Oedipus Rex 1005In the play, Oedipus’s parents, Laius and Jocasta,
king and queen of Thebes, have received a prophecy
that he will kill his father and marry his mother. In
an attempt to subvert this fate, they abandon the
infant Oedipus in the woods. However, he is found
by a shepherd and given to the king and queen of
a neighboring kingdom, where they raise him as
their own. As an adult, he meets Laius on the road
to Thebes, has an argument over who has the right
of way, and kills him. He then frees Thebes from
the Sphinx who has been devouring all who cannot
answer her riddle; the Thebans make him king, and
he marries Jocasta. When the truth of his birth is
revealed, Jocasta hangs herself, and Oedipus gouges
out his eyes with the pins from Jocasta’s dress.
Oedipus is the greatest of the great, a brilliant
mind and a nearly superhuman warrior, and yet his
actions demonstrate the intemperance of the human
spirit and the imperfect calculation of a human
being. The Thebans celebrate his accomplishments
and urge him toward future success, but they also
question his actions when his human imperfections
cause him to act against the state’s best interests.
In the end, the best interests of the citizens trump
even the will of a great leader, even if any failure by
that leader is entirely the result of innocent miscal-
culation. In the Greek view of religion, the law of
justice must be satisfied through retribution; the
absence of premeditation is not relevant. The mur-
derer of Laius (former king of Thebes and Oedipus’s
birth father) must pay for his crimes.
Sophocles, a veteran playwright of the world’s
first democracy, manages to point an all-encom-
passing mirror at his civilization and challenge
that civilization to demand the best of its leaders
in the worst of times. The message of Oedipus the
King is timeless: Even a hero of the ages, who has
done everything in his power to prevent an evil fate,
should accept the responsibility for those actions for
the good of the entire state once it becomes clear
that his actions, no matter how unintentional, have
brought peril down on his people.
Ben Fisler
communIty in Oedipus Rex
Sophocles’ notion of the hero as a model of physical
and intellectual greatness, and the ideal of respon-
sible leadership, along with the immutable but not
always explicit will of the gods, combines in Oedipus
Rex to mandate the social standards of Athenian
civilization. Religion and leadership are community
concerns. Thus, when Tiresias will not reveal his
prophetic knowledge, Oedipus rightly criticizes him
for not supporting his country. Oedipus threatens
the life not only of Laius’s murderer but of those
who would protect him. When the members of
the Chorus beg the gods for help, they chastise
themselves for neglecting justice due to their fallen
king and bringing the plague upon their city. Later,
they try to divert blame from Oedipus onto them-
selves, recalling that they failed to give Laius his
proper honors. Their final exchange with Oedipus
condemns their incipiently banished leader but also
shares in his misery, reminding all that the actions of
one can cause suffering for many.
Tiresias is understandably resistant when called
before his sovereign, but his emotional struggle does
not nullify the fact that he acts against the interests
of the state in keeping silent. Though he swears his
“wisdom [will not] profit the wise,” Oedipus coun-
ters with the demands of their nation, admonish-
ing: “Your words are strange and not kindly to this
state which nurtured you when you withhold this
response.” It is an aggressive interrogation, but one
that suits the will of a leader. As Oedipus has sworn
to wreak vengeance on those who “seek to screen
friend or self from [his] behest,” he cannot permit
anyone who has knowledge of Laius’s murder to
remain silent. The community, the state, and the
gods demand that the mystery be solved.
Collective responsibility interacts with collective
blame as the mysteries begin to unravel. As Jocasta
seeks the herdsman who will confirm Oedipus’s
identity, the Chorus condemns the people of Thebes
for forgetting their due to lord and heaven: “The old
prophecies concerning Laius are fading; already men
are setting them at naught, and nowhere is Apollo
glorified with honors; the worship of the gods is
perishing.” In one of their final laments, the Chorus
decries Oedipus’s fate as they remind all of what he
has achieved for Thebes:For he, O Zeus, sped his shaft with peerless
skill, and won the prize of an all-prosperous