Sight and Blindess of Oedipus the King

Sight and Blindness

Oedipus the King by Sophocles was a play written after a devastating plague struck the city of Athens in 430 B.C. The play is about how knowledge can lead to devastation and destruction based on how the characters find out the truth of the Delphic Oracle. Years before Oedipus became the king of Thebes, the previous king, Laius, had received a prophecy that his son would grow up to kill his father. With this information he gave his baby son to a sheperd to dispose of him. Years later Laius is murdered and the Sphinx emerges and locks down the city by refusing to let anybody enter or leave the city unless they can solve her riddle. The city is essentially under siege. But nobody knows the answer to her riddle. “What goes on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three at night?” Everybody who tries to answer the riddle is killed by the Sphinx until one day a stranger comes upon the city. The Sphinx asks him the riddle and he simply replies, “Man.” The stranger solves the riddle and the Sphinx throws herself to her death. The city opens