Between Agamemnon by Aeschylus, Hippolytus by Euripides, and Oedipus the King by Sophocles, the latter is one of the best plays that I enjoy the most. The author of this story pars the excellence of Greek tragedy the most and this piece is the summit of playwrights. The play narrates about King Oedipus of Thebes who notices that he killed Laius, his biological father, and further married his biological mother Jocasta, without knowing. The basis of the story unfolds with a sad revelation to Laius from an oracle that he was destined to be killed by his son. On realizing this, King Laius orders Jocasta to do away with the infant through murder. Jocasta could not bring herself to kill the baby and abandons him to the elements. A shepherd finds the infant and later takes it to the court of King Polybus. Oedipus grows and learns from rumors that the king is not his biological father and consults an oracle who foretells that he will kill his biological father and marry the mother. Oedipus believes that Merope and Polybus might be his birth parents and tries to avoid the foretold fate by leaving Corinth.
He meets Laius, his father on his way to Thebes and they fall into a quarrel, without knowledge of their identities. Oedipus kills Laius fulfilling the prophecy. Oedipus later solves a riddle of the Sphinx and is rewarded king of Thebes and given the hand of Queen Jocasta, his real mother. The prophecy is fulfilled, and all are unaware of this point. Later, when they learn the truth, the Queen hangs herself, and King Oedipus picks two long gold pins from her dress and drives them into his eyes, rendering him blind. He seeks to be exiled but is kept in the palace as consultations with the oracle on what was to be done best were ongoing. The play ends with the chorus wails Count no man happy till he dies free of pain at last.
Some of the best themes observed from the story include the willingness to ignore painful truths, sigh and blindness, fate, and free will, among others. It is thrilling to observe Oedipus and Jocasta trying to exonerate themselves as the truth begins to unfold. Oedipus fastens to a single detail while Jocasta says that Laius was killed by strangers. Oedipus knows that he acted on his own when he killed a man on the road in similar circumstances. Sophocles uses the theme of willingness to ignore painful truths to enhance the play and create more curiosity that fits human behavior. This creativity makes the story to be real and exciting. None of the two is ready to face the possibility of the dawning truth.
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Essay on Polybus in ‘Oedipus Rex’.
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