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

Realism in Oedipus Rex This essay will examine a feature of Sophocles catastrophe 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 prophet possessed credibility with the people. At the out tag of the drama the priest of genus Zeus and the crowd of citizens of Thebes are gathered before the royal palace of Thebes talk to King Oedipus about the plague which is ravaging the city. The king is sorely churning and laments the sad situation. Then he says I have sent Menoeceus son, Creon, my consorts brother, to communicate Of Pythian Phoebus at his Delphic shrine, How I might save the State by act or word. And now I reckon up the history of days Since he set forth, and marvel how he fares. Tis strange, this endless tarrying, qualifying strange. But when he comes, then I were base indeed, If I complete not all the god declares. From this passage it would appear that the king has proficient faith in the awaited advice from the oracle at Delphi. Is this notion historicaly spotless? Did Sophocles contmeporaries actually put such trust in their pagan gods and goddesses? As Brian Wilkie and James Hurt state in Sophocles Humanity in his plays is an intrinsical fortune of a world-order that can be only partially mute at best. The cosmic system includes, besides human beings and nature, those darkly hidden forces identified inadequately as the gods and fate (718). When Creon returns, he gives his report publically CREON Let 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 make himself master of Corinth (376)which he ruled for many years. and then 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 consistent with historical info 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 issue 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