Oedipus the king and Genesis: comparative analysis

Nature of Man According to Oedipus the King & Genesis

In Oedipus the King, Oedipus Rex reacts to a prophecy that he will murder his father and marry his mother by fleeing Corinth -- the country he assumed was his birth country -- for Thebes, in attempt to escape the prophecy. Because Oedipus is by nature a prideful man, easily incited to anger, he responds to an insult of his person by murdering an old man and his attending company on the road to Thebes; and because he is a lustful, power-seeking man, he marries Jocosta, widow of Laius, late king of Thebes. Several years later -- in response to a plague -- Oedipus learns that the man he murdered on the road was Laius -- his true father -- and that Jocosta is his mother as well as his wife. That man is destined to sin from the beginning is therefore made apparent, as is the inherently sinful nature of man himself.

In the Book of Genesis, God creates Adam and Eve and places them in Eden -- an essential paradise where they live ignorant of their nature and that of the world beyond Eden. While they have everything they need, and are only forbidden eating from two trees -- the tree of Life, and the tree of Knowledge -- their ignorance is distasteful to them, and the tree of knowledge proves too great a temptation. Says the serpent, "God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (New International Version, Gen. 3.4). Hence, seeing the fruit of the tree was "desirable for gaining wisdom," Eve ate of the tree and shared the fruit of knowledge with Adam (Gen. 3.6).

In this way, the Book of Genesis suggests that not only is man sinful by nature and therefore destined to fall; he is also knowledge seeking and naturally discontent with a state of ignorance. It could even be argued that man's lust for knowledge is the driving force behind all actions, sinful or otherwise, while the very knowledge man craves to possess inevitably leads to his downfall. In the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve learn that they are naked and so become ashamed -- much in the same way a child learns to become ashamed as knowledge of his body increases -- "so the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken" -- much as a child must eventually leave his parents' home and learn to provide for himself (Gen. 3.23).

While the sentence of having to work and toil for one's sustenance is perhaps not so horrible a punishment for gaining knowledge, it is the knowledge of choice -- the choice between good and evil -- that inevitably incites man to sin. For example, though God entreats Cain to do right and be accepted into the kingdom of Heaven, Cain's knowledge of his choice to do wrong compels him to kill his brother, Abel. "Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desired to have, but you must master it'" (Gen. 4.6-7).

On the other hand, because man has the choice to do good, he is also capable of virtue and of maintaining that virtue, much in the way Noah's sons, Shem and Japheth, maintain their own virtue and also that of their father by "cover[ing] their father's nakedness," with their faces "turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness," after Noah becomes drunk (Gen. 9.23). What is interesting here is that it is by denying knowledge -- the knowledge of their father naked -- that Shem and Japheth remain virtuous.

The notion of knowledge as essentially damning is heavily supported by Oedipus the King. It is Thiresius' prophecy that Oedipus will murder Kind Laius and marry his mother, Jocosta, that leads Laius to exile Oedipus as a child, and it is only because he exiled his son as a child that Oedipus is able to kill his father and marry his mother without knowing their true identities. Furthermore, this same prophecy made to Oedipus himself leads him to flee to Thebes -- which in turn leads to the murder of Laius on the road and his subsequent marriage to Jocosta. And finally, it is Oedipus' "wish to know the seed from where [he] came," that results in the ultimate knowledge of his birth, his true nature, and his ultimate downfall (Oedipus the King. 1295).

While the Book of Genesis seems to suggest that the crux of man's nature is knowledge seeking, man is also by nature a prideful, self-serving being, inherently motivated by a keen desire -- or perhaps even instinct -- to preserve him self. For example, regarding God's call of Abram in chapter 12, it is not the mere pleasure of serving God and righteousness that motivates Abram to follow God, but rather God's promise to establish and preserve Abram's name. "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing" Gen. 12.2). "I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted" (Gen. 13.16). Thus we see man as motivated not only by the preservation of his physical body, but also by that of his legacy as through the continuance of his name.

The instinct to establish and preserve one's legacy is a popular and powerful theme throughout the Book of Genesis -- not only among men, but among women as well. For example, when Lot and his daughters flee Sodom and Gomorrah and are forced into secluded hiding, the daughters would rather deceive and seduce their father into sleeping with them than let the family line parish. "Our father is old, and there is no man around here to lie with us, as is the custom of the earth. Let's get our father to drink wine and lie with him and preserve our family line through our father.'" (Gen. 19.32) the instinct toward self-preservation, therefore, incites man to sin every bit as the quest for knowledge does; yet another notion of the nature of man and existence that Oedipus the King supports. Says Oedipus of his pursuit of Laius' killer, "This polluting stain I will remove, not for some distant friend, but for myself. For whoever killed this man may soon enough desire to turn his hand in the same way against me, too, and kill me. Thus, in avenging Laius, I serve myself" (Oedipus the King. 166-170)