Oedipus is the successor king of the city-state, and his predecessor, Lao Russian, was killed in a trip because he was fighting for the road with others. Oedipus was originally a foreigner. Because someone predicted that he would kill his father and marry his mother, he was afraid and had to leave home. He once killed an old man while wandering. In Thebes, because of his extraordinary intelligence, he guessed the mystery of the Sphinx, which made the monster commit suicide and ended the suffering of the people of Thebes. People made him sit on the throne and married Lao Wang's wife. Oedipus was very worried about the disaster. He put a severe curse on the unclean people and wanted to find out the murderer of Lao Wang.
Stills of King Oedipus performed by the Central Academy of Drama
The blind prophet knew the secret, and Oedipus asked him many times, but he refused to tell the answer, which angered Oedipus. He is rude and thinks that the blind prophet is the person who participated in the murder of Lao Wang. The prophet angrily declared that Oedipus was an unclean sinner here. Oedipus thinks that the queen's younger brother Creon colluded with the blind prophet to slander him in order to seize the throne, which makes him want to find out the truth more.
The queen's brother Creon and Oedipus had a quarrel. He said he didn't want to be a king, he just wanted to work for the king. Oedipus insisted that Creon ordered the blind prophet to falsely accuse him of killing Lao Wang, so he wanted to expel Creon and even kill him. The queen came to intercede. She said that God always told her that her son would kill his father and marry his mother. The child was later thrown into the barren hills, and Pharaoh died at the hands of robbers, not his son. This shows that God retracted his prophecy. She talked about the place where Lao Wang was killed, which was very similar to the place where Oedipus killed the old man.
In panic, Oedipus called in insiders: a messenger and a shepherd. They didn't want to tell the truth. Under the torture of Oedipus, the shepherd said that he did not throw Pharaoh's son into the barren mountain, but gave it to the informant: he was also the only witness that Pharaoh was killed. So after Oedipus ascended the throne, he fled into the mountains and became a shepherd. The messenger said that he couldn't bear to hurt the child, so he gave Oedipus to foreigners for adoption. Now his adoptive father is dead.
The truth came out, and Oedipus knew that he had not escaped the fate imposed on him by God. After all, he committed the heinous crime of killing his father and marrying his mother. At this time, his wife (that is, his mother) was extremely ashamed of the crime of incest, and she hanged herself to end her life's sorrow. Oedipus thought it was easy to die, but it was not enough to wash away his sins and shame, so he blinded his eyes, punished himself and embarked on the road of self-exile.
The tragedy of Oedipus reflects the contradiction between man's responsibility and fate. The shadow of fate is like a dark cloud all over the sky, which makes people's free spirit and creative vitality unable to expand indefinitely. It seems that people can only toss and turn within their destiny, and constant pursuit will inevitably lead to their own disaster. However, the spirit of Oedipus lies in his own tragedy, which shows people the fact of unfair fate; Fight against the journey of fate with life and sublimate the free will to life; With the courage to bear all the consequences, ask your life without hesitation; To show respect for human morality and absolute truth by chewing suffering alone.
This play is rich in connotation and contains profound philosophy, and it is still staged all over the world, showing its eternal artistic charm.
Euripides and Medea