Oedipus The King

Oedipus Rex

1. Oedipus the King by Sophocles
Prepared by Dr. Arlene Salve Opina ([email protected])

2. Two Daughters
Antigone
• Antigone,
• Ismene
• They were both
two extraordinary
women that went
through a lot
together despite
their differences.
• Antigone & Ismene

3. Two Sons
•Eteocles and Polyneices
The princes who had
refused to share
their inheritance
shared death
instead

4. Background
•The main character of the tragedy is Oedipus, son of King Laius
of Thebes and Queen Jocasta.
•After Laius learned from an oracle that "he was doomed/To
perish by the hand of his own son," Jocasta ordered a
messenger to leave him for dead "In Cithaeron's wooded
glens";
•Instead, the baby was given to a shepherd and raised in the
court of King Polybus of Corinth.
•When Oedipus grew up, he learned from the oracle, Loxias, that
he was destined to "Mate with [his] own mother, and shed/
With [his] own hands the blood of [his] own sire,“
•left Corinth under the belief that Polybus and Merope, were his
true parents.
•On the road to Thebes, he met Laius and they argued over
which wagon had the right-of-way.

5. •Oedipus' pride led him to kill Laius, ignorant of the fact
that he was his biological father, fulfilling part of the
oracle's prophecy.
•Oedipus then went on to solve the Sphinx's riddle:
"What is the creature that walks on four legs in the
morning, two legs at noon and three in the evening?"
To this Oedipus answered "Man,“
•Distraught that her riddle had been answered
correctly, the Sphinx threw herself off the side of the
wall.
•His reward for freeing the kingdom of Thebes from the
Sphinx's curse was kingship and the hand of the queen,
Jocasta, who was also his biological mother.
•Thus, the prophecy was fulfilled.

6. Plot
•The play begins years after Oedipus is given the throne of Thebes.
• The chorus of Thebans cries out to Oedipus for salvation from
the plague sent by the gods.
•He ordered Creon, brother of Jocasta to ask about the cause of
the plague at Delphi.
•In his return, Creon announced that the plague was caused by the
unresolved murder of the former King, Laius.

7. Plot
• Throughout the play,
Oedipus searches for
Laius' murderer and
promises to exile the man
responsible for it, ignorant
of the fact that he is the
murderer.

8. • The blind prophet, Teiresias, is called to aid Oedipus in his search;
however, after warning Oedipus not to follow through with the investigation,
Oedipus accuses him of being the murderer, even though Teiresias is blind
and aged. Oedipus also accuses Teiresias of conspiring with Creon,
Jocasta's brother, to overthrow him.

9. •Oedipus then calls for one of Laius' former servants,
the only surviving witness of the murder, who fled
the city when Oedipus became king to avoid being
the one to reveal the truth.

10. •Soon a messenger from Corinth also arrives to
inform Oedipus of the death of Polybus, whom
Oedipus still believes is his real father. At this
point the messenger informs him that he was in
fact adopted and his real parentage is unknown.

11. •In the subsequent discussions between Oedipus,
Jocasta, the servant, and the messenger, Jocasta
guesses the truth and runs away.

12. •Oedipus is stubborn; however, a second
messenger arrives and reveals that Jocasta
has hanged herself.

13. •Oedipus, upon discovering her body,
blinds himself with the golden
brooches on her dress.

14. Blinding himself

15. •The play ends with Oedipus entrusting his
children to Creon and leaving in exile, as he
promised would be the fate of Laius'
murderer.

16. Oedipus & sphinx

17. Prophecy in Oedipus the King
•There are two major prophecies in Oedipus. The most well
known was given to Oedipus shortly before he left Corinth:
•“ Aye, 'tis no secret. Apollo once foretold That I should
mate with mine own mother, and shed With my own hands
the blood of my own sire. Hence Corinth was for many a
year to me. A home distant; and I trove abroad, But missed
the sweetest sight, my parents' face. ”
•Later in the play, Jocasta relates the prophecy that was told
to Laius before the birth of Oedipus. Laius was only told of
the incipient parricide and not of the incest:
5.“ An oracle Once came to Laius (I will not say 'Twas from
the Delphic god himself, but from His ministers) declaring
he was doomed to perish by the hand of his own son, A
child that should be born to him by me.

18. Apollo
•Apollo, the Sun god, brings life-giving
heat and light to Earth.
•As patron god of musicians and
poets, he carries a lyre and his
symbol represents the “egg of
creation”.
•He is considered the ideal of manly
beauty, so that a very handsome
man might be called an “Apollo”. He
is also the god of poetry and music.
•Hymns sung to Apollo were called
paeans.
•Apollo is son of Zeus and Leto, and
the twin brother of the chaste
huntress Artemis, who took the
place of Selene in some myths as
goddess of the moon.

