Oedipus Absurd

[NickAdams]

We all do.

You know, I forgot that the fates were beings in Greece and not an abstraction. I'm speaking of fate as an underlining current in the universe ...

[Oenomaus]

I think the two most common misunderstandings made when reading Greek Tragedy are:

1) The failure to recognize the vast gulf that separates the religious culture of the ancient Greeks and that of the modern Western world. Greek religion was one centered not on faith but on ritual. This misunderstanding results in us 'Christianizing' the morality of the plays.

2) The failure to recognize that when it comes to moral judgments the ancients and us have much in common. The poets we are dealing with were not cavemen.

Destiny in Oedipus Tyrannus may seem like a slightly less labyrinthian issue if we keep in mind that the ancient Greeks, like the ancient Jews, believed that it was justice that children should pay for the sins of their parents. The gods cursed Lauis, Oedipus' father, for kidnapping, raping and murdering a boy named Chrysippus, the son of the king with which he was staying. The original Greek audience would have had this story in mind. Also, the play begins after the prophecy has taken place. So the issue of the play is not are 'prophecies reliable,' or 'were Oedipus and Jocasta impious in rejecting belief in prophecy' (we are "Christianizing" the issue if we think so), but perhaps, 'how are all of these characters reacting to the fact that the truth is closing in on them'?!

As for the 'hubris' of Oedipus, the term in Greeks means something like "error" - without a moral connotation. Oedipus is quite right in reacting angrily to Teiresias' denial of help to the city. His violent reaction to Creon is more difficult to sympathize with but understandable considering the dire situation Oedipus and Thebes find themselves in.