Homer on Oedipus
Odyssey 11.271ff.
[271] "I also saw fair Epikaste mother of king Oedipus whose awful lot it was to marry her own son without suspecting it in her noos (mind). He married her after having killed his father, but the gods proclaimed the whole story to the world; whereon he remained king of Thebes, in great grief for the spite the gods had borne him; but Epikaste went to the house of the mighty gatekeeper Hades, having hanged herself for grief, and the avenging spirits haunted him as for an outraged mother – to his ruing bitterly thereafter.
Sophocles’ Oedipus
When Oedipus has sight he is ignorant, so when
he gains knowledge he becomes blind, i.e., he becomes like Tiresias.
Oedipus Tyrannos
Oedipus Rex
Oedipus the King
Oedipus the tyrannos of Thebes realizes that he is
really king of Thebes.
Sophocles’ Oedipus "Trilogy"
Oedipus Tyrannos (c.427 B.C.)
Oedipus at Colonus (401 B.C.)
Antigone (c.442 B.C.)
Approaches to the Oedipus Myth
Oedipus the Hero:
1.) the pattern
2.) folktale themes
3.) the Quest
a.) the Sphinx’ riddle
b.) the quest for personal identity
Like Odysseus, Oedipus is a hero of the intellect, not physical strength
Oedipus the Tragic Hero (Aristotle):
harmatia
hybris
peripeteia
anagnorisis
The Freudian Oedipus
Charter Myths (Malinowski)
Structuralism (Levi-Strauss)
This material has been published on the web by Prof. Tom Sienkewicz for his students at Monmouth College. If you have any questions, you can contact him at toms@monm.edu.