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Oedipus Rex
More than 2,420 years old but still studied today, the play ‘Oedipus Rex’ tells a tragic tale of mistaken identities, inescapable fates, and horrific human misdeeds. Contributors typically compare and contrast the play’s characters, storytelling techniques, and subject matter with similar pieces of literature from the same and different settings and time periods.
3,240 Questions
How does the theme of betrayal play out in 'Antigone'?
The theme of betrayal begins with the play's beginning. For Theban King Creon betrays the faith of his people, his gods, and his family. For example, he disrespects the trust of his people in him as the defender of god-given traditions and of communal well-being. For he enacts a law that allows the carrying out of proper burial procedures only for those who were loyal to Thebes in the recent battle against the enemy Argive. In so doing, he scoffs at and insults the gods, who establish such traditions for the smooth passage from life into death. Likewise does he abuse and neglect the responsibility of him as sovereign to his people and as spouse, father, and uncle respectively to wife Queen Eurydice, to son Haemon, and to the two dead and the two living children of his deceased sister, Queen Jocasta.
Does 'Oedipus Rex' have a cultural context?
Yes, 'Oedipus Rex' reflects a specific cultural context. The play indeed draws upon a cultural context of divine control over the lives, fates, and deaths of mortals. That culture asks readers and viewers of the play to consider that a mortal's life is foredoomed by the gods and that there's no escape from a mortal's role as a plaything for the gods. Any avoidance strategies are marred by the flawed decision making and character traits of hapless mortals. Indeed, as is the play's conclusion, mortals are unlucky throughout life, and lucky only in death.
No, Ismene doesn't help her sister Antigone. In the beginning of the play 'Antigone', she refuses to help her sister bury their brother Polyneices. He's considered a disloyal, dead Theban for having sided with the Argive invaders against his twin brother, Eteocles. Ismene's uncle, Theban King Creon, approves Eteocles' burial, but denies the same god-given right to Polyneices. Ismene refuses to go against the sovereign. Later, Antigone is arrested while burying Polyneices a second time. Ismene says that she supports her sister, and if need be offers to die with Antigone. But it's questionable how helpful Ismene is at that point. For she ends up saving her own life, and not stopping or mitigating her sister's sentence to a cruel death.
no husband, only fiancee. she killed herself before she got married. his name was Haemon, Creon's son.
What happened to Ismene after the death of her sister Antigone in the play Atigone?
Killed by Tydeus, son of Oeneus, who had come to Thebes as a ambassador. Tydeus had been ambushed by Thebans. He caught Ismene outside of the city making love with her lover, Theoclymenus. Theoclymenus fled; Ismene is taken prisoneer. She begs for her life but Tydeus kills her anyway.
The literary device used is dramatic irony. The audience knows that the speaker is condemning himself to exile.
No, Antigone wasn't an epic hero. She was one of the main characters in a tragedy whose title was her very name. Instead, she's a tragic heroine. For she does great deeds by defending those such as the dead who have no defense. She shows great power and strength in burying her brother Polyneices; holding her own against her uncle Theban King Creon; and processing to a cruel, lonely death.
What is the purpose of 'Oedipus Rex' and when does the reversal of the situation occur?
Before I answer this question, what does Oedipus Rex means?
What does the chorus think will happen to the killer of laius?
The Chorus thinks the Furies and the son of Zeus will follow the killer of Laius where ever he goes. They are unaware, at this time, that the killer is Oedipus.
With what surgical instrument does Oedipus blind himself?
The brooches that hold Theban Queen Jocasta's clothes together are what Theban King Oedipus uses to blind himself.
Oedipus chooses the brooches, because they represent everything that goes wrong in his life. Specifically, the brooches represent Jocasta, who is his greatest supporter personally and professionally. Unfortunately and unbeknownst to him and to her, Jocasta is also his mother.
Previously, Oedipus lives his life in fear of an unenviable prophecy coming true in regards to him. He thinks that he makes the life choices that will keep him from living out his fate as the killer of his father and his king and the father of children with his own mother. But both fates are realized in one fell sweep when Oedipus kills Theban King Laius and then marries Laius' grieving but beautiful widow.
In both regards, Oedipus realizes much too late that a simple, straightforward clue stared him in the face all along. Specifically, his victim is a man whom he resembles and whi is old enough to be his father. His wife is a woman whom he may resemble in some gesture or feature and who is old enough to be his mother.
If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, then it indeed is a duck. There sometimes is no other option than to judge a book by its cover. And yes, the elderly victim is Oedipus' father, and the older woman is Oedipus' mother.
Why did Creon think that Eteocles should be buried?
Theban King Creon thought that Eteocles should be buried, as a loyal defender of Thebes against the Argive attack. But the King thought that Eteocles' brother Polyneices shouldn't be given the same respect. Creon's rationale was the traitorous support of the Theban Polyneices to the enemies from Argos.
How and why does Sophocles explore blindness and vision in 'Oedipus Rex'?
Sophocles [496 B.C.E.* - 406 B.C.E.] explores the contrast of blindness and vision in 'Oedipus Rex' for dramatic effect and for a touch of realism. Realistically speaking, humans tend to rely greatly on what they observe with the senses, and most particularly through the sense of sight. Indeed, there's the saying that 'seeing is believing'. But there also is the cautionary 'appearances are deceiving'.
Both sayings are explored in 'Oedipus Rex', to the detriment of all of the main characters except for the blind prophet Teiresias. All of the other characters see and therefore suffer from flawed observations and faulty conclusions. The saying 'the blind leading the blind' takes on new meaning in regard to Teiresias. Only he among Thebans can't see, and yet he never is wrong or misguided over what he observes through his other senses.
