Laius, and then about himself, as proof of the hero's resolute commitment to uphold his own nature. Oedipus' unyielding quest for the truth fits his self image as a man of action, the revealer of truth, and the solver of riddles. Knox adds that the hero's determination to act is "always announced in emphatic, uncompromising terms." (Knox 22). Oedipus proclaims his intention of finding Laius' killers by saying, "Then once more I must bring what is dark to light." (Sophocles 49).The hero cannot be swayed by threats nor reason; he will not capitulate. Creon, after being accused by Oedipus of conspiring against the king, retorted, "You do wrong when you take good men for bad, bad men for good. . . . In time you will know this well." (Sophocles 58). Oedipus, however, never learns in time; he remains unchanged. Oedipus, after his terrible self-mutilation, realizes that he treated Creon unjustly: "Alas, how can I speak to him? What right have I to beg his courtesy whom I deeply wronged?" (Sophocles 70). But later, Creon has to remind Oedipus that he is no longer king when he starts issuing imperious commands such as: "But let me go, Creon!"; "Take pity on them; see, they are only children, friendless except for you."; "Promise me this, Great Prince, and give me your hand in token of it."; "No! Do not take them from me!" (Sophocles 71). The hero provided the ancient Greeks the belief that in some chosen person"humanity is capable of superhuman greatness . . . that a human being may at times magnificently defy the limits imposed on our will by the fear of public opinion, of community action, even of death, may refuse to accept humiliation and indifference and impose his will no matter what the consequences to others and to himself." (Knox 60). This unyielding resolve to accept his doom, "no matter what the consequences to others and to himself," to bestow meaning to his life, gives the hero "a dignity, a nobility, and a grandeur that do not t...
