Know Thyself


Look through all humanity: you’ll never find a man on earth if a god leads him on, who can escape his fate.

Oedipus was born to Jocasta and Laius, the queen and king of Thebes. As an infant, he was abandoned by his own parents as a prophecy had foretold that the father would be killed by the son. A passerby shepherd took pity on this innocent child and took him to the King of Corinth, who adopted him. Several years passed, until one day the young Oedipus visited the Oracle of Delphi which told him, his fate. He was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. Dismayed, he resolved never to return to Corinth. 

FUN FACT:  the name "Oedipus" is believed to mean swollen-foot. He gets this name from the fact that his feet were anchored together when he was abandoned, which led to their swelling and hence the name.

Meanwhile, the city of Thebes had been struck by a plague. A procession consisting of King Laius paid a visit to the Oracle of Delphi in search of a plausible solution to this ruinous pestilence. Oedipus, leaving home and on his way to Thebes, encountered this procession and a violent quarrel between the two ended with Oedipus slaying King Laius and the rest of the members sparing only one. Upon reaching Thebes, Oedipus is met with the Sphinx who poses a riddle to him decreeing that whoever solves this riddle will rid the town of the plague. Oedipus adroitly answers the riddle and is invited by Queen Jocasta, whose husband has been killed by a band of thieves, to be the king. As the years passed, they had 4 children and a plague struck the city of Thebes once more. Unbeknownst to Oedipus, his faith had already been fulfilled.

Theban citizens beseeched their king to find a solution to cure the plague once and for all. Creon, Oedipus's brother-in-law brought back information from the oracle of Delphi that the plague would vanish when the murderer of Laius is found and expelled. Resolving to find the murderer of his predecessor, Oedipus summoned the blind prophet, Tiresias. Initially, Tiresias spoke cryptically and was unwilling to give away much. "Truth brings nothing but misery", Tiresias would warn Oedipus. However, Oedipus admonished Tiresias and bragged about his past accomplishments. In a heated exchange of rebukes, Tiresias departed with one final prophecy: Oedipus is father as well as brother to his children, from which one could only infer that he married his mother.  

While Jocasta pleads to Oedipus not to pay heed to these baseless prophecies, she informed him about King Laius's death at the hands of a band of thieves while on his way to visit the oracle. Thus, the prophecy of Laius being killed by his hands was proved to be false. This retelling of this incident ignited memories in Oedipus's mind and he is convinced that he is the man who killed Laius. Panicked Oedipus confided in Jocasta his whole life story from him leaving town to killing members of the procession. Jocasta still advised Oedipus to avoid such conjectures and to wait for the sole survivor of the procession accident to arrive and testify. 

An unexpected messenger arrived from the city of Corinth who informed Oedipus of the death of King Polybus. As Jocasta and Oedipus rejoiced the kings' death, the messenger disclosed the truth, Oedipus wasn't the true son of the King. The messenger, who also happened to be a shepherd, narrated the story of Oedipus being handed over to him by a fellow herdsman who worked for King Laius. This herdsman was summoned to court and was threatened with death if he hesitated in speaking the truth. He hammered the final nail in the coffin as the court was startled to know that Jocasta and Laius abandoned their child. The herdsman pitying the innocent child's condition brought him to Polybus' court instead of killing him as he was instructed to. The naive herdsman assumed that raising a child in a different city would preclude the possibility of the prophecy coming true.

The tragedy comes to an end as Oedipus realizes that he has indeed killed his father and sired sons with his mother. Dealt with a horrible blow, Jocasta hung herself. As Oedipus tries to swallow the awful pill of committing parricide and incest, he blinds himself with the pins of Jocasta's dress. Creon sentenced Oedipus to exile for his vile sins. This story led to the birth of the term "The Oedipus Complex".

Written by Vaibhav Jain
Meme by Veertej Singh

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Winter is coming.

Image
Arguably, one of the best shows to be ever made, Game of Thrones followed the stories of various rulers vying for power over the fictional continent of Westeros. The complex world of GOT was first discovered by our world in the series of novels named A Song of Ice and Fire, written by George R. R. Martin. The show reached every pinnacle of success and fame but very few people know about the fact that GRRM's exquisite world is based on the War of the Roses, a series of civil wars fought for the throne of England.  Fought in the 15th century, the conflict was initiated by the death of the ruler King Edward III and the instant succession of his grandson, Richard II, as the ruler. Edward's eldest son had already died before the death of his father. Passing of the throne directly to the grandson enraged the four other sons of Edward. This complex kerfuffle of inheritance guaranteed a tussle within the family and various generations began claiming the right to the throne. Richard was...
Read more

A tale of an Ambitious Statesman

Image
‘Et Tu, Brute?’ these were the last words exclaimed by Julius Caesar as he stood helpless while being stabbed by his best friend, Brutus, along with ‘The Liberators’, a group of senators who were disturbed by Caesar’s ambitions and perceived them as a threat to the existence of the Roman Republic which their ancestors have fought to establish. But was his assassination justified? What events led to this gruesome and brutal murder? Is being ambitious wrong? Caesar has shared power over Rome along with Pompey and Licinius Crassus under the First Triumvirate. As his popularity among people grew, he advocated certain reforms which included uniting the Roman Republic into a cohesive unit and wanted to bring order back into the Republic. Fearing his growing popularity, the Senate demanded of him to relinquish his Army. Refusing to do so, he broke the law to seize power and led an army against Pompey. They fought a civil war which was ultimately won by Julius Caesar and he started dominee...
Read more

Regal affairs continued

Image
At last, the tenth year is finally here. The 'Iliad'  narrates the events of this year only over a period of fifty-one days. Throughout the war, the Greeks have laid claim to many war prizes from the surrounding countryside. One of these prizes just so happens to be Chryseis, the daughter of Chryses, a priest of Apollo. A quarrel takes place between Achilles and King Agamemnon. Achilles claims that her release would palliate the Wrath of Apollo upon the entirety of the Greek army. The dubious king refused to heed to Achilles, this ultimately leads to Achille's withdrawal from the war. At this point, Achilles' companion Patroclus borrows his armor and enter the battle with their contingent of soldiers to help the distressed Greeks who have been fighting for weeks till no end. Supposing it to be Achilles himself, the Trojans flee in terror from the camp before Patroclus, who pursues them to the town and lays waste to everything they held dear. At last Patroclus, himself i...
Read more