy. Oedipus ran from his perceived “real parents,” from Corinth to Thebes to avoid his fate, killing a stranger on the way to the new kingdom. Eventually, Oedipus and Jocasta get married and conceive children together providing accuracy to their fate later when all mysterious are discovered. Their relationships shows that the Gods are beyond their control, even though with their hubris that noted they could get out of it. The family relationship aspect of “Oedipus Rex,” situation adds more dramatized plot to Sophocles work. Faith in the trilogies is a concept in all of Sophocles three plays that can unarguably be avoided, Oedipus and Jocasta having the same thought process and traits shows a son and mother relationships. Jocasta and Oedipus marrying one another is Sophocles way of creating the irony for viewers of the play.

In the plays Oedipus Rex and Antigone by Sophocles, Oedipus and Creon exert similar characteristics as leaders that ultimately result in their characterization as tragic heroes. They take a similar course throughout their stories, which leads to a similar fate, resulting in tragedy. Both characters tried to revive a city in need, but in the process, the hubris they possessed got in the way. Both men had the chance to see that their actions would lead to a tragic ending, but neither one could see around their pride. Because of their tragic flaws, these two rulers caused great pain to themselves, their family and the people of Thebes. Although Oedipus and Creon ruled over Thebes at different times, the truth

In Sophocles’ tragic drama Oedipus the King, Oedipus, the king of Thebes, suddenly realizes that he killed his father and marries his mother. Oedipus shows great concern for his kingdom and his people, calling to “drive the corruption from the land” by bringing Laius’s murderer to justice (109). He summons Tiresias to find Laius’ murderer, but Oedipus becomes enraged when Tiresias accuses Oedipus of being the murderer. Oedipus, thinking that Creon is involved in this so-called conspiacy as well makes false accusations against Creon. Much to his surprise, however, Oedipus learns that the man he killed long ago is Laius, his father, and that Oedipus’ wife, Jocasta, is his mother, all in

Blindness and sight is more prominent in Oedipus Tyrannus, with the dramatic ending of the play in which the King of Thebes blinds himself after finally seeing the truth. However, Sophocles uses the same vehicle to maintain the theme in the chronologically later play the Antigone; Tiresias once again exhibits the motif by sharing the ominous warning to Creon that ultimately is disregarded, leaving Creon to finally “the truth.” It is not until the very end of the play that Creon realizes that he has neglected his family in his obsession with the state of Thebes. The theme that fate is inescapable is apparent in both plays. The idea of an inescapable fate is portrayed through Oedipus inadvertently and unknowingly fulfilling the prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother.

“Fate has terrible power. You cannot escape it by wealth or war. No fort will keep it out, no ships outrun it.” Sophocles explains in this quote that no force can stop the unbeatable power of fate, a theme that is present throughout his play, Oedipus the King. Oedipus, the protagonist, is fated by the gods to marry his mother and kill his father. Therefore, he moves away from Corinth in order to try and avoid his fate and becomes the king of Thebes. A few years later, Thebes is wracked with plague and hardships, and Creon, Oedipus’s brother-in-law, is sent to find out why. When Creon returns with an oracle from Apollo, he explains that the hardships of Thebes are happening because the murderer of Laius, the former king

     The heart of the story unravels when Oedipus apparently begins to suffer a reversal of fortunes. At the beginning of the play, Oedipus is referred to by the priest as the “king of the land, [the city of Thebes’] greatest power” (16). Through all of Thebes he is thought of as a hero, a man who saved the city from the Sphinx and in his bravery has promised to find the killer of King Laius in order to save the city from doom and death. However, at the climax of the story Oedipus learns that he has been “cursed in [his] birth, cursed in marriage / and cursed in

