Sight And Blindess Of Oedipus The King Essay -- Sophocles Oedipus

Oedipus the baron by Sophocles was a run into written after a devastating plague struck the urban center of Athens in 430 B.C. The play is about how knowledge can leadership to devastation and destruction based on how the characters find out the impartiality of the enigmatic Oracle. Years before Oedipus became the king of Thebes, the previous king, Laius, had received a prophecy that his son would grow up to kill his father. With this information he gave his baby son to a sheperd to dispose of him. Years later Laius is off and the Sphinx emerges and locks down the city by refusing to let anybody enter or kick the bucket the city unless they can solve her riddle. The city is essentially under siege. notwithstanding nobody knows the answer to her riddle. What goes on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three at night? Everybody who tries to answer the riddle is killed by the Sphinx until wizard day a peculiar comes upon the city. The Sphinx asks him the riddle and h e simply replies, Man. The stranger solves the riddle and the Sphinx throws herself to her death. The city opens up to him, he marries the widowed queen, becomes king of Thebes, and unwillingly begins to fulfill most of the prophecy.What is the core of sight and blindness for an understanding of Oedipus the King?But the reason Oedipus, who is the prince of Corinth, has come to Thebes, is to escape an oracle of his own. Before coming to Thebes he went to meetk the Delphic Oracle to ask if Polybus and Merope were his natural parents. The Delphic Oracle repliedYou are fated to couple with your mother, you will bringa breed of children into the light that no man can bear to see you will kill your father, the one who gave you lifeWith that information, Oedipus fled Corinth to run away ... ...im. Oedipus bonny continually wanted to have more knowledge and asks more questions to collect wisdom and it eventually becomes his downfall. Knowing the future may destroy a man and it ru ins the lives of two men in this story. Oedipus was blind to see the truth he was also blinded by the prophecies. He ran away from home, killed his father, marry his mother and has children with her. But Oedipus play does not end with these lyrics he in stages gains a new strength and new understanding (Segal 133). And the true meaning of this story is, ignorance is bliss.Works CitedKnox, Bernard M.W. Oedipus at Thebes. crude Haven Yale UP. 1957. Rpt. In Oedipus Tyranmus. Ed. Lucy Berkowizs and Thedore F. Brunner. New York Norton, 1970. 148-165Segal, Charles. Oedipus Tyranmus Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge. 2nd. Ed. New Yourk Oxford UP, 2001.