References to eyesight and vision, both literal and metaphorical, are very frequent in all three of the Theban

plays. Quite often, the image of clear vision is used as a metaphor for knowledge and insight. In fact, this metaphor is so much a part of the Greek way of thinking that it is almost not a metaphor at all, ust as in modern !nglish" to say #I see the truth$ or #I see the way things are$ is a perfectly ordinary use of language. %owever, the references to eyesight and insight in these plays form a meaningful pattern in combination with the references to literal and metaphorical blindness. &edipus is famed for his clear' sightedness and quick comprehension, but he discovers that he has been blind to the truth for many years, and then he blinds himself so as not to have to look on his own children(siblings. )reon is prone to a similar blindness to the truth in Antigone. Though blind, the aging &edipus finally acquires a limited prophetic vision. Tiresias is blind, yet he sees farther than others. &verall, the plays seem to say that human beings can demonstrate remarkable powers of intellectual penetration and insight, and that they have a great capacity for knowledge, but that even the smartest human being is liable to error, that the human capability for knowledge is ultimately quite limited and unreliable. The theme of sight vs. blindness is a very prevalent theme in Oedipus the King. The two most affected characters by this main theme are Oedipus, the king, and Tiresias, the blind seer. Oedipus is affected because while he is not literally blind, he is blinded by ambition to find the killer of Laius, and blind to what is happening around him. Tiresias, who is actually blind, is a prophet and understands what is happening around him. Oedipus does not understand what is happening around him, but can see, while Tiresias is the opposite. Oedipus, whose eyes are fully functional, does not see how corrupt the life he has been living is. Tiresias, a seer, tells him his destiny, and he fails to see that it is the truth. Tiresias also says, You do not see the evil in which you live. !"#$. Oedipus %uestions Tiresias and calls him a liar, You have no power or truth. You are blind, your ears and mind as well as eyes. !"#$. Oedipus and all of the other characters in the play who can see with their eyes, are blind to their current circumstances and cannot see the truth. Tiresias, who is blind, but knows the truth, is the only person in the play who can figuratively see. &hen Tiresias gives Oedipus his prophecy, Oedipus is flabbergasted and ignores what Tiresias says, 'ay what you like. (t will all be meaningless. !"#$. Oedipus accuses Tiresias of making up his prophecy, showing how blind to the circumstances he is, &as it )reon, or you, that invented this story* !"+$. Tiresias, the blind man, sees and understands the circumstances of the kingdom Oedipus is living in, while Oedipus, who can see and lives there, does not. The theme of sight vs. blindness also creates a very ironic situation in the play. Tiresias, a blind seer, sees and reveals the truth to Oedipus, who can see, but does not understand what is happening around him. Tiresias provides a very clear example of this ironic situation in saying, I am what I am-a fool to you, so it seems, but the parents who brought you into the world thought me sensible enough. !"#. Tiresias is a prophet and he spea$s the truth, so most people believe him, but Oedipus does not because he is blind to the world around him. The irony Tiresias is involved in is one in which a blind man reveals the truth to a man who can see. In the play Oedipus The %ing people who can physically see are blind to the truth and what is happening around them. &eople who are physically blind can see the truth. One of the main underlying themes in Oedipus ,e- is blindness. .ot /ust physical blindness, but intellectual blindness as well. The blindness issue is an effective contrasting method for Oedipus at different points in the play. 'imply saying 0blindness0, however, is a little ambiguous. (t can be broken down into two components1 Oedipus2s ability to 0see0 !ignorance or lack thereof$, and his willingness to 0see0. The word 0see0 can be used in both conte-ts here. Throughout the play, these two components are always at the center of the action. (n the beginning of the play, Oedipus has perfect physical vision. 3owever, he is blind and ignorant to the truth about himself and his past. 3e desperately wants to know, to see, but he cannot. 4t this point, it is obvious what Oedipus2s action must be1 to overcome the blindness. 4ll of his actions thereafter are to that end.

