Aristotle, "the last man to know everything," had insights into the art of writing tragedies. He wrote out a list of characteristics that a play must have to be considered a tragedy. The story of Oedipus Rex has all of those characteristics and would be considered by Aristorle himself to be a tragedy.
The first of Aristotle's requirements said, "The tragic hero is a man of noble stature. He has a greatness about him." Oedipus, the hero in Oedipus Rex, was the king of Thebes and saved the city-state from the sphinx by answering its complicating riddle. The nobility of Oedipus never see…
