And Apcllcs Prophecy, Oedipus As a Man Cf Destiny, and Divergent Interpretations

DOCOMEM1 RESUME

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AUTHOE Clarke, Hcward TITLE The CediFus Films: A Review INSTITUTION Naticnal Ccuncil of Teachers of English, Champaign, Ill. Put rate Oct 65 Note 14. Journal Cit The English Jcurnal; v54 n7 F552-600, 612 Cct 1965

EDES Price EEES Price MP-S0.25 HC-$0.60 DescriFtcrs Audicvisual Aids, *Classical Literature, Erama, English Instruction, Greek Civilization, *Humanities Instruction, Instructional Aids, * Instructional Films, Literary Analysis, Literary Criticism, *Literature Appreciation, Literature Reviews, *Seccndary Schcol Students Identifiers Cedipus Sex

Abstract A critical review of Eernard Kncx's literary analysis cf Scphccles' "Oedipus the Kirg" in a four-lesscn film series is cffered largely as a "warning" to high school teachers. Central to the criticism is the author's belief that Professor Knox has impcsed a reductive and marginal interpretation on the play which tends to obscure rather than enlarge the student's understanding. His interpretation of a selected porticn of a cbcral ode is harshly criticized for inadequately providing the basis for his simplistic appraisal cf the meaning behind the play. Further ccmmentary is directed to Sophocles' Athens, Oedipus' heroic search, prophets and prophencies, Oedipus and Apcllcs prophecy, Oedipus as a man cf destiny, and divergent interpretations. (EL) 'from The English journal, October,lila

IL BENNO! I WAN. MANN i MAI TheOedipusFilms: A Review NU OF NOON Howard Clarke NS *51st IBS IN INNEN 111C1IT AS RCM MI NE Department of Classics NON INAIUMN NOM IT. NITS If N MINN EitsOakland Univorsity SIAS N Ni MUM KNEW NICK Ma If 01(11N llochogar, Mikan NNW MKT. OnF ALL the audio-visual materialswants to coax a "meaning" out of the " available to the high school literatureOedipus that will fit the facts of the play re% teacher, few have proved to be such sum-and will also relate immediately and o dy favorites as the series of three films oneffectivelyto the of an Town, Oedipus tbe King, and Hem-eleventh or twelfth .But to these "gmalet. These films, each consisting of fourlaudable ends, he has subjected the play LIU lessons,were produced by the Councilto an analysis so special, so curious, so for a Television Course in the Humani-tendentious, that iit can only evoke yelps ties for Secondary Schools and filmedof pro from those who share Knox's and distributed by lEncyloredia Moni-high regard for Sophocles. Following the ca Films, Inc. The dramatic scenes in theorder of the fihned lessons, I should like films are done by the Stratford Shake-to offer some comments Oh Knox's analy- spearean Festival Foundation of Canadasis, less as rebuttal to him than as a warn- and interpretations are offered, respec-ing to high school teachers to be aware tively, by Mr. Clifton Fadinien, Professorof what Knox is doing with and to Bernard Knox, and Professor Maynard la' play. Mack, the last two of Yale University. Sophocles' Athens In many respects these films are models After some preliminaries about Greece of what audio-visual education should be,in his first lesson, the "Age of Sopho- and each year more and more secondarycles," Knox takes us at once into the et schools seem to be making them and theexciting intellectual life of fifth-century works they deal with a significant partAthens. He describes the tonic effect that of their students' literary experience.the victories over Persia had on the fj Since most school systems have boughtAthenian spirit (odd that neither here the films, it is impossible to estimate hownor anywhere else does he mention the many students see than each year; but itPeloponnesian War or the plague that is probably sufficing to note that collegehad just struck Athens: more on this imtructors find each year that an in-point later); he righdy points out that Lcreasing proportion of their freshmenthis period saw a clash between the new vi have seen these filmed lessons. This is alland the old in the minds of the Athen- good or at least as good as the filmsians, andhe some of the ques- are. The first and third I am not tions that enlightened Athenians 4)tent to judge, but, in the four filmed of Sophocles' time. Here the Greek sons on the Oedipus, there are so Sophist and Protagoras has pride omissions and distortions, so of place, and quotes his familiar culties involved in Professor "Man is the measure of all dings." Un- Knox's interpretation of the play, thatfortunately, Knox fails to quote the sec- the whole production tends to obscureond half of this puzzling statement rather than the student's under-(what, for example, did Protagoras in- standing of zzedLclude under things?), "of things that are Knox's intentions are very that they are, of things that are not that ov, ors

