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The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, defines a tragic hero as a character having valiant traits that earn the audience’s sympathy but also have human flaws that ultimately lead to their own downfall. Aristotle states a tragic hero’s fortune should be not from bad to good but from good to bad caused by their own doing. A tragic hero’s misfortune is seen ‘not through vice or depravity but by some error of judgment.’ This hamartia refers to a flaw in the hero’s nature, such as excessive arrogance, or, hubris. An example of Aristotle’s definition can be seen in the Greek play, Oedipus Rex, where Sophocles narrates a tragic story of the downfall of Oedipus and his rule. The city-state Thebes is under great distress from a plague; looking for an answer they turn to Oedipus, a king who saved them from the tyranny of the Sphinx. The oracle claims for the plague to be lifted, the murderer of the previous king, Laius, must be found and punished. The blind prophet, Tiresias, claims Oedipus is the cause of the plague and the murderer of Laius. Realizing Oedipus fulfilled Athello’s prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother, Queen Jocasta killed herself, and Oedipus gouged his own eyes out in grief and is banished from Thebes. Oedipus fulfilling his fate of killing his father and seizing the throne of Thebes, leaving the question of whether he’s considered a tyrannous, absolute ruler who has seized power and not inherited it. As with any tyrannical rule, Oedipus was endowed with absolute power, but with power came his unruly hubris. In the play, Oedipus the King, scripted by Sophocles, Oedipus’ hubris as a tyrant leads him to learn his inevitable fate as a king, reflecting on the title of “tyranny.”
Since Oedipus didn’t gain his place on the throne through birthright, he is considered a tyrannical ruler which leads to his excessive hubris like ruling causing his own downfall. This can be seen through Tiresias’s claim, ‘How terrible– to see the truth when the truth is only pain to him who sees!’ (Lines 359-260) Oedipus’ position as a tyrant came with the burden of uncovering his true fate caused by his unwillingness to stray from the unknown. Fate, being predetermined, leaves the known ideal that no matter how you try to avoid it, your future is predetermined by a higher power. Oedipus tries to challenge this doctrine and outrun his fate by fleeing his state and parents, Polybus and Merope. Oedipus’ thinking there’s inevitability in this prophecy, led him closer to his truth without cognition. Apollo warned Oedipus through the oracle, informing him that he would kill his father and have children with his mother. However, he chose to defy the gods, unaware that this tragic flaw encouraged his further actions. Ironically, Oedipus draws himself to his downfall, causing the death of Jocasta and Laius and the decline of Thebes. Oedipus doubted his fate and the powers of the gods. Oedipus then reaches his anagnorisis, where it becomes clear that he was ‘born to suffer, born to misery and grief.’ No longer conceding his fate, Oedipus lives the very moments he vowed he would never face. Oedipus’s hubris ideas caused him to be unable to see the truth of who he was; Oedipus’ rejecting the laws that the gods had set for him, ultimately prevented him from becoming the proper king he would have earned. His ultimate fate retained his words conveying his known enormous pride and impulsive nature, which caused him to push the decisions that set into action the events that not only guided him to his own ruin but ironically the fate he tries so desperately to avoid.
The title “tyrannos” although does fit Oedipus’s character well ironically can not be declared true because technically he does have the birthright to the throne. While those of Thebes seek answers to the plague in their state Oedipus declares, “Here I am myself— you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus.”, (Page 159 Lines 7-8). Oedipus’claim of superiority strengthens his hubris, pushing him to his fate. With this notion of superiority, he believed taking on the task of the unresolved murder of Laius would be easy to seek out. With a great desire to seek out who is causing havoc in his state, he publicly declares “Now my curse on the murderer. Whoever he is, a lone man unknown in his crime or one among many, let that man drag out his life in agony, step by painful step—I curse myself as well…if by any chance he proves to be an intimate of our house, here at my hearth, with my full knowledge, may the curse I just called down on him strike me!” (Page 172) The irony in this speech is that Oedipus unknowingly condemns himself by demanding the truth about the murder while the person he seeks and slanders is himself.
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