A Very Old Story

      More Letters From Paradise
         A Very Old Story
If you had been one of my students years ago, you would have heard me relate the plot of an ancient Greek play. Just to get it out of my head, here it is again for the final time.

The play is "Oedipus the King". It was written sometime during the5th century B.C. by Sophocles. Oedipus (e-duh-puss) is a play in which Oedipus is fated to kill his father, and marry his mother. Here then is my telling of this most famous play.

The play begins when a prophecy comes to the king and queen of the city of Thebes,King Laius  Laius (lie-use) and his wife Queen Jocasta. They are told that a son born to them will grow up to kill his father, and marry his mother! And later Queen Jocasta gives birth to a baby boy. Not wanting the prophecy to come true, King Laius has the baby's ankles pinned together.(The name Oedipus in Greek means "swollen feet.) He  gives gives the baby to a shepherd, to be taken up into the mountains and left to die.
The shepherd couldn't do such a terrible thing. So he gave the baby to a shepherd from another city called Sparta.

The shepherd gives the baby to the king and queen of Sparta. So Oedipus grows up as a prince, but he was often taunted by others about his low birth. Oedipus travels to Delphi to consult the Oracle about his birth. ( Delphi was the place where female priests would inhale the smoke from burning Laurel leaves  and get high, while answering questions.) (The Greeks thought that Delphi was the center of the world, and it is a beautiful place.)  The answer Oedipus receives is that it is his fate to kill his father and marry his mother! This shocking event must not happen. Oedipus, not wanting to kill his father and marry his mother, decides to leave Sparta. So, where does he decide to go? To Thebes.

On his journey to Thebes Oedipus meets a man in a chariot who orders Oedipus to get out of the way. Oedipus, a royal prince is not one to be ordered about by anyone. A fight takes place, and Oedipus kills the man. (People watching the play know that the man Oedipus has killed was his own father, but Oedipus is unaware that the first part of the prophecy has come true.)

Oedipus arrives in Thebes to find the city in mourning. It seems that someone has killed their king. And if that was not enough, now there is a monster called a Sphinx just outside the city that  kills travelers. The offer is made to the man who is able to rid them of this monster, will be wed to the widow Queen Jocasta. This is a very good prospect for an out of work prince.

So Oedipus goes to see the Sphinx. She asks him the same question she asks of all travelers. And if the answer is wrong she kills them. The question she asks Oedipus is "What goes on fours at morning bright, two at noon, and three at night?" The answer Oedipus gives is "Man, who as a child goes about on all fours, and as a man he stands upright, and in old age goes about using a cane." The answer is correct and so monster throws herself into the sea.

Oedipus is married to Jocasta. (He does not know that it has all come true.) The man in the chariot was his father,and he has married his mother. They have a child. But now after a few years a great plague takes place in the city. Now King Oedipus sends to the Oracle at Delphi a question,  'What should he do to rid the city of the plague?"

The answer he receives is that the city is harboring the one who killed king Laius. When the killer is found and banished from the city, the plague will end.

As a good ruler Oedipus decides that he will find the man who killed Laius. The kingdom is searched from end to end. At last a shepherd was found,and is brought before King Oedipus. He learns that a child born to Jocasta and Laius was given to this man to take up into the mountains. He tells Oedipus that he gave the baby to a shepherd from Sparta. Oedipus at last knows the truth. He has killed his real father and married in shame, his mother. The shepherd tells Oedipus that he was born the most unfortunate of men. Jocasta upon learning that she is married to her son, kills herself. Oedipus coming upon her body, takes the large pins on her dress and plunges them into his eyes. The play ends with the now blind Oedipus being led from Thebes by his daughter Antigone (an-tig-ah-knee), and the plague is lifted.

Poor Oedipus, given a cruel fate which he is unable to do anything about it. The play is about his discovery who he really is. Also,incest was just as terrible a crime back then as it is today. If this is the first time your have heard this story, I hope you have enjoyed it.  

      Aloha
      Grant