his word is insolence and pride. It is used to mean that the hero forgets that he is a fallible man, attributes to himself the power and wisdom of the gods, and is later humbled for his arrogance. This is very clear in Oedipus Rex a number of times. Oedipus is guilty of this and one of the clearest examples is when he is talking with Teiresias: Has your mystic mummery ever approached the truth? When that hellcat the Sphinx was performing here what help were you to these people? Her magic was not for the first man who came along: it demanded a real exorcist. Your birds what good were they, or the gods for the matter of that? But I came by, Oedipus a simple man, who knows nothing and thought it out for myself, no birds helped me! And this is the man you think you can destroy 4. Oedipus shows that he holds himself above the gods. He alone is the only one who can be right and do anything good. He puts himself above the gods and prophets of the gods, saying that they did nothing to help the people, only he could stop the Sphinx, once again showing the arrogance of the man. It is Oedipus's anger, temper and hubris that get him into trouble more than once. It is also these qualities that result in Oedipus going into self-imposed exile at the end of the play.Oedipus was not the only one who tried to go against the gods' will. It really began with Laios because he tried to prevent the first oracle from Apollo when he abandoned Oedipus in the mountains. It was this act of tampering with fate that began all of this tragedy. Laios tried to put himself above the gods, and to predict his own fate, and Brozyna 6that got him into trouble. It is his will that he not fulfill the oracle, but his fate draws him along that same path anyway. The Greeks also believed in predetermination so Laios and Oedipus really did not have a choice in preventing their oracles, even though they tried.Oedipus was the type of person who needed to know at any cos...
