An Exploration of the Eyes - Meggie’s Free Writing

In “Oedipus the King,” the eyes simultaneously represent blindness and the ability to see, and, more importantly, the power that comes with the ability of true sight. “Functioning” eyes, in the work, are rare but influential.

First of all, the gods are often depicted with mentioned with or near the word “eyes.” The first time the word appears in the play, it is not in reference to the obvious Oedipus, but rather to the god Apollo, who is also the god of prophecy. Oedipus begs for “Lord Apollo” to “come with a lucky word of rescue,/ shining like his eyes” (Lines 92-93). Rather, Oedipus hopes that Apollo, one of the only beings with truly accurate foresight, will predict a rescue for the city of Thebes with his all-knowing eyes. The next mention of the word “eyes” in the play is once again in referencing to a celestial being, a “golden daughter of god” (Line 216). The chorus, or people of Thebes, ask her to “send rescue radiant as the kindness in [her] eyes” (Lines 216-217). Soon after, the same chorus praises Dionysus, begging him to “come with torches blazing, eyes ablaze with glory!” (Line 242-243). Though each god is takes care of a different area of humanity, each one is gifted with “shining,” “radiant,” or “blazing” eyes. These gods are so often depicted with the gift of accurate sight simply because it is so rare and powerful, especially among mortals. Considering they have powers above and beyond any human, it makes sense that the mortals of Thebes revere them because of their sight.

Once applied to normal humans in the play, the word eyes can represent either a rare ability or a fatal flaw. Of course, the title character, Oedipus, has his eyes for the majority of the play, but does not have the ability to truly see, or realize, what is right in front of him. Throughout the play, Oedipus mentions eyes many times (most likely ironically, for the sake of the audience). The first time the king talks about his own eyes, he says “given eyes, I’d say/ you did the killing single-handed!” to Tiresias (Lines 396-397). This purposefully implies that Oedipus simply does not have eyes, or the ability to see. At the very beginning of the play, Oedipus mentions his fatal flaw without even knowing!

Oedipus also insults Tiresias, the seer, about his ability to “see.” He claims that Tiresias has “lost [his] power,/ stone-blind, stone-deaf —senses, eyes blind as stone” (Lines 423-424). Though the prophet is physically blind, at this point in the play, he is the only one who truly sees what Oedipus has done. Because of this, he has more power than anyone, except the gods. Functional seeing is not always done through the eyes, especially in this work, but true power is directly proportional to the ability to see. Tiresias responds to Oedipus’ insults by referring to the “anger in [his] eyes” (Line 509). The anger seems to be clouding Oedipus’ ability to truly see, or realize, his own past. Because of this, the blind seer is far more powerful than the king himself. Though the ability to physically see seems to be important at the beginning of the work, it’s clear that true power comes from the ability to realize.