Oedipus the King: A Tragic Hero The downfall of a hero follows from his very nature. In Sophocles play, Oedipus the King, (reprinted in X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, 6th ed. New York, NY 1995), the playwright focuses on a man named Oedipus, the king of Thebes, who is trying to discover the truth about his past. When he was born, his parents learned from an oracle that their child would someday be the cause of their death. Believing the oracle, they abandoned their infant son with the intention of killing him. However, without their knowle