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    On Oedipus: and The Wink (L) Ing of His Eye

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    Brian Z Edeny
    This document provides an overview and analysis of the Oedipus myth as portrayed in ancient Greek literature. It summarizes the key events in the myth as told by different authors, including Homer, Hesiod, Stesichorus and the three great tragedians - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The document also examines major themes in the myth such as Oedipus' guilt and responsibility, as well as comparing his intelligence to other literary figures like Odysseus.

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    On Oedipus: and The Wink (L) Ing of His Eye

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    Brian Z Edeny
    16 views13 pages
    This document provides an overview and analysis of the Oedipus myth as portrayed in ancient Greek literature. It summarizes the key events in the myth as told by different authors, including Homer, Hesiod, Stesichorus and the three great tragedians - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The document also examines major themes in the myth such as Oedipus' guilt and responsibility, as well as comparing his intelligence to other literary figures like Odysseus.

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    Christopoulos

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    This document provides an overview and analysis of the Oedipus myth as portrayed in ancient Greek literature. It summarizes the key events in the myth as told by different authors, including Homer, Hesiod, Stesichorus and the three great tragedians - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The document also examines major themes in the myth such as Oedipus' guilt and responsibility, as well as comparing his intelligence to other literary figures like Odysseus.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPS, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pps, pdf, or txt
    16 views13 pages

    On Oedipus: and The Wink (L) Ing of His Eye

    Uploaded by

    Brian Z Edeny
    This document provides an overview and analysis of the Oedipus myth as portrayed in ancient Greek literature. It summarizes the key events in the myth as told by different authors, including Homer, Hesiod, Stesichorus and the three great tragedians - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The document also examines major themes in the myth such as Oedipus' guilt and responsibility, as well as comparing his intelligence to other literary figures like Odysseus.

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    of 13

    Menelaos Christopoulos

    University of Patras

    ON OEDIPUS

    AND THE WINK(L)ING OF HIS EYE


    PART ONE: LOOKING AT THE EVIDENCE
    Family Tree

    Cadmus
    Cadmus Pentheus
    Pentheus

    Polydorus
    Polydorus Oclarus
    Oclarus

    Labdacus
    Labdacus Menoiceus
    Menoiceus

    Laius
    Laius Iocasta
    Iocasta Creon
    Creon

    Oedipus Iocasta Acmon


    Acmon
    Oedipus Iocasta

    Euryganeia
    Euryganeia

    Eteocles
    Eteocles Polyneices
    Polyneices Antigone
    Antigone Ismene
    Ismene
    The poems of the epic cycle dealing with myths related to
    Oedipus are:

    1. The Oedipodeia (Οἰδιπόδεια) usually ascribed to Kinaithon


    from Sparta
    In this poem:
     Oedipus killed his father Laius
     Oedipus married Iocasta ignoring who she was
     Oedipus married Euryganeia and begot his children

    Incestuous marriage but not incestuous fatherhood


    2. The Thebais (Θηβαϊς) falsely ascribed to Homer
    In this poem we were told about
     the fate of Oedipus’ sons
     the siege laid to Thebes (cf Aeschylus’ Septem contra Thebas)
    Some verses are preserved by Athenaeus and the Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi (v. 265),
    among them the first line of the proemion:
    Ἄργος ἄειδε θεὰ πολυδίψιον ἔνθεν ἄνακτες
    Sing, goddess, arid Argos whence the kings…
    The poem probably included also:
     The curse cast by Oedipus on his sons
     Eventually the curse cast by Pelops on Laius for his improper love for Chrysippus,
    Pelops’ son (in Euripides’ lost play Chrysippus, the boy, overpowered by shame,
    committed suicide)
    3. The Epigonoi (Ἐπίγονοι) ascribed
     to Homer (falsely)
     to Antimachus (falsely?)

    The main issue of the poem was the second siege of Thebes
    undertaken one generation later by the sons of the Seven. Of this
    poem too we possess the first line:
    Νῦν αὖθ’ ὁπλοτέρων ἀνδρῶν ἀρχώμεθα Μοῦσαι
    Now, Muses, let’s start from the younger men…
    Oedipus in Homer

     Iliad 23, 679-680

    ὅς ποτε Θήβασδ’ ἦλθε δεδουπότος Οἰδιπόδαο


    ἐς τάφον. ἔνθα δὲ πάντας ἐνίκα Καδμείωνας

    he (=Euryalus) went to Thebes for the funeral games of Oedipus


    who had fallen in the battlefield; there he defeated all the
    Cadmeans…
    • Odyssey 11, 271-280

