Realism in Oedipus the King Essay -- Oedipus the King Oedipus Rex

Realism in Oedipus Rex This essay will examine a feature of Sophocles tragedy which causes the reader to doubt the realism underlying the literary work. Specifically, the essay will consider the feasability of the belief at that time that the Delphi oracle possess credibility with the people. At the outset of the drama the priest of Zeus and the crowd of citizens of Thebes are gathered before the royal palace of Thebes talking to King Oedipus virtually the plague which is ravaging the city. The king is sorely troubled and laments the sad situation. Then he says I have sent Menoeceus son, Creon, my consorts brother, to inquire Of Pythian Phoebus at his Delphic shrine, How I might save the State by act or word. And now I reckon up the tale of days Since he set forth, and question how he fares. Tis strange, this endless tarrying, passing strange. But when he comes, then I were base indeed, If I perform not all the god declares. From this passage it would take care tha t the king has full faith in the awaited advice from the oracle at Delphi. Is this notion historicaly accurate? Did Sophocles contmeporaries actually put such trust in their cultural gods and goddesses? As Brian Wilkie and James Hurt state in Sophocles Humanity in his plays is an integral part of a world-order that can be only partially mum at best. The cosmic system includes, besides human beings and nature, those darkly inscrutable forces identified inadequately as the gods and fate (718). When Creon returns, he gives his report publicly CREON allow me report then all the god declared. King Phoebus bids us straitly extirpate A fell pollution that ... ...74). Cypselus consulted the oracle, and on the basis of its answer, set to work to sterilize himself master of Corinth (376)which he ruled for many years. Thus we have seen that Sophocles is not being imaginative when he bases the action of the tragedy Oedipus Rex upon the words of the oracle at Delphi. It is wholly cons istent with historical data available from that time period of the fifth century BC. WORKS CITED Herodotus. The Histories. Translated by Aubrey de Selincourt. England Penguin Books, 1972. Sophocles In Literature of the Western World, edited by Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. NewYork Macmillan Publishing Co., 1984. Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. Transl. by F. Storr. http//etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed new?tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&part=0&id=SopOedipus