Tiresias In Oedipus

The Greek drama “Oedipus The King” evidently leads to the unveiling of a tragedy. Oedipus, the protagonist of the play uncovers his tragic birth story and the curse he had been baring his whole life. Oedipus is notorious for his personal insight that helped him defeat Sphinx, which lead him to becoming the king of Thebes. He is admired by the people of Thebes and is considered to be a mature, inelegant and a rational leader. From his birth, his story began with a prophecy that Oedipus would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. Through out the play numerous people, who tell him of his unknown past, visit Oedipus. Blind to the truth he casts them away until a blind man named Therisis gives a sight of truth to Oedipus. As Oedipus learns the truth he realizes the great evil his life carries. After finding his wife and also mother hung in her bedroom, Oedipus blinds himself with the gold pins that held Jocasta’s robe. Oedipus blind to the truth is finally able to see when the old blind man visits him and tells him the truth about his life. Both metaphorically and physically sight plays a significant role in understanding the irony of a blind man seeing the truth while Oedipus who isn’t blind doesn’t seem to the truth that’s right in front of him.

Through the course of the play Oedipus is the detective, the judge, and the jury. He investigates, decides a verdict, and carries out his own punishment. When Tiresias arrives at Thebes Oedipus questions him looking for answers. Tiresias is a blind man, who ironically can see the future and truths of people’s lives. It is Tiresias who is the first person to tell Oedipus that he has killed his own father. He tells Oedipus “you do not see the evil in which you live.” Oedipus doubts Tiresias’ ability to see the truths because of his physical blindness and states, “ You

From the very beginning, what makes Oedipus ' actions in his quarrel with Teiresias and also throughout the play so dramatically compelling, is the fact that the audience knows the outcome of the story. We know Oedipus ' fate even before he does, and there is no suspense about the outcome itself, instead, the audience anxiously awaits Oedipus to reveal his fate unto himself in his desperate quest to rid his city of the terrible plague, or maybe even more so, to simply discover his own unfortunate tale. Oedipus is relentless in his pursuit of the truth, and his determination is commendable. There is nothing that compels him to act in this way, instead he freely chooses, with much zeal, to initiate the chain of events that will ultimately lead to his downfall. It is this interplay between Oedipus’ own free will and his fated eventuality that is the crux of the play, and constitutes the main dramatic power.

Oedipus the King by Sophocles is about Oedipus, a man doomed by his fate. Like most tragedies, “Oedipus the King” contains a tragic hero, a heroic figure unable to escape his/her own doom. This tragic hero usually has a hamartia or a tragic flaw which causes his/hers’ downfall. The tragic flaw that Sophocles gives Oedipus is hubris (exaggerated pride or self-confidence), which is what caused Oedipus to walk right into the fate he sought to escape.

the the halls of Hades, land of the dead, So I set sail on the wine

As prophets are the messengers of the gods, contesting with Tiresias is tantamount to defying the gods themselves. As king, he feels that he has the power to determine truth, and that he has supreme power over the city. He accuses Creon of conspiring with Tiresias, and threatens to exile or even kill him. Before Oedipus was the accused, his status as king gave him confidence and leadership, which are attributes that were productive in solving the mystery. After he was accused of murdering the former king, this status became a negative and caused him to be too overwhelmed with his power to identify the truth. This is also the point at which he stops trusting the divine ability of prophets. His mother Jocasta seems to stop trusting prophets at this point as well. She began to tell Oedipus not to listen to Tiresias, even though she proved at various points earlier in the story that she believed in prophecies. She pretentiously conveys a disbelief in prophecies as she speaks to her son and husband: "Fear? What should a man fear? It's all chance, chance rules our lives. Not a man on earth can see a day ahead, groping through the dark." She realizes that she failed in preventing the predetermined fate, but attempts to maintain the stability and reputation of the royal family by hiding the truth. The family would inevitably be destroyed, however, as was the will of the god Apollo. The inferiority of the family's political power compared with the divine power of

We, the citizens of Thebes, would like to thank you for taking the time out of your day and trying to educate us more about our Lord Oedipus. We, the people, have slowly learned more and more about Lord Oedipus, and his prophecy. Our lord has been ignorant, and not listened to his own citizens, and friends. Someone that can not listen to others, and are open to what they say can not be a Thebes ruler. The gods have punished us by giving us this king that has killed his father and has married his own mother. We have done nothing wrong, but have still encountered so much pain, and agony with Oedipus focusing on his personal life rather than focusing on the lives of his citizens. As you have said Oedipus needs to be rid

Hans Rockwell 8/26/17 Question 1 Question 1.) One of the responses people usually have about Oedipus is if he really deserved the fate that he ended up with. It’s not his fault that Jocasta and Laius tried to outsmart fate and dispose of him.

