Copyright © 2018 Kenneth Glazer. This Table Is the Basis
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Copyright © 2018 Kenneth Glazer. This table is the basis for the appendix of Searching for Oedipus: How I Found Meaning in an Ancient Manuscript by Kenneth Glazer Appendix: An Endless Controversy It is hard to find a single issue about Oedipus Rex as to which there is scholarly consensus, or a single scholarly assertion about it that has gone uncontradicted by other scholars. This table collects in one place a number of those disputes, using representative quotations to illustrate the opposing positions. The statements in italics at the top of each box are my summaries of the various positions. Where does the Oedipus myth come from, and what inspired it? The Oedipus myth is based on history. The myth is based on folktales, not history. “[T]he legend of Oedipus grew from the real “I am persuaded that the origin of Oedipus is experiences of the Pharaoh Akhnaton and his to be found not in history but in folk-tales.” family.” (Velikovsky, 243) (Nilsson, 103) Some scholars have “found in the myth the kernel of historical kings in Mycenaean Thebes.” (Segal, 58) The Oedipus story reflects widespread disgust The myth does not reflect disgust with with the practice of infanticide. infanticide, which was very common in the ancient world. “The emotional charge that Sophocles gives to the motif of exposing the infant suggests that he “[Jocasta’s] treatment of her newborn son may be exploring the guilty feelings that would not revolt [ancient Athenians], for parents would have over the practice.” (Segal, exposure of unwanted children was both 50) frequent and legal in Athens.” (Letters, 223) The Sphinx episode was a late add-on to the The Sphinx episode was long an integral part myth. of the myth. “The main purpose of this essay is to show that “Both [Lowell Edmunds and Ulrich the Sphinx is a secondary element in the Hausmann] grappled with the question of the Oedipus legend, added at some point in the relation between the Sphinx and the larger 1 Copyright © 2018 Kenneth Glazer. This table is the basis for the appendix of Searching for Oedipus: How I Found Meaning in an Ancient Manuscript by Kenneth Glazer development of the legend to motivate the Oedipus plot, that is, whether the riddle hero’s marriage to his mother.” (Edmunds, episode constituted an original part of the 147–48) Oedipus story . Both arrived at utterly divergent responses. Hausmann concluded that the ‘Sphinx-motif’ was ‘inseparably bound up with the Oedipus saga,’ . and belonged ‘since time immemorial at the apex of Oedipus’ illustrious rise.’” (Renger, 24) Oedipus is a great mythological hero—in fact, The myth of Oedipus is a deviation and the archetypal hero. departure from the standard hero myth. “He does not seem to have been regarded as a “The difference between [standard hero legislator; apart from that we may award him myths like those of Jason and Perseus] and full marks [in the twenty-two point scale of the Oedipus myth is striking. [For mythological heroes].” (Somerset, 175) example, the standard hero] has to fight, has to shed blood, in a struggle that mobilizes the energy of his entire being. He has to pierce with his sword or decapitate the horrible, dangerous, monstrous female . Oedipus’s adventure lacks this lethal act. [T]he Sphinx is not killed, but commits suicide. In place of such noble deeds [as Jason’s capture of the Golden Fleece] . Oedipus is condemned to a sordid and dishonoring combat in which he beats an old man to death with a stick.” (Goux, 16, 23, 35) Does the play have any broader meaning? The play is highly symbolic and full of deep The play has no meaning (not even that life meaning. is meaningless). We shouldn’t try to extract any message from it. “Most critics who discuss this play assume that Sophocles put his whole soul and his deepest “[The argument that the play is about convictions into it, that he was trying to ‘say suffering] is just one more way of smuggling something’ and not merely trying to enthrall the significance into the Oedipus Tyrannus; just audience.” (O’Brien, 4) one more expression of the feeling that this work, by hook or by crook, must be made to “The play is, above all other Greek tragedies we mean something . There is no meaning in know anything about, a play of ideas . .” (Else, the Oedipus Tyrannus.” (Waldock, 123, 128) 105) 2 Copyright © 2018 Kenneth Glazer. This table is the basis for the appendix of Searching for Oedipus: How I Found Meaning in an Ancient Manuscript by Kenneth Glazer “[The play is a] vehicle for the profoundest “[T]he idea of the drama is the play itself, symbolism.” (Whitman, 145) not something that can be extracted from it.” (Owen, 36) Oedipus is a symbol. Oedipus is not a