Oedipus: the painful path to wisdomThrough the character of Oedipus, Sophocles shows the futility and consequences of challenging the divine order. Oedipus served Thebes as a great ruler, beloved by his subjects; but it is his one tragic flaw, arrogance, that dooms his existence, regardless of the character attributes that make him such a beloved king. From the opening dialogue we perceive the character of Oedipus. When confronted by his subjects praying for deliverance from the plague, he reacts regally and kindly, saying, “I am the king, I had to come….How can I help you?…Ask me anything. Anything." He obviously cares about the people of his kingdom, but he goes on to say that he pities "these [his] poor broken people." The pity he feels is rooted not only in his love and sympathy, but also in his arrogance. Perhaps this attitude is duly deserved, for Oedipus had solved the riddle of the Sphinx, a seemingly heroic feat, and was considered "greater than any man", but the leader he had become still possessed the arrogant tendencies that condemned from that moment. He fled Corinth. It is impossible to speculate on what might have happened to Oedipus had he remained in Corinth, but it is his attempt to avoid his fate that condemns him not only to fulfill the prophecy, but to suffer even greater consequences. Thinking that he himself has the power to evade the prediction of the Oracle of Apollo shows that he did not feel humiliated before Apollo. The punishment for this lack of faith takes the form of the plague that Apollo imposes on Thebes, an eventual consequence of Oedipus' defiance and arrogance towards him. (Laius' death at the crossroads was caused, at least in part, by Oedipus leaving Corinth. Speculation that Oedipus would have killed him anyway is pointless.) The punishment of all Thebes is infinitely worse than the original prophecy, which involved only the members of Oedipus' family. For the years between the destruction of the Sphinx and the present moment we are left to assume that Oedipus has served his kingdom well, yet we still see the essence of his original hypocrisy. When Teiresias is brought to him to aid in the search for Laius' assassins, this proud arrogance misleads him into concocting a scenario in which Creon wishes to assume the throne..