Was Oedipus Rex a Bad Man?
Was He Finding Free Will or Flouting Fate?
Dear Classical Wisdom Members,
Perhaps no other story has survived so well intact the ravages of time than Oedipus Rex. Preserved in literature, theater, psychology, art and more... it’s essentially reached the much sought after level of ‘household name’, sadly a rare accomplishment for ancient Greek characters in this day and age...
Of course, this ‘honor’ of being a recognizable figure is followed by the pithy and damning description which condemned the mythological man both then and now: that he killed his father and slept with his mother.
These actions, traversing so many taboos, can easily put the man squarely in the ‘evil category’, with nary a contention.
But is this fair? Was he truly immoral? Did he have a choice? Does that matter?
An important read (or re-read) of this timeless classic, a page turning play that is suspenseful, engaging, as well as deeply thought provoking, may very well make what first appears obvious much more complicated.
Classical Wisdom Members, you can enjoy the original play below, as well as today’s in-depth article, which explores this very well known myth with a critical moral eye and asks: Was Oedipus Rex a bad man?
But before we delve into the ideas of fate versus free will and justice between the Greeks and Romans, a heartfelt thanks to all our members, who make this newsletter possible.
Thanks to your commitment to the Classics, to history and literature of the ancient world and to preserving this wisdom for the next generation, out of over 300 publications in our field, we are number #3 on Substack for philosophy. It’s an honor and I can’t thank you enough!
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Now, was Oedipus finding free will or flouting fate? Read on and decide for yourself...
All the best,
Anya Leonard
Founder and Director
Classical Wisdom
Oedipus Rex: Moral or Murder?
By Anya Leonard
He is one of the most tragic heroes ever found in literature; a man so unfortunate in the eyes of the gods, that he eventually blinded himself. We are, of course, speaking about the eponymous Oedipus, King of Thebes.
Some of you may not be familiar with the details of this character’s life. If you aren’t, then you have two options regarding this introduction. One, you can read below and the plot and themes will be revealed. This means, of course, that when you read the actual text, you will know what will happen. A spoiler does not necessarily take away from an authentic experience, however, as this was how the Ancient Greeks would have viewed the play, knowing every detail of the myth beforehand. Indeed, this knowledge contributes to the sense of foreboding and runaway fate.
The other option is to turn to page one and read the text first. This will enable you to experience every tragic twist of fate in pace with King Oedipus. If you choose this method, leave now and return when you finish.
For those of you who have continued, let us dig into the infamous character at hand. Who is Oedipus Rex? Does this man, who commits such atrocities, have any admirable traits?
Well, he does have the audacity to force the hand of fate, of self determination, of questioning society and divinity itself. Some may say this was his fatal flaw, his resistance to the life laid out for him. Others hold this as his most redeeming feature.
In today’s context, we might be inclined to agree with the latter opinion. We praise those who break free of their social rank, their confined destinies. We look upon social structures like the caste system and class determination as an affront to free will. Oedipus had his life prescribed to him from youth, and tried at every opportunity to leave it. Even when all the signs of its truth began to show, he still rebelled against his lot and resisted it until he could no longer bear the weight of destiny.
However, in the context of Ancient Greece, Oedipus’ bold determination to outrun his fate might have been considered to be rather foolish. Certainly it is in man’s nature to attempt to subvert destiny, to hold off the inevitable for as long as possible... but time admits no exceptions. Our end, whatever it may be, will befall us just as it was meant to. The belief that we might somehow rewrite our futures could be considered to be, at the very least, naive, and at the very worst, impious. As was said by Pericles, the great Athenian statesman of the 5th century:
“Time is the king of all men, he is their parent and their grave, and gives them what he will and not what they crave.”
Still, we should not feel obliged to paint Oedipus in such extreme, contrasting colors. The damned King of Thebes is not necessarily a steadfast champion of the human spirit nor is he necessarily a hard headed mortal who proved himself a fool by attempting to outrun fate. Oedipus speaks to the hope within all of us that we are, at least in part, responsible for the creation of our future. And in the same breath, he gives credence to the inescapable force of determination, the seemingly unavoidable power of the universe to shape events regardless of our pleas.
While very often our futures are crafted by circumstances beyond our control, that does not mean that we give up, that we roll over and die. The history of western literature has shown us time and time again that the mark of a hero is the man who, despite knowing the pangs and arrows that await him, lifts his shield once more and marches headlong into whatever lies before him, glory or disaster alike.
And so Oedipus takes his place among the ranks of other tragic heroes who invariably would meet their fate. Men and women who would fall victim to destiny, but who would never submit willingly or surrender without valor.
But to the story itself...
The plot of Oedipus Rex, or King Oedipus, who infamously slept with his mother and killed his father, is a myth that existed long before Sophocles wrote the play. It has fascinated authors, philosophers, painters, musicians and intellectuals throughout history, and has been depicted and reenacted innumerable times.
Sophocles’ version, written around 430 BC and produced in Athens, Greece, is arguably the most famous, as well as the most powerful telling of the tale. Unfortunately, Oedipus Rex’s initial reception was tempered by the fact that it received only second prize when it was first performed at the City Dionysia. Despite this, Aristotle wrote about Sophocles’ play in his treatise on drama, Poetics, considering it to be the tragedy which best matched his prescription for how drama should be made.
