The religious context of Oedipus Rex.
Oedipus Rex is part of the three Theban plays set in the city of Thebes, in which the main character of the play is a king – Oedipus. By looking at the religious context of the play, we can better understand how religion influenced the play.
Oedipus Rex was set in Ancient Greece and Ancient Greeks were said to have been very religious, they had a very strong belief in the cosmic order and the Greek Gods. The Ancient Greeks also strongly believed in fate, they believed that everyone’s fates were determined from birth and our fates were irreversible. Since it was irreversible, they also believed that whatever our fate was, we should learn to accept it as it is and move on with our lives. These strong
…show more content…
This quote shows that many Thebans have died from the plague that the Gods have unleashed. One can also argue that they seem this way due to the fact that they waited till Oedipus had become the king of Thebes to punish him and his parents for attempting to go against his prophecy and in turn, attempting to disobey the word of the Gods. However, their not interrupting with Oedipus’ fate can be correlated to the belief that our fates are pre-determined and irreversible, it may have been impossible for the Gods to interfere even if they wanted to. This shows how powerful the ruling cosmic order of fate was; even the Gods could not act against it. The Gods also give an impression of being easily angered as Oedipus essentially wanted to prevent his horrible fate of killing his father and bedding his mother, which is a reasonable notion but Oedipus still angered the Gods despite his honest