19. Apollo
•In Greek and Roman Mythology, Apollo, (a beardless
youth), was the archer-god of medicine and healing,
light, truth, archery and also a bringer of death-
dealing plague.
•He was a mortal medical healer who was so successful
that he was reputed to have the ability to bring the
dead back to life; which resulted in complaints by
Hades.
•As a result, to keep peace in the godly family, Zeus
killed him with a thunderbolt.
•After his death, he was also placed among the
constellations, where he is pictured as a man holding
a serpent in his hands .

20. Temple of Apollo

21. Delphi
•Delphi is perhaps best-known for the oracle at the sanctuary
that became dedicated to Apollo during the classical period.
•Delphi was a major site for the worship of the god Apollo.
•Delphi became the site of a major temple to Phoebus Apollo,
as well as the Pythian Games and the famous prehistoric
oracle.
•His sacred precinct in Delphi was a Panhellenic sanctuary,
where every four years athletes from all over the Greek world
competed in the Pythian Games.
•Delphi was revered throughout the Greek world as the site of
the omphalos stone, the centre of the earth and the universe.
•In the inner hestia ("hearth") of the Temple of Apollo, an
eternal flame burned.

22. Oracle
•The oracle of Delphi never predicted the future, but
gave guarded advice on how impiety might be
cleansed and incumbent disaster avoided
•H.W. Parke writes that the foundation of Delphi and its
oracle took place before the times of recorded history
and its origins are obscure, but dating to the worship
of the Great Goddess, Gaia.
•The Oracle exerted considerable influence throughout
the Greek world, and she was consulted before all
major undertakings: wars, the founding of colonies,
and so forth. She also was respected by the semi-
Hellenic countries around the Greek world, such as
Lydia, Caria, and even Egypt.

23. Pythia
•The priestess of the oracle at Delphi was known as the Pythia.
Apollo spoke through his oracle, who had to be an older woman
of blameless life chosen from among the peasants of the area.
•The sybyl or prophetess took the name Pythia and sat on a tripod
seat over an opening in the earth.
•Python was an earth spirit, who was conquered by Apollo, and
buried under the Omphalos, and that it is a case of one deity
setting up a temple on the grave of another.
•When Apollo slew Python, its body fell into this fissure, according
to legend, and fumes arose from its decomposing body.
Intoxicated by the vapors, the sibyl would fall into trance,
allowing Apollo to possess her spirit. In this state she prophesied.
•She spoke in riddles, which were interpreted by the priests of the
temple, and people consulted her on everything from important
matters of public policy to personal affairs.

24. Delphic oracle
Delphic Pythia sitting on a tripod, attended by a supplicant. Note the low
ceiling that causes the Delphic oracle to stoop, the hollow floor and the barrier that
separates Pythia from the supplicant.

25. View of the stadium of the Delphi sanctuary,
used for the Pythian Games. The stone steps on
the right were added under the Romans.

26. Epithets
•name Delphoi is connected with "hollow" or
"womb“
•Apollo is connected with the site by his epithet
Delphinios, "the Delphinian", i.e. either "the one
of Delphi", or "the one of the womb".
•The epithet is connected with dolphins (the
"womb-fish") in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (line
400), telling how Apollo first came to Delphi in
the shape of a dolphin, carrying Cretan priests on
his back.
a descriptive word or phrase added to or substituted for the name of
somebody or something, highlighting a feature or quality

27. Legends
1.A legend held that Apollo walked to Delphi from the north and stopped at Tempe, a city in
Thessaly to pick laurel, a plant sacred to him (generally known in English as the bay tree).
• In commemoration of this legend, the winners at the Pythian Games received a wreath of
laurel (bay leaves) picked in Tempe.
• Supposedly carved into the temple were the phrases "know thyself") and "nothing in
excess"), as well as a large letter E.
4.When young, Apollo killed the chthonic serpent Python, who according to some because
Python had attempted to rape Leto (his mother) while she was pregnant with Apollo and
Artemis (his brother).
• The bodies of the pair were draped around his Rod, which, with the wings created the
caduceus symbolic of the god. This spring flowed toward the temple but disappeared
beneath, creating a cleft which emitted vapors that caused the Oracle at Delphi to give her
prophecies.
• Apollo killed Python but had to be punished for it, since she was a child of Gaia. The shrine
dedicated to Apollo was originally dedicated to Gaia and then, possibly to Poseidon. The
name Pythia remained as the title of the Delphic Oracle.
• As punishment for this murder Apollo was sent to serve in menial tasks for eight years.
• A festival, the Septeria, was performed annually portraying the slaying of the serpent, the
flight, the atonment and the return of the God. The
• Pythian Games took place every four years to commemorate his victory

