A Fox or Two

In my reading list of "Great Western Books", I pretty much skipped over the Greek playwrights (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Eurpides, Aristophanes). Recently, I decided to go back and read at least one or two plays because they are short and very rewarding if I put in the work of thinking about what they are trying to say.

Anyways, I'm halfway through Oedipus the King, about a man who unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother.  Tiresias, the blind prophet, is a character that really stands out to me as he calls out Oedipus for his murder and incest (I first came across Tiresias a few years ago in TS Eliot's "The Wasteland", where he is a blind prophet decrying the decay of Western civilization).

The main theme of Oedipus the King is the tragedy of someone rashly thinking themselves wise or "in the know" when they are in fact a fool who really doesn't know anything:

"Alas, alas, what misery to be wise
When wisdom profits nothing!" - Tiresias

"To one who walketh warily his words
Commend themselves; swift counsels are not sure." - The Chorus