Transcript Oedipus the King part II

Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus I
Between Two Cities
Sophocles in old age
Theater at Epidaurus
For Next Time
 Oedipal-Sophoclean
justice
• fate, freedom, justice: a
changing picture?
 A downer play?
• stasimon at 1387 ff. (“Not
to be born is best”)
 What does this play do for
us?
Oedipus and Antigone
Performance, Character,
Theme
pp. 292 ff.
What’s That all About?
 confused
• where they are
• cluelessness
• humiliation dramatized
 messing with him
• you’re pathetic
• toying with him
• as pathetic as possible
 goddesses
• sacred land – not to be
trodden
• symbolically
–
positioning oed in
relation to his crime
 oedipus trying to con
way in
• trying to get away with
staying
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Agenda
 General Introduction
• Production, Myth, (Sub-)Genre
 What Value Drama?
• What Value Plato?
 Structural-Thematic Features
• Oedipal Polarities
 What Value Propaganda?
• Discussion …
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General Introduction
Production, Myth, (Sub-)Genre
Production, Historical Context
 Composed ca. 406
• war with Sparta: 431–404
• oligarchical revolution: 411/10
• Colonus cavalry skirmish, 410 (407?)
Story Order
Oedipus the King
Oedipus at Colonus
Antigone
Composition Order
Antigone (ca. 442)
Oedipus the King (ca. 429?)
Oedipus at Colonus (ca. 406)
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Myth: Athenian Resonances
 Oedipal endings
• typically Thebes
• here, Athens
 Meaning …
• secret rites?
• political strife?
• cavalry skirmish?
8
Between Two Cities: 400s Athens,
Thebes
 Athens
• democratic
• maritime-imperial
 Thebes
• oligarchic
• land-based
 Historical background
•
•
•
•
413 Sicilian debacle
412 Restraints on democracy
411 Oligarchic coup
404 Defeat, oligarchy
Thebes and Athens
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Dramatis personae (principal)
 Oedipus
 Antigone
 Ismene
 Theseus
 Creon
 Polynices
 Chorus (of elderly
citizens of Colonus)
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Oedipus at Colonus – Analysis

prologue (pp. 284 ff.)
•
•

Oed, Ant, Citizen
identity, positioning
amoibaion (chorus-character
dialogue)
Chorus, Oed, Ant
supplication
•
•
1st
episode (298)
•


•
•
1st episode cont’d (318)

1st
Leader, Theseus, Oed
supplication, negotiation
stasimon (326)
•

2nd
•
•
praises (Colonus, Athens)
episode (328)
Ant, Oed, Leader, Creon, Theseus
tussle over Oed
Ant, Oed, Poly
a father’s curse
amoebic kommos, dialogue (371)
Chorus, Oed
Oed’s crimes (?)
•
•
the human condition
4th episode (359)
•
•
amoibaion (314)
Leader, Oed, Ant, Thes
leave-taking begins
3rd stasimon (358)
•

victory song
3rd episode (350)
•
•
leader, Oed, Ismene, Ant
•
•
2nd stasimon (348)
•
parodos (291)
•


Chorus, Oed, Ant
portents
4th episode cont’d (373)
•

4th stasimon (377)
•

Thes, Oed
prayers for Oed
exodos (378)
•
•
•
spoken dialogue, lyric kommos
messenger, leader, Ant, Ismene, Thes
Oed’s demise, lament, consolation
Sub-Genre…
“Suppliant Drama”
Suppliant Dramas ...
Suppliant: One who humbly seeks the help of another.
Supplicate: “To beg, pray, or entreat humbly; to present
a humble petition” (OED).
 Elements
• outsider arrives
– in danger
– brings danger
• seeks protection
• city (polis) as
“character”
 Examples
• Aeschylus
– Eumenides
– Suppliant Women
• Sophocles
– Oedipus at Colonus
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Oedipal Reversals: OK
 Reverse Rite of Passage
sight-ignorance
1. Incorporation
2. Transition
3. Separation
reversal, recognition
Compare Oedipus as pharmakos“scapegoat” …
blindness-knowledge
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Oedipal Reversals: OC
 Furies to Eumenides (“kindly ones”)
 “Nothing” to a “man” (anēr, p. 306)
 Pharmakos to hērōs
 Father to alastōr
 Human dilemma to divine
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What Value Drama?
What Value Plato?
Review
 Plato: drama is …
• REALITY > REFLECTION > imitation
• amoral gratification
 Aristotle: drama is pleasure…
• vicarious
• cathartic
• instructive
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About OC, Plato Would Say...
(and we’d say back…)
Applicable concepts
 representation of
something not real is
bad
 will help with the state
• glorifies athens
 would not like it
• oedipal relationship
• ant’s reaching out
Applicable concepts
 thought chorus was
gods
• bad thing
• generally, cognitive
clarity
 wouldn’t like the way
oed reacts to creon
• would dislike his
disobeying the state
 oed’s impiety in
relation to the furies’
grove
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Structural-Thematic
Features
Oedipal Polarities
Stage Set, “Colonus Hippius”
South
East
West
skene (stage building)
Equestrian statue
Olive grove
To Underworld
to Thebes
Altar of Athena Hippia,
Poseidon Hippios
to Athens
Source: Wiles Tragedy in Athens
Spatial-Thematic Polarities
FEMALE
left (east of audience)
earth goddesses
Athena
olive tree
nature
wild Thebes
individual
democracy
MALE
right (west of audience)
patriarchal Olympians
Poseidon
horse
city
civilized Athens
social
oligarchy-aristocracy
Source: Wiles Tragedy in Athens
Political Thematics
Political background
Thematic resonance?
413 Sicilian debacle
412 Restraints on
democracy
411 Oligarchic coup
404 Defeat, oligarchy




Oedipus: “Do you have a
king or a common voice”
Citizen: “A king in the city
governs all these parts”
Creon: “I bear the mandate
of my entire people”
Polynices on Eteocles: “…
he bribed the people to his
side”
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What Value Propaganda?
Discussion …
Reactions: Plato’s? Yours?
Plato’s
 [reaction]
Yours
 [reaction]
First Stasimon (pp. 326-7): “Here, stranger, here in a land where
horses are a glory ….”
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