The Life and Legend of Oedipus Essay

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Michael Ayetiwa
English 1020
January 27, 2011
Oedipus
Oedipus was a great man fooled by fate. He saved the people of Thebes from the Sphinx and they rewarded him with kingship. Because of his ignorance to his true identity he sadly married his own mother. Oedipus' casualties happened because Laios,Oedipus' father, stole the son of another countries king and was punished by Apollo himself. I strongly believe Oedipus was cursed because he is his fathers son. If he had known before hand he would not of committed the deeds he had done and he most definitely would not be removed out of his own birth rite.
Laios being the foolish man he was, casting out his own son to be killed, not knowing he would live to carry out the curse Apollo placed. The encounter when Oedipus killed his father,
Laios, if he had known who he truly bumped into, he would not of killed him. That can be said for any man. Ignorance kill, and Oedipus was a pure victim of that ignorance. Because Laios committed the act of theft and assisted murder, Apollo took Dark Justice into his hands and did what he felt necessary.
Apollo cursed that Laios will be killed by his own son and that very child will marry his mother. In fear, Laios attempted to kill his own son. Because some people still have sense in their hearts the servant Laios told to kill the child gave the boy to a shepherd who raised him as his own, not telling Oedipus the truth. What the shepherd did proves that the fate proclaimed by the gods cannot be escaped because Oedipus did kill his father and marry his mother. So many causalities arose from the mess his father had left.
Living his the ignorant curse for so long, Oedipus lived as if blessed. Thus, Apollo became angrier at the abomination Oedipus did with his mother and father. Apollo and Laios' selfish acts became the disaster Oedipus faced. What could one man do against the acts of the past. Oedipus cant change the past, and what made it worse was that he did not even know the truth of that past. He was being punished for crimes he did not intentionally commit but by Apollo and Laios. Any man in this situation would most likely fall to the same wrongdoings Oedipus fell to.
Oedipus loved his people, the proof was in his ambition to find the cursed man who plagued Thebes. Because Tiresias out burst like that and Creon did not make sure Oedipus heard the news privately first, Oedipus fell victim to his past. If Creon didn’t want the thrown he would have made sure Oedipus heard in
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