This week, we have been exclusively going over the concept of tragedy. We read the full story of Oedipus Rex and let me say, it was ridiculously tragic. The whole story, Oedipus was trying to avoid the prophecy the oracle revealed to him, but walked right into it. It was foretold that he would kill his own father and marry his mother. To avoid doing this, Oedipus leaves his home and moves somewhere else. Oedipus finds a man on a trail, and has an altercation with him and some others. He ends up killing the man and is on his way. That man turns out to be his father. He then moves to the town of Thebes and becomes the king. He has children and is a successful ruler. Later on, he finds out the queen is his birth mother. It turns out the people he thought were his parents weren't actually his parents, they just took care of him.
Everything that happens seems very coincidental and unlikely to me, but that about sums up Greek literature. I don't know why everything had to happen like that. Although if you think about it, it really is the ultimate tragedy. It's hard to imagine killing your own father and having children with your own mother. Although you had no intent to do these things, you are still doing something extremely awful and so difficult to imagine. I feel like you might be able to recognize your own mother and father, even though you haven't seen them since birth. I am very glad I am not Oedipus and I'm very glad I don't live in ancient Greece.