*Before the Christian Era
He uses it when Tiresias is introduced. Since Tiresias is in fact blind and is a prophet makes Oedipus have a reason to not believe him. There are many quotes that can be found that exemplify this. Oedipus does not believe him when he says that Oedipus is the cause of the plague on Thebes. Oedipus retaliates to this insult to his royalty by insisting that since Tiresias is blind there is no way for him to be right when Oedipus can see and he cannot.
Why is Creon unable to stop the tragedy?
Not being able to stop the death of Antigone is the reason why Theban King Creon is unable to stop the tragedy in the play. He understands that he and his family are doomed if he doesn't reverse his previous actions. He's able to get the dead body of his nephew Polyneices buried. But he doesn't get to the cave in time to stop his niece Antigone's suicide. Her suicide inspires the successive suicides of Creon's son Haimon and Creon's wife Theban Queen Eurydice.
How are Antigone and Ismene different?
Antigone and Ismene are sisters. The story centres around the undignified way in which their brother's body has been left (at the time the women of the family would prepare the body for burial), and the king has made it illegal to bury him. Antigone believes that justice would be served if she defies the law, risking death if she is caught, and buries her brother. Ismene abides by the law and does not help to bury the body.
What is the status of Oedipus the tragic hero?
He became the King of Thebes after killing his father and marrying his mother
How old is romeo and Juliets mother?
They had different mothers--they were not brother and sister, you know.
We don't know about Lady Montague, but Capulet says that Lady Capulet was about Juliet's age when Juliet was born. That would make her about twenty-eight.
What does Oedipus do when he ses jocasta hanging in her rom?
He is told that Jocasta has hung herself, he doesn't see it.
Why does Oedipus want to discover the murderer of Laius?
To show respect to the Oracle at Apollo's Shrine is the reason why Theban King Oedipus wants to discover the murderer or murderers of his royal predecessor, Theban King Laius. The Oracle says that finding and punishing the perpetrator or perpetrators will end the pestilence that afflicts the Theban people and their livestock and harvests. Additionally, Oedipus decides that he needs to carry out the quest for his own self-protection. He suggests that otherwise what happens to one Theban king well may happen to another. He may be next in line on someone's assassination list.
It represents dramatic irony; the audience knows that Oedipus himself is the murderer, but Oedipus does not.
How did Antigone's father die?
The how and where of the death of Antigone's father, Oedipus, was unknown to readers and viewers of the play 'Oedipus at Colonus'. The particulars were known only to King Theseus of Athens. Theseus' messenger to Oedipus' daughters, Antigone and Ismene, knew only that Oedipus was there one minute with Theseus, and gone the next. It had been foretold that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his own mother. His parents, Theban King Laius and Theban Queen Jocasta, tried to escape such a fate by leaving the newly born Oedipus exposed to the weather and the wild animals. But Oedipus survived, and ended up being raised by King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth. As an adult, he learned of the prophecy, and left Corinth in order not to kill what he thought were his biological parents. At a crossroads, Oedipus got into a right-of-way argument with Laius, whom he killed. He didn't know that he was committing the doubly heinous crime of father and king killing. He then married the widowed Queen Jocasta. Years later, the people of Thebes were suffering from a plague. It was determined that the murderer of King Laius needed to be identified. Ultimately, the true story of Oedipus and his parents came to light. Jocasta killed herself. Oedipus blinded himself, and went into exile. The Greek god Apollo had comforted Oedipus with the promise of a death on ground sacred to the fateful Furies aka the Eumenides. He also promised Oedipus that the former Theban King's grave would bless the country in which it was dug. The prophecy was carried out with the support of Athenian King Theseus, who ruled over the land and people of Colonus.
The ancient Greek city of Thebes is where King Oedipus actually is from. But he leaves at least three days after his birth, for Corinth. There, he spends his childhood and adolescence thinking that he's the Corinthian-born and -bred son of King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth. As an adult, he flees to the Delphic oracle, a fateful crossroads, and then Thebes.
Decades later, Oedipus is forced to give up his home and job, for a humiliating, miserable exile as a disgraced, blind beggar. He dies in Colonus, the home of an established, long-time, powerful, wealthy family whose most prominent member is Sophocles [496 B.C.E. - 406 B.C.E.], author of the cycle of plays about Theban King Oedipus.
Who is the Greek hero Oedipus?
Oedipus is King of Thebes. He also is the vanquisher of the Sphinx, who overtaxes Thebans and terrorizes Theban residents and visitors alike. That act of conquest shows him to be a hero.
A hero is known for great deeds and great powers. Oedipus shows both in outsmarting the Sphinx at her own mental and physical games. He does so by solving a seemingly unsolvable riddle. He alone figures out that a human being is the life form that gets around on fours in the morning of life, on twos in the afternoon, and on threes in the evening.
Additionally, Oedipus is the adopted child of King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth. He's the biological child of King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes. He's the descendant of Cadmus, the founder and first king of Thebes. He's the father and half brother of his daughters Antigone and Ismene, and of his twin sons Eteocles and Polyneices. He's the nephew of his brother-in-law and uncle, Theban King Creon.
But at the same time, he's the albeit unknowing killer of his father and sovereign, Laius. He's the albeit unknowing incestuous partner of his mother and wife, Jocasta. And he's the unknowing victim of his own free will. Specifically, the choices that he freely makes and the actions that he freely pursues ironically lead to the carrying out of the very fate that they're intended to avoid.
