Jacqueline Aldaco

Anthony Bullock

Classics 28

27 April 2012

Knowledge and its Limitations

Greeks could never know exactly what their gods were up to, so they often had to travel to visit oracles that were able to give them insight. Greeks saw knowledge as a form of power that helped them gain some control over their lives. To ancient Greeks knowledge was such an important aspect of life they had a divinity symbolize it. Apollo was the god of knowledge and medicine, in many Greek myths the quest for knowledge, or attaining too much knowledge altogether was a common source of tragedy. Ancient Greek cultures believed that even if mortals had the knowledge they sought, once they acquired it they did not know what to do with it. There are many examples in Greek myth that plainly show how knowledge eventually leads to tragedy. For instance, Oedipus’ search for knowledge of the king’s murderer ends up becoming his demise and the major source of pain in his life.
Oedipus needed to find out why Thebes was suffering from a plague, so he sent Creon to the temple of Delphi to ask Apollo what he could do to life the plague from his people. As the oracle of Apollo Tiresias goes to Thebes and tells him that the person responsible for the death of the prior king, king Laius was living amongst them, and the plague would only be lifted once they found the murderer. In the quest for the knowledge that would save his people, King Oedipus summoned the messenger that was given the task of killing the newborn son of King Laius (in an attempt to escape the prophesy that would kill his father and wed his mother). Oedipus was angered by the messenger’s reluctance to answer his questions about the death of King Laius and threatened to kill him if he did not speak. Even though the messenger fearfully warns him that if Oedipus is who he thinks then he does not want to hear