(ronically, into the play is introduced a prophet, a seer, Teiresias, who is physically blind, but who is clairvoyant. This /ust reaffirms Oedipus as a man ignorant to the true appearance of things 5 this blind man can 0see0 the truth about Oedipus, yet Oedipus, in all of his physical perfection, cannot. Toward the end of the play, it is shown how Oedipus learns the true nature of things 5 his past is revealed to him and he learns that the oracle was correct. .ow Oedipus has gone full circle1 he can see all to clearly what the truth is, but he desperately does not want to accept his fate. 'o, in response, Oedipus commits an act of would5be escapism1 he blinds himself so that he may not see. 6nfortunately, this does not help his problem. This writer thinks it was an act of cowardice because he didn2t want to accept the situation the way he 0saw0 it, and decided instead not to see it at all. The final speech given by the )horagos can be a lesson to us all. (t basically says that even the greatest of men can crumble to ruins7 all humans are sub/ect to suffering and pain. The )horagos leaves us with what was perhaps the origin of the %uote from the eternal Yogi 8eara1 0(t ain2t over till it2s over0. 9on2t become accustomed to good fortune until, at death, you can recall only good memories of life. 'ophocles :;<+ 8.).=.> 5 ;?+ 8.).=.@ e-plores the contrast of blindness and vision in 2Oedipus ,e-2 for dramatic effect and for a touch of realism. ,ealistically speaking, humans tend to rely greatly on what they observe with the senses, and most particularly through the sense of sight. (ndeed, there2s the saying that 2seeing is believing2. 8ut there also is the cautionary 2appearances are deceiving2. 8oth sayings are e-plored in 2Oedipus ,e-2, to the detriment of all of the main characters e-cept for the blind prophet Teiresias. 4ll of the other characters see and therefore suffer from flawed observations and faulty conclusions. The saying 2the blind leading the blind2 takes on new meaning in regard to Teiresias. Only he among Thebans can2t see, and yet he never is wrong or misguided over what he observes through his other senses. >8efore the )hristian =ra 3e uses it when Tiresias is introduced. 'ince Tiresias is in fact blind and is a prophet makes Oedipus have a reason to not believe him. There are many %uotes that can be found that e-emplify this. Oedipus does not believe him when he says that Oedipus is the cause of the plague on Thebes. Oedipus retaliates to this insult to his royalty by insisting that since Tiresias is blind there is no way for him to be right when Oedipus can see and he cannot. Aeople can be blinded to the truth. The answer to their %uestion or solution to their problem may have been obvious. Yet, they could not 0see0 the answer. They were blinded to the truth. 4ssociations have been made between being blind and enlightened. 4 blind person is said to have powers to see invisible things. They 0see0 into the future. The blind may not have physical sight, but they have another kind of vision. (n 'ophocles2 King Oedipus, Teiresias, the blind prophet, presents the truth to King Oedipus and Bocasta. Oedipus has been blinded to the truth his whole life. &hen he does find the truth, he loses his physical vision. 8ecause of the truth, Oedipus blinds himself. Bocasta was blind to the true identity of Oedipus. =ven when she found out the truth, she refused to accept it. (n this case, those who are blind ultimately do have a higher vision 5 the truth. Kind Oedipus started life with a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. (n an attempt to avoid this fate, his parents, Laius and Bocasta, sent him into the mountains to die. 3owever, a shepherd saved Oedipus. This shepherd gave Oedipus to Aolybus and

