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Murder In Sophocles Oedipus The King

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In the play “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles, many crimes are committed by many different people, making it possible for a person to blame any character. However, the murder of Laius falls on one person and one person only, Oedipus himself. There is ample evidence pointing towards his guilt: more than one person was killed that day; prophecies are not clear, he had options; and he deliberately tried to ignore the gods. Oedipus admits to killing more than just Laius where the three roads meet at Delphi. He explains: “...sprawling headlong- I killed them all-every mother’s son!” (294). By killing the king, he is not only guilty of manslaughter; he is guilty of high treason. There is no sugar coating it, Oedipus admits to murdering several people. Even if he had no choice but to kill Laius, assuming the blame is …show more content…

However, prophecies are not that clear. The prophecy does not specifically mentions birth parents. Prophecies can go any way and are not in any way clear. The prophecy said, “‘You are fated to couple with your mother...you will kill your father, the one who give you life!’’ (294). While most people assume, Laius and Jocasta are the biological parents, they gave him life; there is another interpretation. Merope and Polybus took in the baby and raised him as their own, giving him a new life. If looked at in a way that Merope and Polybus gave him life in another sense, he did not absolutely have to kill Laius. The prophecy did not specify biological or adoptive parents.
In a play alive with crimes in can seem difficult to place blame, but when broken down it makes sense. Oedipus is 100 percent guilty for the death of Laius in “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles. There is ample evidence including the facts that; he killed more than one person that night, prophecies are not clear, and he tried to escape a prophecy from the

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He didn't know the truth about his life, his life and his actions were already predetermined, and he was just living life with curiosity. The first reason that hubris was not the reason Oedipus died was because he didn't know the truth of anything. He didn't know that he killed the king, let alone knew that Laius was his father. On page three Oedipus says “whoever he was that killed the king may readily wish to dispatch me with his murderous hand, so helping the dead king i help myself”(3).

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Oedipus denies the truth and faces the consequences later on in the play. He gets furious when everyone is blaming him for killing Laius. As he is blaming others, hubris appears within his personality. Oedipus becomes blinder as hubris takes over him.

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In Oedipus The King, by Sophocles, Oedipus is given a prophecy from Apollo that he must slay his father and marry his mother. Frighten by this he decides to run away hoping that the prophecy doesn’t follow him. During his journey, he runs into a man and ends up killing him and also defeats the sphinx, making him the new king of Thebes. Shortly after being the king, it has come to his attention that the former king of Thebes has been murdered. He quickly demands to know who the killer is.

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The character Oedipus is a tragic hero because of his tragic flaw of having consistent, proper ambition to finding the murderer of Laius. In the second scene, Oedipus enters and addresses the chorus, as if addressing the entire city of Thebes. "To all of Thebes I make this proclamation: / if any one of you knows who murdered Laius, I order him to reveal / the whole truth to me . . . He will suffer no unbearable punishment, nothing worse than exile" (171) At this time, Oedipus is trying to convince the killer to come forward and confess the murder.

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In Oedipus The King, Oedipus is introduced as a wise king who cares about the well-being of the people as he solved the Sphinx riddle and saved the country. He is praised as “a bird from the god, [he] brought good luck the day [he] rescued [the people]” (Oedipus The King. 61-62). He identifies himself as a good king, and a son of Polybos and Merope. However, during his investigation into Laius’ murderer, he finds out that he is in fact the culprit; “All!

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