us the truth but always speaks enigmatically. An extreme annoyance to Oedipus, such seemingly vague speech may be the only way that the truth may be expressed. Tiresias is thus fluent in the language of truth and is speaking to Oedipus, who claims to excel in deciphering riddles, in the clearest manner. Tiresias knows who Oedipus' parents are, and he knows that the revelation of Oedipus' genealogy will cause the foundations of Oedipus' identity to crumble, simultaneously destroying one man and causing another man to come into being. As he states in line 438: "This day shall give you birth and destroy you." Consigned to his fate by the ignorance of his birth, Oedipus' realization of the truth brings Tiresias' prophecy to fruition. Knowing too late what should have been the foundation of his strength, the basic knowledge of his personal identity, destroys what he thought he was and brings to light his wretchedness. Although for Sophocles' characters it is an unambiguous fact that, Oedipus is: the murderer of his father, a husband to his mother, and a brother to his children. For the audience, it is possible to view the murderous and incestuous truth as another ambiguity. Drawing from a sense of utter repulsion for the acts of such a situation, a situation that destroys the seemingly unquestionable boundaries of familial roles, one may wish to conclude that Oedipus' actions are against what is natural. However, the roles of kinship are not etched in stone. As human beings, only truly separated from one another by gender, we are all in the same situation as Oedipus. Throughout our lives we are given titles and designations that are supposed to tell us who we are, but Sophocles' may be affirming that the only real designations that can be made are the most basic: male and female. Human beings are both created and create. What then is a son, a husband, a father, and a brother but a man? It may be that human instinct is to become the dominant ...
