Oedipus | Story, Summary, & Facts (2024)

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Oedipus | Story, Summary, & Facts? ›

Oedipus, in Greek mythology, the king of Thebes who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother. Homer related that Oedipus's wife and mother hanged herself when the truth of their relationship became known, though Oedipus apparently continued to rule at Thebes until his death.

By leaving his home in Corinth, Oedipus thinks he has escaped a terrible prophecy that says that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus has defeated the riddling Sphinx, saved the seven-gated city of Thebes, and married the queen Jocasta.

Fate versus free will is the central theme of the play. The story revolves around Oedipus' attempt to use his own free will to escape the prophecy given to him by the Oracle of Delphi. The oracle prophesied that Oedipus' fate was to marry his mother and kill his father.

This king claimed the boy and raised him as his own. When Oedipus grew to manhood, a prophet warned him that he would kill his father and marry his mother.

At the end of the play, after the truth finally comes to light, Jocasta hangs herself while Oedipus, horrified at his patricide and incest, proceeds to gouge out his own eyes in despair. In his Poetics, Aristotle refers several times to the play in order to exemplify aspects of the genre.

Answer: Oedipus blinds himself because he cannot bear to look at the world anymore after realizing the truth about his past. He learns that he has unwittingly killed his father and married his mother, fulfilling a prophecy that he had been trying to avoid his whole life.

In fact, he was metaphorically blind to the truth of his birth for much of his life; when Oedipus finally learned the truth, he physically blinded himself by poking out his eyes with the long gold pins from his dead wife's brooches.

Investigation of these dynamics suggest that the most imperative facet in determining Oedipus's guilt is determined by the extent to which he was conscious and deliberate in his vanity, the murder of his father, and marrying his mother.

Oedipus fulfills the three parameters that define the tragic hero. His dynamic and multifaceted character emotionally bonds the audience; his tragic flaw forces the audience to fear for him, without losing any respect; and his horrific punishment elicits a great sense of pity from the audience.

Although they show it in different ways, Oedipus and Othello both suffer from a similar character flaw, the sin of pride. Oedipus' pride is revealed in his belief that he is greater than the gods. He believes that he is capable of establishing his own destiny apart from the gods' control or help.

Why does Oedipus sleep with his mother? ›

The idea of the Oedipus Complex is derived from Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus, during which Oedipus learned that he was cursed to kill his father and sleep with his mother.

Oedipus killed his father because Laius tried to run him down with his chariot. The two were approaching a crossroads at the same time. Laius's herald asks Oedipus to allow him to pass. Oedipus would not allow Laius to pass through ahead of him.

Jocasta is mother and wife of Oedipus. She left Oedipus to die when he was baby after it was prophesized that he would kill his father and marry his mother. He was saved and brought to Corinth where he was raised.

And so, despite his precautions, the prophecy that Oedipus dreaded has actually come true. Realizing that he has killed his father and married his mother, Oedipus is agonized by his fate.

When a baby comes along, the king pierces his ankles and leaves him on a mountainside to die. A shepherd finds the baby, though, and takes him to King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth, who name him Oedipus and raise him as their own.

Oedipus curses his sons and praises his faithful daughters for their sacrifice. He tells the elders that he does not want to return to Thebes, and if they help him, he will give his blessing to Athens.

At the end of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, the protagonist Oedipus has gouged out his own eyes and is sent into exile. His wife (and —spoiler alert—his mother) is dead, having hung herself.

".. darkness spilling into me, my black cloud smothering me forever,"(p784) Oedipus yells this as the physical and emotional pain settle in to where he knows he will be forever blind and never see with eyes again.

Oedipus, enraged at his son's request, stretches out his accusing arms and levies his dreadful curse, by which each son would die at the hands of the other.

Oedipus alleges that Creon and Tiresias are conspiring against him. Tiresias tells Oedipus to learn the truth about his parents and then forecasts Oedipus' downfall.

What does Oedipus name mean? ›

Notes: (159) Oedipus, means "swollen foot" in Greek. Sophocles also puns on the Greek form of Oedipus' name, Oidipous. The verb oida means "I know" or "I see," while dipous means "two-footed." Note how the themes of knowledge and feet are brought together in the very letters of Oedipus' name.

