Abstract
Aristotle, one of the foremost philosophers of ancient Greece, gave a trifecta of characteristics that describe a tragic hero in literature. Tragedy genre narrates a story about the downfall of an otherwise good person mainly through a judgment error, and in the process elicits pity and fear from the audience while providing insight into the actions of the protagonists. Aristotle, in his literature piece, poetica, gave the trifecta as spoudaios, hamartia, and peripeteia 1 . Spoudaios is the nobility and respect accorded a character. He is a highly righteous person. Hamartia is a tragic flaw that can cause a downfall. Peripeteia is the reversal of fortunes from a highly held person to a person to a pitiable person by fellow characters and the audience. In this paper, we examine whether Oedipus, the main protagonist in Sophocles’ exemplary work Oedipus Rex written around 429 BC is a tragic hero as defined by Aristotle.
Introduction
Oedipus’ father was a wealthy man who had been warned by an oracle that his newly born son would kill him eventually. To undo this prophecy, he tied him up and set him out in the wind to be either die or be adopted by peasants and shepherd families. He was, however, found and adopted by the King Polybus and Queen Perope from the kingdom of Corinth. They raised him as their son until he discovered he was adopted when he reached manhood. Nobody told him the true identity of his biological parents. A prophet warned him at this time that he would eventually kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus conflicted. He did not want to do any harm to his adoptive father or to marry his foster mother. To undo this prophecy, he left the kingdom and traveled far and wide.
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However, this triggered a series of events that would eventually fulfill this prophecy unknowingly to him. While traveling, he got entangled in an argument with a fellow traveler and he ended up killing him. The traveler gave him a riddle; what walked on four legs in the morning, twos at noon and threes at night? Oedipus answered correctly that the answer was man. The traveler was enraged that he got the answer right and in the ensuing dispute, Oedipus killed him. The killing was a rational way to settle disputes in this particular time 2 . It was not a result of hatred or motivated by selfish reasons. This man turned out to be his biological father. Despite both, their actions and determination to undo the prophecy, this part of this prophecy were fulfilled.
Sphinx was a loathed and feared person in his kingdom. Many believed he was responsible for the murder of their king. When Oedipus got to his birth nation, he was given a hero’s welcome having killed the evil Sphinx. As a gift of their appreciation, they offered their queen’s hand in marriage to Oedipus 3 . He gave up his plans to travel and dreams to find wealth, inadvertently marrying his birth mother, who was the queen and in the process unknowingly fulfilled the second part of the prophecy. In all this, Oedipus intentions were pure for he did what he needed to do, but in the process, he ended up being his father’s murderer and his mother’s husband.
Oedipus was elected king in the new kingdom, and he is a wise and noble ruler. He was a benevolent leader working hard to improve the welfare of his people, and he was a compassionate and revered leaders. People love and respect him, and they elevate him to the status of a god. The gods through their extreme powers to punish both the unjust and the just sent a plague in retaliation for the murder of the previous King Laois. To avert the scourge, he set to investigate the death of King Laois and rid the city off the infliction in the process. He accused Creon of the murder, and he is relentless in the pursuit of truth even though the truth implicated him. Eventually, he discovers that he is the murderer of the king and his father and he married his mother. He fell from grace as the king, and he could not inherit the kingdom of his adoptive parents. Worse than that, he could not leave with himself knowing what he has done though inadvertently, and he set to punish the murderer as he had promised his subjects and he blinded himself, a punishment far worse than death. He could not bear to face his dead parents in the afterlife, his daughters in living and the gods either in live or death.
Discussion
From the trifecta set forth by Aristotle, Oedipus comes out as a tragic hero. He was born innocent but ended up being bound by his feet and set to the wind and left to fate. Having fallen on good fortune and adopted by the king and queen of Corinth, he grows up to be a righteous man full of virtue. When an oracle visits him with a prophecy and his subsequent actions even though done from a position of purity of heart and nobility, lead to the death of his father and him marrying his mother.
Spoudaios is evidenced throughout the play. Oedipus is nobility having been born to a king and a queen, adopted by a king and a queen and ended up getting elected king of Thebes and marrying its queen after slaying the evil Sphinx. He is a great king and people love and revere him. They hold him like a demigod. He loves his people back and works to protect them at all costs. It pains him to see his city afflicted by a plague and he loses sleep over it. In his pursuit to discover the murderer of the king, he is relentless even though the evidence implicates him. He suffers not because of his guilt but in spite of his goodness1. Aristotle defines spoudaios as a person of high nobility, wealthy and renowned. Oedipus clearly is one such man2.
Hamartia or tragic flaw is demonstrated by the destructive actions that followed his actions. The fatal flaws are debatable on whether they were moral or intellectual. He was bound and set to the wind. On learning of the prophecy, he planned to travel to avoid the fulfillment of the prophecy pointing a hamartia of fate. When he kills his father, it is a justifiable way of settling a dispute, and he does not know that he is his biological father. This murder is an intellectual error, not a moral mistake. The subsequent events that follow are done due to concern and appreciation of his kingdom. Inscrutable gods exert extreme power over the unjust and the just3. The gods seem to lead Oedipus on a path to ruin purposely by their prophecies to him through the oracle. His fate is sealed through this. Oedipus is blind to advise from the oracle Teresias pointing to an intellectual deficiency4.
Peripeteia is demonstrated by the tragic downfall he suffers. From being thrice noble, the masses call him thrice miserable. He loses his kingdom, and he cannot claim the kingdom of his adoptive parents. He reveals that his compounded misery such that he can’t bear to see his parents after, his daughters while alive and the gods either alive or dead. He ends up blinding himself fulfilling Teresias prophecy. In the process, he once again proves he is a righteous man by his willingness to mete punishment on the king’s murderer. He exiles himself, but not before he asks for forgiveness from Creon having earlier wrongfully accused him of murdering the king and places his children under his guardianship. Through his actions, he gets a new source of strength in his tragic knowledge5.
Conclusion
Sophocles’ Oedipus exemplifies Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero by meeting all the three set criteria as shown above 4 . Oedipus was a noble hero who through his decisions, and a cruel hand of fate ends in ruin. He always made ethical decisions and went to great pains to avoid harm befalling those he loves. This timeless classic of greet literature goes to show the style employed then in plays and in narratives. Aristotle, in his analysis names some houses where the best tragedies are founded. In the list, he includes Oedipus as well as other protagonists from Greek literature of the time who include Alcmaeon, Orestes, Meleager, Thyestes and Telephus 5 . Men of noble character and great fortune are led to their downfalls through no apparent faults of their own. Their stories in each case are different, but they all have the same characteristics; they are noble, wealthy and worthy of respect, they have a tragic flaw and through this they have had a reversal of fortunes leading to their downfall and disgrace 6 . From being mighty beings that were held in awe, they are not at best feared and pitied. This is the strongest statement pointing to the exemplification of Oedipus as a tragic hero in Aristotle’s definition.
Bibliography
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