Oedipus the King Post #1

     The mentioning of various Greek Gods and Goddesses appear within the first page of "Oedipus the King", and they hold their prominence throughout the story. The God that stands out above the rest is Apollo. He is the God of music, light and truth, which are all expressed in the beginning of this play. The city of Thebes "cries for the Healer and [wales] for the dead" (5); the Healer is Apollo, and also, the mortal Oedipus who has saved their city from the Sphinx once before. Just like Apollo, and his four-horse chariot that moved the sun across the sky, Oedipus is summoned to shed light on the city of Thebes. The music of the chorus symbolizes the whole population by their calling out for the help of the Gods. They proclaim, "the women cannot scream their pangs to birth-- / screams for the Healer, children dead in the womb" (197,198), crying out for Apollo once more. The chorus's music is answered by Oedipus, who sends out Creon, his wife's brother, to seek Apollo's knowledge of what he should do to save the city from this plague. When Creon returns he says he was told to "'Pay the killers back--whoever is responsible'" (122) for their former King's death. Searching for the truth, Oedipus calls forth an oracle, Tiresias, to try and summon any useful information about where the killer might be. The blind man will not reveal the future, but does respond in an manner that gives a feeling of uneasiness towards Oedipus's greatness. Regardless, he must follow a trail and figure out the truth in order to bring light and music back to his land and his people. He must follow Apollo.


http://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Apollo/apollo.html