Oedipus Rex

It is to increase audience involvement, heighten the dramatic impact and emphasize the tragedy that the details of Oedipus' life are not presented in chronological order in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, interest is increased by the audience relating to how Theban King Oedipus feels as he unravels the riddle of his existence. The dramatic effect is heightened by the uncluttered re-visit to the turning points in Oedipus' life. The tragedy is emphasized by the close contrast between Oedipus at the height of personal happiness and professional success and Oedipus angry and embittered about the true nature of his life and misdeeds.

Because its author was competitive and respectedand because its subject dealt with a relative of Dionysos, the play "Oedipus Rex" was presented at Dionysia.

Specifically, Dionysia was a festival that was held each year in the ancient Greek city of Athens. Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.) was a respected dramatist who was born in Colonus but lived out his professional life in Athens. He also was a competitive writer who entered and won many dramatic contests, of which those at the Dionysia were among the most famous. Additionally, Sophocles' play told the story of Theban King Oedipus, who was first cousin thrice removed to the wine god Dionysos, in whose honor the festival was held.

Right of way in an intersection is the point of the attack in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Laius enters the Delphi-Daulia intersection from the Theban side. Oedipus enters from the Delphi side. Laius's charioteer jostles Oedipus, who then is hit on the head with Laius' double whip. Laius takes away Oedipus' right of way because he considers it his due as a royal.

That he is results oriented but rash are ways in which Oedipus is good and a bad leader in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus keeps track of what goes on in his city. He leaves no stone unturned in anticipating his people's needs and solving problems, from the Sphinx's riddle to King Laius' murder. But his city matters so much that he gets carried away with his negative and positive emotions and makes reckless promises that come back to haunt him.

Hot-tempered, stubborn, tormented andunsportmanlike are the insights that Creon gives on the man Oedipus in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus argues with his royal colleague, Creon. Creon behaves with respect, but voices personal criticisms of his brother-in-law. He observes that Oedipus is quick to get angry, slow to concede a point and unhappy to lose.

End the pestilence is what the people of Thebes want Oedipus to do for them in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, children are born dead or die shortly after birth, crops are failing, and livestock are ailing. Oedipus is the King of Thebes and the victor over the monstrous Sphinx. The people of Thebes seek Oedipus' help in preventing once again the destruction of all life in their city.

Find and punish the guilty in Laius' murder and bury Polyneices and free Antigone are what respectively will lift the pestilence in Thebes in "Oedipus Rex" and "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, a pestilence afflicts Thebes by the last day of Theban King Oedipus' rule. The Delphic oracle announces that the pestilence will end only with the identification and punishment by execution or exile of the guilty in King Laius' murder. That pestilence is ended, but succeeded by another during the last day of King Creon's rule. Teiresias the blind prophet states that the pestilence will end only with the burial of Polyneices' body and the release of Princess Antigone from her live burial.

The loss of his family, his job and his reputation are the punishments of Theban King Creon for the death of Theban Princess Antigone in the play "Antigone" by ancient Greek playwright Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Prince Haemon and Theban Queen Eurydice commit suicide in the aftermath of the suicide of Antigone, Haemon's bride-to-be and and first cousin and Eurydice's niece. Antigone hangs herself after the death sentence of walling up in a remote cave is carried out by her uncle Creon. The death sentence is imposed for Antigone having dared to bury the body of her brother Polyneices, in compliance with divine law and in contradiction of Creon's recent law.

All of the deaths foretold by the blind prophet Teiresias indicate that Creon is not fit to continue as King of Thebes. He loses his job, the respect of colleagues and subjects, and his right to continue living in his hometown of Thebes.

Oedipus flees Corinth, kills five men, frees Thebes from the Sphinx and marries Jocasta is the sequence of events from first to last in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Oedipus runs away from Corinth to Delphi. On the way to Thebes, he kills five men: one older, arrogant stranger and four of his five-member escort party. Once at Thebes, Oedipus frees the city from the monstrous Sphinx and thereby wins the reward of marrying the city's beautiful, grieving widowed Queen Jocasta.

No, Creon does not have the right to not bury Polyneices in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Creon issues a law that is contrary to the divinely expressed will of burials and funeral rites for all Thebans. He is king and therefore expected to respect divine law and Theban traditions. Additionally, his actions are illegal, because his nephew Polyneices has just cause for his rebellion.

In fact, Polyneices and his brother Eteocles are supposed to rule jointly by alternating years on the throne. But Eteocles refuses to hand over the crown when his year is up and exiles Polyneices. Polyneices defends his right to royal succession by marrying into the royal house of Argos and leading an army of disgruntled Thebans and invading Argives.

