Chapter 17b: Oedipus The King
or, in Latin, Oedipus Rex
pages 454-44
60 points

The story of Labdacus’ son Laius, father of Oedipus, probably began as a story-teller’s device to tie Thebes’ two foundation myths together. But the story of the House of Labdacus, filled as it is with curses and tragedy, works well as a link between the two myths, no matter how it came to be told.

The theme of the curse that follows generation after generation and, in some cases is made worse by other curses or, ironically, by the struggle to avoid the crime that will bring the curse to fruition, appears in many Greek stories, especially in the tragic plays that survive to modern times. Another familiar pattern is the son who kills his father and usurps his power.

Mostly, however, readers remember Oedipus as a character who honored his duty by trying to avoid the terrible crimes foretold by oracles and omens and destined by the Furies.

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(20)

1. Why does Pelops curse Laius?
2. How does Laius end up being king of Thebes?
3. How does his marriage to Jocasta strengthen his claim to kingship?
4. What does he learn from the oracle? Why is this a fitting punishment for Laius’s crime against Pelops?
5. What does Laius do to stave off the fate prophesied by the oracle? Why does this strategy fail?
6. What happens when the child is born? Do we know Laius’s plan will fail?
7. How does Oedipus get his name?
8. Hearing rumors that he is not Merope and Polybus’ true son, Oedipus goes to the Oracle at Delphi to learn who he is. What does he learn instead? What does he do to try to avoid committing these terrible crimes? Do YOU think he will be successful?

(30)

1. Why does Oedipus kill the stranger?
2. What monster does Oedipus meet outside the city of Thebes and how does he overcome it? This riddle, one of the most famous of all riddles, emphasizes the Greeks’ love of puzzles and reminds modern readers of the trolls who appear in later western folk tales.
3. What rewards do the citizens of Thebes grant to Oedipus for freeing them from the Sphinx?
4. Although the citizens of Thebes look forward to becoming prosperous now that the curse of the Sphinx has been taken from them, a great plague falls on the city. What causes this plague and what is Oedipus told do about it? (Sophocles Oedipus Rex ll.224-256)
5. What is the terrible irony of these words? or, to put the same question in other words, What does the reader know that Oedipus doesn’t?
6. Oedipus now summons Teresias in an effort to find out who the culprit is. Why doesn’t he believe what Teresias tells him? Do you notice that Teresias is always right and that no one ever believes him the first time around?
7. The messenger gives Oedipus 2 pieces of news. What are they?
8. What does Oedipus find out from the shepherd?
9. What happens to Oedipus and Jocasta? (ll. 1241-1280).
10. Notice that in Greek plays, all the mayhem takes place off stage to avoid subjecting the audience to so much grief and pity that they are not able to profit from the moral of the play.
11. And what is the moral of the play? No, don’t try to answer this, but read carefully the "Observations" on pages 460-461. Perhaps the Greeks—and we ourselves—love this play above all others partly because it poses so many unanswerable questions.

Oedipus goes into exile in the Grove of the Furies at Colonus, blind and tended only by his daughters. When his warring sons Polyneices and Etiocles try to abduct him, each to make certain of his own claim to be king of Thebes, he curses them both, is warned by a clap of thunder that his time has come, and mysteriously disappears, but to Hades or to the side of Zeus?

Oedipus as Hero

(10)  The story of Oedipus is considered a tragedy because its central character does not achieve his goals and is brought to his downfall by flaws in his own character and by the Fates.  But Oedipus is not only a tragic character.  He is also an heroic figure.  List 10 items from the Heroic Pattern list that illustrate why Oedipus should be considered heroic.