THE OEDIPUS FILMS: A REVIEW

they are not," and, without mentioningdude the first lesson by asserting that the usual interpretation, namely, thatSophocles took the Oedipus and reality is relative to each individual,goes "'rode out of it atremenclousiidselcussionle on to give it a radically humanistic in-of the great issue of the day the con- - terpretation, even nerving himselftoflict between thenew outlook and the say, "He meant...that man's intelli-old religious beliefs," he is operating in gence is capable of finding the answers considerable and characteristic ad- to all the secrets of life." Now there isvance of the evidence. no proof whatsoever that Protagoras meant anything of the sort; certainly, he In his first lesson, Knox has madesome never said anything like that, and Knox'srash and unfounded assertions. Butgrant- h0 ainfrjLiin seems totally unlike the mill ed that he is right and that Sophocles did cic,, skepac we meet in Plato's Protagoras.intend this playas a testament of belief Why, then, do we get such an extrava- in an ideological dispute,we may still ask gant and over-heated interpretation ofif the facts of the playsupport the in- Protagoras' innocuous remark? Thean- terpretation that Knox subjects themto. swer is that at this point Protagoras mustThe course of intellectual history of the be made into a straw man, and a struttingfifth century is for scholarsto quarrel and ranting straw man at that. For Knox about; the course of action in the Oedi- sees Oedipus in the first half of the playpus Rex is obvious to anyone who can as a proto-Protagoras, and it is important read. And it is on the facts of this action for his purposes that Oedipus' "Prom-that all our inferences and generaliza- goreanism" soundly drubbed. Oedipustions and conclusions ultimately depend. the radical humanist must be taught aOedipus' Heroic Search lesson. In his second lesson," The Character According to Knox, then, philosophersof Oedipus," Knox undertakesa reading like Protagoras and scientists like theof the play that is surprising,to say the physician Hippocrates, whom he brieflyleast. He begins by claiming that in the describes, were challenging the Greeks'search for Laius' murderer Oedipus hasa traditional ideas about the gods. "Itwas choice. "He could stop the search for only natural," continues Knox, "that thethe truth at any moment.. . .The choice poets who wrote for the theater into start the inquiry and to continue it Athens should reflect in their plays thiswas his and his alone. It is Oedipus who excited discussion of new and old ideas." drives the action of the play forward." Would that this were so! For it isa In a way, this is true, since Oedipus is frustrating fact that with the exception in charg:e of the investigation, but itover- of Euripides, they did not. The light thatlooks the great turning point of the play, Aeschylus' and Sophocles' plays shed onthe arrival of the Corinthian messenger the great debates of their days is bothand his revelation that Oedipus isnot oblique and fitful; this may mean thatthe son of Polvbus and Merope. The the debates were not so great as Knoxarrival is coincidental, the revelation is would make them, or it may simplymeangratuitous, and neither is part of Oedipus' that Sophocles was just not interested inpurpose. Before Knox became so im- the particular issues Knox has isolatedpressed by Oedipus' heroic search for from the intellectual life of fifth-centurytruth,"no matter what the conse- Athens. We have no inde= infor-quences," he ought to have reminded mation about what "side" les was himself that there are consequences, too, on or if he was on any side at all. Con-should Oedipus give up the search, con- sequently, when Knox goes on to con-sequences a lot more certain and almost ENGLISH JOURNAL

