white“People of our country Thebes, behold this Oedipus,
who knew the famous riddle and was a most powerful man,
whose fortunes all the citizens watched with emulation,
how deep the sea of dire misfortune that has taken him!
Therefore, it is necessary to call no man blessed
as we await the final day, until he has reached
the limit of life and suffered nothing grievous.”

Was Oedipus a good person? There are many things to consider when answering this question. What defines good? What defines evil? Upon research, good was found to mean having the right or desirable quality, while evil is undesirable. Good could also mean having a positive influence on the world, and evil having a negative influence. Does neutrality come onto the spectrum? Can a person be both good and evil? Is there a circumstance where a person may be a mix of the two? He was prophecized to kill his father and marry his mother, but Oedipus believed that those would not come into fruition and did little in an attempt not to do these things. Oedipus kills his father in self defense without the knowledge that it was his father. What would that say about his character? He also unknowingly married his mother, and had children by her. He punished himself for his actions, but did the punishment fit the crimes?

“And if,
once I’d come to the world of pain, as come I did,
I fell to blows with my father, cut him down in blood—
blind to what I was doing, blind to whom I killed—
how could you condemn that involuntary act
with any sense of justice?”

Oedipus went to meet the oracle at Delphi, having heard that there was a prophecy waiting for him. He was then told by the oracle that he was going to kill his father and marry his mother. Devastated, he made his way back to Thebes when he was stopped by a traveling caravan that, unknowing to Oedipus, carried his father. The caravan was going to kill Oedipus, and in self defense and fueled by the rage of the recently received prophecy, Oedipus killed his father. Does this make him evil? He killed a human being. Would self defense be a good enough reason to kill someone? Would this qualify as a good impact on the world? Wouldn’t that depend on whether or not his father was a good person? His father was a part of the world, so wouldn’t his death have been a negative influence on the world? Unless his father was himself an evil person, that is.

“She was, ah woe is me! she was my mother;
I knew it not, nor she; and she my mother
Bare children to the son whom she had borne,
A birth of shame. But this at least I know
Wittingly thou aspersest her and me;
But I unwitting wed, unwilling speak.”

Oedipus married his own mother. The children they had together were also his siblings. Although he didn’t know that the woman he was marrying was his mother, his children were at great danger because of it. Does his ignorance excuse his actions? Does anything excuse the danger he put his children in? When it was realized that his mother was also his wife, she was found dead, having killed herself. Can any  blame be put on Oedipus? He was foretold to marry his mother, so it was unable to be stopped, but maybe if he heeded the prophecy and believed it he might not have married at all, for fear that any woman could have been his mother.

“Do not tell me that these things were not
done well, nor offer me further counsel.
For I don’t know with what eyes I could look
and see my father when I go down to Hell,
nor again my poor mother; to those two
my deeds are beyond what hanging could punish.
Or is the sight of my children desirable
for me to see, sprouting as they sprouted?
Surely never to those eyes of mine!”

“Exposing such defilement as this,
did I intend to see them with my own eyes?
Not at all. Rather if I could somehow block
my hearing from the ears, I would not hold back
from fully shutting off this wretched frame of mine,
so that I’d be blind and hear nothing, for to live
outside comprehension of these woes would be sweet.”

After realizing the atrocities that Oedipus had committed, he punished himself. He blinded himself so that he would never have to see the world that he had defiled. The fact that he had gouged his eyes out shows his repent for his actions, which may make him seem leaning more towards good on the spectrum of good and evil. But was blindness a punishment that fit his crimes? He became someone who needed a crutch, and who used his daughter in this manner. Indeed, because of his “punishment”, Antigone threw away her life to aid her father until the end of his.

“But, don’t blame me just like that, with mere suspicion.
For it is not just either to randomly
consider wicked men good or the good wicked.
I think that casting off a good friend is equal
even to throwing out one’s own dear life.
In time, though, you will surely know these things, since
time alone shows that a man is just,
but you might learn he is bad in a single day.”

In the search for the answer to this question, many more questions needed answering. The answer may be that there is no binary for what is good and what is evil, there is only what is. Oedipus cannot be considered good or evil in any state, because the concept of good and even is extremely subjective and no definition can really be absolutely stated. There is such a thing as good and evil, because people believe that there is and it’s existence is based upon the belief of it, but the way people define each varies so greatly that what they are cannot really be said.