Oedipus the King an Archetype of Hero
Before the start of the story of Oedipus, the drama begins with the quest which is the first stage of the drama. Once Oedipus is introduced, he learns from the prophecy at Delphi that he will only succeed if he kills his father and then marry his fathers wife who was his own mother. To preempt this prophecy, he decides to leave his family and city and migrate to a distance place. Oedipus travels a very long distance and eventually arrives at Thebes. He arrives in the city of Thebes when the people of the city are in great chaos and confusion as they were being consumed by a sphinx. To save the city, a riddle which the city men were unable to solve needed to be solved and Oedipus answered the riddle thus saving the city.
Two decades later, the city of Thebes is once more faced with a plague. The prophecy of the Apollo decreed that the only solution is to find the killer for the predecessor of the throne. Once more, Oedipus comes in and swears that he will save the city by murdering Laius and thus bring order to the city.
The drama then enters the second stage. In the initiation stage, the prophecy changes and Tiresias who was a seer in the city declares that Oedipus is the cause of plague the city is experiencing. Due to this, Oedipus suffers rejection and detaches from the social life to self examine himself. Although he was warned by his wife who was also his mother, he goes on to find out the truth about the matter. While seeking for the truth, he realizes that he was to be blamed for the suffering the people of the city were undergoing which results in his transformation. The first prophecy had been fulfilled because he had murdered his father Laius, gotten married to his mother though unknowing and thus he was responsible for the plague facing the city. His mother Jocasta was traumatized by this revelation which caused her to commit suicide. Realizing the evils he had committed causing suffering to the city dwellers, he felt very guilty and decides to run away from the city to achieve his own verdict of saving the city.
This marks the beginning of the symbolic sacrifice in stage three of the drama. Oedipus sacrifices himself to save the city by exiling himself. He sacrifices himself to save his kingdom and the people of Thebes and more so his daughters. To save his people, he sacrifices to leave them behind and live in exile. Oedipus emerges as a hero by sacrificing himself due to the love he had for his people.
Oedipus possesses the character of an archetype hero. His decency is the most important character that portrays him has a hero. Whatever he could have done, he could not have escaped the prophecy that he would be the king. However, his fate had to be necessitated by him killing his father and marrying his own mother. After this, he rises to the throne and becomes the king of the land. The act of Oedipus such as saving Thedes from the sphinx among others, exhibits his characters as a hero. However, he his tempered and proud, which is exhibited when he killed his father Laius and after he was told that he was the cause of the plague facing the city, he displays his weaknesses. Towards the end of the story, Oedipus is displayed as an archetype hero when he transforms from a savior of the city. The plot of the drama reverses which is a characteristic of an archetype drama.
Conclusion
Oedipus is a good example of an archetype hero. He is in the first two stages of the drama portrayed as a redeemer where he saves the city of Thebes from their sufferings. However, due to his poor judgment, he goes ahead and kills his father Laius and does not believe the seer that he is the cause of the plague facing the city. This transforms him from a savior of the city to a person who causes its downfall.
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