Sophocles portrayed Oedipus as an amiable character that the Greek audience could sympathize with and perhaps even relate to. The audience saw a respectable figure, who did not seem to commit any blatant evil, come to his destruction. They saw an indubitable tragedy. Sophocles ensured that the audience would view Oedipus as a respectable and plausible hero by giving Oedipus many of the popular sentiments of the time. These ideals were brought about by a philosophy that was thriving in Greece during Sophocles' lifetime. Most of Oedipus' notions, can be traced back to either the dialectic Socrates in who appeared in Plato'

people cannot trust their judgement or perceptions because they are only of false shadows. Socrates proffered this theory in response to Protagoras' question of why mankind commits acts that are ultimately harmful, such as smoking or excessive drinking(165). Aristotle believed that this was because of a weak moral habit("N.E." 411). However, Socrates did not believe in Aristotle's famous Akrasia thesis, Socrates believed that no passion or pleasure could possibly overcome the omnipotent knowledge("Prot. 141"). During the famed dialogue, Protagoras raised an obvious question when he asked why people will continue to smoke although they know it will cause them pain(143). In order to keep from refuting his argument, Socrates explained his Art of Measurement. Socrates declared that the only reason mankind does such harmful things such as smoking is that they simply have no way to measure the immediate pleasure of smoking against the distant pain of the cancer of other disease that smoking causes(144). Socrates said simply that these people have a flawed sense of measurement due to the dark cave they dwell in("Prot." 144). Without this art, the essence of wisdom, one cannot accurately weigh pleasure versus pain and one cannot achieve final pleasure...Eudaimonia.

The second tool that Oedipus uses to strengthen his intellect is reason. Oedipus frequently uses reason in the play in order to resolve which path he must next take, what inquiries he must further make. Virtually all Greek philosophers including Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle believed that man was a being built on reason and that reason was the most necessary and healthy activity for man to practice. In this sense Oedipus seems to be the ideal person as he uses a great deal of sound reasoning. He uses this sound reasoning to accurately judge the situation and continue on his path to identity such as when he states to the chorus leader that if the killer did not flinch at murder, then he will not flinch at the words of Oedipus' threats (175). He also uses his reason when he tells Creon that he may be danger from the killer, which ironically enough would later come true(167). However, Oedipus proves that he is still in Plato's dark cave when he uses an even greater amount of false reason and judgement. Oedipus is often quick to judge a situation and to let anger cloud his judgement, such as when he accuses Creon and Tiresias of plotting against him(189). He also fails in his reasoning when he persists to learn the truth despite Jocasta's pleas(223-224). If Oedipus had stopped his quest for identity when he realized that he was Laius' killer, he would have avoided a significant amount of pain.

Plato, in his Republic delineated a duelist theory of our world. Plato wrote that our world is actually a cave where people are bound and forced to look at shadows on the wall for their entire life(67). In Plato's opinion, reality cannot exist in this world because only shadows cast by a fire are seen(69). According to Plato, the only way to see anything in its quintessence, the only way to see bona fide truth and wisdom is to escape the

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