Oedipus the King

Oedipus the King

The Ancient Greeks loved the tragic heroes portrayed in theater. Sophocles, one of the greatest Greek playwrights, tells the tale of a king named Oedipus in his Greek tragedy, Oedipus the King. Oedipus exemplifies everything a Greek tragic hero should be: he is a person of extreme importance who suffers from a fatal flaw and his own grave errors or mistakes, but also learns from these afflictions. Apollo, the God of Truth, proclaims that Oedipus will kill his father and marry his mother. Both Oedipus and his father, Laius, try to deceive the Gods and create their own destiny, but to no avail. Laius, the king of Thebes, and his wife, Jocasta, leave their son at the bottom of a mountain near Thebes with his feet bound, believing their baby boy will die there. However, a shepherd finds Oedipus there and the baby is passed into the arms of Polybus, King of Corinth, believes is his birth father. Oedipus flees Corinth to escape his retched fate and becomes King of Th...