Saturday 29 April 2017

What does Oedipus mean by "A crown is won by numbers and money" in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex.

This is a
good question. Let me give you the context of these words. These words come around lines 640-650
in 's . These are the words thatspeaks to , whom Oedipus accuses of trying
to usurp power from him. Oedipus thinks that Creon andare trying to trap him and take his
kingship away.

Within this context, these words are Oedipus's attempt at
saying that Creon is foolish if he thinks he can take the city of Thebes without numbers of
solider and money. Oedipus is basically saying that kings are made by money and power. Here is
the fuller quote:

"Has your face grown so bold you
now come
to my own homeyou who are obviously
the murderer of the man whose
house it was,
a thief who clearly wants to steal my throne?
Come, in the
name of all the gods, tell me this
did you plan to do it because you thought
I was a coward or a fool? Or did you think
I would not learn about your
actions
as they crept up on me with such deceit
or that, if I knew, I could
not deflect them?
This attempt of yours, is it not madness
to chase after
the kings place without friends,
without a horde of men, to seek a goal
which only gold or factions could attain?"

From
these words, it is clear that Oedipus is truly blind. No one was trying to take power from him,
especially Tiresias. Moreover, we an see his blindness in that the "kingdom" (Thebes)
was taken from him without money or men, but by his ownand actions in the past.

No comments:

Post a Comment

In 1984, is Julia a spy? Please provide specific examples from the book. My teacher says that he knows of 17 pieces of evidence which proves that Julia...

There is some evidence to suggest thatwas a spy throughout 's classic novel . Julia portrays herself as a loyal admirer of Big ...