Oedipus the King (Sophocles) TCP1

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            <em>“Oedipus the King” </em>was written c. 420 BC by the famous Athenian writer, Sophocles. Sophocles who lived from c. 495 BC-405 BC entertained his audiences with Tragedies. Out of his one hundred twenty plays only seven survived which includes one of his most powerful plays <em>“Oedipus the King”</em> also known as <em>“Oedipus Rex” </em>or <em>“Oedipus Tyrannos”</em>. <em>“Oedipus the King” </em>is a twisted yet engaging, unadulterated Greek tragedy with a remarkable story line. Over the years the play has been translated into different languages and rearranged to suit more modern audiences by scores of writers and scholars.  

            The theme of the play  is mainly about fate and how men do not control their own fate no matter how much they try. King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes have a baby boy.  King Laius goes to the Oracle at Delphi which  was a place that many Greeks believed was the center of the world and their place of worship. During the 8th c. B.C. Delphi became internationally known for the Oracular powers of Pythia--the priestess who sat on a tripod, inhaled ethylene gasses<strong>, </strong>and muttered incomprehensible words that foretold the future. While at the Oracle of Delphi, Pythia told King Laius that his son would murder him. Afraid, the King ordered a Sheppard to take the baby to be taken into the woods and his to pinned down to the ground so that he cannot crawl away (Sauder)

The baby boy is then rescued and taken to the King and Queen of Corinth, who wanted a baby but could not have children. The King and Queen of Corinth name him Oedipus which meant swollen foot because of the pin through his feet. All throughout Oedipus’s childhood the Queen never told him he was adopted. When Oedipus was a young adult a friend made a rude comment about him not being  a Corinthian so Oedipus runs away in shame and goes to ask Apollo the truth. Apollo tells Oedipus that he will kill his father and marry  his mother.  Terrified, he leaves Corinth to escape his fate. As he was going through a crossroad on his horse a chariot came through at the same time and would not let Oedipus through so he got out and killed the other man. The other man was King Laius.

Then Oedipus went to the town of Thebes and found a great Sphinx there. The Sphinx asked all who wanted to enter a riddle and if you could not answer it the Sphinx would not let you go and would eat you. <strong>The riddle was :</strong>

<em>What goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon, and three feet in the evening? </em>

<strong>The answer  was: </strong>

  <em>a man. </em>

<em>A man is a baby in the morning of his life and he crawls on four feet.
He is an adult in the noon of his life and he walks on two feet.
But when he is old, in the evening of his life, he walks with a cane, on three feet.</em>

<em>(This would be true of women, too, but the Greeks told it about men only).</em>

            When Oedipus answered the riddle correctly the Sphinx was so mad that she killed herself. When he got to the city the people were upset that someone had killed their King Laius but very excited that Oedipus had solved the riddle that they made him their king. Oedipus also married the Queen, Jocasta. They had four children. One day a plague, horrible disease or serious problem, came to Thebes and Oedipus went to the Oracle to see why the God’s had sent such a terrible thing. The Oracle told him that Thebes had a bad man in it and he had to be found and got rid of so that the plague would stop otherwise it would go on killing people. This is where the real play begins and Oedipus sets out to find the bad man with the blind man Tiresias but concludes that its himself. Realizing that he did not escape his fate even though he tried his hardest to, he pookes his eyes out with a stick. Jocasta finds out the news and hangs herself. Then Oedipus leaves Thebes so that the plague will go away. 

Towards the close of Sophocles' life, the glory and power of the great Athenian state was beginning to show the first signs of decay. A ten-year war broke out in 431 B.C. between Athens and Sparta. After it ended in a stalemate, it dragged on for 27 years in all, either in open or barely contained hostilities. According to scholars, In 428 B.C., there was a devastating plague that decimated the Athenian population and claimed the life of Pericles. Then in 413 B.C., Athens <a href="http://pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmOedipusRex13.asp">lost</a> two armies in its disastrous campaigns in Sicily. Nine years later (in 404 B.C.), Athens suffered humiliating defeat by Sparta . Also according to scholars, Sophocles was writing the Oedipus plays at a time when Athens was struggling for its life against disruptive forces inside and outside of the city-state. As a result, he incorporates into his plays both the glorious reign of Theseus, founder and hero of Athens, and the bitter strife ensuing among the nation states of Greece (Sauder).

It is typical of its time because there are King and Queens, followers, Greek Gods and Oracles and loyal followers. Also the time period is mythical which stands out because the play is very mythical. Different things that were typical was writing and the use of solemn poetry and philosophic in tone.

The work is innovative for its time because it confronts two sides of forces, right and wrong and intended right. The play is also created in a series of dramatic episodes a prequel and a sequel, showing before Oedipus’s birth and after he is dead. The work is received as common, something natural and something enlightened. However it was common for cousins to marry during Greek times to ensure that money and hierarchy stayed within the family.

Today people think the work is remarkable. It tells the Greek tragedy of a royal family and shows how all parties felt. The way I feel about the work is that it is mythological but entertaining and its a complex piece of work that is underrated and should be given more credit. \

Sophocles’ works are in a way ironic like Edgar Allen Poe’s work but very complex and engaging, something like <em>Murder she Wrote</em>. It is different from something like <em>“The Epic of Gilgamesh” </em> because in <em>“Oedipus the King”</em> it includes a chorus that reiterates a lot of the main points in the play and highlights that are being said in the play. It is also different from <em>“Juvenals’s Satires”</em>  because this work is lyrical and <em>“Oedipus the King”</em> is not.

Things for future generations to know about this particular piece of work is that the context of which it was written in is bold because of the language, the imagery that can be depicted from the language and the diction and passionate messages that are conveyed through the diction. It is also important to note that over time the style of writing has changed so you have to be open to understand the play.

 Works Cited

Konsola, Dora. "Delphi." <em>Ancient Greece</em>. Web. 16 Feb. 2011. &lt;http://www.ancient-greece.org/history/delphi.html&gt;.

Sauder, Diane. "PinkMonkey.com MonkeyNotes for Oedipus the King by Sophocles." 16 February 2011&lt;<a href="http://www.pinkmonkey.com/oedipustheking">http://www.pinkmonkey.com/oedipustheking</a>&gt;.

Tripp, Edward, and Edward Tripp. <em>The Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology</em>. New York: Meridian, 2007. Print.

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