Oedipus...Most Miserable of Men

Alas, poor Oedipus.   No matter how hard he tried to do right, it ended up all wrong.


Now, there have been times in my life when I felt as though the harder I tried to do right, the worse my predicament became.  But, I just finished reading Oedipus, the King, by Sophocles, and I have never, NEVER been as miserable as poor Oedipus.


When Oedipus was born, a prophet predicted that he would someday kill his father and marry his mother.  Therefore, shortly after his birth his parents, who were king and queen of Thebes, sent him with a servant to be abandoned on a mountain, supposing that he would die there.  However, by a series of circumstances, which might have at the time seemed fortuitous for the helpless infant, he ended up in another land as the adopted child of the king and queen.


Eventually he heard a rumor that he was adopted, but when he questioned his parents, they denied it.  As he became an adult, a prophet again predicted that he would kill his father and marry his mother.  Not wanting to be guilty of anything so vile, he decided that he must leave those he supposed to be his parents.


Unhappy man that he was, he headed for Thebes.  On the way he ran into the king of Thebes and had an altercation in which he killed him, thus fulfilling the first part of the prophecy.  Eventually the second was fulfilled also, as he married the queen of Thebes who was, in fact, his biological mother.  They were married long enough to have four children before the disaster became apparent.


Everything in Thebes was going badly...crops were failing, disease was rampant.  When counsel was sought of prophets, they declared that someone who had committed a vile deed was among them  Being a conscientious king, Oedipus decided this evil must be brought to light no matter who the guilty party was.


When his guilt was revealed, he was filled with self-loathing.  His mother/wife committed suicide, and he blinded himself by stabbing his eyes with her brooch pins.


My high school Latin teacher apparently didn't have this quite right.  He declared to us that Oedipus had gouged out his own eyeballs.  He thought a reenactment of this should involve Oedipus throwing two grapes into the audience.  (But then, he was strange in multiple ways.)


You have got to feel sorry for the guy....that is, Oedipus, not my Latin teacher.  Each step he took in what appeared to be the right direction was, in fact, the next step toward horrific grief.


The last paragraph of the play, which is spoken by the chorus is:
...while our eyes wait to see the destined final day, we must call no one happy who is of mortal race, until he hath crossed life's border, free from pain.


The truth is that none of us crosses life's border free from pain.


Another sorry spectacle, Job, in the Old Testament, said:
Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.


We live in a troubled, fallen world full of pain.  Current events make that abundantly clear.  How do we keep from blinding ourselves?  How do we awaken each day and see the agony that surrounds us.


Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:2-3)