Oedipus

Title: Oedipus
Category: Literature / English | Words: 525 | Pages: 2.2 (approximately 235 words/page)

Oedipus

Oedipus's Crime What Was Oedipus’s Crime? Oedipus, ruler of Thebes, murdered his father and married his mother. Such acts are almost always deemed unnatural and criminal; they are not tolerated within traditional society. A person who has committed these illegal acts of murder and incest would be considered a criminal, yet Sophocles’s character, Oedipus, is not guilty of either crime. Prior to the birth of Oedipus, a prophecy was spoken over Laius and …showed first 75 words of 525 total…

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…showed last 75 words of 525 total…fall prey to fate and injustice. According to the norms of modern Criminal Justice, an individual cannot be guilty of a crime that he did not understandably commit; he cannot be guilty of a crime unless there is evidence of mens rea. A crime is defined as an act act punishable by law; a sin; a grave offense. Oedipus cannot be guilty of an act, sin or grave offense that he did not knowingly commit.

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