figure
King Oedipus
Oedipus
also: Oedipus Rex, царь Эдип
The tragic king of Thebes in Sophocles's Oedipus Rex, who blinds himself upon discovering he has unknowingly killed his father and married his mother; Platonov, in his final extended self-assessment before he is shot, compares his own unbearable self-knowledge of his "lowness" to Oedipus's self-blinding.
Reading notes
- Untitled Play (Bezottsovshchina / "Platonov") §5408 King Oedipus, who put out his own eyes
Platonov compares his own self-knowledge of his "lowness" to Oedipus blinding himself upon discovering the truth about his own guilt (Sophocles, Oedipus Rex) -- the play's final major classical/literary self-comparison, made just before Sofya Yegorovna enters and shoots him.