28. Characteristics of a Tragic Hero
1.He must be "better than we are," a man who is superior to the average man in some
way. In Oedipus's case, he is superior not only because of social standing, but also
because he is smart - he is the only person who could solve the Sphinx's riddle.
2.At the same time, a tragic hero must evoke both pity and fear, and Aristotle claims
that the best way to do this is if he is imperfect. A character with a mixture of good
and evil is more compelling that a character who is merely good. And Oedipus is
definitely not perfect; although a clever man, he is blind to the truth and refuses to
believe Teiresias's warnings. Although he is a good father, he unwittingly fathered
children in incest.
3.A tragic hero suffers because of his hamartia, a Greek word that is often translated as
"tragic flaw" but really means "error in judgement." Often this flaw or error has to do
with fate - a character tempts fate, thinks he can change fate or doesn't realize what
fate has in store for him. In Oedipus the King, fate is an idea that surfaces again and
again.
4.The focus on fate reveals another aspect of a tragedy as outlined by Aristotle:
dramatic irony. Good tragedies are filled with irony. The audience knows the
outcome of the story already, but the hero does not, making his actions seem
ignorant or inappropriate in the face of what is to come. Whenever a character
attempts to change fate, this is ironic to an audience who knows that the tragic
outcome of the story cannot be avoided.

29. Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony plays an important part in Oedipus the King.
2.Its story revolves around two different attempts to change the course of fate: Jocasta and
Laius's killing of Oedipus at birth and Oedipus's flight from Corinth later on. In both cases, an
oracle's prophecy comes true regardless of the characters' actions.
3.Jocasta kills her son only to find him restored to life and married to her.
4.Oedipus leaves Corinth only to find that in so doing he has found his real parents and carried
out the oracle's words.
5.Both Oedipus and Jocasta prematurely exult over the failure of oracles, only to find that the
oracles were right after all.
6.Each time a character tries to avert the future predicted by the oracles, the audience knows
their attempt is futile, creating the sense of irony that permeates the play.
7.Even the manner in which Oedipus and Jocasta express their disbelief in oracles is ironic. In
an attempt to comfort Oedipus, Jocasta tells him that oracles are powerless; yet at the
beginning of the very next scene we see her praying to the same gods whose powers she has
just mocked.
8.Oedipus rejoices over Polybus's death as a sign that oracles are fallible, yet he will not return
to Corinth for fear that the oracle's statements concerning Meropé could still come true.
9.Regardless of what they say, both Jocasta and Oedipus continue to suspect that the oracles
could be right, that gods can predict and affect the future - and of course the audience
knows they can.

30. Dramatic Irony … cont.
1.If Oedipus discounts the power of oracles, he values the power of truth. Instead of relying on the gods,
Oedipus counts on his own ability to root out the truth; after all, he is a riddle-solver.
2.The contrast between trust in the gods' oracles and trust in intelligence plays out in this story like the
contrast between religion and science in nineteenth-century novels. But the irony is, of course, that the
oracles and Oedipus's scientific method both lead to the same outcome.
3.Oedipus's search for truth reveals just that, and the truth revealed fulfills the oracles' prophesies.
Ironically, it is Oedipus's rejection of the oracles that uncovers their power; he relentlessly pursues truth
instead of trusting in the gods, and his detective work finally reveals the fruition of the oracles' words.
As Jocasta says, if he could just have left well enough alone, he would never have discovered the
horrible workings of fate.
4.In his search for the truth, Oedipus shows himself to be a thinker, a man good at unraveling mysteries.
This is the same characteristic that brought him to Thebes; he was the only man capable of solving the
Sphinx's riddle. His intelligence is what makes him great, yet it is also what makes him tragic; his
problem-solver's mind leads him on as he works through the mystery of his birth.
5.In the Oedipus myth, marriage to Jocasta was the prize for ridding Thebes of the Sphinx. Thus Oedipus's
intelligence, a trait that brings Oedipus closer to the gods, is what causes him to commit the most
heinous of all possible sins.
6.In killing the Sphinx, Oedipus is the city's savior, but in killing Laius (and marrying Jocasta), he is its
scourge, the cause of the blight that has struck the city at the play's opening.
7.The irony is that sight here means two different things. Oedipus is blessed with the gift of perception;
he was the only man who could "see" the answer to the Sphinx's riddle. Yet he cannot see what is right
before his eyes. He is blind to the truth, for all he seeks it.
8.He scourges his eyes in order to see the truth

