Sophocles’ Oedipus the King 2
“Know Thyself!” — If you Dare!
Sophocles in old age
Theater at Epidaurus
Agenda
• Recap, Update
• Discussion
– Aristotle on Oedipus…
• Sweet Dreams
– Eros and the Tyrant
• Illumination, Purification
– Rites of Passage, Scapegoat
• Final Thoughts
– Is Oedipus to Blame?
2
Recap, Update
Kinship Network…
Menoecius
Laius (deceased) = Jocasta
Creon
Oedipus
Antigone
Ismene
Polynices
Eteocles
• Tiresias
• Chorus of Citizens
Oedipus and the Sphinx
4
OK Analysis
(Penguin page numbers)
•
prologue 15 ff.
•
– Oed, priest, Creon. plague, oracle
•
•
1st
episode 171 ff.
– Oed, Tiresias. agōn 1
•
1st
stasimon 186 f.
– who the killer?
•
2nd
episode 188 ff.
– Cr, Oed. agōn 2
– 1st kommos (197 ff.)
» Chorus, J, Oed
– Comparison of oracles
•
– J, Corinthian messenger, Oed.
Polybus dead. Oed “child of
fortune”
parodos 168 ff.
– divine invocation. war on plague
2nd stasimon 209 f.
– pride breeds the tyrant
3rd episode 211 ff.
•
3rd stasimon 224
– desperate optimism
•
4th episode 225 ff.
– Oed, Shepherd, J. recognition
•
4th stasimon 233 f.
– Oed man of sorrows
•
exodos
– Messenger, Oed. J’s suicide
– 2nd kommos (240 ff.)
» Chorus, Oed., Oed’s grief
– Oed, Creon. final arrangements
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Aeschylean Tragedy Checklist…
Analytical concepts
• koros
– Laius as implicated in koros?
– Od
•
Further thoughts?
• hearing the prophecy – how
matters
hubris
– Od disbelieves insults T
•
atē
– disabelief (Oed’s disbelief –
e.g. w/ J)
•
dikē
– no. didn’t do anything wrong!
– apollo’s justice
•
tragic cycle
– connection between events
•
•
tragic knowledge
tragic epiphany
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Discussion
Aristotle on Oedipus…
Aristotle on OK as Tragedy…
• Does Ari get it right?
– How?
– How not?
• Needs…
– supplementing?
– other approaches?
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Discussion…
• was ok. basically given
full marks
– good way to look at oed
• good example
– realization – anagnoris should have come earlier
• two match up
– general plausibility
• peripeteia & anagnorsis
• every character
pursuing plausibly
motivated agenda
– you need to connect with
characters
• pity – oed pitiful (both
good and bad way)
• sort of good example
– corinth kingship – good
or bad fortune
• foreshadowing
• right for most part
– did not imitate life
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Sweet Dreams
Eros and the Tyrant
Quotes:
“Pride (hubris) breeds the tyrant”
(Chorus, OK p. 209)
“Many a man before you, in his dreams, has shared his
mother’s bed.”
(OK, Jocasta to Oedipus, p. 215)
“The previous night Hippias [ex-tyrant, hopeful future tyrant of
Athens] had a dream in which he slept with his mother. He
supposed from the dream that he would return from exile
to Athens, recover his rule, and end his days an old man
in his own country” (Herodotus 6.107.1-2)
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Illumination, Purification
Rites of Passage, Scapegoat
Oedipus-pharmakos (“scapegoat”)
Oedipus, p. 244:
“Quickly, for the love of god,
hide me somewhere, kill me,
hurl me into the sea where
you can never look on me
again.”
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Rite of Passage
1. Separation
2. Transition
3. Incorporation
Arnold van Gennep, Les rites de passage
(Paris, 1909)
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Oedipus’ Reverse Rite of Passage
1.
2.
3.
Incorporation
Transition
Separation
“I count myself the
son of Chance,”
(Oedipus, p. 224)
sightignorancetransition
incorporation
blindnessknowledgeseparation
Oedipus
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Final Thoughts
Is Oedipus to Blame?
Is Oedipus to Blame?
Apollo, friends, friends, Apollo he ordained my agonies — these, my pains on pains!
But the hand that struck my eyes was mine,
mine alone — no one else —
I did it all myself!
(Oedipus, OK p. 241)
aitia responsibility/guilt
tukhē fortune/chance
moira fate
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