as terrible as continuing the search. ForAristotelian answer of hubris and hamar- he would then be defying the oracle oftia, tragic pride and tragic flaw. It isnot Apollo and consigning his cityto death so gratifying, though, to hear Knox by the plague. It is true that Oedipus isassure us that he will propose an answer resolute and energetic in pursuingeverythat involves not only Oedipus but the clue to his identity, but therecomes agods as well. point in his search where he is carried along on the tide of his own discoveries.Prophets and Prophecies Probably no one dares say when that point is reached, but surely thatmust be The scenes enacted in the third lesson, what makes this play so gripping: that"Man and God," generally rehearse the every searcher reaches a point where heaction summarized in the second lesson, is, literally, the captive of what he isbut this time they are preceded bya searching for. As the hunternears the long discussion, by Knox, of the god quarry, as the detective nears the suspect, Apollo and the place of propheciesin as the scholar nears the truth, no one of Greek religion. Prophets and prophecies, them is wholly free, perhaps not freeatsays Knox, are of central importance in all. The goal transmits itsown hypnosis,the Oedipus, and if we understand how exerts its own compulsion, and man isthey function in the play,we will dis- more fated than free. As Oedipus ap-cover the "meaning" of the play. Per- proaches the deadly mystery of hisownhaps we will (though I doubt it), but being, he is trapped by it, andto ignorenot unless we pay much more care than this double compulsion, from within andKnox does to what the play actually without, as Knox does, is to strip thesays. And we can start by questioning play of its psychological riches. Knox's high regard for thepriests of the Delphic oracle: "The record shows that The reason that Knox gives suchem- although they madesome mistakes they phasis here to Oedipus' willto know thehad a very high proportion ofcorrect truth is that he is already formulatinga predictions." If by the "record" Knox theory about Oedipus'character.Knox's means the collection of responses in Oedipus is an impassioned, radical hu-Volume II of Parke and Wormell'sau- manist, confident of his ownpowers andthoritative The Delphic Oracle (Oxford, skeptical of the gods,particularlyof1956), then the record showsno such Apollo and his oracles. This is the kind ofthing. It is even pointless to inquire about Oedipus who dominates thescenes that the correctness or incorrectness of the are enacted in this lesson, as Oedipuspredictions, since the Delphicresponses first speaks with Creon, then with Tires- were notoriously vague, evasive, and am- ias, Jocasta, the Corinthian Messengerbiguous. Furthermore, as Parke and Wor- (and why did Knox, in defiance of themell point out (p. 2), the Pythian oracle text, turn this self-seeking lackey into adid not simply predict the future,as it kind of any Guggenheim?), and the does in this play, but insteadgave advice Theban Shepherd. Through thesescenes to petitioners regarding their plans of ac- Knox can summarize the action of thetion. Coiuently, Knox's emphasison play in this lesson and lead into hiscon-prophecy, though it fits the facts of the .cluding questions. "Why does it happen? play, does not describe the activity of the If this is not justa meaningless horror Delphic oracle as itwas familiar to story, there must be a reason. What doesGreeks of Soohoclu' time. And when the play mean?" Theseare reasonablecommending the "record" of the Delphic questions, and it is gratifyingto hearoracle, Knox should not have failedto Knox reject as inadequate the familiarpoint out that Apollo's priestsat Delphi

