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Looking at Oedipus' strained relationship
with the Oracle of Delphi it's good for us

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to take a step back, and look at him as a
great solver of riddles.

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We know that he is.
He's good at this kind of thing.

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It's built into his background.
He solves that riddle of the Sphinx.

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What goes on four legs in the morning, two
legs in the afternoon, and three legs in

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the evening.
Turns out it's man.

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As an infant, a grown up, and then an old
man with a cane.

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That maps on to the stories that's told.
Oedipus configure this out, no one else

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can.
He's good at coming to these kind of

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riddles.
But in the play, we see him challenged

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over and over again by people who are
bringing messages back to him from the

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place behind us, of Delphi.
Hello, Delphi.

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We're trying to show you a respect in this
video, so we hope that you'll give us

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respect in ret, return.
The messengers come bringing messages from

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this place.
They're Creon, Teiresias, Jocasta.

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The Corinthian messenger who comes,
And finally, the herdsman from, Oedipus'

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own thieves.
These figures, are, are giving him things

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that are difficult to understand but
surely can't be much more difficult than

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the Sphinx,
But he's unable to see through them and

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he'll pay a terrible price for that
inability to understand.

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We'll take a look at a few of these,
serially, as they come up in the play.

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Creon first.
Is the first to come back from Delphi.

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He's been sent there by Oedipus to try to
find out what's happening.

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Why this plague on the City?
Creon comes with, with a face that's very

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clear.
He has a bright face.

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He's bringing good news.
And his message is that the God spoke in

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plain words.
King Phoebus in plain words commanded us

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to drive out a pollution from our land.
Pollution grown ingrained within a land.

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There's some problem here, and that needs
to be solved, and we to kick out, the

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murderer of Laius.
Teiresias then comes in next and try to

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fill in some of the gaps and say, you
know, what's this story really about.

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Teiresias is not as clear, and when he
brings the message from Delphi well Creon

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didn't quite understand all the ins and
outs of what it is he was saying.

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Teiresias does.
So the clarity that comes from the with a

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certain breezyness in Creon's first
message which gets really convoluted and

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ugly when it comes to Teiresias who knows
the full story.

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He's Apollo's priest and yes indeed we
should listen to him.

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That Oedipus doesn't is a problem.
When Teiresias walks in, 316, he tells us,

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oh how horrible is wisdom.
How terrible is wisdom.

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And then,
Soon enough, he, he does, he, he tries not

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to actually come out and tell Oedipus what
he knows.

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But soon enough, Oedipus boxes him in,
because he doesn't you know, this leader

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doesn't like someone caging around with
him as though there's some great secret

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that this other person knows, Teiresias,
and he's not gonna share it with Oedipus.

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He boxes him in.
Teiresias tries to squirrel out of it but

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eventually Teiresias has to come to tell
him, you are the land's pollution.

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This happened in line 353.
Now the play should be over.

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The, Apollo and Apollo's priests have just
told Teiresias that he's the one that

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killed Laius.
You're the land's pollution.

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Apollo has said we've got to get rid of
this murderer, the murderer is a pollution

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in the land.
Teiresias tells us you're the land's

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pollution so you've gotta go.
It should be over at this point.

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Oedipus though is not going to accept,
The message.

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So the riddle's been solved early in the
play but now watching Oedipus try to deal

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with the solution to the riddle is what
the rest of it's all about.

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He says instantly in his response, I
didn't grasp that, Oedipus says, 361, say

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it again, tell me one more time,
And Oedipus turns nasty and starts

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accusing Teiresias of all kinds of things.
Creon comes back and now Oedipus starts

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blaming Teiresias and Creon, at which
point Creon just turns round and says on

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line 602 and, to 605, you go ask the
Oracle, right.

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He, he's telling Oedipus to pay some
respect in amage to the Oracle.

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Line in 628, Creon, I think puts in a
really important message that Oedipus is

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not quite ready to hear.
Suppose you do not.

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Understand, Creon asks Oedipus, line 628.
Suppose you do not understand.

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Human beings have to be ready to reckon
with times when they're knowledge is

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incomplete.
When they can't solve the riddle.

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And Oedipus is unable to do that in the
play.

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He's consistently saying, well, we're
gonna prove that is oracle from Delphi is

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wrong.
Of course, I'm not gonna mother, marry my

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mother and murder my father.
We're have to prove that it's wrong.

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Oedipus, though, is not going to find a
solution, a solution down that path.

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Jocasta comes in and says yes of course
Oracles can make mistakes when she makes

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her appearance.
Laius my previous husband was told that he

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would be killed by his son.
But we exposed our child and left him out

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so there's no way Laius could have been
killed by his son by his own son.

