ined and undertaken without guilty knowledge. Neither of these factors are considered by the Greeks to reduce his level of guilt, however, and thus a terrible punishment is visited upon him for something over which he had no control. While he might have exercised more caution in order not to kill anyone who might be his father or to marry any older woman who might be his mother, there is still the question of whether he could ever have avoided his fate, which was foretold by the oracle and which thus presumably had to come true.
Oedipus is clearly a person of importance, and thus his story is worthy of treatment in tragedy. The reason why the high-born are the subject of tragedy is given by the Choragos at the end of the play, stating that Oedipus "towered up, most powerful of men," envied by all yet finally ruined:
Consider his last day; and let none
Presume on his good fortune until he find
Life, at his death, a memory without pain.
In other words, the story of the tragic hero serves as a lesson to
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