Painfully obvious? Only on the surface

Greeks are obsessed with pain. Oedipus, Odysseus and Hecuba all endure the most tragic pain imaginable by their respective creators. In the Odyssey we often explored the relationship between pain and oblivion, drawing a parallel to life and meaning; pain is how Odysseus keeps his identity, and remains alive. In The Trojan Women Hecuba must experience her entire world destroyed around her: her husband is murdered, her daughters are sacrificed and enslaved, her nemesis will live in luxury, and the last of her line is taken from her arms to be killed. Yep, painful. In each hallmark Greek text pain plays a central role, both overtly and subtly. This is why I chose “pain” for my word in Oedipus the King. I think that there are many different directions in which I can take my query regarding the significance of suffering, making it an exciting and challenging choice. In particular I want to explore the relationship between pain and knowledge/truth. The surface relationship of the pain which truth can cause is not what I’m looking for, more of an equation between truth and pain. To that end, I think this passage will be very useful, “How terrible- to see the truth/ when the truth is only pain to him who sees!” 358-359. I haven’t reached the point of a thesis + antithesis= synthesis statement as I want to further explore the more subtle ironies of how Sophocles uses pain to simultaneously enlighten, reprimand and reward.