YMMV / Oedipus the King

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation:
  • It could also be said that the big lesson from the story is to simply ignore what the oracles say in the first place. As in each case, it was the people involved trying to AVOID the prophecy that caused it. Oedipus' parents sending him to die, where he is instead brought to a different kingdom far away. He hears about his destiny, and fearing that it might happen, leaves what he thinks is his birth home. Frankly, if anyone involved would have said, "This prophecy is silly", it probably wouldn't have happened. Of course, this only works in isolation, since in Greek mythology in general, Prophecies Are Always Right, even when they logically shouldn't be. Remember Acrisius, who was accidentally killed by his grandson years after everyone forgot all about the prophecy that said his grandson would kill him?
  • Alternatively, don't cut people off in traffic or kill people who cut you off in traffic.
  Don't raise your hand
  Against that trucker
  You'll regret it
  Motherfucker
  Corinth Shave
• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Is Oedipus morally guilty or innocent? Are we supposed to view him as getting his comeuppance for trying to fight a divine prophecy, or is he a blameless victim of fate? Is his "hamartia" the Fatal Flaw of pride (as the main page argues), or is it impulsiveness, or is it just his lack of knowledge about his origins? Much scholarly ink has been spilled on this subject.
  • It's entirely possible that Jocasta knew all along who Oedipus was and, for the sake of maintaining her lifestyle and the city's stability, married and had children with her own son. Her suicide was not caused by her realizing the truth but by her realizing that she couldn't stop the truth from coming out.
  • You can also interpret Creon as suspecting the truth, but not wanting to pursue it because of the political implications.
• Award Snub: This play is the most famous of all of Greek tragedy. When it was first performed, it got second place at the city Dionysia competition.
• Common Knowledge: Oedipus kills his father, then marries and has children with his mother. Although most descriptions leave out the detail that he did these things unknowingly, as well as the fact his mother hangs herself before he gouges out his eyes. All his other adventures, including how he became the King of Thebes in the first place, are generally forgotten. The only exception is the Riddling Sphinx.
• Fridge Logic: Exactly how did Jocasta not recognize Oedipus was her son? You'd think she'd recognize something different about him, if we think she didn't know the whole time. (Although it's probably explained by the fact that he was a newborn baby when she last saw him, and that she thought he was dead.) And why didn't the Sole Survivor of Laius's entourage not tell Jocasta Oedipus had killed him before the Thebans made him king?
• It Was His Sled: The play was based on an old story and written with the expectation that the audience knew the ending. Indeed, as pointed out by classicist Bernard Knox, that gave the play its suspense, since the audience was waiting for when Oedipus would discover the Awful Truth. It also continues into the present day, thanks in large part to people's familiarity with the concept of the Oedipus Complex.
• Moral Event Horizon: Laius crosses this prior to the trilogy when he rapes the titular character of Chrysippus. This angers the gods, who curse his entire family and lead to the catastrophic events of the trilogy.
• Nausea Fuel: When Oedipus finds out what he has done, he gouges his eyes out with his wife's brooches. Also, the fact that he had children with his mom.
• Narm: To a modern audience, a lot of Greek theatre comes off this way, because most modern Western actors lack the training to perform it in a way that doesn't just look like stilted overacting.
  • Upon the revelation that Oedipus is her son, Jocasta immediately leaves the room. A servant walks in shortly afterward to report that the queen has committed suicide. You may or may not find the abruptness of all this hilarious.
  • Guthrie's version gives us the over the top I KILLED THEM AAAAALLLLL!!!!! AAAAAAAAARARARAAAAGGGHHHHH!!!! AAAAARRRRRRAAAAAAGGGGHH!!! RAAAAAAGH... aaah....
  • An earlier scene also has Tiresias giving his signature warning to Oedipus while falling down and flopping around on the ground as though spontaneously getting heart attacks. The Chorus has to regularly push him back up, almost to the point of playing catch with him, and the fact that he's been made to look like some tremendous ghostly bird does not help.
• Nightmare Fuel: The 1957 video adaptation by Tyrone Guthrie features every actor wearing a gigantic mask with terrifyingly huge, black eyes. Although Ancient Greek theatre was actually performed this way.
• Newer Than They Think: The play is Older Than Feudalism but is actually a prequel to Antigone.
• Retroactive Recognition: In the 1957 film version, one of the chorus members was played by William Shatner. You probably won't notice him since he's wearing a big, colorful mask over his face and blends in with the other elders.
• Ron the Death Eater: While Oedipus isn't exactly a nice person, a lot of people skip over the fact that he didn't know the identities of his father and mother before he killed the former and impregnated the latter. Some people, most notably Sigmund Freud, turn him into an irredeemable pervert who deliberately had sex with his mother. Freud even went so far as to naming a psychological theory/phenomenon after him (the Oedipus Complex).
• Tear Jerker: It's already awfully sad seeing everything go to pot for Oedipus because of Fate, but perhaps the worst part is when he has to explain to his daughters how they will be viewed as disgusting aberrations all because of him.
• Values Dissonance: Inevitable, given that the play is over two thousand years old.
  • The main part of it is that to an ancient Greek watching this play, Oedipus would've deserved what was coming to him because of his pride. Nowadays, it just seems kinda mean spirited. There's also the fact that infanticide by exposure was actually common practice in ancient Greece.
  • To an ancient Greek audience, even though Oedipus and Jocasta didn't know each other's identities, their unwitting incest and Oedipus's unwitting parricide were still viewed as carrying "pollution." This is why a plague strikes the city of Thebes and why Jocasta is Driven to Suicide and Oedipus goes into exile when the truth is revealed.
  • It's also hard for a modern audience to accept the original murder of his father. The only thing that made it a crime in the work is his eventual revealed identity. Oedipus killed a man for a traffic violation and even casually talked about it to others and nobody seemed to care... until they knew who it was.
• Vindicated by History: As noted under "Award Snub," this play took second place at the competition that served as its inaugural performance. While we know the name of the playwright who won the competition (Philocles, nephew of the famous Aeschylus), the name and script of the winning play have been lost.

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