That fate cannot be avoided and that prophecies come trueis the recognition in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Oedipus believes that he can outrun his prophesied fate. He does everything he can think of to put distance between him and the Furies of fate. But he ends up realizing that the arrogant, older stranger whom he kills is his father and that the beautiful, older woman whom he marries is his mother.

That his free will choices lead him to the exact outcome prophesied as his fate is what makes Oedipus' predicament fascinating in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Oedipus makes choices that he believes will keep him from becoming the killer of his father and the husband of his mother that he is prophesied to become. But his choices realize his fate when he chooses to kill an older version of himself and to marry a woman old enough to be his mother. What turns out to be particularly fascinating is whether or not the fate holds even with different choices.

That he is an Athenian citizen is the decree that the king makes regarding Oedipus in "Oedipus at Colonus" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Athenian King Theseus knows who disgraced Theban King Oedipus is. He makes Oedipus an Athenian citizen and puts him under his protection. In exchange, he receives the promise that Oedipus will die in a place that brings Athens and Athenians luck.

"Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Your teacher or you must be looking in arristotle's view and may not be looking for such a simple answer or the common definition based upon only common knowledge.

The 6 Steps of a Tragic Hero

1. High Fame and Prosperity

a. Oedipus solve sphinx riddle lift curse

b. Truly not hide anything away from his people(good king)

c. A king who is well liked

d. A king who will have justice but not in favor of killing

2. Rise to great heights and fall to equally great depths

a. Oedipus was in the beginning is a well respected king who has great knowledge and

wealth but after the truth is known is known he poke his eyes out, exile himself, and walk around as a bumbling, blind, poor old man hated and feared by all who come near him.

3. Fall is central theme by moral or Faith

Constantly repeated throughout the book

4. Has tragic flaw which leads him to his doom

a. Oedipus brings upon his own doom when he kills his father who he does not know because of pride and when he runs away from his "home country" based on his own judgment.

5. Overcome fate by learning mistake and overcoming flaw

He exile himself

6. Ennobled and prove to be better person despite flaw

He is taken back

That Oedipus unknowingly kills his father whereas Kronos knowingly wounds but does not kill his father is the difference between Kronos in Greek mythology and Oedipus in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Kronos, upon his mother Gaia's urging, castrates his father, Uranus, and exiles him from the earth. Contrarily, Oedipus unknowingly kills his own father, King Laius. Thus, Kronos knowingly gives his father a non-fatal wound whereas Oedipus unknowingly murders his own father.

It is a proactive attitude that Oedipus shows in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus anticipates the needs of his people. He appears to have his action plan all worked out before he throws himself into any interaction. For example, he is organized and practical in investigating the pestilence and King Laius' murder.

That Oedipus is the main character and that he is king for illegal, offensive reasons is the significance of the title "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the play most often is known by its title in translation, into English as "Oedipus the King" and into Latin as "Oedipus Rex." But the title loses its original meaning in translation. The original Greek title, "OedipusTyrannus," refers to the seizure of power by illegal, offensive means. It reflects the fact that Oedipus rules, not because he marries the widowed Theban queen Jocasta, but because he kills that queen's first husband.

That he is a constant reminder of the failed revolt that is a mortal life is the meaning of the last line in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the last line advises the audience that no one can be happy as long as Theban King Oedipus lives. Oedipus is cursed because of his family background and because of his own proactiveness gainst a horrible fate. The gods lack well wishes for mortals, whose only happiness is in entering the deathly Underworld of the afterlife.

An influence that embodies and bodes the worse for all is the role that despair plays in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, it is despair that makes Theban Queen Jocasta give up and kill herself once she realizes that King Oedipus is not just her second husband but also her son and therefore father and half-brother to their children. Despairis behind Oedipus' blinding himself when all he need suffer is exile or execution. Finally, despair is what brings Jocasta to abandon her three-day-old son and what causes her servant to run rather than make himself heard about the murder of Jocasta's first husband Laius. These two long-ago despairs in fact make all other despair possible in the tragedy of Oedipus and his entire family.

That it makes him overconfident in this thoughts, rash in his words and reckless in his actions is the way in which the flaw of pride affects Oedipus in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Oedipus shows overconfidence and pride in thinking that he can outsmart the gods, escape a miserable fate and avoid the consequences of such divine disrespect. In fact, he is rash in speech and reckless in deed. For example, he does not mince words when he waxes eloquently about what he will do not only to the guilty but to any accessories to the guilty in the murder of Theban King Laius. But he cannot make that call since the gods alone who gets what on earth. Additionally, he acts disrespectfully to his royal advisor Teiresias and his royal colleague Creon; insensitively to his wife, Queen Jocasta; and threateningly to his information sources, the Corinthian and Theban shepherds.