darkacademic's profile picture

darkacademic 's review for:

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
3.0

Easy enough to read and understand. The One Big Problem I had with it was that while Oedipus is technically the victim of the story, he's almost demonized by the actual narrative. He's stuck with a destiny the Fates themselves punish him for, and if that's not the most infuriating level of irony I don't know what is.

This sort of encompasses my problem with Ancient Greek mythos; that humankind is a slave to fate and the gods, and if they were to make the smallest misstep, or just weren't a special little snowflake, they would be at the mercy of the gods. And let's just remember that the gods could be a hundred times more fickle, selfish, and vain than any mortal, so if you get on the bad side of a god, well, expect 10+ years of misery before you die a sad and lonely death.

I always found it ironic that western society, with all its "free will" and "equal opportunity", is rooted in the romanticization of such ideas.