Oedipus Paper

A detailed Summary of Oedipus Paper

One of Oedipus' greatest qualities as a leader was his ability to solve problems. The reason that Oedipus, not even a native of Thebes, became the king of that land was due to the great intelligence and strength shown in his defeat of the Sphinx. He was able to save the Thebans from that problem, so when the city again needs help, Oedipus is very willing to show his strength again. Oedipus' vanity in his ability to solve problems was the leading cause of his ruin.

It is evident that Oedipus has a great ability to solve problems through the references made to his success with the Sphinx. He brags about being able to solve the Sphinx's riddle when no one else could. This puts him at a higher level than everyone else, where Oedipus believes that he is almost godlike. "When the hellcat the Sphinx was performing here, what help were you to these people?...Your birds- what help were they? Or the gods..." O

edipus says to Teiresias, the prophet (pg. 21). He believes that neither the prophets nor the gods could help the town with the Sphinx's riddle, but that he was more intelligent, and was able to solve the problem on his own. This gave him more self confidence than he could handle and an overpowering ego.

Oedipus' greatest strength is what brought about the truth of his greatest weakness. His vanity and pride got in the way of him being a good king, and searching all possibilities. But in the end he pays miserably by having to wander the earth in darkness, needing to be helped by everyone instead of him being the great saver of all people and solver of all problems.

It is this vanity in his own ability to succeed in being the saver of all, which leads him to discover the truth of his past. He has saved the town once before, and he is not willing to see his people fall. He dose everything to f

Some common words found in the essay are:
Oedipus Teiresias, , ability solve, oedipus reigned, able solve, sphinx's riddle,

Approximate Word count = 613
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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