Oedipus the King
A Brief Introduction and Study Guide
Welcome to the story which gave name to one of Sigmund Freud’s worst psychological assertions, the Oedipus Complex. But like Tiresias, the blind prophet who saw more than he wished to, I can’t bear to tell you more!1
Oedipus, the King of Thebes, was a man who not only had a terrible fate ahead of him but he actually was already living in wretchedness even though he was completely ignorant of it. It has been said that “Ignorance is bliss”. But is this true? Perhaps we might wish to un-know some things we have learned but this is usually because it is too late to do anything about our situation. On the other hand if knowledge and wisdom come before we meet dire circumstances then it may be possible to avoid the path leading to destruction. So surely it is better to know, right?
Jesus himself has said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” (John 8:32) Ignorance itself is not sinful. We all start our lives in complete ignorance. Even the wisest of mortal men are still ignorant about more things than not. To God alone belongs all knowledge and wisdom! But while ignorance is not a sin in itself, it may be that willful ignorance is. A desire to not know the truth about things reveals a disordered affection (usually for comfort). The first step toward salvation is to come to know the weight of our own guilt and sin before a Holy God. The second step is to come to know the one who declared himself to be “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (John 14:6) Knowing is better than ignorance, even when it is painful.
But for Oedipus knowledge was doomed to bring only misery. He lived in a world without grace, without the possibility of forgiveness, his only option was to suffer for what he did in his ignorance. Fate. There was no avoiding it. The Greeks understood well the idea of offending the gods, but they knew little of mercy from them. But stories like this one may have helped prepare the hearts of the Greeks. They may have helped to create a longing for redemption, for gods who would forgive them and love them even when they sinned foolishly and offended justice.
Ignorance is a central theme in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and it was a central problem in Greek culture. The Greeks were thinkers, particularly the Athenians, and they were all too aware of the fact that they did not know many things of importance. Socrates declared that he was the wisest man on earth simply because he knew that he did not not know.2
Capitalizing on the problem of ignorance the apostle Paul spoke to the philosophers in Athens about the altar to an unknown god. He said that what they worshipped in ignorance he would now reveal to them as the one true God. Addressing their ignorance head on he proclaimed:
“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31)
Part of the enjoyment, perhaps a kind of torturous enjoyment, for the audience to whom this play was first delivered, was that they all knew what Oedipus did not. This story had been told again and again before Sophocles dramatized it for the theater. Oedipus was not privy to the knowledge of who murdered King Laius, but the audience knew. Oedipus was not aware of why the plague and famine was raging in Thebes, but the audience knew. Oedipus was completely ignorant as to what was wrong with his family… but the audience knew. So then ignorance, for Sophocles, was not merely a philosophical and existential problem of the human condition but it was also a storytelling device which drew in his audience by winking at them as ones who are in the know.
Maybe you are in the know… If not, can you live with your ignorance?
Oedipus the King is the second installment in a trilogy of tragedies by Sophocles. You can get a great edition with all three plays HERE. Below are links to study guide questions for each section of this must read classic of Greek tragedy. Enjoy!
So your morbid sense of curiosity will just have to lead you down that dark road if you aren’t already familiar.
c.f. Plato’s Apology.