Oedipus the King

Oedipus the King

Oedipus the Arrogant -- a tragic victim of hubris

Classical tragedy is usually defined as the story of a great man or hero who loses his status (and very often his life) because of a single, but damning character flaw. This flaw is usually hubris, defined as human arrogance in the face of the superior strength of the gods. But how is Sophocles' "Oedipus the King" the quintessential model of tragedy, the tragedy on which all other tragic plots are based? On the surface, it seems like the story of Oedipus is a tragedy not of hubris, but of an innocent man condemned from birth by the gods to a horrible fate. Oedipus is condemned to marry his mother and murder his father. In a society that is dependant upon filial piety like ancient Greece, this was the most terrible fate a human being could be given by the reliable Delphic Oracle. However, upon closer examination, of the myth and more specifically, Sophocles' treatment and presentation of the myth in his drama "Oedipus the King," it becomes clear that Oedipus is guilty of hubris.

Oedipus shows arrogance most notably in his belief that he can avoid his fate through such relatively futile human actions as running away from the home of his adopted parents and denying of the words of the true prophet Tiresias. Oedipus' birth father Laius shows the same arrogance when he abandons the son at birth that will grow up to murder him. In an attempt to cheat death, Laius creates the circumstances his own death, as his abandoned son cannot recognize his father by sight. His father merely appears to Oedipus as a quarrelsome old man. The more Laius tried to resist his fate, the more he actually created the circumstances of his own demise. To truly understand the tragic fate of Oedipus and also his father with a Greek's eyes, rather than a contemporary viewer's perspective, it is essential to see the function of arrogance or hubris in Oedipus' actions and to appreciate the Greek belief in the inevitability of destiny.

In a society where we value the ability to choose our own vocation, the Greek concept of fate seems horrific. From a contemporary viewer's perspective, Oedipus does everything 'right.' Oedipus tries to avoid killing the man he thinks is his father and marrying his mother, but to no avail. Oedipus is motivated and self-possessed man in the eyes of a contemporary reader or viewer, but to a Greek his enterprise and sense of self-possession seems like arrogance. Oedipus shows intelligence when he solves the riddle of the Sphinx, but by freeing the city and deserves his status as a great leader but he brings about his own doom, and a plague upon his home city because he was trying to resist his fate. In showing wisdom as a king, vowing to punish the man that killed the former king and bought a plague upon the city he rules, he curses himself and fulfills his destiny. This goes contrary to the modern, American sensibility that everyone is the captain of their fate and soul, and the master of their own destiny. No matter how hard Oedipus tries, he only digs himself a deeper grave.

Oedipus, however, does show a great deal of arrogance as a character in the actual play, no matter how much the reader or viewer may feel pity and horror at his fate. Sophocles deliberately chooses to show first Oedipus, not as an innocent, abandoned baby with an injured foot, which is the first sight a reader might have of Oedipus and is the beginning of the actual myth. Instead, the ancient Greek playwright shows Oedipus first to the audience as an arrogant king. Oedipus says that he will discover the reason for Thebes' plague, just as he set it free from the Sphinx. He shows tremendous confidence in his own intelligence. And then Oedipus curses himself, and curses the murderer of the former king -- his own father whom he killed in a quarrel by the roadside. Oedipus' action of murder towards an apparently poor stranger, which he dismisses as fairly inconsequential, also shows how little he values the human life when his personal honor is threatened. However, Oedipus' most quintessentially arrogant action is his denial of the veracity of Tiresias. Tiresias has lived both as a man and as a woman, and although blind, he has been given the gift of foresight of the future. Because Oedipus does not like what Tiresias says, he believes he has the power to ignore the words of the prophet who is transmitting the will and the ideas of the gods. This is one, one might observe, a familiar pattern in Oedipus' life and also the life of his father -- their shared belief that one is able to ignore what the gods say, if one does not like what the gods say through oracles and prophets.