Cerope. &hen Oedipus learned of his prophecy, he fled his home, thinking these people were his real parents. On his flight, he met Laius. 3e ended up killing Laius. 3e continued on, answered a riddle of the evil 'phin-, and ended up king of Thebes. &ith this kingdom, Oedipus married Bocasta. 3e had lived out the prophecy without even knowing he had. Thebes fell onto bad times, and a prophet put the blame on a polluter of the lands. Oedipus called on Teiresias, and Teiresias informed him that the polluter was the King. 4s Oedipus searched further and further, he discovered that he was the polluter and that the prophecy had come true. &hen Oedipus finally discovered the truth, he was so distressed that he ran pins into his eyes, blinding himself. 3e had been blinded to the truth for so long. Oedipus was blind in more then one way. 3e was blind to the truth about his own life. Oedipus had no idea that his real parents were Laius and Bocasta. 3e was so blind that he got mad at anyone who was foolish enough to suggest such an idea. 4s more and more of the story started to fall into place, Oedipus was forced to open his eyes to the truth. Oedipus did kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus was the person causing the bad times in Thebes. 4s soon as Oedipus knew and accepted the truth, he blinded himself. Bust as Teiresias was blind and open to the truth, so was Oedipus. Oedipus was also physically blind. Oedipus2 physical blindness played into the whole role of the Dreek tragedy. The blindness completed the tragedy for Oedipus. =very Dreek tragedy was supposed to end with the main characters e-periencing their own, personal tragedy. Eor Oedipus, this tragedy was discovering the truth and becoming blind. (t completed the prophecies that Oedipus received from the blind prophet, Teiresias. Teiresias told Oedipus that he had come into Thebes with his sight, but he would leave Thebes without it. Oedipus2 physical blindness also left Oedipus to the wrongs of his life. &ith nothing to look at, Oedipus was forced to think about his life and what had happened. 3e was forced to deal with it. 3e had the blackness and the physical pain he had inflicted on himself as reminders and as punishment. Oedipus2 physical blindness was /ust as painful as his blindness to the truth. 8oth were intertwined in each other. Bocasta2s blindness was different then Oedipus2. 'he knew about the prophecy, but she thought Oedipus was dead. 'he had no idea that she had married her son. 4s pieces of information came to point to the whole truth of the matter, Bocasta refused to accept what had really happened. 'he realiFed what had happened, and she knew that she had played a role in them. 3er way of dealing with the whole deal was to kill herself. Bocasta2s blindness ultimately led to her downfall. Teiresias2 blindness was of the physical nature. Teiresias played the role of the typical prophet in the Dreek tragedy. 3e was physically blind, but he had vision into the future. &hen he presented the truth to Oedipus, Oedipus attacked his blindness. 3e told Teiresias that the only reason he was not blaming him for the whole situation was that Teiresias could not see. Oedipus used his blindness to prophesiFe that Oedipus would leave Thebes blind, poor, and shamed. This statement irritated Oedipus even more. Oedipus began to turn away from the idea of a prophet and seeing into the future. Teiresias2 physical blindness led to Oedipus2 physical blindness. Eigurative blindness can be harder to deal with then literal blindness. 4 person who is physically blind knows that he will probably be blind the rest of his life. That person will learn to deal with the blindness. 3owever, if a person is blind to the truth, there is nothing that person can do until they learn the truth. The person may not even know that he is wrong. &hen the person does learn the truth, he tends to feel ignorant. The person wonders if things could have been avoided had the truth only been known. Eor Oedipus and Bocasta in 'ophocles2 King Oedipus, this scenario was /ust the case. &hen Oedipus learned the truth, his way of dealing with his figurative blindness was to blind himself. &hen Bocasta learned the truth, her way of dealing with her figurative blindness was to kill herself. (n this play,

blindness led to the truth, and the truth led to blindness. Oedipus, Teiresias, and Bocasta were all blind, yet all found the truth.