A- - THE OEDIPUS FILMS: A REVIEW

had also backed some rather bad horses.deavors to follow the instructions he has When the Persians defeated the Lydians,received from the oracle at Delphi. We they were on the Lydian side; when thecan go on to agree with Knox that Oedi- Athenians repelled the Persians, theypus is "bold, progressive, critical" only were (until the last moment) on theif we add that Oedipus constantly puts Persian side; and in the Peloponnesianthese admirable qualities at the service of War between Athens and Sparta that hadthe god Apollo. It is very unsettling then broken out just before this play ap-to hear Knox say that "Oedipus believes, peared, they were on the side of thelike Protagoras and like many of us, in Spartans. All of this makes very question-the power of human intelligence to solve able indeed Knox's assumption that inall human problems." If this insinuating this play Sophocles was out to defend thestatement is so, then why has Oedipus, at shabby record of these discreditedthe beginning of the play, had immediate "prophets." recourse to the oracle at Delphi? And But for all this, Knox is right when hehow can Knox say that Oedipus "has a says that all his life Oedipus tried to avoidquestioning and skeptical attitude to- fulfilling the oracle's prediction that hewards the gods" when not once in the would killhis father and marry hisplay does Oedipus say anything deroga- mother. "The prophecies Oedipus wastory about the gods and when his entire trying to beat were made by a god, andlife has been a witness to his devotion to that means that the whole question ofApollo? Knox's commentary then be- truth of religion was involved in hiscomes increasingly remote from the play attempt to prove prophecies false." Herewe read. "It was the fifth century that we must be aware of Knox's peculiarsaw the beginning of modern medicine. approach to the Oedipus; he sees the playAnd Oedipus in the play is presented to as demonstrating the truthfulness ofus as a doctor. Thebes is suffering from prohecies and therefore the "truth" ofa plague, and Oedipus tries to find a Greek religion. "The play is the story ofcure." An oddly incompetent sort of a man who rejects prophecy and there-doctor to appeal at once to an oracle. fore religion, and who finds out that heSurely, if Sophocles were that much in- WS wrong." Why a man who rejectsterested in making Oedipus a confident specific prophecies must also reject re-humanist and proto-scientist, why did he ligion is a question Knox never considers;not show us Oedipus' bypassing Apollo furthermore, Greek religion was a re-(or ignoring his advice) and trying to ligion of forms and forces, not of creeds,cure the plague by his own means, his or as Gilbert Murray once remarked, aown wit and resources, just as he had religion of beauty, not truth, so it hadanswered the riddle of the Sphinx? Then few "truths" to be attacked or defended.Sophocles would have written the play Still, there is very little evidence in theKnox is talking about instead of the play play that Oedipus has anything but thehe wrote, the play. we have, a play in profoundest reverence for Apollo andwhich the "beating" of prophecies is at his Delphic prophecies. best only a peripheral issue. Finally, it is Oedipus and Apollo's Prophecy not very reassuring to be told, as we then are, that the bedevilled Oedipus we First of all, Oedipus took Apollo'sknow from the play, the Oedipus who terrible prophecy so seriously that hehas sent for advice to Delphi, the Oedipus left his home and spent his life trying towho is in trouble from his opening lines avoid its fulfillment. And throughout theand who suffers for himself and his peo- play Oedipus piously and persistently en-ple is a man who has assumed "the sta- ENGLISH JOURNAL

