Considered by many as the greatest of the classical Greek tragedies, Sophocles' Oedipus Rex ("Oedipus Tyrannus") is set in the remote ancient Greece and has come to us in the form of a tragic myth presumably inspired by true events and real characters. Yet to the people of ancient Athens, Oedipus the King represented “fallen figures from positions of power and prestige” and how humans “became susceptible to a lethal mixture of error, ignorance, and violent arrogance” (Martin 134). The Greek philosopher Aristotle continually referred to this work in his Poetics, emphasizing the characteristics of the ideal tragic poem, and in the last years of the 19th century Sigmund Freud adapted this myth as the basis for one of his most controversial psychoanalytic interpretations, being the "complex Oedipal". Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essaySofolc's interpretation of the myth of King Oedipus of Thebes seems to reside in the horror and fascination of the unspeakable that lies at the heart of the game. When Oedipus leaves his palace in the final scene of the play, he is blind; his mask is stained with the blood of his father, King Laius; he committed incest with his mother, only to realize that her children are his real brothers and sisters. As Stephen Berg notes, at this point Oedipus “is no longer a man. It is one thing, “this cursed, naked, holy thing.” With this Oedipus became the symbol of something sacred and cursed at the same time and at the end of the work, Sophocles, the greatest Greek tragedian, extended this curse far beyond ordinary life and well into the natural world of the ancient Greeks who saw Oedipus as the quintessential hero/tragic figure, but at the same time the common man of society full of pity, arrogance and tyranny who according to Sophocles is the "tyrannos (the tyrant king) who sleeps in the souls of all men" ( Berg 17). In Aristotle's case, Oedipus the King was interpreted not only as a powerful myth but also as a source of what defines true tragedy. For Aristotle, this connoted "an imitation of an action, not a narrative, which is serious, complete and complete pity and fear, the proper purification of these emotions is effected" (Martin 136). Therefore, the central character of a tragedy like Oedipus the King must arouse a certain sense of being virtuous despite having feelings of pity and fear for his eventual fall which creates in the reader or spectator a kind of indignation. Furthermore, such a character cannot wallow in evil; he must be one "who is not exceptional in virtue nor full of righteousness but through a fatal flaw (hamartia) meets his end" (Woodard 178). Furthermore, as a myth based on Greek legend, Oedipus the King, as far as Aristotle was concerned, is a prime example of conflict between the hero (protagonist) and a superior force, such as fate or the fate of the gods. In the culture of ancient Greece, this idea was central to the way mortal man interacted with the Gods and helped remind the citizens of Athens that life's successes and failures generated problems of a moral complexity too formidable to contemplate. with ease or arrogance. With the advent of the 20th century, the interpretation of Oedipus Rex took on new meaning, especially through the formulation of Sigmund Freud's "Oedipus Complex", the result of his efforts at self-analysis in the autumn of 1897. As Richard Webster points out, Freud had recognized "that his father was innocent" and through vivid memories recalled "sexual desires towards his mother on the occasion of seeing her naked" and had "discovered within himself the passion for his mother". and the, 1966.