Oedipus Rex

No, Oedipus is not foolish, but he makes foolish choices in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Oedipus receives the prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother. He is horrified and runs away from home even though he already questions whether Corinthian monarchs Laius and Jocasta are his biological parents. In rapid succession, he gets into a fatal fight with an older version of himself and ends up marrying a beautiful woman old enough to be his mother. These are the foolish choices of an only child who loses his sense of security and becomes panic-stricken in the face of an unenviable prophecy.

That Eteocles and Polyneices will have a fatal feud from which neither survives as King of Thebes is the curse that Theban King Oedipus places upon both his sons in "Oedipus at Colonus" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the twin brothers are ashamed of their father once it becomes widespread knowledge that Oedipus is the killer of his own father, Theban King Laius, and the husband of his own mother, Theban Queen Jocasta. Oedipus is forced into exile, and the twins are the heirs in a joint power-sharing arrangement ... until they quarrel and end up killing each other on the battlefield outside their hometown of Thebes.

The fall from respected to shunned, married to widowed, sighted to blind, employed to jobless, and wealthy to homeless represents the reversal of Oedipus' situation in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, a reversal of situation refers to the turns that life takes in a completely opposite direction when a character suffers. In the case of Theban King Oedipus, the turns are unenviable when he becomes known as his father's killer, his mother's husband, and his children's half-brother. His life comes to a halt and turns in the opposite direction on all personal and professional levels.

That he will live out his life away from human contact is what Oedipus says he will do now that the truth is known in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus learns that the truth of his identity and existence is that of one who kills his father, marries his mother, and fathers children who are his own half-siblings. All of these actions are offensive to the gods and to mortals. So Oedipus says that he wants to spend whatever life he has left on earth in the mountains outside Thebes, away from family, friends and people.

Compassionate but fear-driven and results-oriented is a way of describing Oedipus' personality in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus demonstrates compassion in his interactions with his citizens and with his daughters, the sister Princesses Antigone and Ismene. But he exhibits fear and panic in many of his critical decisions, such as running away from home. But whether the decision be among the best or the worst, Oedipus always looks to the impact and seeks immediate gratification and results.

A choice to obey one law and thereby disobey another punishable by death is what causes the tragic events in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, divine law guarantees all Thebans the right to below-ground burial and proper funerary rites. But Theban King Creon issues a law that contradicts the will of the gods and makes burial and funerary rites the privilege of those he deems loyal to Thebes. Disobedience of the divine law incurs the wrath of the gods and problems in the afterlife. Disobedience to Creon's law is punishable with a death sentence.

Ticking clock, in the middle of things, flashback and back-story are three literary techniques used in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the ticking clock suggests that disaster is close at hand. That clock starts ticking when Theban Queen Jocasta tells Oedipus of her first husband Laius' death at a three-road intersection.

"In the midst of things" is a device also known by its Latin phrasing "in medias res." The play in fact starts in the middle of things with suppliants intensely praying at the altar outside the royal Palace of Thebes. The fact that Thebans are praying tells us that a problem needs to be dealt with and is not being presented in chronological order.

Instead, the problem will be presented in part by the literarcy device of the flashback. An example is Oedipus telling Jocasta the circumstances of his killing five men at a three-road intersection. It is a flashback in the sense of changing the sequence of time and a back-story, whereby a story takes place before the story actually being shown on stage.

Resolution is the point in Freytag's pyramid at which Creon takes the throne and Oedipus demands exile from Thebes to fulfill his promise of punishment for Laius' murderer in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, resolution occurs between the falling action and the play's conclusion. It also may be called dénouement. It ends the main conflict in such a way that the protagonist is worst off than at the play's beginning.

That they have not been in each other's presence since infancy is the reason why Jocasta and Oedipus are married without knowing that they are mother and son in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Queen Jocasta gives her three-day-old infant son Oedipus over to her most trusted servant to kill. Unbeknownst to her, the servant hands Oedipus over to a Corinthian shepherd who gives Oedipus to the childless Corinthian royal couple. Mother and son therefore lead their lives without knowing of each other's existence.

That the perpetrator is a native Theban who kills his father and marries his mother and ends up a blind exile are five truths that Teiresias tells Oedipus in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus asks for help in finding the guilty in King Laius' murder and thereby ending the pestilence in Thebes. He counts on the vast present, past and future knowledge that Teiresias the blind prophet has regarding Thebes. But Teiresias gives the unexpected answer that Oedipus' knowledge of his true identity as his father's killer and his mother's husband will ruin him and send him into blind, stumbling exile from his hometown of Thebes.

The fifteenth (15th) century B.C.E. may have been the founding date of Thebes.

