The Tragedy of Oedipus - Complete
The familiar sensation returned, along with the shifting perspective. Black energy—the proof that I had possessed a human body—poured out in every direction.
"Huh...? It can't be...!"
"Lord Hades...?"
The priests nearby hurriedly bowed their heads toward me. I pushed through the crowd filling the temple, and what came into view was the King of Thebes, now reduced to a madman.
"Huuu..."
King Oedipus, clearly infused with Gaia's power. He had once been a hero celebrated as a wise and benevolent ruler—the man who defeated the Sphinx with his wit and cunning.
Possessed in this human form, I went unrecognized as Oedipus charged at me. Or rather, it wasn't that he failed to recognize me so much as he had completely surrendered to his madness.
"Haaaa!"
BOOM!
I casually extended a hand toward the rushing figure and released a burst of divine power. No matter how formidable a hero he had become among mortals, he was no match for a god inhabiting a human vessel.
CRASH!
Struck by a wave of divine force, Oedipus tumbled violently across the ground before staggering back to his feet. For the briefest moment, a flicker of confusion crossed his eyes.
This wasn't the kind of curse inflicted by Dionysus, the god of madness. It was the sort of insanity that could be jolted back to clarity with a few powerful shocks.
BOOOOM!
"Urk!"
Yet he had burned the temple and massacred Thebes' citizens? Only someone with a profoundly unstable mind could commit such acts.
Once more, King Oedipus staggered upright.
"Have you regained some of your senses?"
"Huu... Hades... god..."
The madman stared directly at me.
"...You're grieving. I will hear your story."
"Hu..."
The madness Gaia had granted him was merely a spark tossed onto an already towering pile of kindling. As Oedipus looked at me again, a trace of reason briefly returned to his eyes.
The madman glanced back and forth between the black divine energy surrounding me and my pupils, then slowly raised his sword to his own arm.
Slice.
"GRAAAAH!"
"King Oedipus... he cut off his own arm..."
"No?!"
"What is happening...!"
Kneeling on one knee, Oedipus clenched his teeth. Having severed his own limb to partially free himself from the madness, he now gazed at me with clear eyes.
At last, sharp intelligence shone in the King of Thebes' gaze as he bowed his head.
"Pluto, God of Mercy."
Yet the emotions accompanying that clarity were overwhelmingly complex—sorrow, rage, self-loathing, guilt, resentment, despair...
"Please, do not show me mercy... I am a sinner... ughuhu... huhu..."
A complete catalog of every negative emotion. What in the world had happened to him before Gaia's curse took hold?
Still, the crimes he had committed were more than enough to warrant dragging his living soul to the underworld for judgment.
I concentrated power along the edge of my hand and walked toward the kneeling man in my possessed body.
"Conversation will be difficult in your current state. We will speak again later."
"I'm sorry... mother."
Crunch.
Thud.
Roll.
King Oedipus's head tumbled across the floor. He hadn't resisted at all, as if he had already abandoned everything. For the finale of a sinner who had burned down Dionysus's temple and slaughtered countless citizens in his madness, it felt far too hollow.
I watched the rolling head for a moment before turning away to observe the humans. The citizens of Thebes avoided my gaze, terrified that divine punishment might strike them.
"Pluto..."
"Mercy..."
The temple priests quietly closed their eyes and clasped their hands in prayer. The one who had only recently become a priest was visibly moved to tears.
"...Not a single person fled the temple. I will remember your devotion."
With those final words, I immediately shifted my consciousness back to the underworld.
When I returned to the underworld, I found a gathering of gods with hardened expressions. They must have all come after hearing about the situation in Thebes.
"Thanatos, bring King Oedipus at once. And summon the judge Minos as well."
"Understood."
"Should I fetch water from the Spring of Memory?"
"Lady Mnemosyne, that won't be necessary."
Judging from the look in Oedipus's eyes that I had seen in the living world, his memories would likely remain intact even after crossing the River Lethe.
It was time to hear his full story.
Shortly afterward, Thanatos dragged Oedipus's soul before me. The madness had vanished from his eyes, but they swirled with complex emotions.
