Brief recap: plague in thebes, oedipus finds out he killed dad unawares, and is sleeping with mum (also unaware). Mum hangs herself, and oedipus gouges out his eyes. The people of thebes, pissed off, throw oedipus out of town. plague goes away, thebans rejoice. THE END.
Now, will anyone tell me what the hell was the lesson of the story? oedipus wasn't a bad bloke. why'd they treat him like crap? I'm so angry with sophocles, and the teachers who made me read it.
2006-09-13 08:52:21 · 10 answers · asked by reaganomic 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
I'm not exactly 100% on this one...but I don't think there were many americans around in 450 BC...so that really can't be the moral, repsonder w/ the weird ninja picture.
2006-09-13 09:44:08 · update #1
Lesson of the story:
Don't kill your daddy and screw your momma. Case closed!
2006-09-13 08:54:46 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
It's a story, numbnuts, read it like a story.
But if you must ask, the point of Oedipus is that his best qualities cause his downfall. The Greeks liked to think that if you tried to be a good person, then you would have a good life. Oedipus does everything right - he's brave, wise, kingly and truthful - and all these virtues end up destroying him. If he hadn't been brave, he wouldn't have fought and killed the man he didn't know was his dad. If he hadn't been wise, he wouldn't have solved the Sphinx's riddle. If he hadn't been kingly, Jocasta wouldn't have wanted to marry him. If he hadn't been truthful, he wouldn't have insisted on uncovering the whole truth about his own past.
That's tragedy for you. Sometimes a good man with the best intentions will wreck the joint.
2006-09-13 21:34:55 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It was written as an example of dramatic irony. It shows harmony of character and action, it has excellent plots and twists and shows deep relation to the whole cause & effect thing and it after all, was not meant to be a Grimm fairy tale. The moral of the story was quite obvious.
I think that it is interesting how it was actually written about 430 B.C. But still has a very important message that the bible contained. "I will visit your sins from generation to generation."
meaning, the stupid things that we do as human beings are often going to follow us into the lives of our children and even our childrens children. This is an excellent example of the sins of the father coming back to haunt the lives of the son and come around to in turn destroy a king and his entire court. It is similar to Bathsheba, David, tamar and Absolom in that way.
It is a fantastic story that you will come to appreciate when yiu get older. Everything you have to read sucks because you HAVE TO. Read it later in life when you WANT to and your opinion will change. Read what Aristotle had to say about it (Quite often actually) in His Poetics. Im sorry but Aristotle can't be wrong... He was Aristotle for Pete's sake!
The message is simple Take care of your children, don't kill your father and screw your mom! Period! A little dramatic granted but interesting.
Wait until you have to read Madea... Now there is a depressing awful book! But great at the very same time!
2006-09-13 16:07:50 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you think that one is hard to get, good luck with Philoctetes. At least there's a bit of action in Oedipus. Phil just limps around a bit, whinges about how unfair life is and then gets told he has to go and fight at Troy anyway.
And even THATS fun compared to anything by Aeschylus. Give me Euripides any day.
Having said that, don't be too mad at your teachers - I did Classics A-level and absolutely loved it, wish I'd done it for degree.
2006-09-16 16:09:01 · answer #4 · answered by Athene1710 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The moral of the story is don't mess with things that can curse you and your family. Otherwise translated into life sucks and then you die. Actually the story is pretty classic and interesting when you aren't forced to read it. Like Shakespeare it just becomes boring when you have no choice.
2006-09-13 17:21:57 · answer #5 · answered by Ellie 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think there was any lesson besides the warning that Fate is a sneaky, twisting, turning thing and you never know what it is throwing at you till it hits you.
2006-09-13 16:02:42 · answer #6 · answered by twistedmouse 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i believe oedipus' fatal flaw was his towering hubris. he was so arrogant that he refused to give the gods their due. he took it upon himself to mete out his own punishement. and for starters, all this began when he tried to cheat his fate when his parents sent him away in the first place. you cannot escape what the fates have in store for you. he was make an example of by the gods when he tried to do these things. even the gods could not change their fate. his crime was failing to give the gods their due and trying to change his fate.
2006-09-14 00:33:02 · answer #7 · answered by afterflakes 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The point of it was that by trying to change fate they (his parents) brought it onto themselves. None of it would have happened if they had kept their son and figured they would raise him properly. So yes, it is about irony.
2006-09-14 01:32:15 · answer #8 · answered by inzaratha 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the moral is friendly fire only fcuks yourself and never fire blind.
or translated into english... don't be an american.
2006-09-13 16:10:29 · answer #9 · answered by KU 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
be a good lesson to you
2006-09-17 06:25:49 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