Sophocles uses maritime imagery frequently in his Oedipus the King, creating new perspectives for viewing his characters and cities. Oedipus tells the story of a king defeated by a lack of faith in prophecy, the king of a people in need of spiritual succor. The arrogant Oedipus is reduced to a miserable man as his horrible marriage to his mother is revealed, but his city is saved in proportion. Maritime imagery recurs throughout Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, primarily in the manifestation of Thebes as ship and Oedipus as helmsman; this reveals important themes of Oedipus' spiritual decadence, arrogance and blindness, and the inevitability of fate. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay At the beginning of the play, Sophocles establishes the metaphor of Thebes as a ship. The audience discovers the once stable city in the throes of destruction and on the brink of destruction. “King, you yourself / you have already seen our city reeling like a wreck /; it can barely lift its prow / out of the depths, out of the bloody waves,” a priest first says to Oedipus. Sophocles views Thebes as spiritually bankrupt. The ship Thebes therefore lacks structural integrity and is in danger of collapsing and sinking. Sophocles describes the situation in Thebes: “Our sorrows are incalculable / all the timbers of the ship are rotten; / reflection is not a spear to drive away the plague. » The spiritual foundation of the vase weakens at two crucial moments, first at the hands of Oedipus and then of Jocasta. When Oedipus summons Tiresias to reveal the identity of Laius's murderer, the prophet speaks in riddles, angering Oedipus; the argument boils over until he launches this salvo: "[The truth] has no force / for you because you are blind in mind and ears / as well as in your eyes." This is the king's rejection of the old man's ability to know the future. By insulting Tiresias, Oedipus insults by extension the gods, because it is they who gave blind Tiresias the ability to interpret the past and predict the future like no other man. Jocasta also contributes to the spiritual void of Thebes, further weakening the structure of the ship when she denies the ability of the prophets to speak for the gods: Why should man be afraid since to him chance is everything and he clearly can't know anything in advance? Better to live lightly, as much as possible, without thinking. As for your mother's marital bed, do not fear it. Before that, in dreams as well as in oracles, many men slept with their own mothers. But he to whom such things mean nothing bears life more easily. Oedipus and Jocasta's rejection of spirituality signals a similar void in the city as a whole. Thebes will continue to suffer, the gods decide, until Oedipus pays for his transgressions. The episode in which Oedipus insults Tiresias reveals a fundamental problem of Oedipus: the arrogance and blindness (which, from the point of view of his insult with Tiresias, is ironic) which will ultimately lead to the discovery of his true nature and to his fall. Oedipus's stubborn refusal to acknowledge any opinion contrary to his own and the denial of his true identity which, in light of emerging evidence, becomes increasingly indisputable, gradually reduces his authority as captain of the ship of Thebes. Trust in Oedipus as helmsman erodes as the story of Laius' death becomes intertwined with Oedipus' personal history. The resulting similarities, for example, that Jocasta bound her son's feet and that the name "Oedipus" refers to her own bound feet.