Why Is Oedipus Called A Tragic Hero Tragedy Ancient Greeks

WHY IS OEDIPUS CALLED A TRAGIC HERO, AND WHAT DOES TRAGEDY MEANS TO ANCIENT GREEKS
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In his individual personality, Oedipus, the protagonist in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, is a great king, but also a tragic hero due to the tragic flaw in his moral disposition. The mixture of such traits makes the audience have tragic experience of catharsis as the drama closes with Oedipus taking out his eyes and being wasted in his battle against the evil. The ill-fated Oedipus is a tragic character who is thrown by his parents because it was prophesied by the oracle that he would murder the father and marry his biological mother. The technique of employing tragedy is widespread in ancient Greeks plays and stories, which acted to instill wisdom to the young generation. This paper discusses the reasons why Oedipus is considered a tragic hero, and provides the ancient meaning of the term “tragedy” by examining ancient literary works such as The Iliad, and Oedipus Rex[Richard Wright (Ed), “Bloom’s modern critical views (New Edition)” (New York: InfoBase Publishing, 2009)108]
Oedipus as a Tragic Hero
In Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Oedipus is a tragic hero since he is not able to change his situation no matter what he does. In another observation, protagonists are never sorry for the ramifications of their acts and resolve to say, “Let me try again” or “I did not mean it.” This implies that tragic heroes suffer not because of their actions intentionally or unknowingly, but because of what they have become during the tragic event. For this reason, the audience is often attracted and identifies with the protagonist and heroes in plays such as Oedipus. The crime does not cause Oedipus’ tragic fate since he kills a stranger in self-defense and proceeds to marry a woman whom he believes has never encountered in life. All his guilt, misfortune, and suffering are due to the mere reality that he later discovers that he is Oedipus, the son of Laius and Jocasta, who has killed his father, then married his mother. It is only prophesied that Oedipus would kill the father and later marry the mother. However, it is after the king recognizes that the man he killed was his real father and the women he married was his biological mother that one can say that Oedipus has a fate and that the prophesy has come to pass. In this manner, Sophocles’ play follows the discovery process of prophesy of the oracle and the killing.[Wright, 102] [Wright, 108]
The function of tragedy is to show that the protagonist is the person named by fate in getting involved in a terrifying situation and deserves to be singled out by virtue of his exemplary and catastrophic actions. Fate befalls tragic heroes such as Oedipus and the audience is only required to identify that the character suffers not because of what he has done, but because of who he has become as the play unfolds. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Oedipus admits that his actions are not by a mere accident, but a necessary step to avoid the situation that he could not have escaped. Therefore, in the theory of “tragic flaw” (hamartia), and like any other tragic hero, Oedipus portrays some critical vice or something that can be considered less than a virtue, which marks his fate making the ensuing tragedy inevitable to escape. Like in all tragic heroes, the audience witnesses a tragic ending where in the final episode and exodus, King Oedipus stabs himself in the eyes and later begs Creon to forgive him and begs to be let out of the city to wander freely until he dies.[Wright, 102] [Wright, 103] [Robert Solomon, “The joy of philosophy: thinking this versus the passionate life.” (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), np] [William Downs M Lou Wright A and Erik Ramsey, The art of theatre: Then and now (3rd Ed).”(Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2013),275]
Meaning of Tragedy in Ancient Greece
In classical Greek thought, tragedy means that violating the rule of justice, even in the course of justice, results in consequences. The idea of tragedy is portrayed in the Titan’s story. Kronos, the rule of the Titans has three children, Hades, Hera, and Poseidon by Rhea. When Kronos learns that he will be dethroned by one of the three children, he seizes the newborns and the swallows them. Upon Rhea bearing another baby boy, she hides him in a cave and instead offers Kronos a stone wrapped in clothes to swallow. This hidden son is Zeus who later disguises as a cupbearer and convinces Kronos to take a potion. Kronos is forced to vomit Zeus’s brothers and sisters alongside the stone. Zeus, his brothers, and allies wage war on t...