Blindness in Oedipus the King
             People can be ""blinded"" to the truth. The answer to their question or solution to their problem
             may have been obvious. Yet, they could not "see" the answer. They were blinded to the truth.
             Associations have been made between being blind and enlightened. A blind person is said to
             have powers to see invisible things. They "see" into the future. The blind may not have physical
             sight, but they have another kind of vision. In Sophocles' King Oedipus, Teiresias, the blind
             prophet, presents the truth to King Oedipus and Jocasta. Oedipus has been blinded to the truth his
             whole life. When he does find the truth, he loses his physical vision. Because of the truth,
             Oedipus blinds himself. Jocasta was blind to the true identity of Oedipus. Even when she found
             out the truth, she refused to accept it. In this case, those who are blind ultimately do have a
             Kind Oedipus started life with a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. In
             an attempt to avoid this fate, his parents, Laius and Jocasta, sent him into the mountains to die.
             However, a shepherd saved Oedipus. This shepherd gave Oedipus to Polybus and Merope. When
             Oedipus learned of his prophecy, he fled his home, thinking these people were his real parents.
             On his flight, he met Laius. He ended up killing Laius. He continued on, answered a riddle of the
             evil Sphinx, and ended up king of Thebes. With this kingdom, Oedipus married Jocasta. He had
             lived out the prophecy without even knowing he had. Thebes fell onto bad times, and a prophet
             put the blame on a polluter of the lands. Oedipus called on Teiresias, and Teiresias informed him
             that the polluter was the King. As Oedipus searched further and further, he discovered that he
             was the polluter and that the prophecy had come true. When Oedipus finally discovered the truth,
             he was so distressed that he ran pins into his eyes, blind...