"I will listen to your entire account, consult with Minos—the judge of the underworld—and then deliver my verdict."
"....."
"Speak freely. Tell me everything. You may even curse Zeus if you wish; it matters not to me."
At those words, Oedipus's mouth slowly opened.
"I killed my father, lay with my mother, and even fathered children with her."
In a hoarse, faltering voice, he recounted his path. How he had been raised as the prince of Corinth. How he had slain his father in a chariot. The Sphinx, Thebes, and Jocasta—his mother and wife. And finally... the truth revealed by the prophet Tiresias.
Even the power granted by the one who had called herself Gaia.
Having spoken this far, Oedipus fell silent once more.
Had he not burned the temple and killed people under Gaia's influence, his sins would have been far lighter.
"Gaia planted twisted thoughts within you."
"At first, resentment toward the gods consumed my mind completely. But at some point, my own will joined it."
So Oedipus had willingly surrendered to the madness? Why?
Of course, resisting such insanity and regaining one's senses would not have been easy, but...
"...Did you resent Apollo for delivering the prophecy?"
"He merely informed me of what was already fated."
"Then was your anger directed at Ares, who cursed the Theban royal house across generations?"
"Even I might have placed such a curse on someone who killed my child."
"Then do you believe the fault lies with Gaia, who corrupted you?"
"She merely changed the direction of the burning flame."
He spoke this way, yet it wasn't that he held no resentment toward the gods at all. When the madness had taken him, his hatred for Olympus had indeed erupted as he destroyed temples.
However... the other desire burning within him was simply too great, leaving him no room to waste on resenting the gods.
The time had come to confirm whether my suspicions were correct.
"Then what is it that you truly desire?"
"I, the unparalleled sinner who killed his father, violated his mother, destroyed a temple, and massacred the citizens of Thebes—I wish to be punished."
Perhaps what he truly wanted was divine punishment.
Despite the horrific sins of killing his father and lying with his mother, the three goddesses of vengeance had never tormented him. It was likely because his actions lacked intent, yet that very fact seemed to have made Oedipus's suffering even more unbearable.
"You do not claim that Gaia's curse forced you to kill those people."
"...I am sorry."
Did he truly believe that the only way to atone was to receive the terrible, agonizing divine punishment reserved for those who committed the gravest crimes?
The human mind is far more fragile and unstable than a god's. When pushed to the extreme, humans often choose self-destruction.
Those who overcome such despair are called heroes among heroes... but unfortunately, Oedipus could not manage it.
Human emotions are complex. Sometimes we don't even understand what we ourselves want. And for a man whose mind was already shattered, then burdened with Gaia's madness...
"...Please, deliver my punishment."
"Your punishment is not something I can decide lightly. I will postpone judgment for now."
Was it not the madness itself that had driven him insane, but rather his own surrender to it that made him beg the gods for punishment?
Oedipus was led away under the strict watch of the soul guards.
I dismissed the other gods and summoned Minos, the fair judge of the underworld. His two brothers were occupied judging other souls and could not attend, but Minos alone would suffice.
"Minos, what is your opinion?"
"The severity of his crimes will depend on how deeply Gaia's curse affected his mind."
"And?"
"Beyond that, we must consider the sacrilege, the tragic prophecy, his contributions to Thebes, and the crime of killing its people..."
Minos was correct. The key question was how much of his own will versus the curse's madness had been at play when he massacred citizens and burned the temple.
We had to render the fairest judgment possible.
"Gaia surely tempted him by claiming everything was the fault of us gods."
"Yet according to the Oedipus who arrived in the underworld, from some point onward his own will aligned with the madness and drove him to even greater excesses..."
"Even without Dionysus's whisper, a sliver of will must have remained within the madness."
"That is why he described it as his own will joining in."
"Had it not been for Gaia's curse, would he not have stopped at gouging out his own eyes? He had sworn that if he ever found the immoral one, he would pluck out his eyes."
"Gaia's curse pushed the already broken Oedipus into making the wrong choices..."
