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An Example: Oedipus Rex |
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In the play of Oedipus Rex, before the birth of his son, the ill-fated Oedipus, an oracle (ancient Greek for "psychic hotline dude") tells King Laius that Queen Jocasta, would give birth to a boy child who would one day grow up and kill Laius. King Laius thought he would simply outsmart this fate by packing little baby Oedipus off to the mountains as soon as possible. Laius thought that, left alone in the mountains, the baby would die, exposed to the elements. But the baby was saved and ended up adopted by King Polybus -- lord of the neighboring land of Corinth. So Little Oedipus grew up believing himself the prince of Corinth and the son of King Polybus -- with no clue that his true father lived elsewhere, faraway in the land of Thebes. But what happened? Oedipus grew up, took to wandering and soon ended up in the land of his birth. After some rather tragic coincidences, he kills a man who -- it turns out -- was his original father, King Laius. Chalk one up for the psychic hotline dude. But what does this have to do with us today? Well, let's just say the story of Oedipus is all about the strong impulses that can come up from inside people and cause them to do or say things that they probably wouldn't if they could see the big picture. Luckily, few people take it to the extremes that poor Oedipus, and Laius, did (whew!). The "Oedipal complex" -- a term made popular by the psychiatrist Sigmund Freud -- is used to describe one particular set of human impulses and feelings, that sometimes cause people to "act out" -- to do things they don't even know why they do and would usually just as soon not do -- if they knew what they were really up to. Because the story of Oedipus is also a story about what it's like sometimes to be human, it is still very much with us today. As are many other classic plays of ancient Greece which also dealt with stories and ideas about how we are as humans, and about how we came to exist.
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