How Truth Leads Oedipus To His Tragic Demise

Truth, most certainly, serves a traumatic downturn for Oedipus. Oedipus could have lived happily assuming the throne of a deceased King, indeed he would have been heir to the throne of Thebes if he hadn’t been banished from Thebes at birth. Being King, though bearing great responsibility, is also a seat of wealth and splendor; it was good to be king. The truth that bound Oedipus’ feet at birth also binds him to a life of darkness, of blindness, and self-torture through the end of his days. The truth in Oedipus’ life seems to be a bind in parallel

This truth, the truth that Oedipus so readily and fool heartedly sought was his ultimate, tragic undoing. Truth in the end, does not set Oedipus free, but confines him to a live without a father, without a mother, without a wife. He loses his kingdom, and the children he had sired go to his brother-in-law, Creon. And how graphically and painfully he loses it all; and then takes his own sight as well. Truth binds poor King Oedipus, as he has always been bound: first his feet at birth, his very name coming from the scars of that affliction, and then bound to a life of loneliness and darkness. The magnitude of this tragedy cannot fully be expressed by this humble authors words.

to the way his feet were bound as an infant. Oedipus at birth was destined to “Kill his father and marry his mother,” so the King and Queen of Thebes had him sent away, his feet bound, to be left in a field to his certain death. But the messenger instead gave the sad baby Oedipus to a shepherd he met. The shepherd in turn gave baby Oedipus to the King and Queen of Corinth. Oedipus grew up in Corinth and was much adored by these parents whose fates were tainted by adopting Oedipus. One fateful day it was prophesied that Oedipus would one day “Make love with his mother, and shed his father’s blood by his own hands.” Oedipus, loving his parents very much, quickly ran away to protect them from himself. In running away from his home and family, Oedipus seems to fulfill his sad destiny even as he tries to outwit his fate.

The truth that Oedipus so desperately seeks for the good of his kingdom begins to take its toll on his family, his kingdom, and himself. A blind seer warns Oedipus against his search for the truth, saying “Just send me home. You bear your burdens, I’ll bear mine. It’s better that way, please believe me.” Even being warned against seeking the truth, asking questions he would rather not hear answers too, Oedipus pushes on: “Strange response … unlawful, unfriendly to the state that bred and reared you-you withhold the word of god.” Oedipus criticizes the man for trying to persuade Oedipus away from the truth. “I’d rather not cause pain for you or me” Tiresias the seer tells Oedipus. Yet Oedipus, arrogantly, cannot resist solving yet another puzzle for his kingdom. After a long search for the truth, a messenger comes from Corinth, bearing news for Oedipus “The people there, they want to make your Oedipus king of Corinth, so they’re saying now.” To which Jocasta, Queen of Thebes who receives this information before her husband, replies, “Polybus, dead?—dead?” This is wonderful n

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