The Tragedies of Thebes

Sleeping with your mother, killing your father, watching your only son commit suicide, and gouging your own eyes out are only a few results of Oedipus and Creon’s flaws. In the books Oedipus The King and Antigone, written by Sophocles, the characters Creon and Oedipus meet horrific fates. During Oedipus The King, Oedipus becomes the king of Thebes but is ignorant to the fact that he is the son of Laius and Jocasta. In Antigone, Creon refuses to bury the former king Polyneices because he attacked Thebes. During these books Oedipus and Creon’s flaws result in the destruction of their lives.

Oedipus lacks the Greek guiding principle of knowing thyself. He is ignorant to the fact that he is the son of Laius and Jocasta. Oedipus shows this when he finds out that Laius, who is the king of Thebes and his father has turned up dead. When Oedipus learns this he says, “A thief, so daring, so wild, he’d kill a king? Impossible unless conspirators paid him off in Thebes” (Oedipus The King 140). Unknown to Oedipus, the killer of Laius is himself. Even though Oedipus has done this unknowingly, he has still committed a terrible crime. Oedipus again shows his ignorance when he tells Jocasta about the fate a drunken man had given him. When he tells the story he says, “you are fated to couple with you mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see-you will kill your father, the one who gave you life!”(Oedipus The King 873). Oedipus later talks about how he chose to run away from Polybus and Merope in order to prevent the prophecy from becoming reality. Since Oedipus is ignorant to whom his real parents are he unknowingly runs away to Thebes where he meets his fate. In Sophocles’ Three Theban Plays Oedipus isn’t the...

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...he has gained insight into his past. Oedipus’s fate is much worse than Creon’s because it results in multiple children that are products on insest. This means that terrible actions committed with ignorance by Oedipus will live on in his children.

The horrible fates of Oedipus and Creon are due to their tragic flaws. Even though both fates of these characters are absolutely terrible, Oedipus experiences the greatest tragedy. Oedipus’s flaw of ignorance might not be directly his fault but it results in horrific actions that no one else can be blamed for. Creon's flaw of pride causes him to make irrational decisions that end up harming the people he loves. Both characters directly cause the deaths of loved family members as a result of their flaws and decisions. Nothing can be worse that this. Oedipus The King and Antigone demonstrate the horrific tragedies of life.