Not on his head alone, but on them both" (Stroph 2, Antistrophe 2, Lines 1276-1280). The ancient Greek audiences and the way theater plays were presented on stage differed to a large degree from the way plays are put on stage today. The mystery along with the sacredness is left behind, in favor of the art of showing every detail, according to the directors and screen players' vision. The fact that the evolution of technology gave the audience countless possibilities to watch every possible version of a play on stage and choose the one that most fits one's image or philosophy about a particular subject, presents the advantage of letting one choose what mostly appeals to one's character and disposition. On the other hand, the way Sophocles presented the audience with the climax in Oedipus Rex, the only way Greek audiences in ancient times were able to see it,...
Although in Sophocles' times, plays were mainly destined to be presented to huge gatherings of people, as a part of religious ceremonies, both ancient and modern audiences were participating at such shows for the sake of entertainment. From the point-of-view of their access to various means of information and entertainment, contemporary audiences are clearly in advantage.
Oedipus as Tragic Hero In most dramatic plays, tragedy usually strikes the protagonist of the play and leads him, or her, to experience devastating losses. While tragic instances can be avoided, there are other instances where one's fate and future is out of the protagonist's control. In Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles and first performed around 249 BC, Oedipus cannot escape his destiny and even though he tries to overcome
However, the play goes even further than these hints in demonstrating the irrelevance of any supernatural force to the story's action when Tiresias mocks Oedipus for suggesting that the blind seer is the source of the plague (Sophocles 27). When Oedipus accuses Tiresias of a being "a conspirator" to Laius' murder due to his reluctance to tell what he knows, Tiresias responds by asking "Sooth sayest thou?" (Sophocles 26-27). While
He complains that his name "is now begrimed and black" (3.3.384) and fears that Desdemona has made him a "fixed figure for the time of scorn" (4.2.53). His fears might be those of any man, insecure in his position, concerned about how he is viewed. Thus, both heroes are true to life in that each has his own particular faults, like any man. Aristotle's fourth condition of the tragic hero
Oedipus does not show unusual arrogance, no more so than his father did when he abandoned his child to cheat death. Oedipus leaves his natural parents out of a desire to protect them, as any son possessing filial pity should do, in the eyes of the Greeks. However, in contrast to the Christian economy of good and evil, where good is rewarded and evil is punished by God, in ancient
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
Oedipus According to the traditional interpretations of classical drama, Oedipus the King was brought down by the gods or fate because of his pride, egoism and arrogance, which the ancient Greeks called hybris (hubris). His father King Laius left him exposed to the elements on a mountainside when he was three days old because he believed the prophecy that his son would murder him then marry his mother, so he imagined
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