This paper is intended as an investigation of how Oedipus` myth was received and transformed not only in Homer, Hesiod, and Thebaid epics, but also how it was interpreted by Aeschylos and Sophokles. This investigation focuses especially on the recepti...
This paper is intended as an investigation of how Oedipus` myth was received and transformed not only in Homer, Hesiod, and Thebaid epics, but also how it was interpreted by Aeschylos and Sophokles. This investigation focuses especially on the reception and transformation of Oedipus` myth in Sophokles` Oedipus the King, and it will show how great and unique this drama turned out to be. Compared with Sophokles` Oedipus the King, Homer`s Odyssey 11, 271-280 did not further develop motives, such as children of incest, self-punishment in terms of blinding oneself and expulsion from the city of Thebes. Such motives only became fully developed in Greek Tragedy. Following the motives of the Thebaid epics, indeed, Aeschlylos repeated those motives, such as the family curse and the role of the Furies in his Theban trilogy, Laios, Oedipus, and Seven against Thebes. But the poet introduced the children of incest motive to dramatize both the mutual destruction of Oedipus` two sons and the downfall of his royal family. On the other hand, the fate of Oedipus` royal family, especially in Seven against Thebes, was dramatized to signify the rescuing of the city state. Sophokles transformed Oedipus` myth not in the dramatic form of a trilogy, but in the condensed unit of Oedipus the King; he did not dramatize the whole complex of the downfall of Oedipus` royal family, but rather highlight Oedipus` tragic fate. Furthermore, in dealing with an Aeschylean plot pattern Sophokles invented a new plot pattern, i.e. error - recognition - self-determination to dramatize not only the main theme of Oedipus the King, the limitations of human knowledge, but also to portray Oedipus` heroism. The theme of the limitations of human knowledge was intensively dramatized by the poet`s use of dramaturgy, such as the confusion of one and many, tragic irony, and tragic dialectic. Despite its overall emphasis on the theme, Oedipus the King gives the impression that Oedipus, the incarnation of historie("inquiry"), comes to transcend the limitation of human knowledge through his heroic self-determination. This leads to a paradoxical reconciliation of opposites through concepts, such as suffering and knowledge, progression of human knowledge and religious belief, and tradition and innovation. Accordingly, Sophokles seems to send a message of reconciliation to the conflicting political positions in the city state of Athens.