Omar Abd-ElNasser - Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex - Study Guide

Oedipus Rex, translated from Latin as "Oedipus the King," is one of the greatest works of tragedy in the ancient world and was first performed around 430–426 BCE. Considered Sophocles's greatest masterpiece, it is the first in a trilogy of plays centered on the mythical king, the others being Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. Though inherently noble, Oedipus is the victim of a prophecy in which he kills his own father and weds his mother despite his attempts to avoid this fate.

Overview

Author

Sophocles

First Performed

c. 430–426 BCE

Type

Play

Genre

Tragedy

Perspective and Narrator

In this typical Greek tragedy, a chorus introduces and comments on the story in Oedipus Rex and converses with the characters.

About the Title

Oedipus Rex is Latin and means "Oedipus the King," which is the title of later translations of the play.

Plot Summary

Oedipus Rex begins with Oedipus, king of Thebes. He had arrived years before as a stranger after the death of King Laius. He was given the crown because he saved the city from the Sphinx, a mythological creature with a human head, a lion's body, and wings. He speaks with the high priest about the plague that has spread throughout the city and asks what he can do to help. The priest suggests he send someone to consult Apollo, and Oedipus replies that he has already sent Creon, his brother-in-law. Creon returns and reports that Oedipus must find Laius's killer and avenge his death in order to save his people from this pestilence.

The Chorus fearfully sings to Zeus, asking what he has in store for the people of Thebes. They call on several gods to alleviate the suffering that is sweeping the city.

Oedipus then asks his people to tell him what they know about Laius's killer. He warns them to bring forth the killer if they find him. To aid in the search, the Chorus suggests to Oedipus that he consult the old, blind prophet Teiresias to find out what he knows.

A boy leads Teiresias to the king, but at first the prophet refuses to say what he knows. Oedipus is furious and presses Teiresias, who finally relents and says that Oedipus himself is the cause of the pestilence. Oedipus flies into a rage and accuses Teiresias of plotting with Creon to take over the throne. He orders Teiresias to leave, but before the prophet does he tells Oedipus that the killer is in Thebes, will become blind, and will turn out to be both the son and the husband of his mother.

The Chorus sings of its confusion regarding Teiresias's prophecy and insists that it sides with Oedipus no matter what he did because he saved the city from the Sphinx. Still, the Chorus is afraid that the prophecy may be true.

Creon is horrified that Oedipus has accused him of getting Teiresias to lie so that he can grab the throne. He insists he does not want the throne and does not know what Teiresias is talking about. He suggests consulting the oracle at Delphi if Oedipus thinks he is lying. Oedipus wants to either kill him or banish him from the city for treason.

Along with the Chorus, Jocasta, Oedipus's wife, comes in and begs Oedipus to trust Creon's oath before heaven. Oedipus reluctantly agrees and sends Creon out of the palace without punishing him. Jocasta then tells Oedipus of a prophecy that a son of hers with Laius would kill his father. She and Laius pinned the child's ankles together and had a shepherd put him in the wilderness to avoid the prophecy. Nonetheless, Laius was killed at a place where three roads meet.

Oedipus recognizes this place and the circumstances of Laius's death. He asks Jocasta to send for the remaining witness of Laius's death, a slave. He also tells Jocasta about his parents in Corinth but says he has been told they are not his real parents. Years ago he received the same prophecy—that he would bed his mother and kill his father. Oedipus ran away from Corinth to escape the prophecy, never to return. Along the way he met with travelers, one of whom hit him. Oedipus struck back and ended up killing them all. Jocasta sends for the slave but insists that everything will be fine because she and Laius got rid of their son.

The Chorus sings of the power of prophecy and the foolishness of men who try to avoid their fates. They say that, if the prophecy is not actually true, then their religious faith is in danger of dying.

Jocasta comes to the altar of Apollo and places an offering there. A messenger comes to tell her that Polybus, who is supposedly Oedipus's father, has died of natural causes. This news gives her hope that the prophecy is not true because Polybus was not killed by his son. Oedipus pronounces oracles worthless but says there is still one thing that bothers him: his mother, Merope, is still alive, and the other part of the prophecy claims that he will sleep with his mother. Jocasta tells him not to worry about it.