1 ture of man as lord and master of theJocasta's long speech (707-725), as a re- universe." jection of the prophecies of the god In the middle portion of Lesson Three,Apollo. "Now we shall see Jocasta the Knox tells us to watch the players enactqueen treat with the same contempt a "a series of scenes from the play in whichprophecy made by the god Apollo him- these attitudes of Oedipus are clearlyself." But again, Knox is not reading the shown." It is well to follow these scenestext carefully. Jocasta is not nearly the with the text at hand (even with Knox'sfreethinker Knox makes of her; in fact, own translation, published by the Pocket she is careful to distinguish, in her speech, Library), because the scenes are eitherbetween Apollo and hispriests("A boldly edited or else do not reveal theprophecy came to Laius once I won't "attitudes" that Knox cherishes. say from Apollo himself, but from his i The first scene we see runs from linepriests"), and both at the beginning and 362 to line 398 with one curious omis-the end of her speech she stresses that it sion, 375-389. According to Knox, Oedi-is human, not divine, prophecies that pusinhisquarrelwithTiresiasis can be ignored. Blurring these distinc- "claiming that his unaided intelligence istions, Knox goes on to the surprising con- 1 superior to the divine inspiration of theclusion, "The two of them reject not prophet of Apollo." Oedipus is doing noonly the human prophet Tiresias but the such thing. He is, instead, claiming thatprophecies of the god Apollo, and this he with his human intelligence, was will-means, as we have seen, that they reject ing and able to help Thebes when Tire-the whole religious point of view." sias was not. He is not attacking divine inspiration or Apollonian prophecy; in-Significance of Choral Ode t deed, he seems to doubt that Tiresias has To substantiate his religious interpre- either gift, in view of Tiresias' conspic-tation ("The play now makes that point uous failure to solve the riddle of theclear"), Knox offers us a choral ode or, Sphinx. Oedipus' tirade here is directedrather, part of an ode (883-910). This is at Tiresias personally, at his arrogance,the ode in which the chorus complains his pretensions, his motives past and pres-that if injustice rules and prophecies fail, ent. This is all made very clear in thethen the gods are defeated andmen need 1 passage Knox cuts, in which Oedipusno longer worship at the shrines. This infers from Tiresias' behavior that he ischoral ode has long fascinated Knox, in Creon's pay. All of this is in the omit-and he obviously finds in it the message ! ted passage and is reiterated by Oedipusof the Oedipus. "This .tates clearly the at the end of his speech (399-403), fiveissues raised by the play. If the prophe- important lines that are also not includedcies are false, then all religion is meaning- in the film. Knox is so absorbed in his less....If the prophecies are lies, there religious interpretation that he persistent-are no gods." Two obServations are in ly neglects even deliberately obscuresorder. First, Knox has a right to see in the politics of the play. this chorus the meaning of the play, but The next scene in the films, in whichhe should at least quote the entire chorus Jocasta describes the prophecy given the first antistrophe, for instance, seems to Laius in order to reassure Oedipusto support (873-881)the old hubris (698-725),ispresented almost intact,theory that Knox has already rejected. with Knox suppressing only one line,Second, Sophoclean choruses are bad again a reference to Oedipus' suspicionplaces to look for the morals of the story: of Creon's politicalambitions(701).not that they are not there, but that Knox interprets this scene, particularlythere are too many of them. Sophocles' 1

THE OEDIPUS FILMS:A REVIEW

choruses represent the citizenry,the mass offers us an explanation of mind, timid, perplexed, Jocasta's "live perpetually at-life at random" speech."According to tempting to shoreup brittle fragments her, the whole universe isa chaos with- of conventional piety againstthe ruinsout plan, order, or meaning, and the that confront them. Withinthe plays only they function dramatically, way to live in it is unthinkingly, likea their instinctdumb animal." Oedipus for compromise contrastingwith the an atheist, Jo- hero's passion for integrity.It is verycasta a proto-atomist. This isan extra- appropriate at this point, where specificordinaryinterpretation toput on a prophecies have seemedto fail, that thespeech that strikesmost readers as a fragile faith of the chorusshould shatterbitterly ironic (andtemporary) exulta- and that they should voicetheir paniction. Actually, Jocastasays nothing about that life has lost its meaning.Either allthe universe, chaoticor otherwise, nor prophecies obtain,or there are no gods. does she adviseanyone to live like an This either-or thinking, thisapocalypticanimal. All shesays is that man must mentality, defines the shallownessand fearlessly make hisway, as best he can, in the poverty of the chorus'spiritual re-a world of chance and vicissitude. Does sources. Their perceptions aregross, andthis kind of world require thatman live they can onlyassess the spectacle theylike a dumb, unthinking animal?On the have witnessed by suchcataclysmic alter-contrary, such a world makes human natives. Dramatically, this is perfectand thought and effort all themore neces- the play would bepoorer without thesary, all the more crucial. But it isvery chorus. But it is certainly startlingto findimportant for Knoxat this point in the Knox so confidently sharingtheir simple- play that Oedipus and Jocastabe Wrong minded judgments,so blandly offeringand Bad so that theycan later be Shown their desperate rationalizationsas theUp by the events of the play.For the "issues raised by the play." events of the play prove,says Knox, "that the prophecies But Knox is notyet finished with his were true, that there interpretation. Next tocome is the sceneis a pattern in humanevents, and that (929-979) with the Corinthianmessen- there is beyond man's understandinga ger, who informs Jocasta first and thendivine power anda divine knowledge." Oedipus that Polybus isdead. KnoxKnox is,understandably, veryvague makes much of thisscene, particularly of about this "pattern" he has discerned, and Jocasta's lines about livingat random,he is not at all embarrassed that this"di- which he somewhat stronglytranslatesvine power and divine knowledge" in as to live "by hit and miss." Knoxcom-the world of the Oedipus arbitrarilycon- ments, "When Jocasta hears thenewssigns innocent people to themost terrible she is triumphant. Both she andOedipusfates imaginable. The godsare in the take it as a- proof,a final proof, that di-heavens, all's wrong with the world! But, vine prophecy is worthless."Oedipusnothing daunted, Knox finds inthis hardly takes thenews as a final proofcheerless prospecta message (for Our since he first considers the possibilitythatTimes, one suspects):"His example his father may have been "killed"throughteaches us that man's confidence in his longing to see him again,nor does heown ability, great though that ability conclude that divine prophecy isworth-may be, is an illusion if he abandons the less,since he at oncecommences toidea of God." How the Christian God worry about marrying his mother. But ifentered here is anybody'sguess, but Knox we are not all convinced that Sophocles'then concludes, "This is the meaning of hero is by nowa vaunting atheist, Knoxthe play: It is a tremendous reassertion ENGLISH JOURNAL

