Oedipus Rex †a Christ Figure Essay -- Oedipus the King Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex a Christ Figure Sophocles famous tragedy, Oedipus Rex, peradventure the most important and influential drama ever written (Sophocles 717), presents in the person of Oedipus the model of a good ruler, a humanely quick and vigorously active leader, a man who earlier saved his adoptive city Thebes from disaster. Is Oedipus an alter Christus besides? The numerous parallels between the figure of the poove Oedipus and the figure of Christ in the Scriptures prompts the reader to ask the above question. For example, in the opening lines of the drama, Oedipus greets the crowd of suppliants (including old men, boys and children) waiting at his palace doors with the lyric My children, latest born to Cadmus old, /Why sit ye here as suppliants, in your hands /Branches of olive filleted with wool? Later, the kings second engineer to the crowd begins Ah my poor children, known, ah, known too well,/The quest that brings you hither and your need. separate addresses to the peo ple on the part of the king refer to them as children. thither argon many an(prenominal) parallels to this in the Bible when the Nazarene addressed the people. In the gospel of Matthew alone, the word children is used 20 times, for example 39 . . .and do not presume to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Jesus as well said in Matthew 183 Truly, I say to you, unless you round and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. In the same book (2337) Jesus said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her b... ...says I thank my God through Jesus Christ, thus associating the two very closely. Thus it is seen that there are many parallels between Sophocles drama, Oedipus Rex, in its treatment of the king, and the Bible with its treatment of Jesus, even thou gh the latter was written some 400 years later than the former. whole kit and boodle CITED Oedipus the King. Tranlsted by Stephen Berg and Diskin Clay. In Literature of the Western World, edited by Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. NewYork Macmillan Publishing Co., 1984. Sophocles In Literature of the Western World, edited by Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. NewYork Macmillan Publishing Co., 1984. Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. Transl. by F. Storr. http//etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed new?tag=public&images=images/modeng&selective information=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&part=0&id=SopOedi