Humanities Oedipus Rex Report 2022

Running head: HUMANITIES - OEDIPUS REX
HUMANITIES - OEDIPUS REX
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

HUMANITIES - OEDIPUS REX1
Summary
The Oracle of Delphi had prophesized that Laius, the king of Thebes would be the father
of a male child. The Oracle has also prophesized on the fact that the child of King Laius and his
wife Queen Jocasta would be the reason of the death of the king. The prophesy further stated that
the child would also be involved in a sexual relationship with the Queen. The King had thus left
his own son to die at the mountains after he was born in order to avoid the horrendous future.
However, the child was saved by a shepherd who had handed the baby over to the royal family
of Corinth who had brought the baby up as their own. The baby grows up and visits the Oracle to
gather information about his own birth which he is unable to recover. The Oracle just reveals to
him the same fact that she had revealed to his father, King Laius. Oedipus tries to flee his fate
but however ends up delving right into his fate. Oedipus engages in a scuffle with King Laius at
the crossroads and ends up killing the King without the slightest knowledge that he had killed his
own father as prophesized by the Oracle. Oedipus wins the throne of Thebes by solving the
riddles that were formulated by the Sphinx and thereafter marries his own mother Jocasta
without knowing the truth. King Oedipus was thereafter involved in sexual relations with his
Jocasta and had fathered a number of children as well. Tiresias, after a long duration of several
years reveals the truth to Oedipus. Tiresias was a seer who had known of the several crimes that
were undertaken by Oedipus in the process of ascension to the throne of country (Yeats, Clark,
and Clark). The seer had access to the knowledge of the fact that Oedipus had been responsible
for the death of his real father and had further been engaged in the immoral act of being sexually
involved with his own mother as well as fathered her children. On the revelation of this fact, the
present king of Thebes was observed to have been punishing himself by stabbing himself in the
eyes. This rendered him blind and thereafter he condemned himself to exile. The queen, on the