Review of the great works of Sophocles, Plato, Marcus Aurelius and Andreas Capellanus suggest that each of these men were shaped by their respective eras. Curiously, the classical writings of Sophocles and Plato appear not only to codify the age in which they lived but to challenge it to aspire to new heights. In The Oedipus Cycle Sophocles presents Oedipus the King as an Everyman who struggles to do good and avoid evil. Yet the drama heightens when the audience understands that despite his well established objectives, Oedipus commits the horrendous crimes of murdering his father and marrying his mother. Sophoclean drama appears to argue that unless societies can learn to deal with its deviances as well as its norms, they are destined to self-destruct. Sophocles adopts a stance of exhortation shared even…