In Sophocles's Oedipus Rex, there are
key points in the play in which the King of Thebes progresses toward
self-knowledge:
1. His initial step is, of course, his
kingly concern for his subjects who bring branches and chaplets of olive leaves and sit
in "attitudes of despair" which makes it apparent that they have come to beseech him.
Oedipus addresses them,
My children,
....
Why have you strewn yourselves before these
altars
In supplication, witho your bough and
garlands?
Oedipus tells the
people of Thebes that he is moved to find them "suppliant here." In short, he wants to
help his people and prove himself their benevolent ruler and the "liberator" that he was
called for his "boldness long ago."
2. In the anguish that
he shares with his people--"Sick as you are, not one is as sick as I"--Oedipus sends
Creon, brother of the queen, to Delphi to seek the advice of the god Apollo. He hopes
that Creon will learn there "What act or pledge of mine may save the city." After Creon
returns Oedipus insists upon bringing "what is dark to light"; Creon tells Oedipus that
the gods caused the plague as a reaction against the murder of Thebes's previous
king. Oedipus, vowing to root out this evil, sets in motion his
fate.
3. When Jocasta reminds Oedipus of Apollo's oracle,
and of the way Laius died, Oedipus begins to realize that he is the murder of Laius, and
asks to speak with the witness to the murder, a shepherd. But, when the shepherd is
hesitant. Oedipus demands, "Yet I must hear." The shepherd tells Oedipus that the
child he gave to the messenger was said to be Laius's child, "But it is your wife who
can tell you about that." However, it is too late to speak with Jocasta, who has
committed suicide. Nevertheless, Oedipus knows the truth, saying after he blinds
himself that he has been "Too long been blind to those for whom I was
searching."
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