The Fall Of King Oedipus

8 Pages 2066 Words

does Teiresias reluctantly tell Oedipus that he is the cause of the city’s misfortune. He even tells him that this man who is responsible for his father’s murder is also sleeping with his mother. Naturally, Oedipus is disgusted by the seer’s accusations, because to his knowledge left his parents to escape this oracle many years ago. Oedipus thought that he could outwit his fate and now he is told that he is knee deep in it. A further example of Oedipus’s hybris can be exemplified when he brags about how he saved the city of Thebes. He says, “…Her magic was not for the first man who came along: /It demanded a real exorcist. Your birds- /What good were they? Or the gods, for the matter/ of that? /But I came by, /Oedipus, the simple man, who knows nothing-” Oedipus feels that he is better than the god here. He states even the gods did not help Thebes in its time of need. Nevertheless, a simple man like Oedipus came and saved everyone. Later on he utter impieties again. Oedipus says, “Why should a man respect the Pythian hearth, or /Give heed to the birds that jangle above his head?” This shows total disrespect for the gods and belief in prophecies. In the same fashion, Oedipus’s wife Iokaste claims that the gods are worthless. She states, “Thus, Apollo never caused that child /To kill his father, and it was not Laios’ fate ...