If we were to temporarily embrace Freud's theories in our analysis of the Oedipus Tyrannus and subsequent works, we would find ourselves with an incestuous protagonist, so mad in his pursuit of power that he seeks kill his father and will stop at nothing to achieve this goal. It is where Freud misunderstands the very essence of the work that the audience should find its meaning. If Oedipus had been aware of his actions throughout the story, there would have been no story. He has never been aware of his father's death or his mother's marriage bed, and upon learning of his own actions he falls into paralyzing despair. The difference between what Freud theorizes about the King and what Sophocles is believed to have understood about him is the simple possession of knowledge and the repercussions, both good and bad, that it entails. Oedipus, in his great glory, infinite wisdom and kindness, kind treatment of his subjects spends his entire life without making a decision for himself. His very existence was created by the Gods, a toy, an example. Despite this, he spends his life searching for answers, leaving home and using his vast intelligence to ultimately save a kingdom, of which he has no inclination, and become king. What does this man have to follow the path of knowledge that leads him from banal royalty to ultimate greatness and then to the darkest desperation? Under the umbrella of human weakness are actually two traits that compel Oedipus to so courageously follow the quest for knowledge, the sin of the ego and the humanism of fear. While these two personality traits do not necessarily go hand in hand, there are multiple cases where the ego arises from fear or fear from the ego. Over the course of the story they became... center of paper... they gouged out his eyes. The message is clear. He couldn't see what was in front of him the whole time, so desperate for absolute knowledge, knowledge of Gods and greatness, that he refused to recognize the evidence right before his eyes. It is the awareness of no longer deserving of knowledge that forces Oedipus to take his eyes off his head. He had overstepped his boundaries and was repaying the gods. He was leading by example. Oedipus is the ultimate antithesis of himself. He is brilliant and naive, wanderer and king, blind and seer. But in the end, despite his flaws, despite his greatness, he is human. And the great Greek gods wanted men to remember this, to stay in their place. The taste of glory, knowingly or not, became too irresistible for Oedipus. Human weakness, in his search for truth, proved to be his undoing.