*ophocles certainly wasn+t shy about the motif of sight vs. blindness. If you+ve got way too much time on your hands, go through the play and highlight words like ,see,, ,sight,, ,vision,, ,eyes,, and ,blind., *ince this motif is symbolic of the pursuit of ,knowledge,, you can go ahead add that word, along with terms like ,oracle,, ,truth,, ,prophecy,, and ,-pollo,, since he+s the god that represents all these ideas. The &racle of *hmoop predicts that your highlighter will run out of ink, and your script will end up looking like a neon patchwork quilt. Though this motif of seeing and not seeing is laced throughout the beginning of the play, it first becomes crystal clear when the prophet Teiresias hobbles on stage. If one of *ophocles+s ancient audience members missed the irony in this episode, he must+ve visited the wine stand a few to many times. Teiresias is literally blind, but he can see clearly the horror that is &edipus+s past, present, and future. &edipus+s eyes work ust fine, but unfortunately he+s completely blind to the dreadful fate the gods have placed upon him. The doomed king+s ignorance on this key matter is made even more ironic by the fact that he was made famous for his keen insight, by solving the riddle of the *phin.. /hen &edipus finally sees the terrible truth of his life, *ophocles hammers home his metaphor by having the king stab out his own eyes. &edipus says he does this because he can no longer look on the horrors that his unwitting actions have created. /ith this most famous of gougings, &edipus literally becomes the thing he+s always metaphorically been" blind. -t the end of the play, &edipus becomes symbolic of all of humanity, stumbling forward through a dark and unknowable universe. Darkness and light are tightly wound up with the theme of sight and blindness in Sophocles' play. Oedipus - and all the other characters, save for Teiresias - is 'in the dark' about his own origins and the murder of aius. Teiresias, of course, is literally 'in the dark' with his own blindness - and yet manages to have sight over everything that is to follow. !fter Oedipus finds out what has happened, he bemoans the way everything has indeed "come to light". Sight and blindness Teiresias holds the key to the link between sight and blindness - for even though he is blind, he can still see and predict the future #if not the present$. !t the end of the play, moreover, Oedipus blinds himself, because what he has metaphorically seen #i.e. reali%ed$ leaves him unable to face his family or his parents in the afterlife$. !s with the previous theme, sight&blindness operate both literally and metaphorically within the play. 'ndeed, literal sight is (u)taposed with 'insight' or 'foresight'. 0ing &edipus, aware that a terrible curse has befallen Thebes, sends his brother'in'law, )reon, to seek the advice of -pollo. )reon informs &edipus that the curse will be lifted if the murderer of 1aius, the former king, is found and prosecuted. 1aius was murdered many years ago at a crossroads. &edipus dedicates himself to the discovery and prosecution of 1aius2s murderer. &edipus sub ects a series of unwilling citi3ens to questioning, including a blind prophet. Teiresias, the blind prophet, informs &edipus that &edipus himself killed 1aius. This news really bothers &edipus, but his wife 4ocasta tells him not to believe in prophets, they+ve been wrong before. -s an e.ample, she tells &edipus about how she and 0ing 1aius had a son who was prophesied to kill 1aius and sleep with her. /ell, she and 1aius had the child killed, so obviously that prophecy didn+t come true, right5 4ocasta+s story doesn+t comfort &edipus. -s a child, an old man told &edipus that he was adopted, and that he would eventually kill his biological father and sleep with his biological mother. 6ot to mention, &edipus once killed a man at a crossroads, which sounds a lot like the way 1aius died.

