This is an assignment from my son's Theater Arts class that I assisted him with.

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The Oedipus Rex Prophecy
A Tragedy that Was Destined to Occur
3/30/2015
Justice Adams

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Justice Adams
Theater Arts (Act/Drama)
Chelsea Miller
March 30, 2015 (Originally due 3/12/15)
The Oedipus Rex Prophecy, a Tragedy That Was Destined to Occur
Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex or “Oedipus the King…” is a very interesting story/book about
fulfillment of a prophecy that Oedipus would murder his father and marry his mother. As fate
would have it, Oedipus succeeded Laius, the previous king, who’d been assassinated, in
leadership of Thebes. Oedipus is unaware at that time that Laius was his biological father and the
“old man” whom he himself had killed in a fit of rage over the right of way at a three-way stop.
At the beginning of the story Oedipus has a discussion with the priest of Zeus regarding
an apparent curse (a deadly plague, famine, etc.) that the god Apollo had placed on the land since
and because of Laius’s assassination and since Oedipus’s rescuing the town of Thebes from the
Sphinx (a cruel singer to which they were required to pay tribute) by answering her riddle.
Oedipus pledges to find Laius’s murderer, and decrees this curse in the gods’ name: “Let
no crop grow out of the earth for them, their wives bear no children. Rather let them be destroyed
by the present plague, or something even worse…” (pg. 16)
Oedipus sends for a prophet named Tiresias (who happens to be blind), at the urging of
Creon, his actual uncle, or the brother of his wife/mother. Tiresias initially refused to disclose
what he knew, but Oedipus demands the information, and goes on to accuse Tiresias himself of
the murder, or being involved in it. At this point Tiresias informs Oedipus that he (Oedipus) is

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the murderer he was seeking, and alludes to the fact that he (Oedipus) is also married to his own
mother and is the brother of the children he has with her.
Tiresias reminded me of Biblical Simeon, and his prophesy about Christ’s
accomplishments and crucifixion (See Luke 2:34-35), and of the prophet Nathan confronting
David about sleeping with and impregnating Bethsheba, his neighbor Uriah’s wife, and then
sending Uriah to the front line of a battle, where he was killed, in an endeavor to conceal the
matter (See 2 Samuel 12:1-7)…
Oedipus becomes upset with both Tiresias and Creon (who’d advised him to consult with
Tiresias), in thought that they were plotting against him.
Oedipus was born to Jocasta and Laius. When he was young they heard about the
prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother, and Laius, pinned his ankles1
together and had him cast into the “shady” valleys of Mount Cithaeron, where he was found by a
Corinthian messenger, or rather given to the Corinthian messenger by a shepherd or slave from
Laius’s household. The shepherd, who was supposed to kill Oedipus, pitied and gave him to the
Corinthian messenger, who “freed” and carried him to Merope and Polybus, who adopted and
raised him as their own.
A man, presumably at the banquet table of Oedipus’s adopted parents, told him, after
having too much to drink, that they (Merope and Polybus) were not his real parents; Oedipus
questioned Merope and Polybus, who denied the accusation. Oedipus, nonetheless, went to speak
with an oracle of Apollo at Delphi, who did not answer his question, but told him that he’d
1
Oedipus apparently received his name, which, in Greek, means “swollen foot,” from or in relation to injuries that
he’d sustained to his ankles when they were fastened together.

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murder his father and have sexual intercourse with his mother, who’d bear children to him.
Fearing this, he ran away, and in the course of doing so got into the brawl with and murdered
Laius and his men, or all but one, who asked Jacosta to send him away when he learned that
Oedipus would succeed Laius in leadership of Thebes.
There are subtle inklings in the story that appear to suggest that Oedipus perhaps knew
that Laius was his father and the man whom he’d killed, before he’d been told, and maybe he
pretended not to know, i.e. when he states “So I shall fight for him as if he were my own father.”
(pg. 16)…
Oedipus had met Jocasta, who he did not know was his mother, married her, and had
children with her, just as the prophecy had foretold (Antigone and Ismene are their two young
daughters, and they apparently had two sons, who were “men,” though these young men may
have been Laius’s sons and Oedipus’s brothers (pg. 103)).
When Jocasta told him the story of how Lauis was killed, Oedipus starts getting
suspicious. He begins asking her questions about Laius’s murder sight. Jocasta tells him that the
surviving slave could tell him more about the incident, and Oedipus decides that he wants to
speak with him. After speaking with the slave, he learns that Polybus, his adopted father, is dead.
He also learns that he is actually not related to Polybus, and that he was adopted by him. While
on the verge of solving the mystery, his wife/mother, Jocasta, also figures out where this is going
and persuades him not to continue the search, but Oedipus insists on finding out the truth. He
finds out that he is actually the son of Laius and Jacosta, at which point he becomes enraged,
acquires a sword, and bursts into the room where he finds that Jacosta has committed suicide by
hanging herself. At this point he rips out pins from her clothing and repeatedly speared the pupils

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of his eyes with them, to align with his blindness or oblivion to the fact that he did not recognize
her as his mother and Laius as his father. Oedipus neither wants to see the town of his shame, or
his children, who were also his siblings, though they continue to be a source of happiness for
him. He also believes that he won’t be able to see his parents when he joins them in death.
Creon, who Oedipus asks to care for his young daughters, succeeds Oedipus in leadership
of Thebes. Oedipus asks to be sent into exile, away from Thebes, and his wish is granted.
In conclusion, I believe that fate is both predestined and impressionable by the choices
that we make, and that the primary message that Sophocles is communicating in the Oedipus
tragedy is the Biblical notion of one being judged by the measures with which they judge and
treat others, and that fate cannot be escaped. Note that Oedipus articulated belief that whoever
was responsible for murdering Laius and inciting Apollo’s curse on the land should be punished,
and even die, and he even wanted to kill Creon when he believed that he had betrayed him.
Though the Divine, Who is paralleled to the god Apollo in this myth, does in fact foretell
and orchestrate fulfillment of prophecies, He also orchestrates punishment of unscrupulous acts
that form the culmination of those prophecies. There is always some grand purpose for whatever
the Creator allows or scripts, whether or not it is immediately recognizable; He, nonetheless,
punishes those who are caught in the wrong of those scripted events to teach that such behavior
is generally inappropriate, however necessary it may be to achieve certain ends.
I am of the belief, furthermore, that there is a sufficient level of grace for those who were/
are actually predestined to fulfill certain acts, and in light of punishment for improprieties (It is
further notable that Oedipus invokes his own punishment by spearing his eyes and asking to be
sent to live and die on Mount Cithaeron, where his parents had tried to have him killed,

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unsuccessfully). Surely, a God (or god in this context) who orders fulfillment of prophecies does
not wholly forsake the actors following His script, and particularly when they follow
obliviously...

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Works Cited
Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Trans. Bernard Knox. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1994.
Translation by Bernard Knox…