Hubris In Oedipus The King

In ancient Greece the Moirai or the fates as their called in English where some of the most powerful concepts in the ancient Greek mythos. These three women controlled the lives of everyone even the gods and are considered to be incarnations of destiny itself. In Oedipus Rex one of the leading sources of conflict comes from the prophecies about Oedipus, and more importantly how he reacts and tries to avoid it. The main conflict that exist in Sophocles Oedipus the King is between the King Oedipus and his fate; though Oedipus tries to fight his fate he fails and is disgraced.

One of the first motifs the ancient Greeks would have noticed in this play is pride or more specifically hubris. The ancient Greeks defined hubris as foolish-pride or dangerous

This flaw is best described by Jennifer Lewin in her essay “An Overview of Oedipus Rex” “Oedipus's eagerness to use his mind to act upon and thereby to solve every problem he encounters, when taken to its logical extreme, leaves no room for the gods' influence over the fate of man” (Jennifer Lewin). While to the modern reader the idea of not trying to solve problems might seem odd, but by trying to solve everything no room is left for god or the fate of man. This is one of Oedipus’s fatal flaws If Oedipus had just allowed things to happen try and solve what he could but not panic about the unsolvable the story may have turned out different. By trying to solve everything the overarching theme of pride is once again displayed in Oedipus’s mind every problem from the most mundane to the greatest issue can be solved by

Oedipus is many times described to be a tyrant. J. Michael Walton describes him as “He is the turannos, an unconstitutional ruler, a position which, as the revelation of his parentage will demonstrate ironically, he holds by right as the son of the former king.” (J. Michael Walton) to the Greek though a tyrant is not an evil person but just someone who has no right to rule. Oedipus may match the definition of a tyrant but he by no means matches the connotation of a tyrant. Under the reign of Oedipus, the city is relatively good and when he his confronted with a plague he displays one of his virtues. Oedipus displays a view of justice by publicly condemning the killer of the former king. Though this will become the downfall as undenounced to him he is the killer it displays his sense of justice.