What to read on a sick day

The stress of my rapid job changing is taking its toll. This morning I woke up with a minor sore throat, by the early afternoon it had progressed into some serious coughing, so I took some medicine and spent the rest of the day recuperating. While I should be laying in bed relaxing, I felt angry with myself. So many things to prepare for my new job, how could I be sick! However, I knew from my aching body that I had better listen to it.

My mind was still clear enough (the drowsy medicine hadn't kicked in yet) for me to do some light reading. I was thinking about reading the last Wallander novel I bought last week but decided a crime novel was too heavy. It suddenly occurred to me that a couple of days ago (when I was playing with the todo list thingy), I put "reading the three Theban plays of Sophocles" on my "bucket list". I had read the first two (Antigone, Oedipus the King) before, maybe it was time to finish the last one. (Don't ask me why reading Greek tragedy felt like a "light reading". Maybe being sick reminded me my own mortality so a Greek tragedy just suited the mood.) It was short so I should be able to handle it. So I picked up "Oedipus at Colonus" and soon checked off the first item on my bucket list. Not bad for a sick day.

Notes from the reading:

The ending is just too Deus Ex Machine. Sophocles wrote this play near the end of his life. His own mortality must be on his mind. Was he secretly identified with the old, aging Oedipus? 

Though Oedipus did kill his father, he tried to defy his fate when he first heard of the prophecy and fled Corinth (by doing so he walked right into it). So in this case, he did exercise his free will. However, when his son Polynices heard about his own fate, he claimed it was destined and chose to obey it even though he had a good chance to change it. Is this difference, the action of consciously fighting against your fate, the difference between a heroic character and a victim (or a plain spoiled son)? 
     

Reading the play 2000 years later (and knowing what would happen to Antigone and others) did make you feel like an Olympian God, even  though you are also mortal.

P.S. my throat still hurt, but fortunately no other symptom developed (knock knock). I hope I will feel better tomorrow.