of the view thatman is subordinate toOedipus' old qualities is that this time God." Amen. they are enlightened, accompanied bya In concluding this lesson, Knox dealsnew awareness on Oedipus' part that he with what he takes to bean objection tohas become Apollo's spokesman and his interpretation, namely that "itseems champion. to suggest that all human action is fixed The scene that is supposedto exhibit in advance." No,says Knox, confidentlyOedipus armed with the authority of replying to an objection that isas irrele-Apollo is his final interview with Creon, vant and factitious as his own interpre-from line 1422 to the end of the play. tation, man does have freedom. OedipusKnox has the players enact thisscene in was free "to find out or not to findouta severely edited version (omitting lines the truth." We have already suggested 1426-1428, part of 1455, 1463-1465, 1467- that Oedipus' "freedom" is not so abso-1515, and 1519-1522) and thencomments lute or unqualifiedas Knox imagines,on what he takes to be its implications. and at this stage there is probably notOf course, by cutting thevery long pas- much use in inquiring from Professorsage, 1467-1515, in which Oedipus Knox under what circumstances em- couldbraces his daughters, laments theirfate, Oedipus have suddenly suspendedtheand begs Creon to protect them,Knox search for Laius' murderer. obscures the pity, the tenderness, and Divergent Interpretations the agony of Oedipusas the play closes. But pity, tenderness, andagony will not Lesson Four is entitled "TheRecoveryserve Knox's partisan purposes; his Oedi- of Oedipus," and in itKnox maintainspus must be of sterner stuff, and that the play is not as a message of despair,Apollo's champion, hemust proselytize since in the finalscene Oedipus reassertson Apollo's behalf. To show the himself and new, recovers his initiative. TheApollonian Oedipus in action, Knoxfab- same old Oedipus, but witha difference.ricates an "argument" between "He knows Oedipus now that the gods know,and Creon that is supposedto begin everything. He has learnedthat divinesomewhere around line 1436 and the sub- knowledge is greater thanthe knowledgestance of which is what is to be done of even the greatest man." Yet, in thewith the blind Oedipus. Knoxcomments, final two hundred linesof the play, Oedi-"It is Oedipus whonow insists on the pus says not a single word about theseimmediate fulfillment of Apollo's things he is supposed com- to have learnedmands. Creon, thenew king, wishes to about divine wisdom. In fact,throughoutdelay, to makesure of what Apollo said. this fourth lesson Knox'sOedipus is soBut Oedipus, whoonce cast such scorn widely at variance with Sophocles' thaton oracles and prophecies, now insistson we can only wonder if he is reading thethe literal and immediatefulfillment of same play. Knox insists, almost stridently, the god's command,even thoughit that the Oedipus ofthe exodos isas means his own death or banishment. The proud, imperious, and impatientas theman who lived his life in defiance of Oedipus who quarreled withTiresias andApollo's prophecy and denied Apollo's Creon. This is a peculiar impressionknowledge andpower now turns into his Knox has, particularly inview of thechampion." This isa most perfunctory three long, pitiable, andself-laceratingargument, and Knox's comment misses speeches(1369-1415,1446-1475,andits whole point, which is that the specific 1478-1514) that dominate Oedipus'sharepunishment Apollo proclaimed forthe in this portion of the play.But the reasonmurderer of Laiuswas left undefined that Knox gives for therecrudescence of (100). Death or banishment, andCreon is ;

