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As if the eye-gouging in Oedipus wasn’t bad enough, we audience members also have the privilege of learning that King Oedipus had his ankles pierced when he was a little kid. Ow. The 60second Recap has the scoop on this symbol—just press play.

Video Transcription:

In Scene 3 of Oedipus, we find out that the poor guy still has a scar from something horrible that was done to his ankles when he was a child.

Ow.

Ancient Greek barbarism? Maybe. What’s most important about that scar is that it’s a symbol.

As though Oedipus’s scar wasn’t bad enough, Oedipus’s childhood torture also leaves him with something else. The name Oedipus literally means “swollen foot.” I guess that’s what happens when someone pins your ankles together.

Well that’s a pretty bizarre thing to do to a kid, you say, but so what?

Think of this aspect of Sophocles’s play this way: Both the scar and Oedipus’s name remind us that Oedipus is a marked man—marked by fate to fulfill a dreadful prophecy.

But that’s not all. Not only is Oedipus marked to carry out certain horrible actions, but you could say that his injury has also hobbled him. He’s constrained in his movements by the fact that he can’t act on his own. He’s being forced, instead, to carry out Apollo’s prophecy.

One more thing about this symbol. Remember that Oedipus spends the entire play trying to escape the truth. The irony is that all the while, Oedipus hasn’t just been controlled by fate, he’s literally been scarred by it—a pawn in a prophecy that’s already played out.