OEDIPUS THE KINGSophocles

Motifs

recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to

develop and inform the text’s major

themes

element that has symbolic

significance which is repeated as a

means of producing a theme or mood

Motifs versus Themes

MOTIFS THEMES

images, spoken or written phrases, structural or

stylistic devices, or other elements like sound,

physical movement, or visual components

a detail repeated for larger symbolic meaning,

whatever that meaning may be

message, statement, idea

motifs can be indirect ways to express the

gist or overall message of the story which is also called

as the theme

SUICIDE

In Sophocles' three Theban plays, namely Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone,  incest

motivates or indirectly brings about all of the deaths in these

plays. 

JOCASTA

Jocasta hung herself in Oedipus the King when she found out the she married and

had four children with her own son.

OEDIPUS Oedipus inflicts horrible violence on

himself at the end of Oedipus the King, and willingly goes to his own mysterious death at the end of Oedipus at Colonus.

He inflicted it upon himself upon knowing that it is he who killed his own father and

wed his own mother

SIGHT AND BLINDNESS

the image of clear vision is used as a metaphor for knowledge and insight

very common in Greek lifestyle which was inherited by the English language

humans can demonstrate powers of foresight and great intellect but the plays

show that even the smartest human is liable to error

OEDIPUSfamed for quick comprehension and clear-sightedness [evident when he solved the

riddle of the Sphinx]

blind to the truth for many years and eventually blinds himself so as for him not

to see his own children

though blind, aging Oedipus acquired limited prophetic vision. 

JOCASTA

Jocasta was also blind to the truth that she married and had children with her own son, who killed his first husband, King

Laius. At the end of the play, she resorted to suicide as the only solution to the

mistakes she have made.

TEIRESIAS/TIRESIAS/TEIRISIAS

"So, you mock my blindness? Let me tell you this. You [Oedipus] with your precious eyes, you're blind to the corruption of your

life...“(Oedipus the king, 469)

blind seer that can “see” better than most characters [Oedipus]

 warned Oedipus not to seek Laius' killer but was provoked into exposing Oedipus

himself as the killer

GRAVES AND TOMBStraitors and people who murder their own relatives could not be buried within their city’s territory, but relatives still had an

obligation to bury them

burials represent the obligations that come from kinship, also the conflicts that arise between one’s duty to family and to

the city-state

OEDIPUS Oedipus cannot remain in Thebes or be buried within its territory, because of the

wrongdoings he has done

his choice to be buried at Colonus confers a great and mystical gift on all of Athens, promising that nation victory over future

attacker

OEDIPUS THE KING: MOTIFS

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