Abstract
According to Aristotle, in the Oedipus Tyrannus the protagonist meets misfortune because of hamartia. He does not specify the nature of this hamartia. Recent interpretations have taken it to refer to a character trait of Oedipus that manifests itself at various points in the events preceding the action of the play as well as in the play itself. However, from Aristotle's definition of hamartia in the Nicomachean Ethics it would seem that he was thinking of a very short time frame in which the spontaneous decision to commit the act that leads to misfortune is immediately followed by the act itself.
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