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When a friend starts telling you something and then close to the end of her story she realizes that she shouldnt tell you because it might hurt you. Wouldnt you nag, bother her until she tells you? When Oedipus finds out from the Oracle that he needs to find the killer of Laius for his kingdom could be in peace. As king tries to investigate who the killer is, so when he finds out that there is a secret that his friends know about, but do not want to tell him he starts getting curious, also his honor that he has within himself pushes him to investigate the terrible truth. Therefore the circumstance that Oedipus was in was what ruined his life because he was king, human and he had a lot of honor within himself.
The riddle: what goes on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon and, three in the evening? ... Oedipus delivers the answer: a man, who crawls when he is a baby, walks when he is a young man, and limps with a cane when he is old. This riddle was the riddle that no one in Thebes could answer, until Oedipus came along and solved the Sphinx riddle. This made the city very happy and because there king was dead they decided to make the person who saved there city king. Oedipus married Jocasta who used to be Laius wife and had children with her.
He did not know that the woman who he married was actually his mother, so the prediction that the Oracle made after he was born and before he could even be named came true. Oedipus was cursed and that is the reason why he did what did. Now, you might be wondering what do you mean he was cursed? Well, we have to remember his great-great-grandfather Cadmus and his wife Harmonia. They were both turned into snakes by the gods and all their daughters were visited with great misfortune. Semele was killed by Zeus, Ino committed suicide by leaping down from a cliff with her dead son who was killed by her husband, Agave was driven mad into thinking that her son was a lion and she killed him with her own hands, Auto the last daughter had to endure the death of his son who was turned into a stag by Artemis and later was feed by his own hounds.
We see that the members of the royal family of Thebes were innocent, but their fate or curse made that family suffer (Hamilton 256). Oedipus was like a puppet to the gods because it was the Oracle of Apollo that told his parents (Laius and Jocasta) that he was going to kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus was king now not knowing the sin that he has made and so when the city goes into trouble again they ask the Oracle what to do. The Oracle says that they must find the killer of Laius and by finding the killer they have to kill or banish him from Thebes.
As king he had the duty to find the answer to save his kingdom for the second time. Teiresias: You are all deluded. I refuse to utter The heavy secrets of my soul - and yours. Oedipus: What? Something you know, and will not tell? You mean To fail us and see your city perish?
Teiresias: I mean to spare you, and myself. Ask me No more. It is useless. I will tell you nothing. (Sophocles 35) If you remember the illustration I made in the beginning of the paragraph you see that the example is similar to the quote in the end of the first page. As human beings we have the tendency to try and make our friends tell us about what they know and we do not know.
It is understandable that Teiresias does not want to tell Oedipus about who the killer is because the truth would ruin his life. Oedipus gets into an argument with Teiresias that annoys him that in the end Oedipus wins and Teiresias tells him the truth that he is the killer. To Oedipus what Teiresias is telling him does not make sense because he does not remember killing Laius, but then again he does not even know how Laius looks like. It was natural instinct that Oedipus was not going to believe him unless he had evidence to back up what he was saying, therefore he kept on his investigation on who killed Laius.
Oedipus was certain that he did not kill Laius, but when he asked Jocasta the story on how Laius was killed she said... An oracle was given to Laius - From Phoebus, no; but from his ministers - That he should die by the hands of his own child, His child and mine. What came of it? Laius, It is common knowledge, was killed by outland robbers At a place where three roads meet.
As for the child, It was not yet three days old, when he cast it out (By other hands, not his) with riveted ankles To perish on the empty mountain-side... (Sophocles 45) When Oedipus heard this he then started to realize that he could have been the killer of Laius because the reason he left Corinth was that he heard he was going to kill his father and marry his mother. You have to remember that Oedipus does not know that his parents in Corinth are not his real parents. Also, when he hears that he was killed in a place where three roads meet he remembers that he killed someone there. He then summons the Sheppard that witnessed the incident and the Sheppard tells him that it was not robbers that killed Laius, so there he realized that he was the killer. Now, that we know the whole story in how being king started this investigation and how being human made him investigate more about the truth that we now have to realize that his honor made him do the things he did. How do we obtain honor?
Are we born in having honor within ourselves? or do we obtain honor by the way we are raised? In Oedipus case having honor was a major thing for him because of everything he had and the way he was raised made him obtain that honor. When he thought his parents were the queen and king of Corinth he must of had some type of pride and honor that he was the prince.
When he left Corinth and went into the city of Thebes he gets honor by the people who make him king. Oedipus was very honored and had everything going for him, but he wasnt just a king he also was a hero to the people of Thebes. He saved there city from the Sphinx and now by accepting his doom he saves the city for the second time. Oedipus in a way ruined his own life because of his honor he killed Laius and everybody else that was with Laius because he was not going to put his honor at stake. So when honor is at stake all other considerations become irrelevant. The incident that happened at the three road that meet was like an early recorded incident of road rage.
When a person is driving and sees that there is another car in his way that shouldnt be there people tend to get aggressive and sometimes violent. That is what happened to Oedipus he was riding and all of a sudden someone appears and tells him to move knowing that he had the right of being there. Reason why his honor and pride made him kill them because he thought he was just a beggar and he was the prince of Corinth. Oedipus solves the riddle of the Sphinx and saves the city. Then when Thebes is threatened the second time he has the duty to save then for the second time. When he starts his investigation as king to find Laius killer because only that way Thebes would be saved.
Oedipus finds out that this investigation led him to a hidden secret. Teiresias, Jocasta and others each try to stop him, but Oedipus does not let himself be stopped because he must read the last riddle, the riddle of his own life. Therefore Oedipus is an innocent victim of circumstance and reason why we should not blame him for his misfortune. It is not his fault that he was born in a cursed family, it was not his fault that he was king and as king he had to investigate, it was not his fault that he had honor and reason why he did what he did and it was not his fault that he was human and as human we have the tendency to make mistakes and push our luck.
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