Karima Jackson

Literature Humanities Final paper

Vangelis Calotychos

Due Date: December 14, 2009

Title Yet to be Decided

I was fated to lie with my mother,and show to daylight n accursed breedwhich men would not endure, and I was doomedto be the murderer of the father that begot me…I fledto somewhere where I should not see fulfilledthe infamies told in that dreadful oracle (Sophocles lines 790-797).

Oedipus is a tragic hero whose strong desire to seek out the truth is considered his fatal

flaw, and the reason for his ruin. However, concentration on this specific attribute tends to

overshadow the role of divinity in the play. As German philosopher Karl Reinhardt once said,

“For Sophocles, as for the Greeks of an earlier age, fate is in no circumstances the same as

predetermination, but a spontaneous unfolding of daimonic power” (qtd. in Segal 77).

Considering Oedipus the King in this manner brings forth the question of why, despite Oedipus’s

attempt to prevent himself from killing father and marrying his mother, he inadvertently fulfills

the prophesy. Oedipus is unable to escape fate in the end because his character traits make him

especially susceptible to carrying out a divine plan.

There are those who doubt the role of fate in Oedipus because they assume that his

arrogance and thirst for answers alone are to blame for his downfall. They attribute his curiosity

with arrogance. But this is an unfair and blow up of Oedipus’s pride as a mere mortal. From the

very beginning of the play (before he becomes upset at the climax) he is humble. He does not

only prove to be arrogant, but proves to be obedient to the gods in many situations and never

puts himself on their level. An example of this is when the chorus hears what is going on

between Creon and Oedipus in the very beginning of the act and they decide to call on the gods

for help with the plague. He does promise to solve the issue of the plague, but he does so always

keeping the gods in mind and gives them ultimate power. In his speech to the chorus, he

acknowledges his mortal limits:

For I would not be far upon the track if I alonewere tracing it without a clue. But now,since after all was finished, I becamea citizen among you, citizens…(Sophocles lines 220-224)

He both shows his humility and his connection with the people of Thebes, as if they were his

fellow people. This is not exactly the action an arrogant person would take. He even shows

immense respect and adoration to Teiresias when he first arrives on the scene. Oedipus states that

the blind prophet is well-rounded in knowledge and that “in you alone we find a champion”

(Sophocles line 304) admitting that he himself is not all that great because there exists a greater

person. Also, he is reaching out for help here. It can be argued that he is arrogant because he

denies Teiresias’s foresight, and so, thinks he is better than the profit. But this is simply not true;

it is understandable that he would react that way since he is human and went through such

lengths to avoid the prophesy. Of course he would be in disbelief at the suggestion of having, in

fact, done the evil deeds that he really tried to avoid. And this disbelief might have made him act

out of character because he is a mere human who “clings to rational calculation and the logic of

noncontraditcion (one cannot be equal to many)” (Segal 118). So naturally, when he finds out

that danger lies ahead despite the precautions he takes, he cannot make sense of what Teiresias

said and flips out. This explains the reason he becomes so suspicious when Teiresias is talking

about Creon and he becomes silent and Oedipus becomes certain that Teiresias is covering up

Creon’s crime of killing king Laius: “you are proved manifestly/the murderer of that man”

(Sophocles lines 533-534). In essence, the only thing Oedipus can truly be guilty of is being

human, and having the flaws of a person who is such. For this reason, it is not completely his

fault that he fulfills the prophesy; he does what he can to make sure it does not happen. The

prophesy works out because his desire to know things, his love for the city of Thebes, and his

mortal ignorance all allow him to crash and burn to the likes of the gods.

Oedipus is quite known for his curious nature which, unfortunately, plays into the

materialization of the prophesy. This characteristic is what got him in the position of power in

the first place; his ability to solve the riddle of the sphinx allows him to step in and take the

throne of the already-dead king Laius. Since he came to his rise because of this trait, it would

only seem natural that this same trait leads him to his demise. His need to acquire knowledge

puts him a place such that he is on a mission for the truth and, in effect, makes him ignore all the

advice that people keep giving him to stop. He tells Creon not to worry about a thing, that he will

“bring this to light again” (Sophocles line133). Throughout the play, Oedipus is adamant about

unmasking the killer and, later, his own origins. He constantly badgers the blind prophet for

answers:

What is the rite of purification? How shall it be done?...Who is this man whose fate the God pronounces?...Where are they in the world? Where would a traceof this old crime be found? It would be hard to guess where…Was it at home or in the country that death came upon him, or in another country travelling?” (Sophocles lines 98-109)

The fact that Oedipus is such a curious character makes it easier for the gods to lead him to his

downfall because they know that he will actually forge ahead for answers, although he is

consistently denied answers and people try to discourage him. Had he not had the persistence to

find answers, he would not have effectively played out the role the gods set for him.