The Spinx and Fate
Sophocles' Oedipus Rex is a tragic Greek play in which Oedipus Rex, the King of Thebes unknowingly follows his fate by killing his father and having children by his mother. Oedipus is self-confident, intelligent, and strong-willed. Ironically these are the very traits which bring out his tragic discovery. Oedipus gained the rule of Thebes by answering the riddle of the Sphinx. Sophocles used the riddle of the Sphinx as a metaphor for the three phases of Oedipus' life and to later characterize him as a tragic man. The Sphinx terrorized the people of Thebes by killing everyone who failed to answer her riddle, "What goes on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?"(1087). Oedipus came upon the Sphinx and answered the riddle with "man" and as a reward he became King of Thebes (1087). 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 that the Sphinx refers to. Also man is weakest as an infant. Oedipus was th
The fulfillment of the final part of the Sphinx's riddle happens when Oedipus blinds himself with the two broaches that Iokaste was wearing (1121). Oedipus meets a man in a chariot who orders him off the road at a place where three roads meet (1087). Oedipus also uses the same intelligence and strong will to find the killer of Laios. If Oedipus had not been so courageous he would have never tried to answer the riddle of the Sphinx. On two legs Oedipus walked right into his destined fate, when he arrived in Thebes. Many years later Oedipus and Iokaste have children and plague falls upon the people of Thebes (1087). Man walks on two feet when he has matured. Oedipus sends Kreon to the oracle to ask the gods what he is to do about the plague (1090). Oedipus will now have to walk with a cane for the rest of his life. Also he would have never became king and married his mother even though he had already killed his father. When Kreon returns he tells Oedipus that he must find the person or persons who killed the former King Laios (1091). Oedipus then answers the riddle of the Sphinx and becomes King of Thebes (1087). This is the three legs man walks on in the evening. By becoming king Oedipus marries Iokaste, the queen, which is also his mother (1087). Oedipus in anger kills the man and four of his attendants (1087).
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