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Examples Of Hubris In Oedipus

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In the play, Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, the hubris depicted by Oedipus is visible from the beginning when he is sent away to be killed, up to when he kills his father and marries his mother, He is too ignorant to realize his mistake, He calls upon others to show him the way from his “blindness”, till when he realizes his mistake, pokes out his eyes when he sees his mother hang herself, and moves to Kithiron to live out the rest of his life in agony. All these instances show the use the hubris within Oedipus. Hubris means, excessive pride or self-confidence toward oneself, leading to their demise.

As soon as Laois and his wife Iocaste have a child named Oedipus, they go to the Oracle to see what their child fate is destined to be. When the …show more content…

Meanwhile Oedipus had summoned the shepherd that had given the other shepherd/messenger the baby he was supposed to kill. When Oedipus first questioned him, he refrained from answering, but eventually he broke and told him the truth about how he got the baby, from the king and queen of Thebes, where and to who he gave the baby, the shepherd in Kithairon. Finnall, Oedipus pieced all of this together only to realize that he had been sleeping with his mother the entire time! He had also killed his own father unknowingly! Ever since he was a kid, he had believed that he real parents were Polybus and Merope. That is when one of the palace servants told him about how the queen was found dead in her …show more content…

He was blind when he killed his own father, he was blind when he married his own mother, he was blind to all the bad that has been going on around him. He comes to a conclusion, he gouges his eyes out with a sharp ornament from Iocaste neck, repeatedly jabbing till he cant see no more. He calls upon Iocaste’s brother, Creon, and tells him to take over the kingdom. Oedipus decides to leave and live out the rest of his life in Kithairon. His two children/siblings, say they will go with him, but he says that this is his pain, he should be the only one that suffers it. He leaves for

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