31. Analyses
•According to Aristotle, a tragedy must be an
imitation of life in the form of a serious story that
is complete in itself; in other words, the story
must be realistic and narrow in focus.
•A good tragedy will evoke pity and fear in its
viewers, causing the viewers to experience a
feeling of catharsis.
•Catharsis, in Greek, means "purgation" or
"purification"; running through the gamut of
these strong emotions will leave viewers feeling
elated, in the same way we often claim that "a
good cry" will make one feel better.

32. Sphynx’ riddle
•Oedipus himself proves to be that same man, an
embodiment of the Sphinx's riddle.
•Oedipus is more that merely the solver of the Sphinx's
riddle, he himself is the answer.
•There is much talk of Oedipus's birth and his exposure as an
infant - here is the baby of which the Sphinx speaks,
crawling on four feet (even though two of Oedipus's are
pinioned). Oedipus throughout most of the play is the adult
man, standing on his own two feet instead of relying on
others, even gods.
•And at the end of the play, Oedipus will leave Thebes an
old blind man, using a cane.
•In fact, Oedipus's name means "swollen foot" because of
the pins through his ankles as a baby; thus even as a baby
and a young man he has a limp and uses a cane: a
prefiguring of the "three-legged" old man he will become.

33. Teiresias
•Teiresias's presence in the play, then, is doubly
important. As a blind old man, he foreshadows
Oedipus's own future, and the more Oedipus
mocks his blindness, the more ironic he sounds
to the audience.
•Teiresias is a man who understands the truth
without the use of his sight; Oedipus is the
opposite, a sighted man who is blind to the
truth right before him. Soon Oedipus will switch
roles with Teiresias, becoming a man who sees
the truth and loses his sense of sight.

34. The structure of this play
There are two ways to read the story of Oedipus.
2.One is to say that he is a puppet of fate, incapable of doing anything to change the destiny that
fate has in store for him.
•As a puppet of fate, Oedipus cannot affect the future that the oracle has predicted for him. As the
Chorus says, "Time sees all;" fate and the course of time are more powerful than anything a human
being can do. Oedipus's tragic end is not his fault; he is merely a pawn in the celestial workings of
fate.
4.Another is to say that the events of the play are his fault, that he possesses the "flaw" that sets
these events into action.
•He seems to make important mistakes or errors in judgement (hamartia) that set the events of the
story into action. His pride, blindness, and foolishness all play a part in the tragedy that befalls him.
•Oedipus's pride sets it all off; when a drunken man tells him that he is a bastard, his pride is so
wounded that he will not let the subject rest, eventually going to the oracle of Apollo to ask it the
truth.
•The oracle's words are the reason why he leaves Corinth, and in leaving Corinth and traveling to
Thebes, he fulfills the oracle's prophecy.
•A less proud man may not have needed to visit the oracle, giving him no reason to leave Corinth in
the first place. In the immediate events of the play, Oedipus's pride continues to be a flaw that
leads to the story's tragic ending.
•He is too proud to consider the words of the prophet Teiresias, choosing, instead to rely on his own
sleuthing powers. Teiresias warns him not to pry into these matters, but pride in his intelligence
leads Oedipus to continue his search.
•He values truth attained through scientific enquiry over words and warnings from the gods; this is
the result of his overweening pride. Another word for pride that causes one to disregard the gods
is the Greek word hubris.

35. Foolish and blind
•Foolishly he leaves his home in Corinth without further investigating the
oracle's words; after all, he goes to the oracle to ask if he is his father's
son, then leaves without an answer to this question.
•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.

36. In General
•Regardless of the way you read the play, Oedipus the King is a
powerful work of drama.
•Collapsing the events of the play into the moments before and after
Oedipus's realization, Sophocles catches and heightens the drama.
•Using dramatic irony to involve the audience, the characters come
alive in all their flawed glory.
•The play achieves that catharsis of which Aristotle speaks by showing
the audience a man not unlike themselves, a man who is great but not
perfect, who is a good father, husband, and son, and yet who
unwillingly destroys parents, wife and children.
•Oedipus is human, regardless of his pride, his intelligence, or his
stubbornness, and we recognize this in his agonizing reaction to his
sin. Watching this, the audience is certainly moved to both pity and
fear: pity for this broken man, and fear that his tragedy could be our
own.