symbol. He is just Oedipus. “Oedipus is Everyman.” (Whitman, 138) “Oedipus is not Everyman: he has been singled out by divinity for a unique fate.” “[Sophocles’s] Oedipus stands for human (Gould 2, 158) suffering.” (Sheppard, 200) “Attempts have been made to say that “Oedipus is a paradigm of all mankind.” (Knox Oedipus ‘stands for’ something—ideal man, I, 196) or all humanity, or the like . No one who knows the drama of the period will entertain “[W]e are moved because Oedipus represents such thoughts . Oedipus is not ‘man,’ but man, and his tragedy [represents] the human Oedipus.” (Adams, 109) condition. Oedipus represents all of us.” (Kaufmann, 108, 115) “Oedipus is a world-wonder in his suffering, in his peculiar destiny he is a freak. He is a man selected out of millions to undergo this staggering fate.” (Waldock, 123) The play is deeply philosophical. There is no “philosophy” in Oedipus Rex. “Oedipus is the founder of philosophy: the In the play, Sophocles steers away from prototypical philosopher.” (Goux, 166) “philosophical embroilment . [he] is so careful to allow nothing to divert him from “I will now offer my own interpretation of the one thing with which he is concerned: Oedipus Tyrannus by calling attention to five that one thing being, of course, the writing of central [philosophical] themes. [For drama.” (Waldock, 122) example] Oedipus is a play about man’s radical insecurity.” (Kaufmann, 114–15) What is the play about? What impact is it supposed to have on us? It’s a play about the meaninglessness of life, The play should you make you feel optimistic and therefore it should fill you with deep and hopeful because of the greatness of its pessimism. hero. “The only lesson to be drawn is one of total “[W]e go home from a performance of the pessimism, and the only attitude encouraged is Oedipus with a feeling of elevation . .” that of uncomprehending resignation.” (Lesky, 132) (Vellacott II, 208) (italics added) 3 Copyright © 2018 Kenneth Glazer. This table is the basis for the appendix of Searching for Oedipus: How I Found Meaning in an Ancient Manuscript by Kenneth Glazer “How anyone . could view the end of the “The end of Oedipus is . at once the most play as optimistic I cannot imagine.” (Hester, terrible and optimistic of Sophocles’ plays.” 45) (Crossett, 141) “The effect is to make the audience fear that “[Oedipus is] like a man who goes through perhaps the efforts of human beings to create hell but survives, and survives with the lives for themselves may be devoid of human whole of himself—his courage, his passion, meaning.” (Gould 2, 2) his goodness, and his anger—undiminished.” (Cameron, 120) “Oedipus touches another area of anxiety, existential rather than sexual or psychological: “The closing note of the tragedy is a renewed the fear of meaninglessness.” (Segal, 14) insistence on the heroic nature of Oedipus; the play ends as it began, with the greatness of the hero.” (Knox I, 194) The play is a cautionary tale about pride and There is no message in Oedipus Rex about overconfidence. pride or overconfidence. “The Tyrannus . warns against “It seems unlikely that Sophocles intended to overconfidence.” (Letters, 229) portray Oedipus as punished for wanton pride.” (Bowra, 165) “Sophocles is certainly not suggesting that Oedipus’ ruin is due to his pride.” (Kaufmann, 66 n. 41) “Oedipus has no particular flaws.” (Arrowsmith, 164) There is an important moral to the play. The play has no moral. “Oedipus accepts and preaches a further lesson. “There is no moral lesson here.” (O’Brien, He knows he has become a signal example of 15) the uncertainty of mortal welfare, and no less than the chorus will he draw the moral that We should reject “the unworthy attempts that Sophocles’ characters so often do: the wisdom have been made to turn this drama into one and happiness of the man, the danger of excess of sin and atonement and to reduce the in mood, fortune and ambition.” (Letters, 228) unparalleled intensity of its tragic feeling to a mere story with a moral.” (Lesky, 130) “I hope I have now disposed of the moralizing interpretation.” (Dodds, 22) The play teaches that our lives are ruled by Oedipus Rex is not a “tragedy of fate.” fate. In other words, it’s a “tragedy of fate”—in Oedipus is completely in charge of his fate, fact, the classic one. at least within the context of the play. 4 Copyright © 2018 Kenneth Glazer. This table is the basis for the appendix of Searching for Oedipus: How I Found Meaning in an Ancient Manuscript by Kenneth Glazer “[T]here is no doubt that the whole narrative of “Oedipus, as distinct from other Greek Oedipus has one main point: the fate was tragedies, is by no means a tragedy of human bestowed upon him at birth.” (Megas, 141) fate, for which it has so long served as a pattern .