The marriage of Oedipus and Jocasta fulfilled the rest of the prophecy. Oedipus and Jocasta have four children: two sons, Polynices and Eteocles (see Seven Against Thebes), and two daughters, Antigone and Ismene.

Ultimately, his anger, rashness, and poor decision-making, despite trying to do the right thing, lead to his downfall. Oedipus' tragic flaw, his hamartia, leads to his downfall.

The first example of Oedipus' crime is that he killed his own father Laius and later announced that he will find the murderer and kill him or leave an astonishing amount of punishment. Ironically, Oedipus is the killer himself when the prophet Teiresias knows what exactly is going on.

Oedipus tried to escape his fate by never returning to Corinth, the city where he grew up, and never seeing the people he thought were his parents again. Ironically, it was this action that led him to kill his real father Laius and to marry his mother Jocasta.

The riddle was: "What walks on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon and three at night?". Oedipus answered: "Man: as an infant, he crawls on all fours; as an adult, he walks on two legs and; in old age, he uses a walking stick".

Oedipus is a classic example of the tragic hero. As a young man in the city of Corinth, he learns from the Delphic oracle that he is fated to kill his father and marry his mother.

Ultimately Oedipus' character is a fundamentally good, moral and brave person who suffers a terrible fate. However, he is not without his flaws. Aristotle argues that a tragic hero can't be perfect. Instead, they should have a fatal flaw, or “hamartia,” which results in their tragic downfall.

King Oedipus, though a smart, capable, and caring ruler, is blinded by a tragic flaw (a weakness that a person can't overcome). His weakness is hubris, an excessive pride that makes him ignore his ancient Greek belief in the superiority of the gods.

When Oedipus refers to Tiresias as blind in all senses, it is verbal irony because Oedipus is blind in not knowing his origins and his personal history. Oedipus does not truly know who his parents are and the event of his birth and he is telling a person that does know, that he is blind on the subject.

Why was Oedipus a bad person? ›

In the case of Oedipus, his tragic flaw is hubris, or excessive pride. In thinking that he could outrun his own fate, he inevitably causes it to happen. In ancient Greek culture one would have to suffer from extreme pride to think they could defy the will of the gods. Oedipus's pride is exacerbated by his temper.

Answer and Explanation: In Oedipus the King, Jocasta kills herself because she is ashamed for having become intimate with her son, Oedipus.

This child is Oedipus. Oedipus asks the elders if anyone knew the shepherd from the household of Laius. They say it is the very servant that has been sent for. Meanwhile Jocasta has put all the bits of evidence into place, and is terrified by the result — that Oedipus is her own son.

An oracle had predicted that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother, and as an infant he was abandoned by his birth parents, Laius and Jocasta, the rulers of Thebes, because of this curse. He was taken by a shepherd, and raised by the previously childless king and queen of Corinth, Polybus and Merope.

What is Oedipus' tragic flaw, or hamartia? It is hubris or pride. Upon reaching adulthood and hearing the prophecy that he will murder his father and take his mother as his own wife, he attempts to flee the fate the gods have laid out before him by leaving Corinth.

Hearing rumors about his parentage, he consulted the Delphic Oracle. Oedipus was informed by the Oracle that he was fated to kill his father and to marry his mother.

How Does the Oedipus Complex Work? In psychoanalytic theory, the Oedipus complex refers to the child's desire for sexual involvement with the opposite sex parent, particularly a boy's attention to his mother.

Jocasta is dead, by suicide. She locked herself in her bedroom, crying for Laius and weeping for her monstrous fate. Oedipus came to the door in a fury, asking for a sword and cursing Jocasta. He finally hurled himself at the bedroom door and burst through it, where he saw Jocasta hanging from a noose.

Later, when the truth became known, Jocasta committed suicide, and Oedipus (according to another version), after blinding himself, went into exile, accompanied by Antigone and Ismene, leaving his brother-in-law Creon as regent.

Publisher's Summary. Many people experience the Jocasta Complex in reference to the proverbial "mama's boy". The mother often becomes obsessed with her relationship with her son to the exclusion of many other relationships and interests. She generally only chooses a favorite son whom she puts on a pedestal.