The messenger then says that there is no reason for Oedipus to avoid going back to Corinth because he is not, in fact, the real son of Polybus and Merope. Oedipus was a gift from a shepherd who found him on a rock with his ankles bound. It turns out that the shepherd, who gave the child to the messenger to give to Polybus and Merope, was a servant of Laius, the very servant they have called to come explain what he witnessed when Laius was killed. Jocasta suddenly realizes who Oedipus is and tells him she hopes he never figures this out and pleads with him not to seek the truth. She runs into the palace, frantic.

The Chorus sings about the questions of who fathered whom. They also sing about the gods and their parentage. The Chorus worries about Jocasta's grief over Oedipus, but Oedipus dismisses Jocasta's feelings.

The shepherd is called in and tells Oedipus of the child he brought to the messenger. He does not want to say where he got the child because he was supposed to have left the child on a rock to die. The messenger is present at the scene and serves as a witness. He coaxes the shepherd to confess his role in keeping the infant alive. Oedipus was the son of Laius whom the shepherd gave to the messenger. Jocasta had, in fact, ordered him to kill the child to avoid the prophecy, but the shepherd took pity on the child. Now the shepherd and Oedipus both know that Oedipus was that child, and the prophecy has come true.

The Chorus sings of the prophecy and its horrors. They wish they had never seen Oedipus, even though he saved the city of Thebes.

Oedipus is furious with Jocasta and wants to kill her, but Oedipus finds her after she has already hung herself. He uses the brooches from her clothes to put out his eyes so that he will no longer see the horror that is his life. A second messenger reveals to the Chorus what has taken place. Oedipus then enters the scene to engage directly with the Chorus, which tell him he should have also killed himself rather than live blind. His children are brought to him by Creon, and Oedipus tells them that he is their brother as well as their father.

Oedipus begs Creon to take care of his daughters so that their lives will not be as horrible as his and tells Creon to send him away. Creon takes pity on him and wants to keep him at the palace, but Oedipus says he wants to live in the mountains. Creon agrees to let him go but tells him he must leave his children behind for he now has no power over them.

The Chorus sings of the unhappy tale: how a powerful man has fallen and how death is the only thing that will bring happiness to mortals.

Characters

Oedipus

Oedipus leaves his home city of Corinth believing he will escape Apollo's prophecy that he will kill his father and sleep with his mother. While on the road, he kills a traveler and most of the traveler's servants. When Oedipus arrives in Thebes, he is a stranger, but Oedipus eventually becomes king of the city after saving it from the Sphinx. He marries Jocasta, King Laius's widow, and has four children with her by the beginning of the play. Now the city is suffering from a plague, and Oedipus discovers that it is his actions that brought the pestilence upon it. He blinds himself when he realizes the horrible prophecy he originally tried to escape has come true.

Jocasta

Jocasta is as eager as Oedipus to avoid the prophecy that her son will sleep with her and kill his father. To ensure that the prophecy will not come true, she orders the shepherd who left her baby boy, bound at the ankles, to kill him before leaving him. She tries to keep Oedipus from acting in anger. She is steadfast in her certainty that oracles are silly and not to be believed, but she prays to the gods at their altars anyway. Her public beliefs do not match her private ones, and when she discovers what she has done by marrying Oedipus and having children with him, she hangs herself.

Creon

Creon is sent to the oracle when Oedipus cannot figure out what to do about the plague, and he willingly goes because he believes that the gods are the ones who direct the fate of human beings. When Oedipus accuses him of wanting the throne and plotting with Teiresias, Creon explains that he most certainly does not want to rule Thebes and is loyal to Oedipus. When the terrible prophecy about Jocasta and Oedipus comes true, Creon wants to keep Oedipus at the palace, regardless of the horrible things he has done, and he tries to comfort him by bringing his children to see him. Creon does end up taking the throne and the responsibility for the children only because Oedipus can no longer rule. Creon is the moral center of the play.

