Light versus Darkness in Oedipus Throughout Oedipus the King, Sophocles uses a continuous metaphor: light versus darkness, and sight versus blindness. A reference to this metaphor appears at the beginning of the play, when Oedipus wrongly accuses Teiresias and Creon of conspiracy: Creon, the soul of trust, my faithful friend from the beginning steals from me... so eager to overthrow me that he says this wizard. me, this intriguing charlatan, this soothsayer who peddles lies, eyes wide open for his own profit, seeing blind in his profession! Teiresias responds using the same metaphor: So you're making fun of my blindness? Let me tell you this. You, with your precious eyes, are blind to the corruption of your life, to the house you live in, to those you live with – who are your parents? Do you know? Unknowingly you are the scourge of your own flesh and blood, the dead under the earth and the living above, and your mother's double whip and your father's curse will one day scourge you from this earth, their footsteps trampling you in terror, darkness enveloping your eyes which can now see the light! Although at this point the reader cannot be sure which character is right, Tiresias ultimately emerges victorious. This is revealed as Oedipus learns of his tragic fate, saying: O God, everything is coming true, everything is coming to light! O light, now let me take one last look at you! I am finally revealed – cursed in my birth, cursed in marriage, cursed in the lives I have cut with these hands! Here again, the metaphor of light, which represents truth and knowledge, is present. Ironically, this causes the king to gouge out his eyes, having remained blind to the truth for so long. He shouts: You will no longer see the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused! You have looked for too long at those you should never have seen, blinded those you wanted to see, to know! Blind from this hour! Blind in darkness – blind! Oedipus continues Sophocles' metaphor of sight when he defends his decision to humiliate himself through blindness: "What use were eyes to me? ??