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The plague was one of the most devastating points in time for the Athenians and Thebans.They did not know who to turn to for help. The people in the cities of Athens and Thebes had different reactions when they were faced with the plague. In The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, during the plague speech by Pericles, the plague in Athens had made the Athenians lose their faith in the gods and let human nature take over. However, in Oedipus the King by Sophocles, everyone went to the leader for help and never stopped praying to the gods. In both cities their reactions differed in that the Athenians lost their faith while the Thebans continued their faith in the gods while going through the difficult time of the plague.
In Pericles’ Plague Speech, Pericles explained how bad the plague has gotten because so many
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The suffering people of Thebes surrounded the priest’s palace. The priest had turned to king oedipus and when the king saw the crowd he was confused as to why they were there. He realized that a plagued had come to his city. The crops were dying and a lot of sicknesses everywhere. Oedipus had solved the riddle of the Sphinx so he is seen as a hero at the time, therefore, they wanted him to save Thebes. However, when the people of Thebes goes to him for an answer on the plague he does not know the problem. Therefore, Oedipus sends Creon who is his brother in law to go the the oracle of Delphi in order to find a way to end the plague. Creon found out the reason for the plague and all the citizens hear that it is the king’s pollution. The god Apollo sent for the plague and asks that the killer of the former king Lias be found then be put to exile. In order for the city to be rebuilt and the plague to end thy had to find the murderer. Since he had not known the killer of the former king, he had cursed the murderer and ended up cursing
Twenty years later we enter the story and find the city under the cloud of a plague. Apollo's oracle has decreed the only way to end the plague is to seek out the murderer of the predecessor to the throne, Laius. Oedipus swears to find this murderer and cause of the pestilence in order to save his city.
Disease may primarily be a health deteriorating agents but it will also bring social change. In The Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio elaborates on the social changes and extraordinary behavior of the people in the City of Florence during the 14th century A.D. Similarly Thucydides tells of his personal experience with the plague in Athens during the 5th century B.C. in "The Plague"; History of the Peloponnesian War. He focuses on the effects it had on peoples behaviors and religious beliefs. By comparing Boccaccio and Thucydides work, one is able to understand the perspective each one has on the links between the spread of the disease and social change, while Boccaccio focuses on the people whose behavior caused them to abandon others to death and this exemplifying a lack of morality, Thucydides is more concerned with the change in religious beliefs caused by the plague.
Tiresias tries to explain to Creon that he is the cause of the problems in Thebes. Tiresias reveals that through Creon’s stubborn actions he is causing a plague on Thebes:
In the beginning of the text, an explanation is presented of how Thebes must “drive out a killer” in order to purge the city of the plague (99). Oedipus sets on a quest that includes Tiresias’s baffling words. Tiresias confronts Oedipus with [Oedipus’s] truth by revealing he is the murderer of Laius and “pollutes the land” (352). Oedipus is also bound by Apollo’s prophecy; his [Oedipus] fate is sealed (377). Oedipus displays his denial by refusing that he is the murderer and placing the blame on Creon.
The Plague (French, La Peste) is a novel written by Albert Camus that is about an epidemic of bubonic plague. The Plague is set in a small Mediterranean town in North Africa called Oran. Dr. Bernard Rieux, one of the main characters, describes it as an ugly town. Oran’s inhabitants are boring people who appear to live, for the most part, habitual lives. The main focus of the town is money. “…everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits. Our citizens work hard, but solely with the object of getting rich. Their chief interest is in commerce, and their chief aim in life is, as they call it, 'doing business’” (Camus 4). The citizens’ unawareness of life’s riches and pleasures show their susceptibility to the oncoming plague. They don’t bother themselves with matters not involving money. It is very easy for the reader to realize that they are too naive to combat the forthcoming calamity. The theme of not knowing life is more than work and habits will narrow the people’s chances of survival. Rieux explains that the town had a view of death as something that happens every day. He then explains that the town really doesn’t face towards the Mediterranean Sea. Actually it is almost impossible to see the sea from town. Oran is a town which seems to turn its back on life and freedom. The Plague was first published in 1948 in France. “Early readers were quick to note that it was in part an allegory of the German occupation of France from 1940 to 1944, which cut France off from the outside world; just as in the novel the town of Oran must close its gates to isolate the plague” (“The Plague” 202). When the plague first arrives, the residents are slow to realize the extreme danger they are in. Once they finally become aware of it...
