What Does Oedipus Reveal About Himself

1. In the opening scene, what does Oedipus reveal about himself in speaking to the people of Thebes? What type of leader is he? What is his attitude toward and relationship with the community? Use quotes to back up your points.

In The opening scene the town of Thebes has been plagued with hunger, diseases and death. Oedipus reveal about himself that the responsibility of solving the problem is up to him as king of Thebes. He takes on the situation with the eagerness and belief that he is the one person that can purge the land by punishing the person that killed the previous king in order to get rid of the plague that consumed the people. Oedipus as a leader poses characteristics of intelligence, responsibility, and energetic. Which are

“The Greek word is miasma pollution. This pollution comes from the stain of his father’s blood on Oedipus’ hands. The Greek considered miasma palpable and contagious.” Therefore the disgust of nature produced by the murder of Laios by his son Oedipus is indicated in a plague where the basic progression between generations is stopped. The plague is spreading throughout Thebes causing fruits and grain to harden in their protective sheaths. Children are also being born stillborn from the mother’s wombs (Sophocles 115.100-101). A disease of hunger nothing grows, no wheat, or fruit nothing grows bigger than a seed. The woman also bear dead things and all they do is grieve. The cattle also wither, stumble and drop to the ground, flies simmer on their swollen tongues, the plague spreads everywhere, a stain seeping through the streets, the fields and the homes of Thebes (Sophocles 36-42.14-30). The plague in Oedipus the king is a punishment from Apollo as a result of religious pollution. The symbolic meaning of the plague is the disease of Oedipus killing his father Laios who was king of Thebes and unknowingly marries his mother after Laios’ death. It impacts Oedipus because as King of Thebes the people in which he rules over are suffering and dying due to the plague which consume the town he does not have the power to solve things.

He is also considered a great well-known blind prophet of Apollo whose mind remains unshaken” (Homer 10.540-542). Tiresias gift of prophesy allows him to see the true character of people as well as allow him to predict the future. In the play Oedipus the king they think of him as being a “godlike prophet who speaks with the voice of god. He, only he, knows truth. The truth is rooted in his soul” (Sophocles 297-322.409-411). According to Mythology.net Tiresias plays an active role in the tragic events that unfolds regarding Laius and Oedipus the king. After Tiresias is killed by Apollo with an arrow at Tilphussa. His soul entered the first level of Hades immediately. He is visited by Odysseus in Homer the Odyssey. Tiresias informs Odysseys how he should continue his voyage to Ithaca and how to get past Charybdis and Scylla (Mythology.net 2014). In Oedipus the king, he reacts to Tiresias at first inviting as well as seeking his help in healing the town. He wants Teiresias to tell him what the cause of the plague is that infest the city of Thebes and save the town. Oedipus tells Teiresias “only you, my lord, can save us, only you can defend us. Apollo told our messenger did you hear? That we could be saved only by tracing down Laios’ killers, only by killing them, or sending them into exile. Help us, Teiresias” (Sophocles 297-322.416-420). Here we can see that Oedipus