In Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus, is Oedipus a victim or a tragic hero?

In some sense, Oedipus might be seen as a victim; although
he does not allow himself to be victimized. His two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, are
trying to get Oedipus to choose which one of them he will support in the war over the
kingship of Thebes. The sons try various tactics to gain that support, but neither one
is successful as Oedipus rejects them both.

As for the
issue of whether Oedipus is a tragic hero, there is no doubt about the truth of this
statement. One thing we need to keep in mind about the term "hero" is that this has a
different meaning with respect to literature than it does in modern American society. In
modern society, a hero is someone we want to be like, someone we admire. In literature,
though, the hero is the focal point of the work. Obviously, no sane person would want to
be like Oedipus.

In the century after Oedipus at Colonus
was first produced, the Greek philosopher Aristotle, in the
Poetics, offered a definition that today is frequently cited as
being what we call the "tragic hero." For Aristotle, the "tragic hero" was someone who
was noble, famous, who experienced a change from good fortune to bad fortune, and whose
story would arouse pity and fear in the audience. One of the mythical figures whom
Aristotle often mentions as fitting this definition is
Oedipus.

So, Oedipus certainly fits the definition for
tragic hero. I'm not so sure he is a victim of anything other than a cruel
fate.