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Oedipus The King: A Fatal Greek Misunderstanding

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A Fatal Greek Misunderstanding
In scene one, Teiresias, the blind seer, is talking to Oedipus about the killer of king Laïos because Oedipus wanted to avenge the king by punishing the murderer. In passage eight we can find the description Teiresias gave to Oedipus about the king’s murderer. Even though Teiresias could not see through his eyes, he was able to see the past, future, and present, so he knew that the murderer was Oedipus. However, Oedipus is blind to the fact that it was himself the one who killed the king. This is dramatic irony since we know who the killer of the king was and Oedipus does not. This example also facilitates the understanding of tragedy since Oedipus thinks he did not do anything wrong and is trying to improve the situation, when he was the one who caused the king’s death on the first place. It is also tragic because he does not know that the King was his father, and the queen who he is married to at the moment, Iocaste, is his mother.
In Teiresias’ claim, he talks about some traits presented in Oedipus that not even Oedipus knew about himself. For instance, as he is talking about the killer, he says, “That man is in Thebes. To your mind he is foreign-born.” Here, …show more content…

Teiresias explains Oedipus relationship with his children by saying he was a “brother and father” to them. He also said that Oedipus was the “son and husband” of Iocaste. The closeness of these words may imply how tight Oedipus’ connections were, and maybe Teiresias was trying to reveal who Oedipus real parents were. Since oedipus was married to his mother, he was her husband and son at the same time, which also made their children be his sons and brothers. The dramatic irony presented in this case is that Oedipus does not know that he married his mother and had children with her, but Teiresias knew and the audience

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