Catastrophe Strikes The Rulers Of Thebes

Jarrod LaFountain 4/10/08

English Essay #2

Catastrophe Strikes the Rulers of Thebes

Augusto Maximus

Theban Tribune

6/13/727 B.C.

Our glorious King Oedipus has taken a tragic fall from grace as our great city is now under new rule. Late yesterday evening events where occurring which have resulted in the dethroning of Oedipus and the death of the Queen. It seems that a long old prophecy has come true, brining to question the control we all have over our choices and paths in life.

The story of our past King is one of fortune, fate and tragedy. Not knowing he was the son of Theban royalty, he was nurtured by his adoptive parents Polybus and Merope, rulers of Corinth. Oedipus, as he grew older, felt the desire to know fro certain if he were the true seed of his Corinthian family and so he traveled to the Oracle at Delphi and was related distressing news. He was to kill his own father and marry his mother. This was enough to drive him forever from his home in fear of what was foretold.

On his way from Corinth he came upon an old man who frustrated him. In a bizarre argument the man was killed and Oedipus, not knowing he had just slain his true father, took his throne and became the ruler of Thebes and husband to his true mother. His life was following the prophecy he set not to fulfill.

Yesterday’s events have silenced the peace and prosperity Thebes has lavishly enjoyed for almost a score years. It seems the ever involved Oedipus sought to destroy the plague and suffering of the city, calling upon the devices of the prophet Tiresias to aid him. This prophet divulged that a pollutant was causing the scourge and that Oedipus was to solve it. Oedipus was not aware that he was about to unravel the twisted construction which an oracle predicted 15 years earlier.

Oedipus has lived an entirely ironic life; he sought to save his family from the tellings of the Oracle and, in turn, fulfilled them. In the background of what has happened exists another prophecy, the driving force of it all; when Oedipus was born in the depths of the Theban temple it had been foretold that the child would kill his parents and so he was banished to the hills and left for death. This is how he had become an orphan and the intertwining predictions of his life took root.

Oedipus eventually understood the depth of his situation when the eyewitness of King Laius’ murder was summoned to relate that Oedipus himself was the culprit and when a messenger from Corinth exposed that Oedipus was adopted.

“…Polybus and you were worlds apart,” said the Corinthian messenger to Oedipus (Oedipus the King, pg. 55)

The events of next are still pending investigation but an investigative timeline