Oedipus as a Hero ArchetypeThe character of Oedipus in Sophocles' Oedipus the King follows a literary model known as the hero archetype. The hero archetype is a model involved in transformation and redemption. Manifested in three stages called the Quest, Initiation, and Sacrifice, Oedipus transforms from the city's redeemer to the cause of its downfall. These three stages are clearly revealed and although they are separate entities, each is intertwined. Before the story begins, Oedipus begins the first step, known as the quest. Oedipus learns from the Oracle of Delphi that his destiny is to kill his father and marry his mother. To avoid this fate, he leaves the only family and home he has ever known. He travels far and arrives in Thebes in a time of great turmoil, the men of the city are devoured by a sphinx who needs to solve a riddle. Oedipus saves the city by answering this riddle. Twenty years later we enter the story and find the city under the clouds of a plague. The oracle of Apollo decreed that the only way to end the plague was to seek out the murderer of the throne's predecessor, Laius. Oedipus swears to find this murderer and cause of the plague in order to save his city. Oedipus enters the separation portion of the second stage, initiation, when the blind "seer" Tiresias accuses Oedipus himself of being the cause of the plague. Oedipus goes through denial and then separates himself from himself through self-examination. Although his wife/mother, Jocasta, has warned him to refrain from further research, Oedipus continues to seek the truth. This search for truth leads to the transformation where Oedipus realizes that he is responsible. He had killed his father (although at the time he did not know that Laius was his father) and married his mother (he did not know this either), thus causing the plague. This realization was too much for Jocasta to bear and so she committed suicide. Seeing this event, Oedipus feels immediate and unbearable guilt and becomes blind to the harm he has caused. At this point, Oedipus enters the returning phase of initiation and realizes that he must comply with his own decree and banish himself from the city in order to save his people. The third stage, sacrifice, is symbolized by Oedipus withdrawing from the city. city.