Known the world over as the man who murdered his father and married his mother, Oedipus leads a terribly tragic life. The first of Sophocles’ three Theban plays, Oedipus the King opens the tragedy with a plague tormenting Thebes. The people ask their king, Oedipus, to save them as he did from the Sphinx, and he tells them that he has already asked for words from the oracle at Delphi for the answer, the answer being justice done to the man who murdered Laius, Oedipus’ predecessor. From that moment on though, everything turns against the king of Thebes as he slowly learns the truth of his own existence, that he is the man that must be punished. In the end when all is revealed, he gouges out his own eyes and demands that he be sent into exile.
When the people of Thebes learn of the horrible truth of Oedipus’ life, they mourn with him. They ask, “[D]oes there exist, is there a man on earth, / who seizes more joy than just a dream, a vision? / And the vision no sooner dawns than dies / blazing into oblivion,” (lines 1314-1317). After the defeat of the Sphinx, Oedipus and the city of Thebes had been wondrously happy and prosperous. Everything seemed so perfect. Yet, in the life of the man who had saved them, the people of Thebes watched it all come tumbling apart. Was what Oedipus had no more than a fleeting dream that is so easily broken? If he was not able to attain such happiness and he a great among men, what hope would there be for those lesser of mankind? Not only did Oedipus’ fall hurt himself and his family but also demoralized the hopes of the Thebans as well.
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