Teiresias

Teiresias, according to the Chorus, is on the same level as the god Apollo when it comes to seeing the truth. Teiresias does not want to tell Oedipus what he knows because he immediately sees that it is the fulfillment of the prophecy that has caused the pestilence in Thebes. However, when pressed, he tells what he knows and is sent away by an angry Oedipus.

Symbols

Crossroads

A major symbol in Oedipus Rex is that of the crossroads, the place where the three roads meet in Phocis. When people are said to be at a crossroads, they are about to make decisions that will influence the rest of their lives in major ways. At this crossroads Oedipus kills his father. He does not realize he has fulfilled part of his fate, but the crossroads, as a symbol of a life-altering decision, tells the audience otherwise before Oedipus himself realizes what he has done.

Swollen Feet

Oedipus's name means "swollen feet" or "knowledge of one's feet." His feet were pierced and bound when he was an infant and his parents abandoned him. He was rescued by a messenger, but his feet were scarred as a result. The scars symbolize the crippling fate destined for him from his birth. It is an example of situational irony that neither Oedipus nor Jocasta connect his scars with the story of his birth.

Themes

Self-Discovery

The play is full of self-discovery, but, as is often the case in a tragedy, the self-discovery is painful if not deadly. As a younger man, Oedipus wants to know his true identity at the expense of his presumed parents, Polybus and Merope. In Episode 2 Oedipus tells Jocasta that years ago, in his home of Corinth, a drunken man accused him of not really being his parents' son. Although his parents reassured him that this information was not true, the story spread. He says, "But nonetheless, the accusation always troubled me—the story had become known everywhere. And so I went in secret off to Delphi." Oedipus reacts with selfish pride to the way people are talking about him. He does not find out whether he is really adopted, but Apollo gives him the terrible prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother. He leaves Corinth forever to avoid his fate, but by doing so he unwittingly brings this fate upon himself. Oedipus's desire to seek out his real parents and true identity is not a sign of selfish pride but simply natural curiosity. His pride lies in his personal conviction that he can defy the oracle and change the course of his fate.

Oedipus is persistent in that he sends Creon to the oracle to find out why his people are ill and is also willing to consult Teiresias. However, he cannot handle the answers he gets, and his pride flares again. He accuses Creon of plotting with Teiresias to overtake the throne. But, when he questions Jocasta about the death of Laius, both he and Jocasta begin to see parallels in their pasts, notably the same prophecy. Jocasta attempts to remain blind to her real identity and insists oracles are silly, but she continues to pray at the altar, revealing her budding self-knowledge to the audience. By the time the messenger says that the shepherd was the one who gave him a baby bound at its ankles, Jocasta knows the truth but still refuses to face it, and she tries to protect Oedipus from knowing how disastrous the situation really is. When Oedipus persists and says, "I cannot end this now. I must reveal the details of my birth," Jocasta replies, "In the name of the gods, no! If you have some concern for your own life, then stop! Do not keep on investigating this." Jocasta knows that Oedipus will suffer once he discovers his true identity: "O you unhappy man! May you never find out who you really are!" But the shepherd's story confirms Oedipus's lineage, and he discovers he is Jocasta and Laius's son.

Fate versus Free Will

A major theme in Sophocles's plays is the idea that the gods, not human beings, determine the fate of an individual. Sophocles was a religious man who did not question who was in control. His plays reflect his belief that suffering serves as a way to clarify the power of the gods and their intentions for humanity. In Oedipus Rex fate is unavoidable, no matter what lies the characters tell others and themselves and no matter what they do to ensure that they escape their destinies. In fact, the attempt to escape fate seems to be the very thing that ensures that fate is inescapable. Trying to avoid, rather than accept, one's fate increases one's suffering even more. This idea does not, however, eradicate free will and the choices characters make over the courses of their lives. A clear tension exists between fate and free will in Greek tragedy, illustrated by the perpetual conflict between humans and the gods.

