From Ignorance to Knowledge
In the Greek Tragedy Oedipus, Oedipus moves closer to knowledge and truth as each scene progresses, but something distracts him from it. Each scene advances his search and delays his discovery. In the end he finally realizes his blindness, and he greatly punishes himself for is actions. This is just one of the three themes in the Greek Tragedy.
In scene one the oracle Teiresias, who has just seen the god Apollo, meets with Oedipus. Oedipus requests the knowledge of the murder of king Laios, but Teiresias holds it back until Oedipus continually harasses him about it. Teiresias reveals that Oedipus is the murder of Laios, but Oedipus asks Teiresias "[w] ho taught you shamelessness"
(P. 1.342). Oedipus also blames Teiresias and Kreon for plotting against him. Oedipus' pride blinds him from the beginning of his own mystery.
Kreon and Oedipus argue about the acquisitions from Oedipus in at the beginning of scene two, as Kreon undoubtedly did not plot against Oedipus.
Cadmus Sowing the Dragon's teeth, by Maxfield Parr...
Oedipus and the Sphinx of Thebes, Red Figure Kylix...
Oedipus slaying the sphinx. Attic red-figured leky...Iokaste, Oedipus' wife, is also dragged into the argument, and gives Oedipus further information about the death of Laios. On the way over to Thebes, Oedipus killed a peasant, or so he thought. Iokaste tells Oedipus that Laios was killed, "[a] t a place where three roads meet," and Oedipus killed the peasant where three roads meet (P. 2.689). Oedipus is concerned, but his pride steps in as he recalls the rumors that a band of thieves killed Laios. His knowledge grows more of the even as Iokaste tells him that a servant survived and that she can retrieve him for sake of Oedipus' life.
A messenger enters the castle and wishes to speak to Oedipus, because he knows Oedipus' true history in scene three. The messenger reveals that...