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Oedipus is an ancient Greek text that questions whether or not something is moral if you have no clue of what you are doing. The text is a classic example of greek tragedy as well as a good example of what ideals were held in Greece during this time. The ancient greek culture surrounding this story is shown through the themes of family, friendship, power, and morality as well as loyalty. All of these are also reflected in the characters and how they act throughout the story.
The story of Oedipus is a well known one. It is the first of three plays. It is about a son of a king and queen, who when he was born was prophesied to kill his father and marry his mother. As a reaction to this, his parents sent him to die but the man they sent could not go through with it, so he left him in the woods. A neighboring king found him and adopted him until years later, the son, Oedipus, learned of the prophecy. Upon hearing this he leaves so he does not harm the man he believed was his real father. During his travels, he unwittingly kills his actual father and goes to the kingdom he was born in. There he marries his mother and has children with her, the whole time he has no idea what he has done. All of this goes unknown by everyone until a plague comes down on the city and the gods say the killer is living in the city, leaving Oedipus and his wife/mother to deal with their fates. In the end, she kills herself when she learns the truth and he pokes his own eyes out to repent for his sins, he then banishes himself to never return to the city he once ruled.
The writer of this story is named Sophocles. He was born in Athens in 469 b.c. and wrote 123 plays, with Oedipus being his most well-known one as well as being one of his only seven surviving plays. Not much is known about him if at all, mostly because almost everything we know about him is his plays. Of the dates given by ancient theaters, very few of them are known about him(Scodel, 25). His inspiration came from the Homeric epics. He is considered one of the three great tragic playwrights along with Aeschylus and Euripides. He came from a wealthy family and was stated to have had grace and power. He had the most wins within the greek drama competitions, having 24 victories out of 30 competitions and it was rumored he never placed below second (Woodward).
During the time this play was presented Athens was going through a plague of its own, which is mirrored within the play in the plague that has consumed the entirety of the city of Thebes. This could be Sophocles using what is going on in his world and giving justification for said disease (Martin, 91). To this day, it is still unconfirmed as to what disease it was but many people died.
This same period was during the start of the Peloponnesian war. This was a war between Spartans and Athens because Athens had economic sanctions over an area called Megara, a colony of Corinth who was an ally to Sparta (Martin, 88). Sparta disliked this and gave Athens an ultimatum, which Athens then repeatedly rejected, causing the war. The tension of war is at least somewhat relevant within Oedipus as well. The conflict shown within the story is of a war, not just between Oedipus and himself but Oedipus and Creon. It’s a war between him and his people.
The culture and religion tie into his story as well. Greek religion is based on polytheistic ideals, with each god having a specialty. The main three are Zeus, Poseidon, Hades. There are many other worshipped and they are each different. These gods were a way for ancient Greeks to explain things and give a reason to the unexplainable. Apollo is the one to tell Creon what must be done to get rid of the disease and the priest is a key figure to the decisions made by Oedipus in both the beginning and the end. Almost if not all of the greek stories in the time as well as being the main idea that is focused on throughout the entirety of their lives and even their everyday decision making because of how important these gods were to the Greek people.
Ancient Greeks saw women as submissive and unceasingly loyal, this was shown in not only the wife/mother of Oedipus, Jocasta but also the other stories through ancient Greece. Stories such as the Odyssey show this through Penelope. The loyalty in Oedipus is shown through how Jocasts’s willingness to stay with him until she found out the truth for herself about whether or not he was her son and if he killed her husband. Loyalty is shown in other ways, such as the bond between Oedipus and Creon, except in this instance it is strained because even though Creon has been nothing but loyal, Oedipus doubts him. Oedipus starts accusing him of trying to undermine his rule by starting rumors of the murderer of their original king, Oedipus’ father, being in their town and that being why their town is in such a dire situation.
The question of morality comes into question in a rather odd way. What Oedipus did was no doubt wrong but if he did not know what specifically he was doing and the dire consequences it would cause then how could it be immoral? His wife killed herself because of learning that she had married and had children with her son, who killed her first husband and his father. He in turn blinded himself as a punishment for his actions and then banished himself. Moral dilemmas after the fact are much harder to cope with after the wrong decisions are made and the one making the decision realizes it is wrong. This is not even including socially immoral behavior that this brings to light, such as having children with your mother, even if it happened unknowingly.
Guilt also plays into morality. Oedipus feels guilty for his actions despite having no prior knowledge of his actions. He defiled the very kingdom he swore to protect after his actions toppled the ladder of power. His killing his father and marrying his mother had such dire consequences to the point his wife killed herself and he blinded himself as punishment.
Family plays a big part as well. Family is a building block of this story and in the end, it was also the downfall of Oedipus and his wife. Learning not only that the woman he had married was his mother but also that her and his father had abandoned him in the woods so he did not kill his father and marry her had to be devastating as much as her finding out that he was her son and that the prophecy of him killing his father came true.
Friendship is a smaller part but important nonetheless. The friendship between Oedipus and Creon, his wife’s brother, brings this theme into the story. The tension between them even though they are supposed to be equals is a key factor in how the rest of the story plays out. It also shows friendship in a familiar way such as between Jocasta and Creon and how their brother’s sister relationship resembles a friendship.
Oedipus reflects in today’s society through Sigmund Freud in which he states that all boys want to marry their mothers after killing their fathers. This statement is ironic because Oedipus had no idea what he was doing. This had nothing to do with hidden urges but with blissful ignorance. It also hits home with the ability of the mind to be a contradiction. Looking at Oedipus he is a stranger in a familiar place. His mind which had been set in a way and was used to his life was uprooted and he had to adapt to the familiar becoming twisted in front of him while also destroying his world.
In today’s world, whether or not something is moral is very important to most people. Some people just do not care but the average person wants to be considered good and have it be said that they make morally conscious decisions. This reading brings up the question that can nag at people, is it moral if I have no idea what I am doing? This is something that nags at the back of people’s minds. It shows people that reality and what you think can be very different and cause a little chaos. It makes people think of the unintended consequences of their choices and actions, maybe not as extreme as what takes place within the pages but still, it is there and relevant.
This play is a timeless classic because it tells a story that, at least some parts, can resonate with people and make people understand at least the morality of their choices better as well as decide what their next step in a given situation will be. The play has survived this long and has the potential to last much longer
In conclusion, Oedipus is a story of morality and love with connections to the world it existed in and some of the themes, such as loyalty and family are still at least somewhat relevant to today. Oedipus has been such a staple because the questions of morality and family are connected to the human psyche. It connects to not just people in the time it was written but in today’s world as well. Today’s society still reads this because of the influence it can still have and still does have on us as a society.
Works Cited
- Martin, Thomas R.. Ancient Greece : From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times, Yale University Press, 1999. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezlfcc.vccs.edu:2443/lib/lfcc/detail.action?docID=3420399.
- Puchner, Martin. The Norton anthology of world literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print.
- Scodel, Ruth. “Sophocles’ Biography.” A Companion to Sophocles, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, pp. 25–37, doi:10.1002/9781118350508.ch3.
- Woodard, Thomas M., and Oliver Taplin. “Sophocles.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 6 Feb. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Sophocles.
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