A GREEK TRAGEDY

At that crucial moment, a messenger from Corinth arrived with good and bad news: The bad - Oedipus' old father, King Polybus of Corinth, was dead; The good - the city of Corinth expected Oedipus to return and be their king.

Oedipus was cautious of the news, hesitant to return to Corinth: He spoke how in his youth the Delphic oracle had warned him that he would kill his father and marry his mother, and that he had decided never to return home, lest somehow the prophecy came true.

Oedipus was anxious to go and see his mother while she was still alive, but as long as she lived, he still feared the woeful prophecy.

The messenger then dropped the bomb on him -- He informed Oedipus that Queen Merope of Corinth was not his real mother and that he was adopted as a baby. When Oedipus pressed him for details on how he knew this, the messenger replied that he was the one who had delivered him to his royal parents. He had gotten him from some shepherd who had found him wailing, with his feet pierced and bound, way up on Mount Cithaeron.

Hearing this, Jocasta turned pale and nearly fainted. She quietly implored Oedipus to cease his investigations regarding his heritage. She now realized everything, including the fact that she had married her own son, and was aghast at the turn of events. Oedipus, on the other hand, suspected that he was the one who killed king Laius, but hadn't yet realized that the victim was his real father.

Oedipus was determined to "know thyself" and was eager to unearth the truth regardless of the price.

Just then the messenger from Corinth saw the old Shepherd approaching and recognized the man as the one who years ago had given him the baby boy.

"Hey, remember me, I'm the one you gave the abandoned baby!" he shouted, but the old shepherd pretended to not recall the incident. He plead forgetfulness and implored Oedipus to let him go.

Nothing doing -- the king was determined to learn the truth.

Indeed the identity of the baby was established, but the question still remained as to whose baby it was. Pressed for answers, the shepherd finally revealed the fact that the baby was the son of Laius and Jocasta:

"And if you are this baby," he said to Oedipus, "then you are definitely the most wretched man who ever lived."

Only then came the full anagnorisis (realization) of the tragedy. Not only had Oedipus killed his own father, but he unknowingly had wed his mother and fathered children with her. The oracle's prophecy had come to pass.

From the palace emanated cries of anguish and woe -- Queen Jocasta was dying! She had hung herself in the very same bedroom that she had shared with father and son. With superhuman strength, Oedipus broke down her locked door. Rushing into her chambers, Oedipus found her lifeless body.

The horror. The horror...

Utterly distraught, he grabbed the pin from her dress and poked out his eyes, stabbing them again and again. Following all that his eyes had just seen, and realizing the atrocities he had unwittingly committed, Oedipus felt that he must never again see the light of the sun.

The god Apollo gave him the morbid strength to gouge his eyes out of their sockets, according to Oedipus. That's ironic, seeing as it was Apollo's oracles who had practically caused the entire tragedy in the first place, with their horrible prophecy...

And so he appeared, blind, at the entrance of the palace (anagnorisis ~ epiphany of the horror) begging to be shown the way to exile (catharsis, cleansing). Thus could the killer plague of Thebes be ended.

Oedipus' quest to know himself, and to investigate the death that he must avenge, led to his horrific downfall. Now Oedipus, at long last, knew himself; but the irony was that the knowledge of the self was only achieved by self-destruction.

Much as he tried, Oedipus could not out-maneuver his Fate...

DISFUNCTIONAL FAMILY OR WHAT...

Now blind and truly wretched, Oedipus abandoned the throne of Thebes to Creon, the brother of the late queen, and went into self-imposed exile. His dutiful daughters, Antigone and Ismene, followed him to the end. Staff in hand, Oedipus himself was thus the answer to the riddle of the Sphinx.

Athenian king Theseus, the hero who slew the Minotaur, offered refuge to Oedipus and the girls. Oedipus' death is a mystery, and his resting place will protect Athens (see Sophocles, Oedipus in Colonus). His daughters returned to Thebes, and Antigone made preparations to marry Haemon, son of Creon.

But a quarrel broke out between Eteocles and Polyneices, the twin sons of Oedipus. Eteocles exiled Polyneices, who then raised an army with seven prominent chieftains against his native Thebes (the famous war of Seven Against Thebes) in an attempt to regain power. The brothers proceeded to kill each other in combat.

The tragically empty throne was left to Creon, who became the new king. He ordered a funeral befitting a hero for Eteocles, defender of the city, while leaving the body of Polyneices out in the open air, forbidding anyone to bury him under severe punishment.

Antigone, the sister of the deceased, could not bear to see her brother's corpse so dishonored and she secretly performed his funeral rites. King Creon, shocked by the disobedience of this young girl, his own niece and daughter-in-law-to-be, locked her in a cave to die, despite the strenuous entreaties and protests of his son Haemon, Antigone's beloved fiancée.

Warned by divine omens and the old prophet Teiresias, the king finally relented and ordered the cave to be opened. Alas, it was far too late, for Antigone had hanged herself with her girl's belt.

Could things get any more tragic? Yes indeed...Haemon, having found his bride dead, cursed his father, spat in his face and then killed himself in his presence.

(Death of the lovers in or near a tomb - shades of Pyramus and Thisbe in Ovid, and Romeo and Juliet in Shakespeare.)

Hearing these news, Creon's wife also killed herself, cursing her husband. So, Creon turned out to be as big an all-around loser as poor Oedipus.

What a tragedy! It's enough to give you a complex...

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