Ignorance can blind an individual from the truth. Plays were of great importance in early Greek culture. Plays were the main source of entertainment, and one of the most exceptional examples is Oedipus the King written by Sophocles. The drama is tremendously uplifted by the character development and the excellent structure Sophocles has put forward. Interactions between characters and each character’s motivations generate brilliant themes throughout the play. Sophocles uses a technique called recognition, which illustrates a character’s turn from ignorance to the truth. The play is about the city of Thebes which is racked by a plague and a crisis that is quickly wiping humans from the earth. The great king of Thebes is Oedipus who must dispose of the problem very quickly. He welcomes information from the god Apollo, who says Oedipus must punish the killer of the former king, Laius. In one of the instances where Oedipus tries to find the killer, he encounters Tiresias, who is a physically blind man but can see everything because he is a prophet of Apollo. Tiresias possesses the information but declines to cooperate with Oedipus. After a series of verbal insults, the audience is left in awe when Tiresias puts the blame on Oedipus. Similarly to Oedipus the King, dialogue “Allegory of the Cave” written by Plato also in the early Greek times, shows that ignorance can lead an individual to be blind from the truth. Sophocles magnificently develops a question of “Who sees and who is blind”. Also in Oedipus the King, Sophocles exhibits how selflessness and ignorance can blind a person from the truth, but eventually has to go through recognition which can cause great agony.

In ancient Greece, the oracle was expected to tell the prophecies regardless of how he felt about it come what may Teiresias refused to tell Oedipus what he wanted to know which was incomprehensible for that time. The audience knows the truth of the matter but the characters in the play do not so to them during this scene Teiresias comes across as egotistical and resistant in helping the city although that is far from the truth.

“Oedipus the King” contains many characters with differing characteristics. Some of these characteristics go hand-in-hand with the two main themes in the play.Tiresias and Oedipus in the play “Oedipus the King” are conflicting characters. These two characters illustrate the contrasting the differences of blindness & sight and knowledge & ignorance, and different interpretations of these ideas. The themes blindness & sight and knowledge & ignorance are similar in how they relate to each character.

Body paragraph 1 In the story Oedipus the king, Sophocles use literary motif of blindness and sight to his great advantage. Tiresias is the blind prophet of Thebes. He is well known in Greek mythology. In the play he represents the truth. This truth is continuously rejected by Oedipus. Early in the story Tiresias says “I’m not your servant. No I serve Apollo. So don't even mark me down as Creon’s myrmidon. I'm blind, you say, you mock at

In Sophocles greek tragedy Oedipus Rex, Oedipus’ actions toward Tiresias reveal that his tragic flaw is that he is very impulsive. When Tiresias arrives in Thebes Oedipus immediately starts to question Tiresias about who killed king Lauis. Tiresias knows the answers to all of Oedipus’ questions, but does not wish to share the secret. Oedipus continues to bother Tiresias in an effort to discover the secret, however, Tiresias refuses to give up the information. As a result of Tiresias withholding information Oedipus becomes impatient and grows angry. When Tiresias explains to Oedipus that he is not telling Oedipus the truth for the greater good of Thebes, Oedipus reacts in a rather harsh way. Oedipus responds to Tiresias “Nothing! You scum of the earth, you’d enrage a heart of stone! You won’t talk? Nothing moves you?” (Sophocles 391-394). In other words, Oedipus is calling Tiresias a terrible person that could make a person with no emotion angry. Oedipus thinks Tiresias is like this because he won’t tell him and the people of Thebes who the murderer of Lauis is. Because Oedipus starts to rattle off so many insults toward Tiresias, who is a respected elder in the greek community, his remarks are very impulsive. Oedipus did not think before he spoke, being disrespectful to someone who has great authority. As the conversation continues and Tiresias still refuses to share information and Oedipus’ frustration grows stronger. Tiresias and Oedipus banter back and forth. Tiresias tells Oedipus that he won’t say anything, Oedipus responds very abruptly and says “You helped hatch the plot, you did the work, yes, short of killing him with your own hands-and given eyes I’d say you did the killing single-handed” (Sophocles 394-397). Oedipus is trying to say that Tiresias knew about the murder even before the murder occurred, and that if Tiresias had the ability to see, he would’ve done the killing himself. Since Oedipus is accusing Tiresias of such a huge crime, this shows Oedipus’ impulsiveness because he started to accuse innocent people of things that they did not due simply because he is not getting his way.

"Oedipus the King" is a tragic play showing a shift from the belief of fate to freedom of choice. Therefore, Oedipus the king is a great example of those who run from fate ends up fulfilling their fate

as king to subject - to command him or beseech him to serve the common