Oedipus and Christianity Essay - 652 Words

Responsibility was a big deal in the story Oedipus Rex. Even though the gods knew what he was going to do, he still had the free will to do so. This is quite similar to the beliefs of the Christian religion. Christians are accustomed to the idea that God is all knowing, yet we as humans have the gift of free will and that makes us responsible for our own actions. It seems to be similar in the tale of Oedipus Rex and in Greek mythology as a whole. The ideas of this story within the bounds of Greek mythology seem to coincide quite well with the Christian faith; it is almost as if Sophocles meant to copy the ideas of a religion that was not invented until 425 years after his story was written. That makes this impossible, yet it may just†¦show more content†¦That is not unlike Christianity when God comes down and tells Noah that there will be a great flood. Oedipus has no idea of this and when he finds out he doesnt believe it. But in the beginning he has no idea of this fact, this is due to the fact that this was told to his parents and not to him because he was still an infant. When the king and queen were told this, they immediately and reluctantly told one of the servants to take the child away and have Oedipuss life snuffed out. So to make a long story short, Oedipus was left hanging from a tree by his ankles and a shepherd who gave him to another shepherd. Now this shepherd gave the young child to the king and quee n of another island. He was raised without the knowledge of his true heredity. Thusly, he could not have seen the gross erroneous event that was about to occur and change his life drastically and cause his eventual downfall after this series of events occurs. But even without the knowledge of his horrendous future he still used free will to kill the man he met in the woods and marry the Queen of Thebes. When Oedipus finds out that he is the bearer of the plague that was brought down Thebes he blinds himself and then he leaves to wander in his own blindness and never ending pain. This is not unlike the punishment given to people who are poor Christians, they are doomed to hell and punished for all of eternity in a fiery pain. The fact of freeShow MoreRelatedTragedy In Oedipus Rex And Antigone By Euripides784 Words   |  4 Pagesknown Greek tragedies; Oedipus Rex and Antigone by Sophocles and Medea by Euripides that not only have the common genre of tragedy, but share the same motifs; homicide, suicide, and suffering. What is intriguing about these commonalities is that these playwrights, Sophocles and Euripides, use them. Homicide is an act when a human permanently harms another leading in death and these plays like to use it quite a bit. 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