Hayra Fabri Guimaraes, Week 7 Discussion

                   It is an incontestable fact that, despite years of human history and societies, some behaviors and experiences patterns are still intrinsic in our lifestyles and still are a huge part of who we are as individuals, or as a community. Several of these timeless patterns can be encountered in the reading “Oedipus the King”, such as the community’s respect towards its social hierarchy, and the feeling of revenge. 

                   In the lines 254 to 260, Oedipus says: “But if you shall keep silence, if perhaps some one of you, to shield a guilty friend, some one of you, to shield reject my words – hear what I shall do then: I forbid that man, whoever he be, my land, my land where I hold sovereignty and throne; and I forbid any to welcome him or cry him greeting or make him a sharer in sacrifice or offering to the Gods, or give him water for his hands to wash.” Here, Oedipus symbolizes not only his power towards his country and community, but also an allusion about how much his loyal followers are expected to respect his words, and fear his attitudes. Today, despite the almost complete extinction of monarchy countries, we as individuals and as a country or society in a democracy, still respect the State and its authority figures. 

                  Further, in the lines 119-120, Creon says: “By banishing a man, or expiation of blood by blood, since it is murder guilt which holds our city in this destroying storm.” As a way to symbolize that, the only way to make that empire prosper again is to find revenge against those who hurt them deeply, even if that takes an “expiation of blood by blood”. Today, we still see the same patterns in society, but mostly in individuals. Some people still look for revenge as a way to accomplish inner peace towards those who did them wrong in the past, and sometimes, they do not care about the consequences of their acts.