4ocasta urges &edipus not to look into the past any further, but he stubbornly ignores her. &edipus goes on to question a messenger and a shepherd, both of whom have information about how &edipus was abandoned as an infant and adopted by a new family. In a moment of insight, 4ocasta reali3es that she is &edipus2s mother and that 1aius was his father. %orrified at what has happened, she kills herself. *hortly thereafter, &edipus, too, reali3es that he was 1aius2s murder and that he2s been married to 7and having children with8 his mother. In horror and despair, he gouges his eyes out and is exiled from Thebes. *hen the play opens, Thebes is suffering a plague which leaves its fields and women barren. Oedipus, the king of Thebes, has sent his brother-in-law, +reon, to the house of !pollo to ask the oracle how to end the plague. +reon returns, bearing good news, once the killer of the previous king, aius, is found, Thebes will be cured of the plague # aius was -ocasta's husband before she married Oedipus$. .earing this, Oedipus swears he will find the murderer and banish him. The +horus #representing the people of Thebes$ suggests that Oedipus consult Teiresias, the blind prophet. Oedipus tells them that he has already sent for Teiresias. *hen Teiresias arrives, he seems reluctant to answer Oedipus's /uestions, warning him that he does not want to know the answers. Oedipus threatens him with death, and finally Teiresias tells him that Oedipus himself is the killer, and that his marriage is a sinful union. Oedipus takes this as an insult and (umps to the conclusion that +reon paid Teiresias to say these things. 0urious, Oedipus dismisses him, and Teiresias goes, repeating as he does, that aius's killer is right here before him - a man who is his father's killer and his mother's husband, a man who came seeing but will leave in blindness. +reon enters, asking the people around him if it is true that Oedipus slanderously accused him. The +horus tries to mediate, but Oedipus appears and charges +reon with treason. -ocasta and the +horus beg Oedipus to be open-minded, Oedipus unwillingly relents and allows +reon to go. -ocasta asks Oedipus why he is so upset and he tells her what Teiresias prophesied. -ocasta comforts him by telling him that there is no truth in oracles or prophets, and she has proof. ong ago an oracle told aius that his own son would kill him, and as a result he and -ocasta gave their infant son to a shepherd to leave out on a hillside to die with a pin through its ankles. 1et aius was killed by robbers, not by his own son, proof that the oracle was wrong. 2ut something about her story troubles Oedipus3 she said that aius was killed at a place where three roads meet, and this reminds Oedipus of an incident from his past, when he killed a stranger at a place where three roads met. .e asks her to describe aius, and her description matches his memory. 1et -ocasta tells him that the only eyewitness to aius's death, a herdsman, swore that five robbers killed him. Oedipus summons this witness. *hile they wait for the man to arrive, -ocasta asks Oedipus why he seems so troubled. Oedipus tells her the story of his past. Once when he was young, a man he met told him that he was not his father's son. .e asked his parents about it, and they denied it. Still it troubled him, and he eventually went to an oracle to determine his true lineage. The oracle then told him that he would kill his father and marry his mother. This prophecy so frightened Oedipus that he left his hometown and never returned. On his (ourney, he encountered a haughty man at a crossroads - and killed the man after suffering an insult. Oedipus is afraid that the stranger he killed might have been aius. 'f this is the case, Oedipus will be forever banished both from Thebes #the punishment he swore for the killer of aius$ and from +orinth, his hometown. 'f this eyewitness will swear that robbers killed aius, then Oedipus is e)onerated. .e prays for the witness to deliver him from guilt and from banishment. Oedipus and -ocasta enter the palace to wait for him. -ocasta comes back out of the palace, on her way to the holy temples to pray for Oedipus. ! messenger arrives from +orinth with the news that Oedipus's father 4olybus is dead. Over(oyed, -ocasta sends for Oedipus, glad that she has even more proof in the uselessness

