Oedipus The King
Question:
What do you think Sophocles is saying about the gods in this play? About fate or
destiny? Why do you think Oedipus does not curse the gods for his fate?
Philip Fong
#23
In ancient Greece, when science was still undeveloped, people often refer some
incidents in nature are the works of gods. Gods were above all kinds; they controlled
everything, including fate and destiny. Gods were immortal, powerful, and
omnipotent. Sophocles successfully making fate a large part in the play Oedipus the
King. He portrays that fate controls people no matter how hard we try to avoid it.
Oedipus eventually has to accept his fate because it’s unavoidable and leads to his
downfall.
In the play Oedipus the King, we can find Sophocles showing the audience the
dominance of gods in various parts in the play. In the beginning, the priests were
praising Oedipus for his mightiness and his past of saving Thebes from the Sphinx.
They pleaded to Oedipus to save them again from the suffering that the country and
the people was having. Then, Oedipus tells them that he’s waiting Creon for the
answer brought back from Delphi. “His eyes are bright. O great Apollo, bring him
here effulgent with success” (P. 217 bot) From this, we can tell that even a great king
still have to listen what the gods say. In addition, in the antistrophe on page 231,
“Zeus and Apollo are wise and discern the conditions of men,” it shows that gods
control everything and are omnipotent; anyone can’t hide from gods no matter what
they do.
Fate is the central theme of Oedipus the King. We all know that Oedipus killed his
father and married his mother, but Oedipus doesn’t believe it until the end he found
out the truth. At the very beginning of the story, from an oracle to Liaus, he and
Jocasta learned the oracle said, “ fate would make him meet his end through a son, a
son of his and mine.” (P.238) To avoid this tragedy from happening, Liaus and
Jocasta decided to abandon Oedipus and pinned on his foot in order to prevent
Oedipus from a chance to live. However, things changed dramatically. A herdsman
from Corinth found Oedipus and took him back to Corinth and present Oedipus to the
King. The king always wanted a baby but he never got one. Therefore, he treated
Oedipus as his own son and raised him up. After Oedipus grown up, once, a drunkard
man told Oedipus “Aha! You’re not your father’s son.” (P.240) This puzzled Oedipus
about his identity. He went to Delphi for the oracle, but Apollo never hinted Oedipus
what he came to hear and only telling him one thing “ Apollo once declared that I
would come to couple with my mother, and with these very hands of mine spill out
the lifeblood of my father.” (P.246) Then, terrified by the fact that he might kill his
father he thought to be and marry his mother he thought to be, Oedipus fled from
Corinth to Thebes. One his way, he killed a man, who is his true father, Liaus, and
married his mother, Jocasta, after saving the city of Thebes from the Sphinx.
Of course, Oedipus doesn’t know that he married his mother and killed his father. All
he knows is he is the king and the savior of Thebes. He even says that “ but for myself
and for myself I’ll break this plague.”(P.219) What he doesn’t know is that he’s the
cause of the plague. When Oedipus meets Tiresias, he expected that Tiresias would
give him the clue of the killer of King Liaus. However, Tiresias was reluctant to tell
the truth because he knew that if he told the truth, there would be more chaos.
Angered by Tiresias’ reluctance to tell the truth, Oedipus accused Tiresias for
planning the whole thing. Tiresias was also angered by Oedipus and can’t tolerant any
more and finally spoke out the truth: “ The rotting canker in the State is you.” (P.226)
At this moment, Oedipus still had the confidence in himself and thought that what
Tiresias said was nonsense. He said “ It is, but not for you, you purblind man: in ears
and mind and vision.” It is a dramatic irony that although Tiresias was blind of sight,
he’s clear of truth. While Oedipus was clear of vision, but was blind of the truth.
Later on in the play, with the answer told by the messenger from Corinth who is also
the man that discovered Oedipus, that the king of Corinth is not Oedipus’ father, and
the fact that Oedipus was discovered in a woody dell of Cithaeron, Oedipus became
more interested in his identity, while Jocasta’s face turned pale when she heard the
facts of what the messenger said. Before that, without knowing that the king of
Corinth isn’t Oedipus’ father, Jocasta even teased the gods, “Aha! Forecasts of the
gods, where are you now? This is the man that Oedipus was terrified to kill, so fled;
and now, without the slightest push from him, he’s dead.” (P.245) From this, we can
tell that Jocasta thought the oracle that she and Oedipus were concerned about is gone.
But now, she found that she’s totally wrong. No one can escape from fate. “The pack
of sure-foot Fates will track him down” (P.231) Now Jocasta was totally terrified and
wished not to proceed, but Oedipus insisted to do so. Later, Oedipus met the shepherd
that got the order from Liaus to abandon Oedipus on the hill. At first, the shepherd
refused to tell the truth, but with Oedipus’ demand, he had no choice but to tell the
truth. In the last line of his words: “Make no mistakes, you are a doom-born man.”,
reveals the whole theme of the play. After realizing the whole incident, Oedipus
totally broke down, not only his fame, but also his everything. Oedipus was once a
great king, but now an ill-fated man. This corresponds to what Tiresias said before
“him openly displayed a Theban born, and shattered by the honor. Blind instead of
seeing, beggar instead of rich, He’ll grope his way in foreign parts, tapping out his
way with stick in hand.”(P.230) As Tiresias said before, Oedipus is the plague of the
state. Before knowing the truth, I think it is really hard for Oedipus to accept the truth
that he is the cause of the plague. But now, he learned that he couldn’t do anything
but to accept his fate.
The reason why Oedipus doesn’t curse the gods of his fate is that he respects the gods
and he fears the gods and he knows that gods control everything, including fate. Gods
are powerful and are watchful of everything; people are not able to stand against the
gods. If Oedipus curses the gods, he might get a harsher punishment or even death.
However, he does blame the gods for his fate. “ O Zeus, what playing thing will you
make of me?” (P.239) At this moment, Oedipus has no idea of his identity and felt
tricked by the gods. Also, at the end of the play when he knew the oracle came true,
he said “Friends, it was Apollo, spirit of Apollo. He made this evil fructify.” (P.257)
This shows that Oedipus blames the gods for not telling him the truth
straightforwardly, and made him blind of the truth from the start to the end.
In conclusion, the play gives us a hint that gods are omnipotent. They control
everything and fate is inevitable. Oedipus had done all he could to avoid the oracle
from happening, but in the end he find out that it’s all planned by gods and he
couldn’t escape from his fate.
Bibliography:

Roche Paul. Sophocles: The Complete Plays. Signet Classics, 2001 Print