Blog 4: "Majestic but for a telltale limp"

Sophocles refers to feet throughout Oedipus the King as a metaphor for the dichotomy between fate and free will. From the very first stage directions, we learn that Oedipus is “majestic but for a telltale limp,” kingly and quite confident except for a limp that both refers back to his infancy and foreshadows his impending doom. Oedipus got his name, meaning “bound feet,” from the scars on his ankles from when his parents bound his feet and left him to die after hearing the oracle’s prophecy. He tries to distance himself from his scars in an attempt to forget his most visible flaw, asking the messenger, “Why remind me of that, that old affliction?” (1132). He refers to it as “that dreadful mark” (1134) in yet another of Sophocles’s foreshadowing moments, as “dreadful” connotes both ugliness and foreboding. His ankle scars symbolize the first attempt to evade his and his family’s fate. Later, when he finds out about the prophecy, he literally tries to run away from his fate, but unknowingly takes the road that will lead to his father’s murder “at a place where three roads meet” (790). His feet are part of his person, giving him the illusion that he can point them wherever he chooses, but the scars are a mark of the failure of similar attempts. Oedipus can run, but he can’t run away; his path is set before him.