Theater at Epidaurus

Sophocles’ Oedipus the King

“Know Thyself!” — If you Dare!

Sophocles in old age

2Sophocles Oedipus the King

Agenda

• Discussion• Sophocles’ OTK as “Greek” Tragedy

• Discussion Continuation (last class)• Is Eumenides Tragedy?

• Sophocles’ OTK• An Introduction

• Tragic Transformations• Eros, Tyrants, hubris, Knowledge in OTK

9-Mar-15

Discussion

Sophocles’ OTK as “Greek” Tragedy

4Sophocles Oedipus the King

Question Breakdown…

• OTK “tragic” in usual sense?• “We’ve suffered a tragic loss”• “Tragedy hit when…”

• Does OTK go beyond that?• “Greek tragedy is” … what?

“You are my great example, you, your life | your destiny Oedipus, man of misery — | I count no man blest.”

(Chorus, p. 233)

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OTK: Tragic Structures?

• Formula, etc.• Koros• Hubris• Atē• Dikē

• Aeschylean progression• Verbal visual• Ambiguous clear• Human divine

• Cycle of violence?• Knowledge through

suffering?• Aristotelian patterns

• Character-based motivation (ēthos)?

• Hamartia?• Complex plot?

• Recognition?• Reversal?

• Pity? Fear Catharsis?

“Pride (hubris) breeds the tyrant”

(Chorus, OTK p. 209)

Discussion Continuation (last class)

Is Eumenides Tragedy?

Is Eumenides tragedy? Is Oresteia tragedy? What is tragedy?

Sophocles’ OTK

An Introduction

9Sophocles Oedipus the King

Sophocles, “Theban Plays”

• Playwright• ca. 496-ca. 406 BCE• first victory 468

• Plays• Antigone, ca. 441• Oedipus the King, after 429• Oedipus at Colonus, ca. 406 Sophocles

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Oedipus Family, Backstory

Oedipus Jocasta

Polynices Eteocles IsmeneAntigone

Menoeceus

Jocasta Creon Eurydice

MegareusHaemon

Labdacus

Laius

Polydorus

Cadmus

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Historical Backdrop: Peloponnesian War

Athens versus SpartaAthenian allies versus Spartan allies

Greeks versus Greeks

431 Outbreak of war.430-426 Great plague of Athens.

404 Athens defeated, its empire destroyed.

Athens

Sparta

• 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

OTK Analysis

Tragic Transformations

Eros, Tyrants, hubris, Knowledge in OTK

Erōs and the Tyrant

Eros9-Mar-15

“Many a man before you, in his dreams, has shared his mother’s bed.”

(Jocasta to Oedipus, OTK p. 215)

“No, I’m not the man to yearn for kingship (to become turannos, “tyrant”)”(Creon to Oedipus, p. 193)

“The previous night Hippias (ex-tyrant, hopeful future tyrant of Athens) had a dream in which he slept with his mother.”(Herodotus 6.107, on Hippias’ dream the night before the Battle of

Marathon, 490 BCE)

“Pride (hubris) breeds the tyrant”

(Chorus, OTK p. 209)

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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

• Separation• Transition• Incorporation

Arnold van Gennep, Les rites de passage (Paris, 1909)

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Oedipus’ Reverse Rite of Passage

Oedipus

sight-ignorance-incorporation

blindness-knowledge-separation

transition

“I count myself the son of Chance,”

(Oedipus, p. 224)