Truth and Tiresias in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Al-Hakim's King Oedipus In both "Oedipus Rex" and "King Oedipus", Tiresias is defined by his relationship with the truth: in Sophocles' comedy as courier, in Tawfiq Al-Hakim's as producer. Sophocles Tiresias is a conduit, a vessel through which the truth of a future created by the gods can be revealed, while the modern Tiresias is actively engaged in creating, shaping, the truth from a supposed spiritual void. These different roles place both characters at a certain distance from their actions and sense of responsibility. Based largely on this closeness, each Tiresias develops a radically different concept of truth. Although the characters themselves are in many ways philosophically opposite, the function that Tiresias performs in each work is not at all dissimilar. A sense of truth as a source of destruction and possible redemption is ultimately strengthened by the presence of Tiresias in each play. Oedipus accuses Tiresias in every play of withholding critical information. Both characters make similar decisions to try to retreat from the situation. Their motivations, however, are markedly different. Understanding these motifs paradoxically points towards the fundamental individual differences between the characters and their possible thematic similarities. Sophocles' Teiresias is a reluctant prophet. He is in awe of the truth because he has no power to change it. Tiresias does not possess the truth; it was never his to own. Instead, he exists as a passive agent, an intermediary between present and future, gods and humanity. Because the truth is brutal, cruel, and perhaps sometimes excessive and unfair even... middle of paper... it refers, instead, to a vision on a more figurative level. Sophocles speaks of this type of "blindness" when Tiresias states: "You, whose vision is straight, will be blind" (ln 419, p.127). Reaching this level of insight may be an impossible task. In our attempt we might always hear the laughter that afflicts Al-Hakim's Tiresias, a mocking laughter that has fallen from heaven "since the beginning of creation" (124). Understanding Tiresias' relationship to the truth in each play (its transmission, its creation), can help us determine our closeness to this same elusive and dangerous goal, the truth. Works Cited Al-Hakim, Tawfiq. Comedies, prefaces and postscripts by Tawfiq Al-Hakim. Trans. W. M. Hutchins. Washington, DC: Three Continents Press, 1981. Sophocles. "Oedipus Rex." Rpt. in Ten Greek Dramas. Ed. LR Lind, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957.