The play's plot, in a nutshell, develops like this. After solving the riddle of the Sphynx, who had kept Thebes under a curse of some kind, Oedipus is invited to become king of the city. He marries Jocasta, the widow of the previous king, and they have two children. When the play begins, Thebes is again under some sort of curse, and Oedipus tries to find out its cause so that he can rescue the city. He is told that the cause of the curse is that the murderer of the previous king is still in the city and has gone unpunished. In the process of searching for the murderer, Oedipus discovers that it is he, himself, who is responsible and that he is actually the son of Jocasta and her previous husband. Horrified by his sins of incest and murder, Oedipus claws out his eyes. Jocasta commits suicide because she is so disgraced.
Plagues have often afflicted the world and caused tremendous death numbers throughout societies. Two of the most famous plagues in world history occurred in the years 431 and 552 BCE. These plagues were recorded by historians so as to not forget the tragic toll it played throughout the world. Thucydides, a historian of Greek tradition, became a victim of a plague brought on by war and documented the plague in Athens and Spartan for over 30 years. While Procopius, a historian of Byzantine Emperor Justinian era documented the plague in Justinian. However, how these two historians chronicle their respective plagues in their respective nations differs by the common assumptions of human behavior and the divine role the forces play in human history.
Thucydides, considered one of the greatest ancient historians, spent part of his life detailing the war between Athens and Sparta. In his work, The History of the Peloponnesian War, he includes a speech given by Pericles at the first Athenian funeral of the war. Right after the speech by Pericles, Thucydides follows with a description of the plague that cripples the population of the city. Thucydides does this to make a statement on his personal views of the Athenian society.
After Oedipus becomes king of Thebes, the people of Thebes become plagued. Oedipus’ feels responsible for saving the people of Thebes. Oedipus’ pride to save the city later turns to pity after he divulges the sin he has committed. His pride forces him to find the traitor who murdered Laius. He eventually finds out that he is the sinner and gouges his eyes out to prove that he is not worthy of sight.
Thucydides’ interpretation of Pericles’ Funeral Oration is a significant text of the Classical World, delivered by Pericles during 5th Century Greece and the Age of Pericles. It is intended as an account of the soldiers lost during the Peloponnesian War, however it is a statement that expresses the myth and ideals of Athens, all of which are relevant to 5th century Athens. It functions as a model for future societies and portrays the unique image and characteristics of Athens. Within the oration, Pericles emphasizes the subjects that forms the myth of Athens, one of which being that the Athenian government is a model for future democratic societies. Along with its government, Pericles highlights the unique and unmatched force of the Athenian military. In addition, Pericles continues to state that the development of the Athenian civilisation was a phenomenal achievement, far from needing Homer to immortalise the actions and nature of the society.
Plagues were destroying the town, the women give birth to stillborn children, this is what sparks Oedipus to journey and find out the cause of these plagues and problems. “Oedipus: No, I’ll start again—I’ll bring it all to light myself! Apollo is right, and so are you, Creon, to turn out attention back to the murdered man. Now you have me to fight for you, you’ll see: I am the land’s avengers by all rights and Apollo’s champion too” (lines 149-155). The example shows that Oedipus desperately wants to save the town and the inhabitants of Thebes. All his work is in vain because he is blind to the fact that he is the cause of everything wrong with
The Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.) was a conflict between the Athenian Empire and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta that resulted in the end of the Golden Age of Athens. The events of the war were catalogued by the ancient historian Thucydides in The History of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides’ writings showed the ancient Greek belief that there is a parallel between the city-state and the character of its citizens; in order for the city-state to be successful, its citizens must be virtuous. Thucydides did not believe that the true cause of the Peloponnesian War were the immediate policies of the Athenian Empire against the city-states in the Peloponnesian League but rather the fundamental differences in the character of the two city-states
The priests of Thebes have come to Oedipus to stop the plague that is killing the people of Thebes. They revere him for his knowledge, since he solved the riddle of the Sphix many years before and became the king. As the reader is introduced to Oedipus, they are given many facts about his life so that they become familiar with this man who has done great things. But Oedipus learns from his brother-in-law, Creon who he had sent to Delphi, that Apollo has placed this plague upon Thebes until they "Drive the corruption from the land, don't harbor it any longer, past all cure, don't nurse it in your soil - root it out!" ¹ Oedipus swears an oath before the priests and the chorus (which represents all people of Thebes) that the murderer would be found and driven from the land.
Oedipus was a victime of fate, his futur was foretold by an Oracle, he had no way of knowing that his wife was his mother nor that the stranger he killed was his father. Oedipus could not prevent his own downfall. Oedipus was the king of Thebes, he became king when he cured the city of a deadly plague. He cured the plague by solving the riddle of the mythical creature, the Sphinkx. Now the city is suffering from another plague and as king Oedipus must solve the riddle of this one.
In the beginning of the story Creon visits the oracle at Delphi to find out what the curse on Thebes is being caused by. Upon his arrival to Thebes he informs Oedipus of what the oracle said: