Oedipus Rex

Hi,

I have to write about why Oedipus is a play of discovery.
I need to discuss what is being discovered and why should that be important to us as human beings.

Does that mean they want me to write about Oedipus being forewarned of his fate?

I don't understand exactly what the discovery is. Does it mean that he killed how own father and married his mother?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

NYCSweetieNYC

Hello, NYCSweetieNYC, welcome to the forum.
Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, in my opinion, seems one of the most philosophical and sage-like play, and can have disparately different subjective analyses.
I feel that your understanding proceeds on the correct path that Oedipus proves a tale of discovery in terms of fate. As characters know of their fate, revealed by the oracle, their destiny results as inevitable, and the moral proceeds something like thus: "fate/destiny, even if one has knowledge of his/her future, is/was/will be unavoidable; if one tries to dodge his/her fate, a practically pre-destined future will still occur." This message communicated by Sophocles may compel a reader to wonder of ideas like pre-destination, for if the oracle (and Tiresias, the blind sage) knew of the result to every action, of death, incest, humiliation, and wealth, surely the discovery of the future, before it has occurred, enforces its existence, at least, in their true minds.