A Rebuttal to E. R. Dodds On Misunderstanding the...

A Rebuttal to E. R. Dodds On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex In On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex, E. R. Dodds takes issue with three different opinions on Oedipus Rex. I consider the first two opinions, which Dodds gleaned from student papers, to be defensible from a close reading of the text. The first of these opinions is that Oedipus was a bad man, and was therefore punished by the gods; Dodds counters that Sophocles intended for us to regard him as good, noble, and selfless. But the play would seem to indicate that Oedipus, while a clever man, is not a good one -- this can be shown through Dodds own source of argument, the attitude of the chorus, as well as through Oedipus own actions onstage. Oedipus does not, as Dodds†¦show more content†¦However, the driving force of Oedipus fact-finding mission is an attempt to end the plague which racks his city. He does not realize the personal consequences his hunt will have for him, and his loyalty to the truth (23) is based on his ignorance of it. In fact, if we examine the events lead ing up to Oedipus revelation, the incidental nature of his quest for identity becomes apparent. First, he summons Tiresias to name the killer, whom Oedipus does not at the time believe to be himself. Then a messenger arrives from Corinth, unbidden by the king, revealing that Oedipus is not truly Polybus son. Finally, the shepherd reveals all of Oedipus past, after having been called for the purpose of providing more information about Laius death. The coincidental nature of these events is somewhat at odds with Dodds vision of Oedipus as a sort of Greek private detective who relentlessly ferrets out clues in a self-destructive search for his parents. Oedipus is eager to find the truth, but the most pivotal witnesses for the true story of his birth either come to him of their own volition, or are convened by Oedipus in the hopes that they will tell him something entirely different. In the end, he resigns himself to the truth which would have been clear much earlier (as it was to Jocas ta), had he