This might be because it is full of suspense. The entire play describes Oedipus’ discovery of his origins. Unfortunately for him, the revelation of his not-so-humble beginnings brings to light a history of atrocities that Oedipus had unknowingly committed... acts that uncompromisingly expose some of the most embedded taboos in western society.
Sophocles, it should be said, knew the Oedipus story well and wrote repeatedly on the myth, including two other plays, Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus. These additional texts, which miraculously spanned the two and half thousand year gap unscathed, nicely round out the legend.
While Oedipus Rex is the first, chronologically, of these three tragedies, a good deal of the action actually happens before the play even begins. Sophocles’ audience would have known the whole Oedipus myth, from start to finish, and as a result, the playwright does not recite the very beginning of the story; he just references key points as reminders.
For the uninitiated, the legend all originates with a foreboding oracle. Two regal parents of Thebes receive a note from the gods prophesying that their son will murder one and sleep with the other. Distraught at the news, they hand him over to a servant to bind his feet and leave him to die on a mountain. The sight of a pained child, however, was distasteful to a shepherd who rescued the boy and passed him to a foreigner to be raised in another land. Here the young Oedipus finally had a turn of good luck, as he was given to the childless King and Queen of Corinth and reared as a prince.
Then fate steps in once more. Chided for being adopted, Oedipus consults the oracles to find out if it is true. There he is told of his horrid destiny, that he will kill his father and sleep with his mother. Determined to not let it happen, he leaves town at once.
On the way, he fights with a traveler at a crossroad, kills him and thinks of it no more. He enters the town of Thebes and, by luck or intelligence, answers a Sphinx’s riddle and saves the city. The inhabitants are overjoyed and reward this stranger with the late king’s throne and bed. Years later, a plague hits the town.
Sophocles begins his play here...
Now Oedipus begins to learn the truth as it quickly unravels. He appears brash, frantic, and constantly in motion, as if he is trying to keep up with his fate. The audience falls in and out of empathy with him. At one moment he is a great and compassionate king, the next a bully to an old blind man. In turn, he switches from tragic to irrational, a sad man fearing what will happen to an overly suspicious monarch enacting unwarranted, unilateral ‘justice’.
Again he flips from a caring and concerned husband to an interrogator, threatening torture and death to an elderly shepherd. It is a rollercoaster of emotion and suspense.
Then the whole sordid story is revealed, that the traveler in the crossroads was his father, that his sore feet are from his childhood bounds, and that the mother of his children is his own flesh and blood. As a result, his wife/mother hangs herself and the wretched Oedipus pierces his eyes before fleeing into exile.
What, then, are we to think of this man? Hero or monster? Menace or martyr?
In each situation, Oedipus is presented with a choice, to let sleeping dogs lie...or find out the real truth. At every juncture, the condemned, but determined man is warned that the truth will be difficult, unpleasant and even harmful. And in each case, Oedipus chooses truth, no matter what may come of it. He chooses the red pill of reality over delusion and the unknown.
He remains, until the end, faithful to himself. And when the truth...the full, horrible truth...is revealed, he does not shy away. Oedipus takes full responsibility for his actions even though, at the time, he did not know what he was doing.
No doubt each reader will come to their own conclusion and decide whether they find favor with this extreme individual. Some may see Oedipus is an inspiration for mankind: he must find out the truth at whatever cost, and then accept the full responsibility for the knowledge he has discovered. In that way, Oedipus could be considered the patron saint of philosophers, scientists, poets and artists - of all truth-seekers.
Or, just as easily, he could be considered a guilty villain. After all, we can’t always impress our modern day expectations and moralities on Ancient texts one way or another. For instance, Oedipus wasn’t as innocent under Greek law as he might appear under English or Roman. While the latter prescribe to “actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea” or “the act is not culpable unless the mind is guilty”, the former followed “non est actus reus nisi mens sit rea” or “there is no guilty act without a guilty mind”.
To the Greeks, the act counted, not the motive.
This would have no doubt affected Sophocles’ audience and their judgment of the character. Of course they would also, as previously mentioned, have known the story of Oedipus through and through, which surely only increased the sense of complete inevitability. It is difficult to say then how justly anyone can accuse Oedipus when he seems to have had no choice about fulfilling the prophecy.
Perhaps, due to this, his story is meant to show that error and disaster can happen to anyone, that human beings are relatively powerless before fate or the gods, and that a cautious humility is the best attitude toward life.
While the concept of fate and free will is something of which we can comprehend in this day and age, it is still difficult for the modern viewer to be swayed and fully convinced by prophecies and prophets. In this way, Oedipus Rex appears to be very foreign to us. It is difficult to empathize with Oedipus’ plight or to reward his truth-seeking if we don’t believe in the ideas of predetermination in the first place.
Nonetheless, we still need to try to read Sophocles’ version of the famous Theban myth, whether we find its tragic hero honorable or not... No doubt, we will often misunderstand the text and meaning by thinking of it in terms of the laws and assumptions of our own era. We must not forget, however, that at the end of the day, Ancient Greek Theatre has come to us from thousands of years ago and so should be read accordingly; with analysis... and with a little imagination.
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