He seeks exile and mourns with his daughters. He doesn’t listen, and an eyewitness, the Herdsman who rescued him when he was an infant, confirms that he was Laius and Jocasta’s child, and that Oedipus killed Laius.Ī Servant reports the suicide of Jocasta, and Oedipus emerges from the house having blinded himself. Jocasta realizes the truth-that Oedipus is her son as well as her husband-and tells Oedipus to stop the interrogations. Oedipus asks about his mother, since there’s that other part of the prophecy, and the Messenger tells him he was adopted. But a Messenger comes from Corinth to say that Oedipus’s father is dead, so he doesn’t need to worry about the prophecy. He serves as a foil to Oedipus, the protagonist of the play, who is blinded by his own hubris and lack of self-awareness. Tiresias is a figure of great wisdom and insight, despite being physically blind. Oedipus starts to asks questions about Laius’s death, and the circumstances begin to sound familiar. The blind prophet in Sophocles play Oedipus is a character named Tiresias. Jocasta intervenes and tells Oedipus not to worry. The king and the chorus refuse to believe the prophet, and Oedipus accuses Tiresias and Creon of plots and corruption. At first Tiresias refuses to speak, but when pressed, he tells Oedipus that the murderer he seeks is Oedipus himself. He summons Tiresias, the famous seer, to tell what he knows. Only when Oedipus accuses him of treachery does Tiresias suggest that Oedipus himself is guilty of the murder of King Laius. Oedipus swears he will find and punish the man. He knows that the terrible prophecy of Oedipus has already come true, but doesn't want to say what he knows. Creon returns and reports that they need to find the murderer of Laius, the former king. Oedipus has sent Creon to Delphi to find out from the oracle there what to do.Ī priest and his followers ask Oedipus to find a way to save them from the plague. (Her first husband, Laius, had been killed.) They have four children, Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone, and Ismene, and they rule in peace.īut a mysterious plague has recently afflicted the city, bringing death to the people, livestock, and crops. In both plays, he represents the same force the truth rejected by a willful and proud king, almost the personification of Fate itself. Oedipus has defeated the riddling Sphinx, saved the seven-gated city of Thebes, and married the queen Jocasta. The blind prophet of Thebes appears in Oedipus the King and Antigone. By leaving his home in Corinth, Oedipus thinks he has escaped a terrible prophecy that says that he will kill his father and marry his mother.
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