Oedipus Rex

I wrote this for my Honors English class. I think that it's pretty thorough.

Oedipus Rex, a Greek tragedy, tells the story of how an admired king, Oedipus, suffers a harsh downfall after learning the truth about his birth and his parents. Oedipus follows the path of a tragic hero which starts with being in a position of authority, highly respected, and depended on, but having a fatal flaw or hamartia, usually hubris, which causes tragic and horrible deaths. Others try to convince the hero that he is doing something wrong, but the hero refuses to accept responsibility. In the end, the hero finally sees the error of his ways and tries to fix things, but it's too late and the tragic hero endures a bitter life afterward. Oedipus takes all of these steps, making him a tragic hero.

Oedipus meets the first requirements of a tragic hero because he is noble, powerful, and respected. This can be seen near the beginning of the story when a priest says, “Great Oedipus, O powerful King of Thebes! You can see how all the ages of our people cling to your alter steps...” (ll. 16-18) The people obviously love Oedipus and are depending on him to save them. He had saved them before from a sphinx and they expect him to liberate them from the plague on the city which, ironically, was also caused by him.

A hamartia is the next step on Oedipus's journey. He is very proud, self-righteous, and firmly believes that it couldn't possibly be him who is at fault. He thinks very highly of himself and shows it in his words, “And therefore I have come myself to hear you – I, Oedipus, who bear the famous name.” (ll. 7-8) In another instance, Oedipus puts himself above others by saying that he has suffered more than they have – “I know that you are deathly sick; and yet, sick as you are, not one is a sick as I. Each of you suffers in himself alone his anguish, not another's; but my spirit groans for the city, for myself, for you.” (ll. 62-66) Here, Oedipus is trying to make himself appear more loving and kind than he his. Earlier, when Oedipus was wandering his way to Thebes where he would become their leader, he was shown to be so prideful and stubborn that he would not allow a king to tread the path between them first. Oedipus's fatal flaw is hubris.

Oedipus is warned throughout the story that he is to blame and that he needs to fix it. The first time is by the augerer, or seer, Tiresias who tells him, “I say that you are the murderer whom you seek... I say you live in hideous shame with those most dear to you. You cannot see the evil.” (ll. 347, 351-352) Tiresias is referring to how Oedipus unknowingly killed his father, the previous king and the one Oedipus would not let go before him on a path, and married his mother. Oedipus, being very arrogant, accuses the prophet and Creon, his brother-in-law, of conspiring to take the throne. The city continues to suffer because of Oedipus's ignorance – “Now our afflictions have no end, now all our stricken host lies down and no man fights off death with his mind; the noble plowland bears no grain and groaning mothers cannot bear...” (ll. 172-176)

Having ignored and denied all accusations, Oedipus finally reaches a point of reconciliation. A messenger arrives in the city and tells Oedipus how he, Oedipus, was abandoned as a child by the previous king, Laius, his father. A shepard adds this this testament by saying that he was the one who found the child and later recognized him for who he was as Oedipus murdered his father, Laius. In response to this enlightenment, Jocasta, Oedipus's wife and mother, kills herself. When Oedipus discovers this he gouges out his eyes fulfilling another prophecy. He begs Creon to cast him out of the city – “I pray you in God's name, since your courtesy ignores my dark expectation, visiting with mercy this man of all men most execrable: give me what I ask—for your good, not for mine... Drive me out of this country as quickly as may be to a place where no human voice can every greet me.” (ll. 1377-1380, 1381-1382) Oedipus had finally realized his sin, but it was too late. The city suffered, Jocasta died, and he lost his sight.

Oedipus reached the end of the path of a tragic hero when he left Thebes. He began as a powerful, beloved, and influential king and was diminished to a blind sinner. Oedipus Rex conveys the fact that even the greatest and most powerful can fall and are not perfect. The Greek gods had total control of Oedipus's life and he could not escape it. Oedipus is an ideal example of what a tragic hero is.

Mesopotamia & Egypt

This was the first essay that I had to write for my AP World History class.

