Give an account of the encounter between Oedipus and Teiresias, and comment on its dramatic significance. [DU. 1993; NU. 1996, 2003]

In This post I will discuss about What is
encounter between Oedipus and Teiresias, and its dramatic significance.
Answer : King Oedipus by Sophocles opens before the royal padace with the supplication of the plague trodden people of Thebes. Oedipus the king hears their prayer and informs them that he has already sent Creon, his trusted kinsman, to the Pythian house of Apollo to seek
deliverance from the pestilence. Creon returns from the Delphic Oracle with news that "an unclean thing", the killer of late King Laius is the cause of the plague. So, the murderer should be brought to light and executed or banished from the city. Oedipus who is keen to get rid of
the curse starts his search to identify the polluter. So, he seeks the help of the blind prophet of Thebes, Teiresias, "In whom, of all men, lives the incarnate truth.
Oedipus at first welcomes Teiresias with reverent and tells him to help them find the killer of Laius. But Teiresias who knows the truth his temper quickly and then acts blindly. The consequence of his bad temper is the murder of King Laius, which he could avoid easily. In fury he also accuses Teiresias and Creon of treachery. All these tragic flaws are the main cause of his tragic end. His downfall from prosperity to misery sight to blindness, kinghood to exile, and
"greatest of men" to "father-killer and father-supplanter" thus is not out of depravity or vice but it is out of errors inherited in his character ofi tat
However, Oedipus suffers greatly and "no man will know worse suffering" than he. He commits patricide and incest but he does everything to avoid those. His suffering exceeds his crime and the
audiences see him as one of them. They feel pity for his misery and also, fear that what happens to Oedipus might happen to them. In fine, it can be said that Oedipus is a classic example of tragic
hero. He enjoys the highest level of reputation and prosperity as a king, as "the greatest of man" and “equal to gods". His downfall is like a heavy rock from high above and it is for his own flaws. At the end, his downfall successfully brings emotional purgation or catharsis which is the prime aim of tragedy.