The Tragedy of Oedipus Rex In Oedipus Rex, Sophocles dictates the tragic life and inevitable downfall of the once-noble king. Through hubris, muthos, and irony, the definition of tragedy is confirmed through the rash actions of the king. In a single day, Oedipus transforms from a beloved king to a blinded, humiliated shell of his former self.
Hubris is a major characteristic of Oedipus the king. His self-ego and confidence brings about his failure without his own knowledge. Oedipus first gains his status as a nobleman and an intelligent hero by the people after he solves the riddle of the Sphinx, which resulted in her destruction. In his self-confidence, he becomes a patron to the citizens of Thebes when he vows to please them through his leadership and heroic deeds. He becomes determined to cleanse Thebes from the pestilence that plagues it, sans the knowledge that it his own actions that leads to the infection. Through his failure of
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The actions of Oedipus produced the satisfaction of the omen During his search for the killer of Laius, Oedipus claimed, “Because of this, as if for my own father, I’ll fight for him, I’ll leave no means untried, to catch the one who did it with his hand.” Without his awareness, Oedipus had pronounced a curse on himself – that he would take his own life in service to his father’s death. Without his awareness, he fulfilled the first part of the prophecy by fatally defeating the former over who gets to cross the three roads first. The second part was fulfilled when he harbored incest and had sexual adultery with his mother, Jocasta. He had no intention of doing so, only to find out by word of the herdsman that Jocasta and Laius were his real parents, who have pierced his ankles and stranded him to die at the top of a mountain. The second messenger amplified his statement while recounting what had happened with Jocasta before she hung