Theater at Epidaurus
Sophocles’ Oedipus the King 2
“Know Thyself!” — If you Dare!
Sophocles in old age
2
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?
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Kinship Network…
• Tiresias• Chorus of Citizens
Oedipus and the Sphinx
Laius (deceased) = Jocasta Creon
Menoecius
Antigone Ismene Polynices Eteocles
Oedipus=
OK Analysis(Penguin page numbers)
• prologue 15 ff.– Oed, priest, Creon. plague, oracle
• parodos 168 ff.– divine invocation. war on plague
• 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• 2nd stasimon 209 f.
– pride breeds the tyrant
• 3rd episode 211 ff.– J, Corinthian messenger, Oed.
Polybus dead. Oed “child of fortune”
• 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
• 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
Further thoughts?• hearing the prophecy – how
matters
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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
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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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. Incorporation
2. Transition
3. Separation
sight-ignorance-incorporation
blindness-knowledge-separation
Oedipus
transition
“I count myself the son of Chance,”
(Oedipus, p. 224)