This chapter examines two forms of vulnerability in these plays: vulnerability to ignorance, and vulnerability to the stranger. More importantly, we find in the character of Theseus a man whose moral insight exceeds that of Oedipus himself, and yet, whose moral sightedness and compassion depend on an encounter with this blind man, whose strangeness also opens up for Theseus his own previous encounter with strangeness and estrangement. At the beginning of Oedipus Rex, we find a king who is physically sighted but morally blind, and by the end of Oedipus Colonus, we find a man who lacks sight, but has gained some moral insight. And we also know that it is after Oedipus learns the truth that he will lose his sight, and be blinded at his own hands. To begin, Oedipus claims that the blind Teiresias is blind not only in sight, but also with respect to his prophecies, when we know that the sighted Oedipus is blind. One such metaphor is the theme of blindness and its accompanying wounds. Oedipus Rex is a play about the limits of human wisdom, one that explores the themes of ignorance, knowledge, and knowledge of one’s own ignorance as a kind of wisdom through multiple metaphors. His incorporation and elevation to protector of Athens displays the Athenian ideal of the polis as the dwelling of all together ( synoikismos), in which receptivity to the outsider and even to weakness becomes constitutive of the city’s good. The figure of Oedipus as a xenos in Colonus reconciles the split between his identity as a polluted man and as a political protector. However, Theseus in Oedipus at Colonus suggests an alternative approach to vulnerability, as Theseus displays compassionate hospitality for the stranger. Oedipus initially refuses to accommodate weakness and vulnerability to uncontrollable forces into his vision of human life, and his refusal has grave consequences for those whom he rules and those whom he loves.
In the first play, vulnerability to ignorance constitutes a danger to the community, as Oedipus’ self-assurance about his own righteousness contributes to his city’s and family’s downfall. Chapter two examines Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus.
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