Oedipus Rex

Greek mythologies entirely have their stories with the connection between the Gods and their people. We have studied the play by a pioneer writer of Greek, Sophocles, entitled Oedipus Rex (King Oedipus). Based on the Aristotlian plot, the story is about Oedipus, an heir of a Theban king, returned to his own kingdom and being the King after murdering the previous king, his father, King Laius. A prophecy had stated that Oedipus himself would be the murderer and husband of his own mother, although through all the events, Oedipus was blurred as he thought that he was from the line of Polybos, King of Corinth. Towards the end, he realized all the prophecies were true, after he was revealed as Laius’ son himself. One great impact from the story tells that one shall fall from the pride he has. Sophocles had made a good but rather a taboo expose of the Oedipus complex; a son would dream of taking the role of the father and become the husband of his own motherIn the play, Sophocles had shown that the taboo was not impossible, by showing Oedipus marrying the queen, his own mother after killing the king. Another is the appearance of Teiresias, a mystical blind prophet of Greek mythology. In the play, Teiresias appeared as a prophet who reveals to Oedipus that Oedipus himself is the murderer of the king and he actually had already married to his own mother. Sophocles has also used the theme reversal of fortune and element of fate (moira) to illustrate Oedipus’ pride as king and downfall as the blind beggar. The use of the character Teiresias had a strong impact on Oedipus’ life, bringing his pride to face downfall. At the end, the queen, Iocaste, killed herself after realizing that the king was her own son. Oedipus too, blinded his own eyes, unwilling to bear the sins he had done as the king.
Although the storyline is interesting, one would feel that the language of the play is entirely confusing. This is because the sentences are of reversed and look like riddles rather than direct conversations. Also, the choices of words used are of dual meaning, true on the surface meaning as well as the deep meaning of it. For example, Oedipus says, “I know that you are deathly sick; and yet, sick as you are, not one is as sick as I”. Here, Oedipus knows that the Theban are suffering of the plague; physically sick, but not sick as he feels; sick of the burden as the king to see his country facing the plague. Also, there are ironies in the play, such as when Oedipus says, “Until now I was a stranger to this tale, as I had been a stranger to the crime.” He states that he is not involved in the murder, but in the end, it will be revealed that Oedipus himself is the murderer. The name Oedipus itself means “swollen foot”, as Oedipus once a baby was tied at his foot ready to be killed but survived. Throughout the play, we can see lots of terms from the Greek language, like the prologue, antigone, ode and exodos, representing the stages of the play.