Light versus Darkness in Oedipus In Oedipus Rex, Sophocles employs a continuous metaphor: light versus darkness and sight versus blindness. A reference to this metaphor is found at the beginning of the play, when Oedipus falsely accuses Tiresias and Creon of conspiracy: Creon, the soul of trust, my faithful friend from the beginning attacks me... so hungry to overthrow me, puts this magician in a corner. I, this scheming charlatan, this lie-peddling soothsayer, with eyes open for his own profit, seer blind in his art! Tiresias responds using the same metaphor: So are you making fun of my blindness? Let me tell you this. You with your precious eyes, are blind to the corruption of your life, the house you live in, the people you live with: who are your parents? Do you know? All unknowingly you are the scourge of your own flesh and blood, the dead under the earth and the living above, and your mother's double whip and your father's curse will one day lash you from this earth, their footsteps will tread terror upon you, darkness envelops your eyes which can now see the light! Although at this point the reader cannot be sure which character is right, Tiresias ultimately emerges victorious. This is revealed when Oedipus learns of his tragic fate, saying: O God, everything comes true, everything comes to light! O light, now let me look at you for the last time! In the end I revealed myself: cursed in my birth, cursed in marriage, cursed in the lives I broke with these hands! Also in this case there is the metaphor of light, which represents truth and knowledge. Ironically, this causes the king to gouge out his own eyes, which have been blind to the truth for so long. He shouts: You, you will no longer see the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused! For too long you have looked at those you should never have seen, blind to those you would have liked to see, to know! Blind from this hour on! Blind in the dark, blind! Oedipus furthers Sophocles' metaphor of sight when he defends his decision to humiliate himself due to blindness: "What use did I have eyes for?"?