Oedipus Rex
Sophocles was a play writer who began writing at a very young age; by the end of his life the number of plays totaled over 120. Sophocles died in 406 BC and seven of his plays have survived in their entirety. One of the seven plays that has made the journey from past to present is Oedipus Rex. Thought to be one of Sophocles greatest works, Oedipus Rex is filled with many moral themes that question the ideas of sin, guilt, and destiny.
There is some confusion about what Oedipus was truly guilty of. One of the crimes that he did commit was the murder of his father. However, the reason that he killed his father was because his father tried to kill him, thus Oedipus used self defense. Another crime that Oedipus was said to be guilty of was incest. After he killed his father, Oedipus went back to the town of Thebes and solved the riddle that no one else had solved, in order to save the town.
Cadmus Sowing the Dragon's teeth, by Maxfield Parr...
This image was first published in the 1 st (1876&n...
English: Cottontop Tamarin (Saguinus oedipus) in t...Oedipus was called a hero and made King. After being made King, a Queen was given to Oedipus, who was actually his mother. He had no idea that the Queen was his mother when he had sex with her. Since Oedipus was unaware of this fact and because she was given to him as a sign of the towns appreciation; Oedipus could not have been guilty of incest. Both the murder of his father and the crime of incest were justified and his innocence was proved. Although he was innocent of murder and incest, he was in fact guilty of a few other things. In the end, Oedipus was guilty of rage, anger, hot-temperament and most importantly hubris. Due to this guilt Oedipus encountered conflict.
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