Why is Oedipus still a hero at the end of the story ?
By “the end of the story” I assume you mean the final scenes in Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King”. I wish I had read the play in order to be able to give you a proper answer, but as I have’t studied Greek tragedy yet, I’ll just offer my opinion (based on a general knowledge of the plot and common sense)… I think that Oedipus remains a hero because he is a just man and a good ruler. He had promised to exile the one who is responsible for the plague of Thebes and he fulfills his promise even if he himself is the one to be exiled. By mercilessly punishing himself, he becomes the executor of justice. It is difficult to establish the real extent of his guilt. His paricide and his incest were both determined by the profecies and, as a subject of the inexorable fate, Oedipus is not trully responsible his deeds. Oedipus remains a hero because of his tragic position. He is one of the few great ones that has tried to elude the profecies and challange Fate. It was inevitable that he would fail, but
