Download Oedipus…The Myth. The Man. The Legend…

Id: It’s all about me: Food, sex,
aggression. The pleasure principle…
 Ego: Reality principle. Reason and
caution…as well as independence. The
Gatekeeper between Id, Superego and
Reality.
 Superego: Conscience…moral…right v.
wrong
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According to Freud…
A repressed feeling of a boy’s desire to
sexually possess his mother…and to
ultimately kill his father.
Freud also promulgated the thought that
girls have the same feelings toward their
mother at an early age.
Differs from the Electra Complex…Jung
What goes on four legs in the morning,
on two legs at noon, and
on three legs in the evening?
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At the Crossroads, Oedipus tested his
fate…and unknowingly kills his natural
father, Laius.
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In Goethe’s Dr. Faust (16th Century) Faust
exchanges his soul with the Devil for
unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures.
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Blues musician, Robert Johnson, is reputed
to have sold his soul to the Devil for the
ability to play the blues guitar…
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The trading of one’s morals (morality) in order
to have unlimited power, riches, influence…
Oedipus at the Crossroads…inadvertently
chases humanity and disregards divine
powers.
 View: The way he was v. the way he wanted
to be! Result? Eternal Damnation…
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Usually evokes empathy…
Has a weakness, usually pride
Something has gone awry in his/her life
Usually faced with a very serious decision
he must make
Noble in nature
Must understand his mistakes…
Likely doomed from the start…
Begins his “journey” as no better or worse
than the rest of us…
“Not then had I become
My father’s murderer,
Nor wedded her I have my being from :
Whom now no God will bless,
Child of incestuousness
In her that bare me, being the spouse of
her,
Yea, if aught ill worse than all ill be there,
That Oedipus must bear” (48).
“Dwellers in Thebes, behold this Oedipus,
The man who solved the riddle marvelous,
A prince of men,
Whose lot what citizen
Did not with envy see,
How deep the billows of calamity
Above him roll.
Watch therefore and regard the supreme day;
And of no mortal say
“That man is happy,” till
Vexed by no grievous ill
He passes Life’s goal.