In Sophocles's Greek tragedy Oedipus the King, Oedipus discovers that he has unknowingly killed his biological father and married his birth mother. The horror of this truth causes Jocasta, Oedipus's wife/mother, to hang herself and Oedipus to stab himself in the eyes. What element of Greek tragedy do these final two acts give expression to?

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Trace Green

English

2 November, 06:09

In Sophocles's Greek tragedy Oedipus the King, Oedipus discovers that he has unknowingly killed his biological father and married his birth mother. The horror of this truth causes Jocasta, Oedipus's wife/mother, to hang herself and Oedipus to stab himself in the eyes. What element of Greek tragedy do these final two acts give expression to?

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Boston Donaldson · Answer 1

The element of Greek tragedy expressed in Jocasta's and Oedipus' decision to mutilate themselves upon discovery of the grave misfortune they were unaware of all along is called reversal (or otherwise called as perepeteia) which marks a major event which was the result of the discovery of the horrors they've done to themselves.