I conferred with Minos for a long time after that.
Considering the dead, his reputation in the living world, the influence of the curse, and his own attitude...
"Bring Oedipus before me once more."
It was time to deliver judgment.
I looked at Oedipus as he was brought before me again. To the silent King of Thebes, I spoke slowly.
"Your crimes are as follows: you violated your mother, murdered your father, fell into madness and burned the temple of Dionysus in Thebes, and slaughtered innocent citizens."
Perhaps Oedipus was the most tragic figure in all of Thebes' history.
"Judging solely by the crimes committed, sending you to Tartarus for eternal labor would be justified, however..."
Most of what he had done was not truly his fault. Even the massacre and temple-burning were tragic acts committed while his mind was lost.
"I will take into account that you fell victim to Gaia's madness, the prophecy of your tragic fate, and the fact that you were revered as a wise and benevolent king of Thebes until you learned the truth."
He had been toyed with by the gods from beginning to end. Ares's curse had brought misfortune upon the Theban royal house. The tragic prophecy led his own father to abandon him, and he unwittingly violated his own mother. After learning the truth, he was exploited by Gaia and cast even deeper into the abyss.
"I hereby sentence you to two hundred years of stacking stones in the outer regions of the underworld, under the blessing of oblivion that erases all memories of the living world."
For a human who had massacred dozens, burned a temple, and even slain a divine beast, it was a light punishment. Yet I judged it appropriate.
"You shall not be permitted to reincarnate. Once your labor ends, you will serve eternally as a guard of the citadel."
"Is the blessing of oblivion... an act of mercy?"
"Consider it small compensation for one who suffered at the hands of the gods from the moment of his birth until his end."
I turned away from Oedipus, who could find no words, and looked toward Goddess Lethe.
"Lady Lethe, I ask this of you."
The judgment was complete.
After Oedipus received the blessing of oblivion and was taken to the labor grounds, I sat lost in thought.
"Hades, Dionysus from Olympus has requested that Oedipus receive severe punishment."
"...."
"Hades...?"
When I slowly lifted my head, I saw a silver-haired goddess wearing a sorrowful expression.
"I am uncertain whether my judgment was correct."
"Hades did everything he could. You gave appropriate punishment and mercy to a human swept along by fate..."
"I don't know... I'm truly not sure."
Had I judged Oedipus properly? Had the balance of punishment and mercy been fair, or had I been unjust in some way?
"We gods... are not the omnipotent beings humans wish us to be."
"Yes, that's true."
"Even Zeus does not know everything, and the three chief gods are ultimately swayed by emotion."
"Yes, of course."
"Athena is not always wise, and even Hephaestus sometimes swings his hammer incorrectly, they say."
Gods are not omnipotent. Athena sometimes loses her wisdom in moments of passion, and even Hephaestus creates failures from time to time.
"However, as the god of the underworld, such things must not happen to me."
When humans die, they come here. Perpetrators and victims meet in the underworld. Mass murderers and innocent victims arrive together. Those exploited into committing crimes, those slain by gods—they all come. Those who committed sacrilege, those deceived into wrongdoing, those who resent the gods after being unjustly sacrificed—they all reach this place.
The underworld is the final destination of every mortal and the place where the karma of their lives is weighed. That is why I must render judgments that are as fair and dispassionate as possible.
It is the duty placed upon the god of the underworld who wields such immense power.
"Why shouldn't it happen? You're not the primordial god Chaos, so isn't it only natural?"
"But..."
"I sometimes make mistakes when bestowing the blessing of oblivion on humans. What's so wrong about being a little imperfect?"
"The duty given to me is to judge mortals..."
"You're already doing an excellent job. Even Minos accepted the verdict and left satisfied."
Minos, renowned for his impartiality, was not the sort to be silenced by my authority. I knew that well.
"Even so... if only I could have delivered a more correct judgment..."
Squeeze.
"Stop... stop talking. For a little while, forget everything and find peace."
Goddess Lethe suddenly embraced me, manifesting the power of oblivion. The warmth of her heart flowed through my entire body. I did not resist.