Riddle of Doom
Sophocles "Oedipus the King" is a tragic play which discusses the tragic discovery of Oedipus that he has killed his father and married his mother. The story of Oedipus was well known to the Athenian's. Oedipus is the embodiment of the perfect Athenian. He is self-confident, intelligent, and strong willed. Ironically these are the very traits which bring about his tragic discovery. Oedipus gained the rule of Thebes by answering the riddle of Sphinx. Sophocles used the riddle of the sphinx as a metaphor for the 3 phases of Oedipus's life and to further characterize him as a tragic man. The Sphinx posed the following riddle to all who came to obtain the rule of Thebes: "What goes on four feet in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening" (889)? Oedipus correctly answered "Man" and became the king of Thebes. This riddle is a metaphor for the life of Oedipus. As a child man crawls on his hands and knees, this is the four feet to which the Sphinx refers. Also man is at his weakest as a small child. He depends solely on others for his nourishment and well being. Oedipus was the child of Jocasta and King Laius who was taken to the mountain by a henchman to be killed, "he was'nt three day
The riddle describes the 3 stages which Oedipus went through in his life. Many years later after bearing children with Jocasta a plague kills many of the inhabitants of Thebes, "from the depths, the red wave of death. He is very diligent in the inquiry and finally comes to the horrible truth that he himself is the murderer. Oedipus' intelligence was ultimately his flaw. Sophocles used this to characterize Oedipus as a tragic man for he came about his tragic discovery not because of an evil act or an evil trait but because of the person he was. After Oedipus dispatched Creon to the oracle at Delphi, Creon returned and imparts the gods solution to cure the city's desease, which meant finding the killer of Laius. No, please-/ for your sake- I want the best for you" (1166-1167). s old and the boy's father/ fastened his ankles, had a henchman fling him away/ on a barren, trackless mountain" (790-793). The sphinx's riddle was used by Sophocles to characterize Oedipus as a tragic man and as a parallel to his life. So the omen of the god Apollo that Laius' son would kill him and lay with Jocasta would not come true. This fulfills the final part of the Sphinx's riddle for Oedipus will have to walk with a cane for the rest of his life because of his blindness, this will give him the 3 feet which man walks with at the end of his years. Oedipus then answers the riddle of the sphinx and becomes king of Thebes. Oedipus was the weakest of his life at this point.
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