THE TRAGIC HERO OEDIPUS – Have you ever heard of a tragic hero? Here’s the story of the tragic hero Oedipus with moral lessons and summary and learn the terrible ending of the hero.
The story presented how a leader figured out what was destroying the city and ended up destroying himself too. It also shows a leader’s too much self-confidence became the predicament of his tragic end.
The Tragic Hero Oedipus
Story Analysis of The Tragic Hero Oedipus
Oedipus is a typical example of a tragic hero. With his confidence that he will outrun the prophecy of the oracle of Delphi, he flees from his adoptive parents. He went straight into his biological parents and killed his father, not knowing the truth.
Thus, Oedipus may be a great leader and wise, but with his arrogance and hubris, everything the oracle said became true, and in the end, his pride and anger led to his downfall.
The Tragic Hero Oedipus Moral Lesson
One cannot control his destiny.
Oedipus attempted to escape his fate, for he thinks that the oracle of Delphi refers to King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth, his adoptive parents. But fate leads him to his biological father, and killed him and marries her mother.
Covering a sin can cause another.
The tragic hero tried to convince his people that he was not the murderer of King Laius and even accused Creon and Tiresias of framing him as such. But in the end, the truth came out: he killed his father, married his mother, and had children with her.
The Tragic Hero Oedipus Summary
King Laius and Jocasta of Thebes received an oracle from Delphi saying that his son would kill him and marry his wife. Laius pierced the baby’s ankles and tied them together when she gave birth.
He ordered a shepherd to take the baby to the mountain and leave it to die. The shepherd took pity and gave it to another, who gave the baby to King Polybus and Merope of Corinth.
They named him Oedipus and raised him as their own. As he grew up, he went to the oracle of Delphi and learned that he would kill his father and marry his mother.
Afraid of the prophecy, he fled from Corinth for the prophecy might come true. At a crossroad near Thebes, he killed his birth father, Laius. He then went to Thebes, solved the riddle of the Sphinx, and killed it.
He married his mother, Jocasta became king, and they had four children together. When a plague came to the city, the oracle of Delphi advised that King Laius’s murderer must be punished, and thus the truth about his roots was revealed.
Jocasta realized the truth and hung herself in her room. Oedipus found her, and he, too, blinded his eyes with the pin Jocasta used to fasten her hair. And so, Oedipus, who was blind to the truth about himself, is completely blind.