Before and after Oedipus's Final Submission to the Gods
Summary:
The play centers on Oedipus, a man of great compassion and intelligence who was also a man of great pride. Through his intelligence, he managed to solve a riddle no one else had been able to solve. This resulted in freeing Thebes from the sphinx that had been oppressing the land and securing for Oedipus both the kingship of Thebes and Jocasta, the late king Laius's widow, for his wife.
In ancient Greece, plays were more then simply a form of entertainment. "Athenian drama was supported and financed by the state. (...)Greek theater was directed at the moral and political education of the community." (Kennedy and Gioia, pgs 1357-1363) Sophocles understood this, and dissipated any pollyanic view of society by presenting us with plays that were intended to teach. Sophocles's Oedipus the King issued a warning for those who foolishly believed that they could challenge the forces of nature. Sophocles was known for presenting characters that are fluid not static. So it should come as no surprise that the Oedipus the reader encounters at the outset of the play, an extraordinary leader, but one who's pride has lead him to challenge his fate, has changed by the end of the play. He comes to realize that all his efforts to change the outcome of his life were acts of futility. We are shown a man who has finally accepted divine will and though now fallen from high estate is uplifted in moral dignity. (Kennedy and Gioia Pg 1364-1365)
The play centers on Oedipus, a man of great compassion and intelligence who was also a man of great pride. Through his intelligence, he managed to solve a riddle no one else had been able to solve. This resulted in freeing Thebes from the sphinx that had been oppressing the land and securing for Oedipus both the kingship of Thebes and Jocasta, the late king Laius's widow, for his wife. "Thus Oedipus's intelligence, a trait that brings Oedipus closer to the gods, is what causes him to commit the most heinous of all possible sins. In killing the Sphinx, Oedipus is the city's savior, but in killing Laius (and marrying Jocasta), he is the scourge, the cause of the blight that has struck the city at the plays opening" (Little) Oedipus, while appearing to have everything, was a man who, even before his birth, was fated by the gods to kill his father and marry his mother.
Upon learning of this prophesy, Oedipus, prince of Corinth, official son of King Polybus and queen Merope, left the city where he was raised, convinced he could be the master of his own fate and circumvent the will of the gods. Oedipus's confidence as a ruler, and pride in his own abilities, is made clear during the first half of the play. The play starts off with a procession of priests who are carrying branches wound in wool and laying them on the alter that is located in front of the royal house of Thebes and then supplicating themselves before it. A plague has struck Thebes killing their crops and cattle and causing the women of Thebes to miscarry. When Oedipus enters, he expresses sincere concern for his people and their plight, yet immediately turns their attention away from the gods and onto himself by stating "Here I am myself--you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus." (Oedipus, pgs 1366 -1367) (It is important not to think of the gods in Greek tragedies in the theological sense, but rather consider them to be the forces of nature). When, Creon, Oedipus's brother in law, came back with the pronouncement of Apollo that the plague upon Thebes would continue till the murderer of the previous king, king Laius, was found and brought to justice, Oedipus immediately stated "I'll bring it all to light myself!" "Now you have me to fight for you, you'll see: I am the land's avenger by all rights, and Apollo's champion too." (Oedipus, pg 1372) Oedipus's willingness to take on the challenges of a dutiful ruler who has a responsibility to his people is obvious., Later when the chorus was crying out to the gods for deliverance, Oedipus answered them saying "You pray to the gods? Let me grant your prayers. Come, listen to me" "If I'd been present then there would have been no mystery, no long hunt without a clue in hand." (Oedipus, pg 1375). The chorus here understands what Oedipus unfortunately does not: the importance of subordinating human will to the gods. Oedipus even went so far as to gloat and to show scorn for the gods when he received news of Polybus's death. He stated "Jocasta, why, why look to the Prophets hearth, the fires of the future? Why scan the birds that scream above our heads? They winged me on to the murder of my father, did they? That was my doom?(...) But now, all those prophecies I feared--Polybus packs them off to sleep with him in hell! They're nothing, worthless." (Oedipus, pg 1407)
Ironically, right at the moment of his feelings of triumph, Oedipus is given the news of his total defeat. He is shown that every action he has taken to escape his fate has instead led him toward it. He had thought to prevent his killing his father and marrying his mother by the simple act of leaving Corinth. However, he was told by the messenger from Corinth that "my boy, it's clear you don't know what you're doing . . . . Don't you know? You've really nothing to fear. . . . Polybus was nothing to you, that's why, not in blood" (Oedipus, pg 1409-1410) It was at this point that Oedipus was presented with the shepherd who was not only the witness to Laius's murder but was also the man who had been responsible for his being brought to Corinth as a baby. Jocasta counseled him to leave things be, realizing that nothing good would come of his persistence to find the truth. She extolled him "Oh no, listen to me, I beg you, don't do this." And "No, please--for your sake--I want the best for you!" (Oedipus, pg 1413) The shepherd also tried his best to deter Oedipus from hearing the truth about both his birth and the facts in the murder of Laius. Oedipus would not be deterred. "It is he who persists in unraveling the fatal secret, in spite of warnings to the contrary, because he thinks it will benefit himself and his neighbors. He catches at each hint, and pursues each clue, with a light and cheerful heart, little dreaming that every step brings him nearer to the precipice; and it is only when he has reached the very brink, and the truth is revealed, that he perceives, when too late, the extent of his previous folly." (Haigh) Eventually, it was revealed to him that Laius and Jocasta were his true parents and he had indeed killed his father and married his mother. His intelligence and self reliance had served to deliver him to his predestined fate rather then to protect him from it.
At the end of the play Oedipus came to realize that rather then being the master of his own fate he was merely a servant to the will of the gods; his course predetermined and unchangeable. Now, rather then speak of his superior intelligence and exalted position, Oedipus refers to himself as "the worst of all men" (Oedipus, pg 1428) and further said "under the skin, what sickness to the core." (Oedipus, pg 1427) Oedipus gouges out his eyes, because he could not bear to look on his father when he meets him in the after life or his children or the people of Thebes in this life, feeling that he had wronged them all by his sins. He requested to be exiled from Thebes, a fate considered to be worse then death at that time. Creon speaks of waiting on the gods to clarify his duty in regards to Oedipus. He makes the statement "And this time, I assume, even you will obey the god's decree." (Oedipus, pg 1429) To which Oedipus responded "I will, I will" (Oedipus, pg 1429). Oedipus has finally progressed to the point where he is no longer raging against what the gods have ordained for him but rather has come to accept and even embrace it. At the end of the play he states to Creon "Oh but this I know: no sickness can destroy me, nothing can. I would never have been saved from death--I have been saved for something great and terrible, something strange. Well let my destiny come and take me away."( Oedipus, pgs 1429-1430). At the end we are shown a man who, while he has lost everything seems to have attained a calm acceptance, a sense of peace with himself and his place in the universe.
Works Cited
Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia. "Critical Casebook: Sophocles" Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 9th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. 1357-1363
Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia. "The Origins of Oedipus the King" Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 9th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. 1364-1365
Sophocles. "Oedipus the King" Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 9th ed. Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia, New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. 1365- 1433
Haigh, A.E. "an analysis of the play by Sophocles"The Tragic Drama of the Greeks. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896. 188-91
