![]() ![]() ![]() The riddle provides what might be called the ecce homo symbolic epigraph, enabling Sophocles to present the axiomatic truth of Man’s pathetic weakness as the core of the tragedy. ![]() The riddle serves, therefore, as an aphoristic portrayal of Man himself whose life begins and ends in weakness and utter dependence on others, with an interlude of seeming strength in between. The moral of the play is framed by the riddle of the Sphynx: What goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon, and three feet in the evening? The answer is Man, who crawls as an infant and hobbles with the help of a stick in old age. The play ends with him clinging to his two young daughters, Antigone and Ismene, before being forcibly separated from them. ![]() After Oedipus discovers the full horror of his situation, he stabs himself in both eyes, blinding himself in a fit of madness. Earlier, he had unwittingly killed his own father, Laius, and equally unwittingly married his own mother, Jocasta, having several children by her, including Antigone, the eponymous heroine of the play by Sophocles which we discussed last time. Oedipus becomes King of Thebes after answering the riddle of the Sphynx. It is a profound meditation on the relationship between fate and free will and on the consequences of that relationship with respect to the mystery and meaning of human suffering. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |