om and said that the desire for this wisdom is the only true path to divinity. Aristotle later contributed to the theory when he wrote in his Nicomachean Ethics, that wisdom separated mankind from the animals and wisdom placed the Greeks closer to the gods that they worshiped and admired(435). The Greeks constantly sought for this wisdom so that it may bring them to their greatest pleasure, the purpose in life, a true and final happiness, the aim of their Eudaimonia.( "N.E." 397) The Greek audience for which Sophocles wrote could easily sympathize with Oedipus in his play. This is due to the fact that Oedipus was struck down from his pedestal while merely attempting to discover himself and in that process to attain wisdom and happiness. The goals for which Oedipus sought were noble goals that a majority of the audience members may have been seeking. Plato, in his Republic delineated a duelist theory of our world. Plato wrote that our world is actually a cave where people are bound and forced to look at shadows on the wall for their entire life(67). In Plato's opinion, reality cannot exist in this world because only shadows cast by a fire are seen(69). According to Plato, the only way to see anything in its quintessence, the only way to see bona fide truth and wisdom is to escape the cave(71). By escaping the cave the person could see the fire as a deceiver of reality because that person has now seen true light and virtue. This light, this philosophic insight of reality allows the person to return to the cave, to see objects in their veritable conformations and give them their appropriate judgement and value(74). This theory is the basis for what Socrates in Plato's Protagoras avouched his concept of "The Art of Measurement."("Prot."163). Socrates holds that since the world is in a cave, the 3people cannot trust their judgement or perceptions because they are only of false shadows. Socrates proffered this theory in respons...