Jocasta also tries to control events to avoid the same prophecy in an unimaginably awful way. She and Laius put a pin through the ankles of their own son, causing him to be lame and scarred for life, and order a shepherd to leave him exposed on a rock in the wilderness, which will surely mean his death. But Jocasta is so determined to avoid her fate that she goes one step further and tells the shepherd to kill the baby instead. The shepherd cannot go through with such a horrible, heartless order and disobeys Jocasta, handing the baby over to a messenger to give to Polybus and Merope. That baby is, of course, Oedipus. Jocasta's attempt to orchestrate infanticide secures her fate: the gods are not happy with that shameful act. Jocasta even tries to stop Oedipus from knowing the full story, and she is willing to accept her fate and suffer in silence as long as Oedipus does not know he is the one she tried to have killed. However, neither one can avoid fate nor the knowledge they have come face to face with.

Blindness

Sophocles builds the theme of blindness by having all of the characters in Oedipus Rex either start off as blind, become blind, refuse to see the truth, or wish they had never seen it. Blindness symbolizes the characters' ignorance. By extension this theme includes sight as well, and in Oedipus Rex none of the characters want to see what is finally revealed to be a terrible misjudgment of the power of the god Apollo. However, once they acquire the knowledge or understanding that leads to the truth, their vision becomes clear.

The first instance of blindness is Teiresias, the old, blind prophet. Interestingly, this type of blindness occurs in a character who is the first representation of the truth behind Oedipus's birth and life story. Willful blindness is something that both Creon and Jocasta have in common, to differing degrees. Creon, when accused of wanting the throne, says he does not want to deal with all of the problems that come with running a city. He would rather be blind to all of that and enjoy his life as the brother of a king and queen.

Jocasta, however, blinds herself to the power of the gods by trying to avoid her fate, and, when she discovers the truth about Oedipus, she adopts a willful blindness to the facts: "Why should a man whose life seems ruled by chance live in fear—a man who never looks ahead, who has no certain vision of his future?" She encourages Oedipus to join her in her blindness, and she keeps it up until she can no longer deny the facts. At that point Jocasta runs from the room. In the next episode, she kills herself rather than face what is before her.

After the shepherd admits that he disobeyed Jocasta's order to kill her son, everyone listening knows who Oedipus is and that the prophecy has come true. The Chorus wishes they were blind, singing, "O child of Laius, how I wish I'd never seen you."

Oedipus, having discovered that he has murdered his father and fathered children with his own mother, also has to witness the suicide of the woman who is both his wife and mother. He is the one who finds her hanging in their room, and her death raises his level of suffering to a degree that he cannot stand. He takes the brooches from her clothing and uses the pins to gouge out his eyes, blinding himself permanently. When the second messenger describes the agony of both Jocasta and Oedipus, the Chorus wishes they had never seen Oedipus.

Pride

Pride figures prominently in many Greek tragedies. It is closely related to the Greek idea of hubris, a character trait that leads a person to disregard the limits of human potential preordained by the gods. Oedipus is an intelligent man, but his pride gets the best of him.

Oedipus's pride ultimately leads to his downfall. Hamartia, often referred to as the tragic flaw, is one of the key aspects of Greek tragedy. The main characters in many tragedies are nearly superhuman but burdened with tragic flaws that prevent them from becoming godlike. Oedipus's tragic flaw is his pride. By attempting to escape the prophecy dictated by the gods, he ends up fulfilling it. In doing so, Oedipus becomes guilty of hubris as he tries to overcome his human limitations and rescind the prophecy.

Like Oedipus, Jocasta is guilty of pride and hubris in her attempt to alter fate and later deny it at various points. She sends Oedipus to die as an infant hoping to escape the prophecy. Many years later, when Oedipus reveals to her the prophecy he had heard, she denies it, yet she continues to pray at the altar of Apollo. When she realizes the prophecy has been fulfilled, she tries to shield Oedipus from the truth. Incapable of coping with the prophecy's fulfillment, she commits suicide.

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