Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

there arc numerous references to the gods . Apollo and the Delphic orac le. Oedipus is
not portrayed as a guilry sinner in the Christia.a sense of !:beword. Oedipus committed
the acts in ignorance and fulfilled the oracle of the gods. Oedipus, who knows how to
calculate lhe time and distance, and answercorrectly the riddle of the Sphinx, does Dot
know who be is; he missesthe mark by thinkin g he could outwit the gods. Even in the
epilogue the Chorus remember Oedipuswho knew the answer to the famous riddle
(lS2S). Ironically the English word, enigma. which is derived from the Greek noun
translated "riddle " aptly describes Oedipus himself and his circumstances .
During the Elizabethan period . hamartia acquired the meaning of "tragi c flaw.·
Some Shakespearean tragedies had.characters who were not pre-eminently virtuous
because they possessed by nature, demonstrated through their behaviour. a tragic flaw.
For exam ple , Macbeth is told by the three witches that he will become king; but with
the aid of his wife , he commits a premeditated act of regicide . Macbeth. like Othello.
exhibits an inherent tragic flaw. Sometimes this flaw is associated with the Gree k
word . hubris, which is translated as pride. The original Greek noun means "wan ton
violence. arising from the pride of strength or from passion, " frequently used in
referen ce to the extravagance of Penelope 's suitors in the Odyssey. It carries the idea
of a violen t act, and in extreme cases, violation on a person, such as rape . As a legal
term , it coven all the more serious injuries done to a person (Liddell and Scott). The
meaning of a tragic flaw as an innateperso nality trait. hasbeen superimposed on fifth ­
century Greek tragic characters. Consequen tly, it hasbeeninterpreted that Oedipus'
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