When Teiresias asks in Antigone (line 1051), "What prize outweighs the priceless worth of prudence?" he strikes (as usual) to the heart of the matter in Sophocles' Theban Plays. Sophocles dramatizes the struggle between fate and free will, in one sense, but in another sense the drama might be better understood as the struggle between the will of the goods (which it is prudent to follow, according to Teiresias) and man's will (which is often imprudent). Sophocles' characters are moved by their own wills, of course (either in accordance or in conflict with the will of the gods). Oedipus in Oedipus the King is determined to pursue the truth in spite of the objections of Jocasta, the priest, and his own misgivings. In Oedipus at Colonus, Theseus "cannot rest" (line 1773) until he has served both Antigone and the late Oedipus (implying that conscience is his motivator awareness, in other words, of his duty towards them). In Antigone, Antigone acts in accordance to the will of the gods (but in disobedience to the will of Creon) and does so knowing the punishment that awaits her: "Go I, his prisoner, because I honored those things to which honor truly belongs" (lines 178-9). This paper will show how while fate is a powerful force in The Theban Plays, the characters themselves are still left to exercise their own free will (either with respect or disrespect to will of the gods). Thus, the main drama consists not in the

It is the responsibility of man to take ownership of his destiny which separates the human condition for that of other earthly beasts. From birth, Oedipus, the tragic hero of Sophocles’ Greek Tragedy Oedipus Rex, is destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Although by the opening act of the play, Oedipus has earned the throne of Thebes for solving the riddle of the Sphinx, the eponymous character is unaware that he has already fulfilled his prophecy. Meanwhile, the people of Thebes are dying of a plague that will only end when the unknown murderer of Laius, the previous Theban King, is punished. Through retrospection, Oedipus believes that he might be responsible for Laius death and is told that the King and Queen of Corinth who

Chaos has the uncanny ability of slipping through the cracks of a city’s firm foundation and poisoning the area. Disguised as a hero, Oedipus is welcomed as the king of Thebes and is endlessly praised for his gallantry and wisdom. Citizens view him as the savior who rescued them from the Sphinx’s wrath, but unbeknownst to them and even Oedipus himself, he is the very pollution who causes all the ongoing chaos in the city. He vows to expose and penalize the murderer for the unjustified act of regicide to appease Apollo and lift the plague, yet when Teiresias accuses him of being the contamination, he repudiates the charge and blames Creon instead of accepting responsibility. His “wisdom” fails him even with evidence staring him in the face, and hubris blinds him to the painful truth that he killed his own blood. By slaughtering his father, he takes Laius’s identity and transfers into the stage of an old man: “But the moment he slips into old age… he becomes at best a man of words and of wise counsel, and at worst a pitiable wreck” (Vernant, 167). Once Oedipus is unmasked as the perpetrator, they pity the broken man he becomes, but are disgusted by his vileness, and exile him to a lifetime of suffering protecting themselves from the fury of Apollo that Oedipus imposes upon them.

Traditionally, hamartia has been identified either as being a “tragic flaw”—a serious physical, psychological, or moral flaw in an otherwise impeccable character—or as being directly caused by such a flaw. For example, Laurence Berns states, “As a result of a flaw natural to his kind, the tragic hero harms and destroys those he loves most. It is those very qualities for which he is admired and honored that cause him to wreak great evils” (77). Oedipus, then, is said to be a just and noble ruler who cares for his people as though they were his own children. Indeed, Oedipus addresses the citizens of Thebes as “children” in Sophocles’ tragedy Oedipus the King (111–113), and he burns with an admirable passion to discover the truths pertaining both to his own past and to the cause(s) behind the plague besetting his city . The fundamental purpose of this dramatic story is that a king picks up his legacy by killing Laius who is his father, so he can fill in as imperial ruler in Delphi. The metaphysical realities revealed through Oedipus' actions go beyond the noble/base, advantageous/injurious or pleasant/painful noted above. Oedipus' actions can be further defined as either virtuous (virtue) or vicious (vice). Virtue and vice are metaphysically manifested through Oedipus' actions in the play.

In the Greek play, Oedipus unknowingly has cursed the entire town of Thebes. He was cursed to kill his father and marry his mother but never knew who his true parents were. As a result of him escaping from the town he was sent off to, he did exactly what was prophesied, killing his own father and marrying his mother, without knowing who his parents were. His father was the king and