Greek Cultural Values In Oedipus The King

Oedipus the Good, Oedipus the Prisoner, Oedipus the King The play Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles and translated by Robert Fagles, encompasses well developed characters which reveal much about the culture of Greek society; the quintessential character to show these cultural values is Oedipus. Oedipus’s confrontations with characters such as the Priest, Jocasta, and Creon reveal that he is not only a king, he is also prisoner, plagued by blindness and rage. Throughout the play, Oedipus’s confrontations with Creon, Jocasta, and the Priest bring to light the presence and contrasting lack of Greek cultural values such as intelligence, family, religion, and intelligence embedded in his character. When the play was written, around 406 B.C., Greece was starting to move away from logic based on emotion to logic based on fact and empirical evidence. This was done, in

The priest describes Oedipus as the people’s “greatest power ” ( line 16) -- this reveals much about the perspective of the people relating to Oedipus and in turn, the general character of Oedipus himself. The “great power” of Oedipus is god-like and he potentially possesses the power to save the city. He possesses the power to either rule by logic or by emotion. This description shows the people's infallible reverence and respect for their leader, a respect that had to be earned. Later in the Priest's speech, he refers to the relationship between the people and the king to be familial. The Priest describes the suffering men and women, the sons and daughters of Oedipus, in a solemnly hopeful light. His purpose for this was to provoke an emotional response by the king -- to express his knowledge that the king cares about his “family”. The priests expression of trust within Oedipus reveals Oedipus to be a father figure or a god-like ruler who rules by emotion and care for his