Oedipus Rex Essay

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God and Man in "Oedipus Rex" Author(s): Lauren Silberman Source: College Literature, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Fall, 1986), pp. 292-299 Published by: College Literature Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25111712 . Accessed: 15/01/2014 09:40 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . College Literature is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to College Literature. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 210.212.129.125 on Wed, 15 Jan 2014 09:40:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions GOD AND MAN IN OEDIPUS REX by Lauren Silberman In what sense, if in any, does the Oedipus Rex attempt to justify the In his essay "On Misunderstanding the Oedipus ways of God to man?" E. R. Dodds admits to having asked that question of undergraduates Rex," at Oxford in Honour Moderations and to having thereby being examined occasioned wholesale, but consistent, misinterpretation of one of the mas literature. Dodds terworks of Western reports that ninety per cent of the students candidates' groups. Most responses fell into three distinguishable asserted that the play justifies the gods by showing "that we get what we de of read Oedipus Rex as the affirmation serve."1 A substantial minority that it fate over free will. The smallest group concluded divinely determined was not Sophocles' intention to justify the gods at all. Dodds goes on to that Oedipus Rex affirms
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