of oracles. Oedipus re(oices, but then states that he is still afraid of the rest of the oracle's prophecy, that he will marry his mother. The messenger assures him that he need not fear approaching +orinth - since 5erope, his mother, is not really his mother, and moreover, 4olybus wasn't his father either. Stunned, Oedipus asks him how he came to know this. The messenger replies that years ago a man gave a baby to him and he delivered this baby to the king and /ueen of +orinth - a baby that would grow up to be Oedipus the 6ing. The in(ury to Oedipus's ankles is a testament to the truth of his tale, because the baby's feet had been pierced through the ankles. Oedipus asks the messenger who gave the baby to him, and he replies that it was one of aius's servants. Oedipus sends his men out to find this servant. The messenger suggests that -ocasta should be able to help identify the servant and help unveil the true story of Oedipus's birth. Suddenly understanding the terrible truth, -ocasta begs Oedipus not to carry through with his investigation. Oedipus replies that he swore to unravel this mystery, and he will follow through on his word. -ocasta e)its into the palace. Oedipus again swears that he will figure out this secret, no matter how vile the answer is. The +horus senses that something bad is about to happen and (oin -ocasta's cry in begging the mystery to be left unresolved. Oedipus's men lead in an old shepherd, who is afraid to answer Oedipus's /uestions. 2ut finally he tells Oedipus the truth. .e did in fact give the messenger a baby boy, and that baby boy was aius's son - the same son that -ocasta and aius left on a hillside to die because of the oracle's prophecy. 0inally the truth is clear - devastated, Oedipus e)its into the palace. ! messenger reveals that he grabbed a sword and searched for -ocasta with the intent to kill her. 7pon entering her chamber, however, he finds that she has hanged herself. .e takes the gold brooches from her dress and gouges his eyes out. .e appears onstage again, blood streaming from his now blind eyes. .e cries out that he, who has seen and done such vile things, shall never see again. .e begs the +horus to kill him. +reon enters, having heard the entire story, and begs Oedipus to come inside, where he will not be seen. Oedipus begs him to let him leave the city, and +reon tells him that he must consult !pollo first. Oedipus tells him that banishment was the punishment he declared for aius's killer, and +reon agrees with him. 2efore he leaves forever, however, Oedipus asks to see his daughters and begs +reon to take care of them. Oedipus is then led away, while +reon and the girls go back in the palace. The +horus, alone, laments Oedipus' tragic fate and his doomed lineage. Tiresias ' Tiresias, the blind soothsayer of Thebes, appears in both Oedipus the King and Antigone. In Oedipus the King, Tiresias tells &edipus that he is the murderer he hunts, and &edipus does not believe him. In Antigone, Tiresias tells )reon that )reon himself is bringing disaster upon Thebes, and )reon does not believe him. 9et, both &edipus and )reon claim to trust Tiresias deeply. The literal blindness of the soothsayer points to the metaphorical blindness of those who refuse to believe the truth about themselves when they hear it spoken. Teiresias is kind of a cranky old fellow. /e can see why. Though he+s blind, he can see better than any of those around him. %e+s in tune with the mind of -pollo and receives visions of the future. Teiresias is also gifted in the magic art of augury, or telling the future from the behavior of birds. 9ou might think these are pretty awesome skills, but it+s probably difficult when everybody around you is doomed to shame, death, or mutilation. 6ot to mention, it must be annoying that whenever Teiresias does drop a little knowledge, people don+t believe him. :oth 4ocasta and &edipus are skeptical of his prophecies. &edipus even goes so far as to accuse Teiresias of treason. The blind seer only shows up for one scene in Oedipus the King, but it really packs a punch. Indeed it+s the first real scene where we see any conflict, and as such, is necessary for keeping the audience interested in the play. In this scene, &edipus gets angry at Teiresias because the prophet won+t reveal the identity of 1aius+s murderer. It+s clever of *ophocles to use this scene to show &edipus+s temper. ;p until now the king has behaved rationally. %e allows the )horus to speak their mind and is doing his best to

save his people. If we didn+t see his anger here and later with )reon, we might not believe that &edipus is capable of the multiple murders at the crossroads. <robably the most interesting thing about this interchange is Teiresias+s attitude towards the art of prophecy. &edipus has good reason to be angry at him. 0ing &edipus has in front of him a man with the knowledge needed to save Thebes, but Teiresias won+t reveal the necessary information. Instead he tells &edipus that there+s no point in revealing the truth, because everything that+s going to happen is ust going to happen anyway. Really5 *o, what is the point of prophets5 Teiresias+s ironic attitude, toward revealing prophecy makes him symbolic of the whole conundrum of the play. Is &edipus responsible for his actions5 9es, &edipus causes his own downfall, but if he was doomed by the gods from the beginning, is it really his fault5 This debate didn+t stop with the Greeks = it manifested itself once again in )hristian thought, but was defined in terms of predestination vs. free will. Is our fate decided from birth or do we have a choice5 This unanswerable question will most likely bug us humans till the end of our days.