Monday, June 01, 2009
OEDIPUS AT COLONUS
Author: Sophocles
Date: written in 406 BC, first produced in 401 BC
I rarely enjoy the works of very old people, as they don't seem to have the urgency and the ease of narrative flow of those written by younger ones. This play is by no means an exception to the rule. And it has the feel of a sequel, in its less savory aspects of revisionism and unessentiality. That being said, it is wonderfully written, perhaps even more so than the other Theban plays; and people have found a wealth of meaning in it, so it must have some value. Some remarks are due here, about some details of the plot that almost no one seems to get right, or pay attention to anyway. Oedipus is wanted by the Thebans for some very specific reasons concerning the religious obligations toward the dead. Namely, if he dies in an unknown place, his grave will go either unattended or it will be attended by someone other than his Theban relatives. This would bring ill fortune upon his relatives. This is why they want to keep him at hand; so that they can bury him in a place where it would be easy for them to pay the posthumous duties toward him. The perverse twist here is that they do not consent to bury him inside the gates of Thebes, because he is "polluted" by his former patricidal and incestuous acts; thus they are willing to bury him right outside those gates; as expected, Oedipus is not at all pleased with this proposed arrangement, and prefers instead to give the knowledge of the location of his grave to the king of Athens, who offered him hospitality. It may be a little hazardous to give such a positive interpretation of this text based only on translations as is my case. So be it, it is done; the fact is, some translations conform exactly to this interpretation, others only partially, and the rest not at all. Storr is exactly right, Roche is perfectly wrong, to give only two examples.
Date: written in 406 BC, first produced in 401 BC
I rarely enjoy the works of very old people, as they don't seem to have the urgency and the ease of narrative flow of those written by younger ones. This play is by no means an exception to the rule. And it has the feel of a sequel, in its less savory aspects of revisionism and unessentiality. That being said, it is wonderfully written, perhaps even more so than the other Theban plays; and people have found a wealth of meaning in it, so it must have some value. Some remarks are due here, about some details of the plot that almost no one seems to get right, or pay attention to anyway. Oedipus is wanted by the Thebans for some very specific reasons concerning the religious obligations toward the dead. Namely, if he dies in an unknown place, his grave will go either unattended or it will be attended by someone other than his Theban relatives. This would bring ill fortune upon his relatives. This is why they want to keep him at hand; so that they can bury him in a place where it would be easy for them to pay the posthumous duties toward him. The perverse twist here is that they do not consent to bury him inside the gates of Thebes, because he is "polluted" by his former patricidal and incestuous acts; thus they are willing to bury him right outside those gates; as expected, Oedipus is not at all pleased with this proposed arrangement, and prefers instead to give the knowledge of the location of his grave to the king of Athens, who offered him hospitality. It may be a little hazardous to give such a positive interpretation of this text based only on translations as is my case. So be it, it is done; the fact is, some translations conform exactly to this interpretation, others only partially, and the rest not at all. Storr is exactly right, Roche is perfectly wrong, to give only two examples.