Mesopotamia & Egypt

More than 5,000 years ago, two of the earliest civilizations began on the continents of Asia and Africa. “The land between two rivers”, Mesopotamia, was built between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in modern-day Iraq. In north-eastern Africa, Egyptians settled along the Nile, one of the longest rivers in the world. These two groups had some similar cultural and social aspects, but they also had some differences. Both used new technologies to improve their lives. While there were differences in classes for both peoples, distinctions in social divisions were more prominent in Mesopotamian history. Egyptian and Mesopotamian lives were based around temples and religion.

The Mesopotamian and Egyptian people were able to create such great civilizations because of advancements in technology. One of the biggest ones was the domestication of plant and animals. It allowed for more people to be fed through the efforts of less people. Populations rose quickly as families were able to successfully raise more children. In Egypt, farmers depended on the flooding of the Nile to grow their crops. Mesopotamians built dams and dug channels for irrigation. As the production of food rose, they needed a way to keep track of everything. The Sumerians in Mesopotamia invented a language written into clay tablets that became cuneiform writing. Egyptians used picture symbols called hieroglyphs and wrote a cursive script on the first kind of paper, papyrus. These kinds of writings were used for economic purposes, art, and religious objects. Metallurgy was developed by Mesopotamians, and both the Egyptians and Sumerians made pots and bricks out of baked clay. As things were being recorded, we were able to examine other social and cultural attributes of these two civilizations.

As agriculture took hold of the the ancient world, men became more dominant because they were better able to cultivate land. Consequently, women became less important. As the first governments were formed, it was men who were at the head of them. Even as women diminished in social standing, social classes appeared as certain landowners gained more wealth and power. Hammurabi's Law Code in Babylonia shows the difference in rights of people: “1. the free, landowning class, which included royalty, high-ranking officials, warriors, priests, merchants, and some artisans and shopkeepers; 2. the class of dependent farmers and artisans, who were legally attached to land that belonged to king, temple, or elite families and who made up the primary rural work force; 3. the class of slaves, primarily employed in domestic service.” (The Earth And Its Peoples, pg. 38) But things were not exactly the same down in Egypt as they were in early Mesopotamia. Women in the royal family are shown in tomb paintings with their spouses. They are shown as having dignity and affection, even if they they weren't as powerful as their male counterparts. Documents from ancient Egypt describe how women could own property, inherit from parents, write wills, and control their dowries. There were Egyptians who had more power than others, but no formal class structure appeared. At the head was the king and important officials, then lower officials, local leaders, priests and professionals, artisans, and wealthy farmers, with peasants at the bottom of the chain. The Egyptians most likely used peasants, who were paid, to build their huge pyramids and other large structures, while Mesopotamians had slaves to work for them.

Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations were centered around their temples and religion. The Sumerians believed in gods that controlled and symbolized forces of nature. These included Anu of the sky, Enlil of the air, Enku of water, Utu of the sun, and Nanna of the moon. The Sumerians built temples, such as ziggurats, devoted to gods that could have high walls, plazas, multiple chapels, shrines, and other various rooms. The priests attempted to appease the gods in order to gain their favor. They believed their gods controlled the natural disasters that occurred and the people feared them. Likewise, Egyptians believed in many gods that embodied parts of the world. Ra was the god of the sun, Osiris of the underworld, and the people associated the king with raising the dead and the symbolism of the sun god. The huge pyramid tombs with innumerable treasures are a testament to how Egyptians viewed the afterlife. The pharaohs would be carefully mummified and entombed with food, water, gold, and his servants to help him in the next life. Egyptian art depicted parts of the journey to the underworld made by the dead and the events that occurred there. Religion and the temples that were used to accommodate it played an important role in the ancient world.

Everything accounted for, Egyptians and Mesopotamians had many similarities with a few differences. They used advanced tools and ideas to their advantage. Social hierarchies separated people, but not as much in Egypt. Most importantly, religion and temples served as the basis for communities. Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt started what lead to the ideas, laws, systems, and values that we have today.