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 natural 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 force 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 language 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 distribute to the crowd begins Ah my poor children, known, ah, known too well,/The quest that brings you hither and your need. other(a) addresses to the people on the part of the king refer to them as children. in that location ar legion(predicate) parallels to this in the Bible when delivery boy 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 as said in Matthew 183 Truly, I say to you, unless you ferment 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 o f Jesus, even though the latter was written some 400 years later than the former. working 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& data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&part=0&id=SopOedi