![]() ![]() The Sphinx presented all visitors to Thebes with a riddle: What goes on four feet in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening? It devoured those who failed to answer correctly. ![]() Once there, he heroically saves the city from the scourge of the Sphinx. Confident that he can outrun his fate, he flees his parents, King Polybus and Queen Merope, and heads for Thebes––a classic example of hubris is the hero’s belief that he can outmaneuver the gods. As a young man in the city of Corinth, he learns from the Delphic oracle that he is fated to kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus is a classic example of the tragic hero. Hubris refers to an outsized sense of self-confidence or self-importance. These qualities include courage, humanity, shrewdness, determination, and also something which the Greeks called hubris (hyoo-bris). For the ancient Greeks, this paradox encapsulates the predicament of the tragic hero: he is undone by the same qualities that enable him to do great things. ![]() The very traits that made him an effective ruler will ruin him. ![]() At the heart of Oedipus Rex is a paradox: a leader must figure out what is destroying his city, but will destroy himself by doing so. ![]()
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