Oedipus Rex: Difference between revisions

[[Image:Oedipus.png|thumb|Oedipus and the Sphinx]]''Oedipus the King'', by the tragedian [[Sophocles]], is based on a legend deeply rooted in the cultural identity of Athens. The myth of Oedipus contains a historical and religious authority based on the cultural values of an oral tradition. It concerns the relationship between humans and their gods and, perhaps more importantly, primal hopes and fears that unearth a terror and despair normally buried in human consciousness. Oedipus is a typical Athenian who commits the most egregious of human taboos: incest and patricide. Within the character of Oedipus are both the faults and virtues of the Athenian people. Some critics suggest that Oedipus might be a warning to Athenians that have ushered in a new era of intellectualism.  

== Summary ==

Oedipus, in Greek mythology, king of Thebes, is the son of Laius and Jocasta, king and queen of Thebes. Laius was warned by an oracle that he would be killed by his own son and his son would be brother and father to his children. Determined to avert his fate, Laius pierced and bound together the feet of his newborn child and left him to die on a lonely mountain. The infant was rescued by a shepherd, however, and given to Polybus, king of Corinth, who named the child Oedipus (swollen foot) and raised him as his own son. The boy did not know that he was adopted, and when an oracle proclaimed that he would kill his father and marry his mother, he left Corinth. In the course of his wanderings he met and killed Laius, not knowing at the time that Laius is the king and his father, because he believed that the group of travelers were a band of robbers. In doing this act he unwillingly fulfilled the prophecy of his own fate.

Lonely and homeless, Oedipus arrives at Thebes, which was beset by a dreadful monster called the Sphinx. The frightful creature frequented the roads to the city, killing and devouring all travelers who could not answer the riddle that she put to them: What walks on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening? The answer was a human being, who in infancy crawls on all fours, in adulthood walks upright on two legs, and in old age uses a cane. When Oedipus solved her riddle, the Sphinx killed herself. Believing that King Laius had been slain by unknown robbers, and grateful to Oedipus for ridding them of the Sphinx, the Thebans rewarded Oedipus by making him their king and giving him Queen Jocasta as his wife. For many years the couple lived in happiness, not knowing that they were really mother and son.

Then a terrible plague descended on the land, and an oracle proclaimed that Laius's murderer must be punished. Oedipus soon discovered that he had unknowingly killed his father. In grief and despair at her incestuous life, Jocasta killed herself, and when Oedipus realized that she was dead and that their children were accursed, he gouged out his eyes and relinquished the throne. He lived in Thebes for several years but was finally banished. Accompanied by his daughter Antigone, he wandered for many years. He finally arrived at Colonus, a shrine near Athens sacred to the powerful goddesses called the Eumenides. Oedipus died at this shrine, after the god Apollo had promised him that the place of his death would remain sacred and would bring great benefit to the city of Athens, which had given shelter to the wanderer.

==Characters==