Final Oedipus Notes

The class came up with four general themes to investigate:

1. The relation of leader to city = civic duty, etc.
2. The role of the tyrant
3. Vision/Sight
4. Sometimes it’s better not to be yourself

 For this class, we concentrated on 1) and 2).  Noting that Athens was a fledgling democracy (see above) that had until recently alternated between tyranny and oligarchy, and bearing in mind that “tyrant” did not mean what it means today (it meant someone who came to power through means other than being a member of a ruling family), we investigated pages 40-41.  Here we see the chorus give advice on the proper role of the tyrant.  While they acknowledge that “audacity” hubris—the act of stepping out of ones place in a passionate or violent manner—is the key to a tyrant’s success, they also warn that rash action can cause a tyrant’s downfall.  We note Oedipus acting rashly when he targets Tiresias and Creon as plotting against him (another definition of hubris seen above).  Tiresias, we later learn, is entirely correct, and Creon turns out to be a super-swell guy.

In the strophe 2/ antistrophe 2 section on page 41, the chorus argues with itself. On the one hand (strophe), they revere the gods and warn that impious actions and polluted touch can not be rewarded, otherwise the entire religious order (the “dance”) is meaningless.  On the other hand (antistrophe), the chorus declare that they will no longer worship at Delphi, and that the old prophecies about Laius seem untrue.  “Faith wanders, lost,” they say.

We added some of the points above re: Greek loss in the Peloponnesian war, plague, etc. had seen the growth of a new order: that of the goddess Tyche, or Chance (fate, fortune), whose activities could not be predicted by the prophets and who was becoming increasingly seen as the goddess of chaos rather than of good luck.

We notice that Oedipus and Jocasta both identify with chance at certain points:

On page 44, for instance, Jocasta says

Why should a person fear when the ways of fortune

Are supreme, when there is no clear foresight?

It’s best to live at random, however one can.

Do not worry you will wed your mother,

For many mortals have lain with

Their mothers in dreams. Rather, the one for whom

These things are nothing bears life easiest.

Oedipus:

“Polybus has taken those prophecies as they are—worthless—with him and lies in Hades” (44).

“I deem myself the child of Chance, who gives good things” (49).

We also note that Oedipus is very much the “new man” of empirical observation (see above).

He defeats the Sphinx “by working from intellect, not learning from birds” (24). (Reading the flight of birds was a standard mode of prophecy).

He is the physician who will cure Thebes of its disease by removing the pollution.

Eventually we find out Oedipus was wrong to believe he could escape the prophet’s words, and in fact, every “rational” act he took to escape (such as leaving his home city so he would not kill his father and sleep with his mother) brought him closer to his doom.

We asked the question of what ideology is at work here by asking whose interests are served by such a story.  Our conclusion was that the Oracles and the institution of prophecy have their power reinforced.  Reason, science, and Chance prove to be less powerful than prophecy, and struggling against prophecy only makes your fate worse.  

What advice is this to the “great man” who would rule the city?  We note Oedipus always did the right thing as a ruler with respect to the city.  However, he behaved improperly towards the prophets and to his kin (Creon and Jocasta).  He also showed hubris by believing he could resist prophecy.  

This is, then, a conservative narrative, in that it reinforces, through Oedipus’ negative example, the power of the Oracles, and also the power of ruling families—as long as they obey the prophets!

Today we will look at the themes of vision and “not being who you really are”

The Oedipus Complex

• Sigmund Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams in 1899.  In it, he outlined a theory of male sexual development.  This was elaborated upon further in Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905).

Stages in Sexual Development:

Children, to Freud, are at first unable to differentiate sexual feelings in the same way adults are.  In a sense, all pleasures are sexual to them.

The Oral Phase: 0-1 The child derives pleasure from drinking the mother’s milk, or a substitute thereof.  The child cannot tell himself from his mother at first, but after about a year he comes to love his mother as an external source of pleasure.