Oedipus Rex Final Assessment The Great Theban Ship

Ryan Schlipf

The city is like a ship, rolling dangerously (Sophocles 2), Sophocles said it quite plainly on one of the very first pages of Oedipus Rex. He used the analogy of a ship many other places in the play as well, using a ship, the crew and captain, a harbor and the weather to represent different items and actions throughout the play. A high percentage of the analogies were used to signify an unfortunate or tragic happening or discovery. Sophocles used many different variations of the analogy, representing Thebes as a ship, Oedipus as the Captain of the ship, the Thebans as the crew, the weather as the happenings in Thebes, and a harbor as his marriage and spouse. Sophocles used a ship to represent the great city of Thebes. He didnt hide the analogy, and make the readers search for it, but rather he had characters make the analogy for him. A walled city or ship abandoned, without men living together inside it, is nothing at all (Sophocles 4). Often, the characters were not trying to convey a specific idea through the analogy. They just used the ship analogy as an example for whatever they were discussing at the moment. When the priest said this, for example, he was pleading with Oedipus to take action, before the whole population of Thebes was destroyed by the lack of food and the other problems they were facing. Thebes was represented as a ship earlier in the story, again used to describe the plight and desperation that Thebes was facing. the city is like a ship rolling dangerously; it has lost the power to right itself and raise its head up out of the waves of death (Sophocles 2). The city was dying, because of blight on the crops and the cattle, and the women were all giving birth to stillborn infants. They were suffering from some type of fever also, and many people were starting to lose hope in Oedipuss ability to save them. The priest used the ship to demonstrate to the king how hopelessly lost the city was. I believe he was also playing on Oedipuss pride, provoking him to once again save Thebes from a hopeless situation, as he had years before when the sphinx was ravaging the great city.

Oedipus Rex Final Assessment

Ryan Schlipf

With the city being a ship, the leader of the city, Oedipus, must be the captain. Sophocles used the analogy of the captain of a ship to describe Oedipuss plight in many different instances. who see their pilot crazed with fear (Sophocles 62). If a ship were to be in trouble, the captain may very well be crazed with fear, so Sophocles used this to represent the foolish way Oedipus was reacting to the problem that had been set before him. When he started calling curses down on whoever knew something and didnt tell it, his actions became increasingly crazy and desperate as the play went on, much like a captains might when he was confronted with a mighty storm. Oedipus is the captain, so the residents of Thebes would be the crew and inhabitants of the ship. Sophocles represented the people and their reactions with passengers on a ship, and their reaction to the storm they were facing. We are all afraid, like passengers on a ship (Sophocles 62). Jocasta, Oedipuss wife and mother, said this in a prayer to the Lord of Thebes. She was trying to seek exception from judgment for Oedipus and the people, explaining how they were all afraid, and Oedipus was confused, that no one was acting the way they normally do. If passengers of a ship were to see their captain as confused and distraught as Oedipus was, they would most likely react with the same fear as the Thebans felt, making this an excellent analogy. What happens to a ship, being the weather, represents what happens to Thebes. your wedding, that evil harbor into which you sailed before a fair wind (Sophocles 28). In this statement, Tiresias was referring to Oedipuss marriage to his own mother. This marriage happened when Oedipus was sailing before a fair wind, he was doing fine, because everyone loved him for solving the sphinxs riddle. A quite similar analogy was made in the moments soon after Oedipus had put his own eyes out with a pin from Jocastas dress. unspeakable darkness, irresistible-you came to me on a wind that seemed favorable (Sophocles 95). Oedipuss blindness seemed like a good idea, it was a wind that seemed favorable, but once the deed was completed, the true darkness of it set in and was realized.

Oedipus Rex Final Assessment

Ryan Schlipf

A harbor was used many times throughout the story, and used to represent Oedipuss marriage, and his spouse. One was when Tiresias was telling Oedipus that he was the one who killed the old king Laius, and was saying that there will be a day when he knows everything about his sins and all he has done wrong. your wedding, that evil harbor into which you sailed before a fair wind (Sophocles 28). Tiresias refered to Oedipuss wedding as an evil harbor, it was something he never should have done, and somewhere he never should have been. You whom the same great harbor sheltered As child and father both (Sophocles 90). Once more, the analogy was used by a character who was chiding Oedipus for his action of marrying his own mother, even though he didnt know it at the time. The harbor in this instance represents Jocasta, his wife and mother, more so than his marriage. Jocasta harbored him both as a son and as a husband. Sophocles used many different variations of the analogy, representing Thebes as a ship, Oedipus as the Captain of the ship, the Thebans as the crew, the weather as the happenings in Thebes, and a harbor as his marriage and spouse. Thebes was in a time of great tribulation, so Sophocles used the analogy in a storm to represent the great city. The storms and weather the ship was facing in the analogies was a symbol for what Thebes was facing; the blight on the crops and cattle, and all the stillborn children. Oedipus is the captain of the ship, commanding and scaring the Thebans, the passengers of the ship, with his crazed antics. The harbor in which the captain has steered the ship is representative of the sinful marriage of Oedipus to his wife, Jocasta, who is also his mother. Sophocles used a nautical analogy to represent the characters and setting of his play, and did it quite well.