Essay on King Oedipus as The Classical Greek Tragic Hero

King Oedipus as The Classical Greek Tragic Hero In his Poetics, Aristotle defined the term tragedy as a man not preeminently virtuous and just, whose misfortune, however, is brought upon him not by vice or depravity, but by some error in judgement the change in the heros fortune must not be from misery to happiness, but on the contrary, from happiness to misery. From this definition, he further expanded it by defining the profile of the Classical Greek tragic hero, basing it on what he considered the best tragedy ever written, Sophocles Oedipus Rex. He felt that a tragedy should comprise of the heros goodness and superiority, a tragic flaw in which the hero makes fatal errors in judgement which eventually lead to his†¦show more content†¦When he left Corinth, he met an entourage on the way to Thebes. There, the ?leader? of the horse-drawn carriage ordered him ?out of the way?. Oedipus lost his temper and killed everyone in the entourage due to his impulsiveness and foolishness, which led to his being crowned King and ulti mately, to his downfall. When Oedipus was later crowned King of Thebes and was thus obliged to ?find? the killer of the former King Lauis in order to save his people from suffering, he invited the renowned blind prophet Teiresias to Thebes to reveal the truth of the mystery that surrounded Lauis? death. Although reluctant at first, he finally revealed that it was in fact Oedipus who had killed King Lauis. Oedipus did not believe him and insulted him, calling him names like ?insolent scoundrel?. His pride refused to let him believe that he had in actual fact done wrong by killing his father. His grandiosity blinded him while he was seeking King Lauis? killer. He felt that he had nothing to lose and persisted in bringing bringing the truth to light, disregarding the warnings of Jocasta, his wife and mother. All these errors in judgement he had made led to his eventual downfall, where he finally realised that he had unwittingly fulfilled Apollo?s oracle and sealed his destiny by leaving Corinth and killing King Lauis, answering the Sphinx?s riddle correctly and thus becoming the king of Thebes and also through his pursuit of the truth ofShow MoreRelatedOedipus The King : A Tragic Hero And Greek Classical Order979 Words   |  4 PagesSophocles a tragic dramatist, priest, Athenian general, is an ancient Greek writer who’s work has survived since circa 400 BC.; Oedipus the King is one of the three plays about Oedipus, believed to be first produced in 425 B.C., five years after the plague had broken out in Athens (Kennedy 947). Sophocles’ Oedipus exemplifies Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero and Greek classical order. 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