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

Oedipus Rex a Christ Figure Sophocles famous tragedy, Oedipus Rex, perhaps the most meaning(a) and influential drama ever written (Sophocles 717), presents in the person of Oedipus the model of a good ruler, a humanely in regulateigent and vigorously active leader, a man who earlier saved his adopted city Thebes from disaster. Is Oedipus an alter Christus besides? The numerous parallels between the figure of the king Oedipus and the figure of Christ in the Scriptures prompts the referee 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 words My children, latest born to Cadmus old, /Why sit ye present as suppliants, in your hands /Branches of olive filleted with wool? Later, the kings second address to the crowd begins Ah my poor children, known, ah, known too well,/The quest that brings you hither and your need. Other addresses to the people on the part of the king refer to them as children. There are many parallels to this in the Bible when Jesus 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 also said in Matthew 183 Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become comparable 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. consequently 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 though the latter w as written some 400 old age later than the former. WORKS CITED Oedipus the King. Tranlsted by Stephen Berg and Diskin Clay. In Literature of the Western World, redact 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&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&part=0&id=SopOedi