rpretation: "The tragedy lies in the fact that Oedipus was not initially disrespectful of the gods - he tried to avoid killing his father, and sleeping with his mother; and when he learns that the oracle at Delphi has said that the plague which is killing the people of Thebes is the result of a defilement which has not been cleaned [the blood is still on a killer's hand] then he is ready to do all that the god says is necessary" (paragraph 5). Myatt's translation of this Sophoclean tragedy concludes, "mortals cannot be delivered from the misfortunes of their fate" (paragraph 5). This analysis shed a new light on what should have been most obvious to any reader of Greek mythology. I found this interpretation of Oedipus the King both intriguing and interesting in that it heightened my awareness that the Greek Myths are our window into the distant past; a view of a world that existed not only in the mind of the Greek playwrights but in the hearts of the humble and long suffering natives of ancient Greece. Many critical theories can be applied to Sophocles' Oedipus the King. Some may view the Sophoclean scholarship as historical in orientation as they view Sophocles' work not in the light of universal values but in the light of ancient Greek past, particularly that of Sophocles himself in the Periclean Athens of the fifth century. Another theory to consider is the archetypal approach in that Sophocles never suggests that Oedipus had brought his destiny on by himself but rather was simply a hapless being who had been cursed by a fate beyond that of his control. Hence the prophecies that led him into disaster, for reasons unbeknownst to all, was put in to place by the gods. Consequently, heroism describes the courage with which Oedipus searches to find the truth about what he has done and the acceptance of his fate is the sacrifice he makes upon learning the truth. In an overview of Oedipus the King J. Michael Walton's psychological...