    Μητέρα τ’Οἰδιπόδαο εἶδον καλὴν Ἐπικάστην, And I saw the mother of Oedipus, fair
    ἣ μέγα ἔργον ἔρεξεν ἀϊδρείηισι νόοιο, Epicaste, who wrought a monstrous deed in
    γημαμένη ὧι υἱεῖ. ὁ δ’ ὃν πατέρ’ ἐξεναρίξας ignorance of mind, in that she wedded her
    γῆμεν. ἄφαρ δ’ ἀνάπυστα θεοὶ θέσαν ἀνθρώποισιν. own son, and he, when he had slain his own
    father, wedded her, and straightway the gods
    ἀλλ’ὁ μὲν ἐν Θήβηι πολυηράτωι ἄλγεα πάσχων
    made these things known among men.
    Καδμείων ἤνασσε θεῶν ὀλοὰς διὰ βουλάς.
    Howbeit he abode as lord of the Cadmeans in
    ἡ δ’ ἔβη εἰς Ἀἰδαο πυλάρταο κρατεροῖο,
    lovely Thebe, suffering woes through the
    ἁψαμένη βρόχον αἰπὺν ἀφ΄ὑψηλοῖο μελάθρου, baneful counsels of the gods, but she went
    ὧι ἄχεϊ σχομένη. τῶι δ’ ἄλγεα κάλλιπ’ ὀπίσσω down to the house oh Hades, the strong
    πολλὰ μάλ’, ὅσσα τε μητρὸς Ἐρινύες ἐκτελέουσι. warder. She made fast a noose on high from
    a lofty beam, overpowered by her sorrow, but
    for him she left behind woes full many, even
    all that the Avengers (Erinyes) of a mother
    bring to pass. (translatiom by A. Murray)
    Homer and Hesiod

    Homer: Hesiod:
     Makes Iocasta die before  (Works and Days 161-165)
    Oedipus mentions the heroes who
     Does not mention any died
    children from this marriage  “in seven gated Thebes, the
     Does not allude to Oedipus’ land of Cadmus, fighting for
    blindness the flocks of Oedipus”
     Does allude to the curse  ὑφ’ Ἑπταπύλῳ Θήβῃ Καδμηίδῃ
    theme (the curse comes γαίῃ, μαρναμένους μήλων ἕνεκ’
    from Iocasta, neither from Οἰδιπόδαο
    Pelops (on Laius) nor from
    Oedipus (on his sons)
    Stesichorus and the “Lille papyrus”

    The Lille papyrus preserves a fragment of a poem by Stesichorus.


    In this fragment:
     The queen of Thebes (more probably Iocasta, less probably
    Euryganeia) tries to reconcile her two sons
     She offers the palace of Thebes to one son (=he stays in Thebes)
     She offers the fortune and the flocks of Oedipus to the other son
    (=he leaves Thebes)
     Oedipus is obviously dead at the moment of this distribution

    In Euripides’ Phoenician Women Iocasta tries (in vain) to reconcile


    Polyneices and Eteocles (=Stesichorus’ version)

    Stesichorus could be the first to introduce the theme of incestuous


    fatherhood into the myth by making Iocasta the mother of Oedipus’
    sons

    Pindar (Ol. 2, 35-45) stresses the importance of oracles in the myth


    (curse and oracles prevail in the narrative)
    AESCHYLUS, SOPHOCLES, EURIPIDES

    In Aeschylus’ Oedipus three prominent themes are certain


     The incestuous marriage
     The plague theme
     Oedipus’ blindness (by his own hand)
    Euripides’ Oedipus introduced a major mythical variant:
     Oedipus was blinded by Laius’ servants (perhaps on Creon’s demand)

    Even if in all narratives Oedipus answers the famous riddle, Sphinx has nothing to do
    with Oedipus himself. Sphinx’s presence at Thebes was a disastrous punishment
    brought upon by Laius’ improper love for Chrysippus.
    Major issues raised on Oedipus myth:

     Oedipus’ responsibility
     Oedipus’ guilt

    Oedipus is not responsible but is guilty:


     for killing his father
     for marrying his mother

    Oedipus’ father and mother are both responsible and guilty


     for deciding to kill Oedipus
     for attempting to kill Oedipus
    So the question is not about Oedipus’ individual guilt but Oedipus’ individual
    action.
    Oedipus Rex

    Oedipus rex is not a detective story, nobody cares to find the murderer (since
    everybody knows him), it’s just the murderer that cares to find himself. In this quest
    Oedipus reacts with quickness and intelligence, as he did with the riddle. Time is
    obviously part of the riddle, still time is the only riddle that Oedipus cannot solve
    since, however quick or however slow he may be, everything has already been
    accomplished. If one could laugh at Oedipus’ final passion it would only be Sphinx.
    To what extend could we compare Oedipus’ intelligence to other kinds of mythical or
    literary depiction of intelligence, such as Odysseus’s for instance? Is Oedipus an
    Odysseus manqué?

    4 2 3

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