Oedipus the King - Sophocles - The Bucket List Book Adventure #7

 Oedipus the King - Sophocles - The Bucket List Book Adventure #7

By: a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures

A Rite of Fancy Bucket List Book Adventure

Book Seven of the Bucket List Book Adventure, Oedipus the King by Sophocles, is done, and it remains one of the most piercing stories ever written about truth and fate.

Sophocles was born around 496 BC in Hippeios Colonus near Athens. The son of a wealthy armorer, he was educated, served as a soldier and statesman, and lived through both the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars. He won his first dramatic victory in 468 BC, defeating Aeschylus, and over the course of his lifetime, wrote more than 120 plays, though only seven survive. Of them, Oedipus the King is the most famous (Dr. Freud saw to that).

The play opens in Thebes. Oedipus, who became king after solving the riddle of the Sphinx, faces a city ravaged by plague. Seeking answers, he consults the oracle and is told the curse will end only when the murderer of King Laius is found and punished.

Oedipus summons the prophet Tiresias, who tells him bluntly that he himself is the murderer. Oedipus rejects the accusation and turns to his wife, Jocasta, for comfort. She tries to reassure him, saying that prophecies cannot be trusted; after all, it was once foretold that Laius would be killed by his son, yet the infant had been abandoned to die.

The pieces begin to fall into place. Laius was killed at a crossroads by a stranger, and Oedipus remembers killing a man in just such a place years ago. When a messenger arrives to announce the death of Oedipus’s supposed father, Polybus, he also reveals that Polybus was not his real parent at all. A shepherd is brought forward, and the truth is laid bare: Oedipus is the son of Laius and Jocasta.

Jocasta, realizing the horror, takes her own life. Oedipus blinds himself with the pins of her robe and exiles himself from Thebes, the very city he had once saved.

 The plague is lifted, but the moral disease of hubris remains. Oedipus's tragedy lies not in his crimes, committed unknowingly, but in his unshakable belief that he could outthink fate. Each step he took to avoid the prophecy brought him closer to fulfilling it.

It's a terrible reminder that wisdom without humility is dangerous, and that the gods have a way of turning our cleverness against us.

Next up is Oedipus at Colonus, where the blind king seeks peace after a lifetime of punishment. I'll let you know how it ends.

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About the Author

a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller traveling through life

She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.

You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.

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