oedipus and blindness
...d he has married his mother. “There was a riddle, not for some passer-by to solve- it cried out for a prophet. Where were you? Did you rise to the crisis? Not a word, you and your birds, your gods- nothing. No, but I came by, Oedipus the ignorant, I stopped the Sphinx!” (ln. 447-452) Since he is continually boasting about how he has saved Thebes from the Sphinx, he believes no one could know any more truth than himself, especially in respect to the murder of Laius. Tiresias responds by saying, “So, you mock my blindness? Let me tell you this. You with your precious eyes, you’re blind to the corruption of your life, to the house you live in, those you live with- who are your parents? Do you know? All unknowing you are the scourge of your own flesh and blood” (ln. 469-474). Here it can be seen that although Tiresias is physically blind, he “sees” the truth, while Oedipus, being able to physically see, is blind to the truth. After hearing the testimonies of several other individuals involved in the conspiracy of the attempted killing of Oedipus as a baby, Oedipus begins to un–“blind” himself to the truth. Eventually, he comes to his final epiphany in which he realizes that he is in fact the murderer of his father, Laius, and he is the husband of his mother, Jocasta; “O god- all come true, all burst to light! O light- now let me look my last on you! I stand revealed at last- cursed in my birth, cursed in marriage, cursed in the lives I cut down with these hands!” (ln. 1305-1310) Here we see the imagery of light, which symbolizes the truth Oedipus has been in the dark on for so long. In exchange for no longer being blind to the truth and for punishment for his sins, Oedipus decides to blind himself, physically, by g...