5/19/2023 0 Comments Oedipus trilogy![]() ![]() ![]() Let the storm burst, my fixed resolve still holds, Oedipus is really exemplifying a prized and admirable human trait: determination. Can you really call this a flaw, though? Before you go all Judge Judy on the guy, there’s another way to think about this. ![]() It's true that if Oedipus wasn't so determined to find out the identity of Laius' real killer he would never have discovered the terrible truth of his life. ![]() Why then is it so unclear to generation after generation, just what Oedipus' hamartia is? Let's take a stroll though some of the major theories and see what there is to see. Aristotle also cites Oedipus as the best example ever of a tragic hero. Scholars have been getting riled up and metaphorically punching each other (scholar fight! woo-hoo!) for centuries over one essential question: what is Oedipus' hamartia (often called a tragic flaw)?Īristotle tells us in his Poetics that every tragic hero is supposed to have one of these, and that the hamartia is the thing that causes the hero's downfall. So what are all these papers about? Well, there is a whole lot of disagreement about one central aspect of Oedipus' character. You could probably only wallpaper every home in a midsized American city. You could wallpaper every home on Earth with the amount of scholarly papers written on Oedipus. (Click the character infographic to download.) The Mystery of Oedipus' Hamartia ![]()
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