The Beginning of "Oedipus the King"

In pages 159 to 187 of “Oedipus the King” we get a clear idea of what this story is going to be about. We are not only reminded of the intelligent Oedipus’s previous uncovering of the riddle about the Sphinx, but we are also informed of a new fate that he will soon suffer from according to Tiresias, the blind prophet. Oedipus will learn what his fate is only after he has solved the riddle that Tiresias told him upon his visit to the royal house of Thebes. The riddle refers to Laius’s killer, whom Oedipus is looking for as the only way, according to Lord Apollo, for the citizens of Thebes to end the plague that has begun to corrupt and destroy their city. The riddle goes “A stranger, you may think, who lives among you, he soon will be revealed a native Theban but he will take no joy in the revelation. Blind who now has eyes, beggar who now is rich, he will grope his way toward a foreign soil, a stick tapping before him step by step. Revealed at last, brother and father both to the children he embraces, to his mother son and husband both—he sowed the loins his father sowed, he spilled his father’s blood (185)!” Oedipus must figure out who and what Tiresias is referring to before he can attempt to help the city relieve itself from the burdens of the plague. The readers know already that this riddle is of Oedipus’s own fate. We are aware that as king he has married his own mother, but he has yet to be informed about this unlawful and displeasing union. With this information, we are cognizant of the tragic moment that is about to occur with his discovery of this knowledge. This lack of knowledge or ignorance of family relationships makes Oedipus a tragic character that will at some point fall from his greatness because of the tragic flaws he possesses. It is this revelation or discovery of his position that will bring his demise in life.

In just these few first pages, there are many foreshadows of what the future holds for both the city of Thebes and for Oedipus. I like that in the brief introduction of “Oedipus the King”, I was able to learn more about Oedipus than what I knew from his old story. I was able to get a better understanding of how Oedipus played his role as king and how he reacted with the troubled Thebans. Serving as a perfect example of a tragic character, Oedipus is a highly renowned and prosperous king. He even refers to his own greatness when he first addresses the kneeling Thebes. He says, “ . . .you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus.” With pride he exclaims to a priest kneeling before him with homage to his success and with hope that he might end the plague, “You can trust me. I am ready to help, I’ll do anything (159).” Right from this moment I felt that Oedipus genuinely wanted to do good for his fellow Thebans and that he sincerely wanted to help them because it hurt him more than the plague hurt them to see them with such pain and suffering.

In the next readings of “Oedipus the King” I want to look out for moments when the king’s tone toward the city of Thebes changes as well as for the climactic tragic moment when Oedipus discovers his true identity. I also am interested to see if the people continue to have hope and faith in their leader as they seem to have so much of in the beginning or if they start to question him and believe that it was he who killed Laius.
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