Oedipus Tragic Hero

"A man doesn't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall."- Aristotle
Aristotle defined a tragic hero as a literary character who makes an acumen or an error that leads to his or her own destruction. In the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, the character Oedipus is an exemplar of a tragic hero.

According to Aristotle, an ideal tragic hero is a character whose moral value is ambivalent between malign and virtuous;however the virtuous moral is generally dominant. Although Oedipus is an apprehensive king who is considerate of his citizens, he possesses a brisk, impetuous temper and lacks the capability to think straight in critical situations.

Oedipus was seen as having a high status of nobility because not only did
he become the successive ruler of Thebes, but it was he himself who solved the riddle of the infamous sphinx. Saving Thebes from inevitable disaster, claiming the throne, and becoming the only being to become close to deciphering the riddle of the sphinx made others have a feeling of inferiority to Oedipus the King.