Images and Symbols in Oedipus The King

Images and symbols commonly contained in literary works expand the plot and give deeper meaning
to otherwise insignificant objects or concepts. They represent layered experiences, abstract realities
and universality beyond any territorial truth. Sophocles uses many images and symbols in Oedipus the
King to indicate the hidden truth regarding the relationship of Oedipus and his search for truth. Some
of the most powerful images and symbols he uses include that of blindness, hunting, farming, wildness,
flight of birds, the plague, the sphinx, the three-way crossroads, eyes, scars on Oedipus feet, Oedipus
blinding of the self with the brooches of Jocastas gown which add very complex layers and give each
person a different reading experience and the chance to develop their own connotations.
Sight versus blindness imagery is the predominant one. Sophocles distinguishes between sight
and insight by highlighting the argument of Oedipus and Tiresias in the second episode. Oedipus only
has physical sight thus he cannot understand Tiresias' insightful argument. He remains ignorant of the
horrors of the defilement of the city, Laius murderer, his self-identity and his incestuous family ties,
whereas Tiresias, despite being blind, is aware of these horrors, as he warns Oedipus:
you mock my blindness? Let me tell you this.
You with your precious eyes,
you're blind to the corruption of your life,
to the house you live in, those you live with-
Tiresias further says with reference to Oedipus, Blind who now has eyes, beggar who now is rich, he
will grope his way toward a foreign soil, a stick tapping before him step by step. Thus, the use of
seeing as a metaphor for knowledge and truth is undoubtedly the dominant image in Oedipus the
King. The symbolic opposition of the blind prophet Tiresias who sees the truth and the seeing man
Oedipus who is blind to the truth, and hence must blind himself is the most obvious manifestation of
Sophocles imagery. He blinds himself to "see" metaphorically. In fact, the play is full of references to
sight and blindness, to light and dark imagery, which reinforce Sophocles' ideas about truth being a
matter of perception.
The imagery used to characterize Oedipus mastery of the sea as a sailor, his ability to use the land
through farming, his power over animals through hunting and his superior thinking abilities are listed
to display the failure of human agencythe imagery, like Oedipus himself, moves from humanism to
pollution. Early in the text, the idea of Oedipus steering the city towards safety is introduced. The naval
imagery then becomes connected to pollution and incest, twisting the idea of the protective harbour
to something taboo and destructive:
One and the same wide harbour served you
son and father both
son and father came to rest in the same bridal chamber.
Sea imagery further emphasizes the move in the text from order to chaos:
Dark, horror of darkness my darkness,
drowning, swirling around me
crashing wave on waveunspeakable, irresistible
headwind, fatal harbour!
Here Oedipus is no longer in control as steersman, but is instead engulfed by the wild sea, taking him
to his fated destination.
When Oedipus is embarking on his search for the murderer of Laius, images of farming are
equated, as is common, with sexual fertility:
I hold the throne that he held then, possess his bed
and a wife who shares our seed
why, our seed might be the same, children born of the same mother
might have created blood-bonds between us.
Thus, farming imagery becomes a direct expression of the theme of pollution in the text. Ideas of
fertility and nurture in the text are inverted, as Oedipus family relationships become destroyed by the
knowledge of his true identity. Farming, a source of nourishment for the city, becomes in the imagery a
source of plague and death, connecting to the images of blighted fertility explored in the first choral
ode.
The concept of hunting becomes a metaphor for Oedipus search for the truth. The chorus refers to
Oedipus achievement with hunting imagery:
You outranged all men!

Bending your bow to the breaking-point
you captured priceless glory.
As the text progresses, the chorus imagines the murderer of Laius as an animal hunted down by the
gods. Oedipus, though predominantly representing human-kind, is also imagined as a god and as a
beast, thus spanning all creation and connecting to the ideas of reversalfrom king to beggarin the
text.
In order to make the comparison with Tiresias bird-lore Oedipus uses images of flight to
describe his superior reasoning, further emphasizing his reliance on human knowledge over divine
knowledge. This imagery, of birds and flight, is also twisted to become connected to Oedipuss
downfall, with a strong suggestion of the furies: It is through the imagery of thought that the
profoundest sense of the movement from order to chaos is achieved, as Oedipus is tormented by the
knowledge of his fate, engulfed in literal and figurative darkness.
The image that Oedipus uses for his own intelligence is that of flight and wings. The imagery of
brightness and speed is used to depict the gods, and the hope placed upon them by the chorus. This
brightness and speed become threatening later on as the chorus unknowingly describes Oedipus
situation:
Cased in armour, Apollo son of the Father
lunges on him, lightning bolts afire!
As the chorus comes to realise, and the imagery shows, the brightness of the gods is not necessarily
benign. It is used by Sophocles to mark the shift from hope to fearthe failure of human endeavour
and the understanding that Oedipus downfall speaks to the whole human condition.
The plague is the symbol of the identity crisis that Oedipus suffers from and his eventual
catastrophe. The defilement and pinning the legs of the baby with skewer symbolizes the meaning of
the scapegoat. The baby is intended to sacrifice for the relief to king Laius and queen Jocasta. The
branches and chaplets of olive leaves stand as a symbol of delegation. The three-way crossroad stands
as a symbol for an important decision or turning point in Oedipus life. This is because not only did
Oedipus kill Laius at a three way crossroad but he was left to die three days after birth. This is symbolic
because the number three can be related to the three headed, one head for each the past, present
and future.

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Images and symbols commonly contained in literary works expand the plot and give deeper meaning

You outranged all men!

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