This Oedipus essay goes on to demonstrate the importance the universal quest for truth.

The Pursuit of Truth and Oedipus.
In Sophocles' Oedipus the King, the character of Oedipus is painted as a curious and intellectual man who is tragically tainted by the Fate into which he was born. The era in which the story takes place was one rich with the constant conflict between the controversial quest for knowledge and truths and the generally accepted and encouraged passivity of unconditional reverence to the Greek pantheon of gods. He illustrates this conflict by showing his audience (or readers, in a modern sense) a "tragic hero," whose apparent hamartia lies between the realms…