Sophocles makes frequent use of seafaring imagery in his Oedipus Rex, creating new perspectives from which to view his characters and cities. Oedipus tells the story of a king destroyed by his lack of faith in prophecy, the king of a people in need of spiritual rescue. The arrogant Oedipus is reduced to a miserable man when his terrible marriage to his mother is revealed, but his city is saved in proportion. Seafaring images recur in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, mainly in the manifestation of Thebes as a ship and Oedipus as a helmsman; this reveals important themes of spiritual decay, Oedipus' arrogance and blindness, and the inevitability of fate. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Early in the play, Sophocles establishes the metaphor of Thebes as a ship. Audiences find the once stable city distressed and on the brink of destruction. "King, you yourself / have already seen our city tottering like a wreck /; it can barely raise its bow / from the depths, from the bloody waves," a priest says to Oedipus at the beginning. Sophocles sees Thebes as spiritually bankrupt. The ship Thebes, therefore, lacks structural integrity and is in danger of collapsing and sinking. Sophocles describes the situation in Thebes: "Our sorrows defy all numbers / all the ship's timber is rotten; / reflection is not a spear to drive away the plague." The foundation of the vase's spirituality weakens at two crucial moments, first at the hands of Oedipus and then of Jocasta. When Oedipus summons Teiresias to reveal the identity of Laius' murderer, the prophet speaks in riddles, angering Oedipus; the argument simmers until he fires this salvo: "[The truth] has no force / for you because you are blind in mind and ears / as well as in your eyes." This is the king's rejection of the old man's ability to know the future. By insulting Tiresias, Oedipus insults the gods by extension, for it is they who gave the blind Tiresias the ability to interpret the past and predict the future like no other man. Jocasta also contributes to the spiritual void of Thebes by further weakening the structure of the ship when she denies the prophets' ability to speak for the gods: Why should man fear, since to him chance is everything and he can clearly foresee nothing? Better to live lightly, as you can, without thinking. As for your mother's marriage bed, do not fear it. Before that, even in dreams and oracles, many men have lain with their mothers. But he to whom these things are nothing endures his life more easily. Oedipus and Jocasta's rejection of spirituality signals a similar void in the entire city. Thebes will continue to suffer, the gods decree, until Oedipus pays for his transgressions. The episode in which Oedipus insults Tiresias reveals a fundamental problem of Oedipus: the arrogance and blindness (which, from the point of view of his insult combined with Tiresias, is ironic) which will ultimately lead him to discover his true nature and to his ruin. Oedipus's stubborn refusal to recognize any opinion contrary to his own and the denial of his true identity which, in light of the emerging evidence, becomes increasingly indisputable, progressively reduces his authority as captain of the ship of Thebes. The trust in Oedipus as helmsman crumbles as the story of Laius' death becomes intertwined with Oedipus' personal story. The similarities that result, for example, from the fact that Jocasta bound her son's feet and that the name "Oedipus" refers to his own bound feet aggregate until they transform from coincidences into evidence that Oedipus fulfilled the prophecy and killed his father and slept with his.