Joshua Cesario PD8 12/3/2019

12/3/19

Joshua Cesario

Blogger #: 8

How does Oedipus’ self-mutilation highlight the tragedy of metaphorical blindness?
Modern Mythology 2020 

Today started with a pop quiz on the greek tragedy of Oedipus, which is likely the most specific and terrible situation that could befall a man or woman.

The main lesson started off by asking who was most responsible for the tragedy of Oedipus, which will be referred to as TO since it will be easier to type over the full title, The choices were, Jocasta, Apollo, Oedipus, and Tiresias. While many people in my group and others disagreed on who was fully responsible, the one thing we could all agree on was that the prophet and Oedipus, were completely void of blame, the seer while he had the end result in his head could do nothing to prevent and thus stood silent, whereas Oedipus was completely out of the loop, was basically just vibing when all this started to happen, and as a result paid for something he had no control over.

The next slide asked the question of what the lost Oedipus’ eyes but gaining of his insight, meant symbolically, using “The appeal of Oedipus, by Dr. Eva Cybulska, this, unfortunately, was one of those glazed donuts moments and the entire class, including myself, had nothing to really say until Mrs. Fusaro gave her interpretation of it

BLINDNESS & IRONY

The Greatest appeal of irony is a reminder that

The only thing we know for certain is that we

don’t know anything for certain. Physical

Blindness teaches us not to completely trust

What we think we know.

The idea expressed here actually shows up a lot in Greek philosophy, particularly with philosophers like Socrates, whose motto was literally, “the one thing I know, Is that I know nothing” naturally this reminded of a situation were people are pushed against a wall, a fire and travelers behind them, and a wall of shadows to their front, these shadows are their world, the conversations of the travelers behind them give them their names, but one day, one of them leaves and experiences the world outside what he saw, but when he returned, he could no longer understand the shadows, he gained understanding and insight, but lost his old vision in exchange.

The take-home of this lesson was the moral that Mrs. Fusaro was suggesting the story of Oedipus tells us that even though we think we know something, we can never be sure, and that sounds insanely cynical, but I think it is going to be useful to consider in future lessons, albeit something you shouldn’t necessarily take much too heart, I will probably use this thought process the next time I try to study for a test, cause I don’t think the aforementioned quiz went too well for me