Specifically, Theban King Thersander is a Trojan War contemporary if not Trojan horse participant. He is Polyneices' son, King Oedipus' grandson, King Laius' great-grandson, King Labdacus' great-great-grandson, King Polydorus' great-great-great-grandson and Founder King Cadmus' great-great-great-great-grandson. Let us give each of these individuals an age of 25-30 when they become fathers and let us accept the dates of 1194 B.C.E. - 1184 B.C.E. as the years of the Trojan War. We therefore end up with a range of 155-210 years before the war by multiplying 25-30 years by seven individuals. This in fact agrees with the Mycenean Age (1600 B.C.E. - 1100 B.C.E.) dating of artifacts at the Thebes archaeological site.

It is in defense of his legitimate claim that Polyneices leads the invasion of the "Seven Against Thebes" by Aeschylus (525/524 B.C.E. - 455/456 B.C.E.).

Specifically, twin brothers Eteocles and Polyneices are joint heirs to the Theban throne. They are supposed to rule in a joint power sharing arrangement of alternating years on the throne. But supported by their uncle Creon, Eteocles does not hand over the throne when his year is up. Polyneices, who is exiled, marries into the Argive royal house. He therefore receives Argive support to assert his royal claim by force.

Yes, Aristotle [384 B.C.E.-322 B.C.E.] would consider 'Oedipus Rex' a tragedy. First, Theban King Oedipus is a hero, because he does great deeds and has great powers or strength. For example, he delivers Thebes from the beastly, bullying Sphinx. He alone knows the answer to the Sphinx's unanswerable riddle.

Second, Oedipus is noble. He's the biological son of Theban royal rulers. On both his parents' sides of the family, he descends from Cadmus, Thebes' founder and first king around 2000 B.C.E. Additionally, he's raised as the royal heir apparent by adoptive/foster royal parents.

Third, Oedipus is tripped up by tragically fatal flawswithin his own character and personality. For example, he's so proud that he thinks that he can beat the gods and escape his horrific fate. But the more he tries to flee from his fate, the closer his flight takes him to it because of his own flawed decision making. He's warned that he'll kill his father and marry his mother.

So Oedipus flees what he thinks is his hometown, and the royal couple that he believes to be his biological parents. He then goes on to kill a man old enough to be his father and marry a woman old enough to be his mother. And so the prophecy is fulfilled. An inescapable fate becomes inescapable through the hero's free will in making bad choices and decisions. What Oedipus takes to be biological parents are his adoptive/foster parents, Corinthian King Polybus and Corinthian Queen Merope. What he takes to be strangers are in fact his true parents, Theban King Laius and Theban Queen Jocasta.

Fourth, a pestilence descends upon the city of Thebes. Harvests go bad, livestock die, and more Thebans die than are born. The reason is the unsolved killing of Laius by Oedipus, who is the victim's son and subject. Oedipus needs to be purified of his unknowing but nevertheless heinous crimes. He doesn't go through ritual purification after the killing of father and sovereign. So Oedipus' pollution becomes the pollution of all Thebes.

Fifth, there's a purification of the hero and therefore of his environment. That purification comes about through the hero's death, destruction or downfall. The hero commits an offense against the gods. All offenses must be punished be they the result of deliberate intent or unknowing action. Oedipus' cleansing by being identified and punished as the killer likewise becomes the cleansing of all Thebes.

Sixth, the hero's story is told in verse. That verse doesn't have to rhyme. Socrates [496 B.C.E.-406 B.C.E.] sets his play up as lines of verse. The lines don't rhyme. But the play is clearly a work of poetry, odes and music.

It is Creon whom Oedipus sends for information about how to end the pestilence in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Oedipus faces the challenge of a pestilence that threatens the the harvests and the lives of Theban people and their livestock. He has no idea as to the cause or the solution. So he sends Creon, his brother-in-law and royal colleague, to find out what to do.

Oedipus is not an epic hero in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the term epic describes a long narrative poem that tells of heroic characters and cultural events. The term hero describes an individual who does great deeds, holds great powers and is the main character. The first description fits Theban King Oedipus as the solver of the Sphinx's riddle and King Laius' mysterious murder. But the second description does not fit since the story is told in the dramatic format of a tragic play.

The aftermath of a civil war is the situation in Thebes as the play 'Antigone' begins. The young Theban King Eteocles dies in a bloody fight to the death with his twin brother, Polyneices. The cause of the bloodshed is Eteocles' refusing to honor the royal power sharing arrangement that he has with his co-sovereign, Polyneices.

Traditionally, Thebans respond to war by burying their dead and getting on with their lives. But there's a new twist here. The new monarch, Theban King Creon, decides to end the god given rights of all Thebans to proper Theban style burials. Without a word from the gods, or from their oracular representatives on earth, Creon decides only to respect the burial rights of those who die loyal to Thebes.

Such a decision splits families apart and puts neighbor against neighbor. But Creon is firm even though the decision affects his own royal household. To wit, Eteocles is buried with full Theban honors. But Polyneices is left to the criminal's fate of a corpse whose body is left, above ground, to the cruel workings of the weather and wildlife.