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oedipus
Reflection Statement for Myth/Story/Religion in Oedipus
The worship of Gods was important in Greek culture. I knew the Gods played an important role in Greek stories, but through this presentation, I learned of the connection between the Gods and irony. Apollo gave prophecies to the Greeks through his oracle at Delphi. The Greeks do everything the Gods tell them through prophecy, so dramatic irony is caused through the Gods because the audience may know the prophecy while the characters may not. This gave me another way to understand the many applications of irony in Greek mythology.
From prior knowledge, I knew Zeus killed his father, Chronos, and Oedipus killed his father Laius. The presentation let me make the connection between Laius and Chronos, which was terribly intriguing. Both Laius and Chronos tried to get rid of their sons so they could keep power. However, both Zeus and Oedipus came back to kill their fathers. This allows me to compare them and give Oedipus the same prestige Zeus had for killing his father.
Susana spoke of Gods being allowed to incest, but the humans weren’t. I knew humans weren’t allowed to express incest because other religions, such as mine, don’t allow it. I thought it was interesting how the Gods could do it because they were all related to each other. She also spoke of the humans being punished for trying to be too much like the Gods, so now understand why the Gods would punish Oedipus for sleeping with his mother. Also, another justification for incest for the Gods was their need to reproduce. This treatment gave me a new understanding of the prestige the Gods had over the humans and how they kept that prestige.

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