THE OEDIPUS FILMS: A REVIEW

clearly uncertain of his duty (so is Oedi-will obviously not do,so in his transla- pus) and determined to seek enlighten-tion Knox changes it to "forsome strange ment from Apollo's oracle. Since thisand dreadful end." This is better: that kind of reverence for oracles is whatpesky word "evil" isout of there and Knox has been commending throughout"strange" softens and deepens "dreadful." his commentary, it sounds strange toBut still something is missing,some ap- hear him now object to Creon's show ofpropriate note of grandeur;so in his com- piety. Usually Knox argues against thementary Knox gets rid of "dreadful" and text; here he is also arguing against him-substitutes "special." There! "Forsome self. So, Apollo's command has beenun-strange and special end." Exactly what clear, and Knox is unfairly weighting thethat tiresome old Sophocles should have text when he translates apollunai (1441) said! as "death for the unholy man" when it Knox now goes on to conclude his can also mean "destruction," that is, de-commentary, reiterating his conviction struction of his citizenship by exile. Fur-that Oedipus "sees himself as the instru- thermore, by translating this word asment of destiny, of the will of God." He "death," Knox runs into a contradictionmakes much of Creon's wordsto Oedi- with lines 1451 and 1518, where Oedipus p at line 1522, "Do not seek to be explicitly asks that he be sent into exile.master in everything." Knox: "It is an Finally, to deflate whatever remains ofastonishing thing to have to say to aman this pseudo argument, we hear nomore ofwho is now a blind, outcast beggar, help- it in the remaining lines of the playex- . less, and condemned to death or exile. cept for a somewhat vague assurance byOedipus, who not longago came out of Creon (1519) that he will let Oedipusthe palace a broken man, now has to be go into exile if Apollo approves. The factsharply reminded that he is no longer isthat there has been no argumentKing of Thebes." Blind beggaror not, worthy of the name and the shattered,most readers will not find Oedipus' "im- blinded Oedipus nowhere speaks orperiousness" uncalled for since he has needs to speak with the authority ofbeen asking only that he be allowed to anyone but himself. And for us, who askeep his children who, as we have readers or viewers, have been the wit-seen, do not appear in the film. The nesses of his fate, Oedipus, who haspoint here is not that Oedipus thinks that learned the truth and dared to live withhe is king of Thebes, but that he knows it, is himself the supreme authority. that he is still father of his children. But Man of Destiny again, as so often in the films, Knox has But Knox is not content with this. Hismuffled the human appeal of the action. Oedipus must not only be aman of God,In his settings, for example, we see noth- he must also be a man of destiny. "Asing of the sick city or of his suffering he speaks with this new authority, therepeople. Knox's Oedipus moves vaguely comes to him the feeling that he is a manamong columns, his Apollo a grim god of of destiny, who is reserved forsome prophecies, not the bright god of health. strange and special end." Here we have And before we share Knox's harshness interpretive translating at its unholiest.towardJocasta, whom he seems to What the Greek says in line 1457 is, ["Iloathe, let us remember that she is a have been saved for some (or "this")woman and devoted to her husband, and dreadful evil, "] suggesting, perhaps, thethat she is not in the same position as terrible doom of a lifetime's awareness ofOedipus or subject to the same kingly what he has unwittingly done to hispressures. If we commend Oedipus for father, his mother, and himself. But thissnatching at straws, like the discrepancy ENGLISH JOURNAL

