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The Guilt of Oedipus1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

P. H. Vellacott
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Extract

In this paper I propose to deal with some difficulties in Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus, of which some have been noticed before, others I think have not. I am going to propose an unorthodox explanation, not through any love of unorthodoxy, but in the spirit of Oedipus himself, who when faced with a puzzle could not resist following a fact to its logical conclusion. The Sphinx's riddle was not, after all, a very hard one; and Oedipus doubtless grew tired of being praised for ingenuity. My thesis too disclaims that dubious quality. Ingenuity is what many of us have been using all our lives to explain difficulties in this play which may after all be insoluble.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , October 1964 , pp. 137 - 148
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1964

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References

1 This paper was read to the London Branch of the Classical Association in January 1964; an abridged version of it was broadcast by the B.B.C. Third Programme in March 1964.