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When he was killed at those crossroads.
The joining of three roads.

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At which point Oedipus says what?
He was killed where?

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The this king was killed at the
crossroads?

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At a Oedipus now thinks of back to the
point where he happened to run into the

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person that was in his way,
And in a frenzy of fury, went ahead and

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killed the king and his attendants.
Now he realizes that what's been said all

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along is that it's actually right.
He's the one who's the murderer of Laius.

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At his reaction at this point is line 727,
a wandering of the soul, I could run,

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Mad.
He realizes now to where about half way

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through the play.
And Oedipus realizes that indeed the truth

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that the oracle has been saying is indeed
going to be true, he is responsible for

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the king's death.
He doesn't have the whole picture quite

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yet.
That takes a couple of things to come

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together, a couple of pieces of the story.
He sends for this herdsman who happened to

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escape when Laius was killed, and he wants
that herdsman to try to exonerate him from

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the problem.
The thing Oedipus is hanging onto is the

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story that, that Laius was killed by
thieves, multiple people and Oedipus that

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can't have been thieves in the plural.
I'm, I, the person I killed all by my own

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hands so if Laius was killed by multiple
people it couldn't have been me that did

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it.
He wants to bring that herdsman in, in

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order to confirm that story of multiple
killers and so exonerate himself, of

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course its not going to quite work that
way.

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As he's waiting on the Thebes and
messenger to come this is a person it just

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turns out has a linkage with him in his
past, the Theban herdsman who survives

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Laius's, that murder scene of Laius is
also the one who Laius gave the infant

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Oedipus to, back, just as he was born.
So this person is already playing multiple

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important roles in Oedipus' past
unbeknownst to him, the fact that Oedipus

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is in the dark about this, I think is the
most important piece of the play.

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Then in the meantime though, a messenger
from Corinth has arrived.

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And the Corinthian messenger thinks that
he has wonderful news for Oedipus.

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The king there is dead.
The king your father, Polybus, the king of

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Corinth is dead.
Now that's of course sad, but we want you

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to come and be king of Corinth,
So that's gonna be good news, come and do

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that.
Oedipus and Jocasta at that point rejoice

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because the oracle that said Oedipus would
sleep with, or kill his own father can't

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be true.
If his father back in Corinth is now dead,

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But at that point the messenger from
Corinth has another message.

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It says, oh no don't worry about that.
There's no way you could have killed your

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own father, if you'd.
Even if you hadn't killed him, because

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he's not a father to you.
In fact I,

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It just so happens, and the Corithian,
herdsman who got you from a, some Theban

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herdsman, who handed you over to me,
saying that you were no longer wanted in

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your kingdom.
So that you were not actually blood

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relation with the king of Corinth, you
were only an adopted son, Oedipus of

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course thinks this is not good news at
all, and when the herdsman comes back in,

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the Theban herdsman now two pieces of
Oedipus past have come together, when he

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was a child and exposed on the hill this
herdsman, this Theban herdsman, was

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supposed to abandon him there and rather
do that he handed him off to a Corinthian,

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who just so happens to be the messenger
that's also on the stage at the same time.

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These two pieces of Oedipus's past come
back together.

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The herdsman's identity, the Theban one,
is confirmed three times.

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Oedipus, the chorus, and the Corinthian
messenger each recognize him as playing an

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important role in Oedipus's past.
And now the whole thing comes together.

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And Oedipus hears the tale of how he was,
indeed, exposed on this wilderness, this

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barren wilderness, with his ankles
pinioned together, and left to die by the

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Laius had hoped left to die and never to
be a part of his life anymore.

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An awful, awful thing for Oedipus to
contemplate.

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Let alone all the other things that he
realizes has happened.

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Which is that now he understands himself
to have been indeed the murderer of his

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own father Laius.
Soon enough it dawned on him that not only

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is that true but if he has been the
murderer of his own father he's also now

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currently sleeping with his mother.
Awful, awful things for him to come to

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turn with.
At which point, we hear the screams.

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Jocasta is now dead.
She's hanged herself.

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Oedipus goes back and rips out his eyes.
He's traded this wonderful insight that he

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has now for blindness.
And in a certain sense, Oedipus's coming

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to a point of blindness physically is an
enactment of a inability to see the depth

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of things around him.
That even though he's the smartest,

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cleverest man around, all of us, as
humans, are left with limits in our own

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knowledge.
Now, Oedipus has to deal with his even

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though he had refused to do it in the
past.