Why does Oedipus stop himself from kissing Theseus? ›

Summary and Analysis: Oedipus at Colonus Lines 1240-1377

Theseus and his followers return with Antigone and Ismene. A grateful Oedipus steps forward to embrace Theseus, but suddenly restrains himself out of fear that he might defile the Athenian king.

Oedipus is received at Thebes as a national hero, and invited to marry the recently widowed queen Jocasta. Oedipus and Jocasta have four children: Eteocles and Polyneices, Antigone and Ismene.

This seemingly disproves the prophecy that said Laius would die by his son's hand. As far as Jocasta knows, she abandoned her baby boy to exposure, starvation, and wild beasts for nothing.

Teiresias informs Oedipus that it was he (Oedipus) who killed Laius. Oedipus, now even more enraged, accuses Creon and Teiresias of framing him in order to seize the throne. Oedipus threatens Creon with death.

In the beginning of the novel Oedipus was psychologically blind, some could argue deliberately, but once he realized the truth he was both forced and chose to sacrifice everything. First by becoming physically blind, then by losing his reign and his children after asking to be banished forever from the city of Thebes.

Answer and Explanation: Oedipus does not commit suicide in the play Oedipus Rex. He blinds himself at the end of the story.

This king claimed the boy and raised him as his own. When Oedipus grew to manhood, a prophet warned him that he would kill his father and marry his mother.

Creon returns to defend himself from the charge of treason. Oedipus repeats the charge, adding that he thinks Creon is the killer of Laius. In a tense stichomythy, Oedipus tries to learn more about the crime, and wonders why Teiresias did not name him at once, if he knew (543-582).

ACCORDING to a Freudian superstition now widely current, King Oedipus of Thebes was pursued by an unconscious desire to kill his father and violate his mother, and the Greeks told this myth with the sole purpose of showing that every little boy is an Oedipus at heart.

He is renowned for his intelligence and his ability to solve riddles—he saved the city of Thebes and was made its king by solving the riddle of the Sphinx, the supernatural being that had held the city captive. Yet Oedipus is stubbornly blind to the truth about himself.

Why is Oedipus play important? ›

Oedipus' and his fellows' actions exemplified Greek values toward their society, as well as their ideas of fate the gods themselves. Oedipus' fight against his fate, his attempt to try an escape his doom reveals the merits and values of Greek society.

Oedipus the King is a classic example of dramatic irony because the entire focus of the play is on Oedipus unknowingly condemning himself by demanding to know the truth about the murderer of the former king. The entire action of the play is built on the dramatic irony that the murderer that Oedipus seeks is himself.

Only when Oedipus threatens violence does the shepherd reveal that long ago he disobeyed his orders and saved the baby out of pity. And, finally, he admits that the baby was the son of Laius and Jocasta. With this news, Oedipus realizes that he has murdered his father and married his mother.

Oedipus is a classic example of the tragic hero. As a young man in the city of Corinth, he learns from the Delphic oracle that he is fated to kill his father and marry his mother.

The flaw or failing in the tragic character leads to their downfall. In the case of Oedipus, his tragic flaw is hubris, or excessive pride. In thinking that he could outrun his own fate, he inevitably causes it to happen.

At the end of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, the protagonist Oedipus has gouged out his own eyes and is sent into exile. His wife (and —spoiler alert—his mother) is dead, having hung herself.

The climax is the most significant scene in the play Oedipus Rex. It occurs near the end of Episode IV in the play. The climax scene depicts the self-awareness of the protagonist. Oedipus realizes that he has killed his father and married his mother.

ClimaxThe climax of Oedipus the King occurs when Oedipus learns, quite contrary to his expectations, that he is the man responsible for the plague that has stricken Thebes—he is the man who killed his father and slept with his mother.

Oedipus learns of the fate bestowed upon him: that he would murder his father and sleep with his mother. In an attempt to escape this prophecy, Oedipus decides to leave his home in Corinth, defying the fate bestowed upon him. His decision is the first and most reprehensible sin committed by Oedipus.