Custom «Oedipus» Essay Paper Sample

"Know Thyself" is a Greek article written by poet Mottoes with an aim of helping people in moderation and self-awareness. This is very a important article as it also brings in to attention the importance of self-knowledge or even in very simplest language it handles the issue of what one is like. It is always very important for each individual to know what kind of person he or she is, what he likes much and what he dislikes. Self discovery helps oneself in knowing the places he can fit in the society as well as risk associated with his daily life. This is very well shown through the discussion of two great ancient Greek heroes called Achilles and Oedipus.

Comparison between Achilles and Oedipus

From the article, we can say that these two Greek legends shared several things in common. For example, both are considered to be heroes. An automate hero is the one who is considered to have authority and physical strength as well as being influential to the people as portrayed by both Achilles and Oedipus. It is also important to note that the two heroes have pride as biggest similarity. This is very well illustrated by the way in which Oedipus believed that he knew his own father only for him to realize that one of the members of assembly he killed was his real father while on the other hand, Achilles pride led to the death of his good friend (Segal, 2001). However, one of the biggest differences between the two is the way in which they lost their battles. For example, with Oedipus he lost when he was killed with a bow unlike Achilles who offered to be killed.

The level of self-knowledge of both heroes

Achilles level of self-knowledge should be given credit considering the fact that he knew he was not destructive and his death would come from lady Paris as prophesied by his own mother while Oedipus after knowing the kind of person he was, decided to change from being boastful, pride and very arrogant leader to a down to earth person. When we look at the degree of self-knowledge from these two legends, we can therefore say that both were very much inspiring as they came to realize the flow of their character.

It is however very important to note that these two heroes used very different approaches towards attaining self-knowledge. For example, Oedipus biggest way in which he gained self-knowledge is what can be termed as accurate self-knowledge method. He exactly knew that he was not easy to approach and that people feared him very much. This method was very important despite bad treatment to the citizens as it helped him discover his pride after the death of his real father leading to his change of altitude towards the society. On the other hand, it can be noted that Achilles self knowledge came through identifying the kind of the people he associated with. This is clearly illustrated by the way in which his death occurred as it was prophesied by his mother as well as the priest who had vision on it. The bottom line here is that these two people acted as his advisers and helped him very much in discovering himself.

One major similarity between these two heroes towards the way in which they obtained their self-knowledge is that they very much paid attention to assessment of behavior approach. For example, after Oedipus realizes that people have observed the way he is very destructive, he decides to give change a chance while with Achilles, he pays much attention to whatever he is told as it can be shown by the way he always knew that he would be killed by Paris as per his mothers vision (Segal, 2001).

It is very important for every person to know who he or she is. Through this article, it is very clear that Oedipus was very disappointed after learning that pride always comes before a big fall. Could he have been very much willing to change earlier on, maybe he could not have died through that rude way. The article also calls for we readers to ask our selves the question "who we are "and more importantly focuses on attaining self-knowledge through personal evaluation, and being very welcoming to the people ideas that might be criticizing since they help you know your weaknesses and focus on building your strength.