of numbers, we can hardly blame Jocastaquestionoracles,dodisbelievethem for sometimes accepting oracles (853-temporarily, and do findout that they 854) and other times rejecting themwere wrong. This is dramatic irony, and (723), whatever their source, in her des-Sophocles is the supreme ironist, butto perate attempt to reassure her troubledinflate an irony to the swollenpropor- husband. But all this, the whole humantions of a religious philosophy isa dis- contour of action, is lost in an approachservice to Sophocics asan artist. Also, the to the play that turns dramatic reactionsterms of the religiosity Knox finds con- (1 intoreasoned lc..,z. i. convictions.Sophocles'firmed in the play are inconsistent. We characters have becomeAdeologues. A begin with the gods and end with God. The fourth, and last, lessonnow endsWhat begins as a dramatic vindication of with some stirring words by KnoxtoApollonian prophecies endsas a doctrinal his audience. He remindsus that man isdefense of Christian providence. From c cidnov neither golxi nor 131:1t but lives some-predicted fates to divinepatterns. Now -r-where between these twoextremes, andit may be comforting that the university 1°e-1's 1'he asks us if, in our twentieth-centuryprofessor from the Ivy Leaguecan assure probings into the riddle of the universe,high school students all over America we will be armed with the courage ofthat Sophocles was not onlyon the side Oedipus and with his readinessto en-of the gods but on God's sideas well, but dure unhappy consequences. Whateverbesides taming a powerful tragedy, it our separate doubts may be about how raises the specter if that is the word and if the play posed these questions,of Sophocles the enlightened bishop. This these are sentiments wecan all agree isnot only anachronistic,it can get with. downright embarrassing. The objections noted hereare not Conclusion meant to assume or imply an alternative theory of the play. This may not even The strictures in this critique havebe as optimistic a play as Knoxsupposes. been severe, but Knox has dealt severelyWhen one reads Thucydides' account of with the play. He has a rightto his ownthe plague at Athens and considers that interpretation, of course, and in his book,the Oedipus, itself dealing with a plague, Oedipus at Thebes (New Haven: Yalewas probably written soon after this dire University Press, 1957), he has furtherevent, it is hard to imagine a dramatist developed his interpretation,even ex-in, say, 429 buoyed by a solacing confi- tended it to maintain that Oedipus isdence in a divine pattern or purpose. symbolic of fifth-century Athens. ThisBut these are matters impossible to prove, book is both eloquent and persuasive,even in spite of Knox's efforts. What is though it has met with indifferentsuccess probably more important is that we not among Mr. Knox's scholarly peers, whoso relentlessly seek out or impose on have made some of the reservationsap- students tidy little meanings. What Knox pearing in this review. But Knox's bookdoes in these films is to close down the and this film series are two differentrep-Oedipus rather than open it up (those resentations of the Oedipus; and it isa interested in an article that does seem to pity that audio-visual materials are typi-open up the play might look into James cally immune from the type of criticism,Schroeter's "The Four Fathers: Symbo- good and bad, even- and ill-tempered,lism in Oedipus Rex," which appeared in that ordinary publications endure. InCriticism, III,3 [Summer 19611, 186- both presentations, Knox has valid points200); by offering an official-sounding and to make. Both Oedipus and Jocasta do offered to unsuspecting teachers as the eminently respectable interpretation he receivedinterpretationofSophocles' has tried to pluck out the heart of Sopho-great tragedy. It is very difficult for cles' mystery. Again, Knox has a right toteachers who have little familiarity with his views, however reductive or perverseGreek civilization to defend against such or marginal they may seem to others. Buta powerful combination. But defend they it is quite another thing when his privatemust: it is the obligation they have to views are enshrined in a pretentious (andtheir students as teachers; it is the obli- expensive) series of films, lent the pres-gation they have to themselves as think- tige of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, anding human beings.

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