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Chapter 7: People Alone |
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Sophocles
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Sophocles was born between 500 and 494 B.C.E. into an affluent Athenian family. He began acting and singing early, and he served as a choral leader in the celebrations for the defeat of the Persians at Marathon in 480 B.C.E. In 468 he won highest festival honors for the first play he submitted for competition, Triptolemos. He wrote at least 120 plays, approximately 90 of them tragedies, and he won the prize a record 24 times. He was also an active citizen. He was twice elected general of his tribe, and he served as a priest in the cult of Asclepius, the god of healing. Because of his dramatic and public achievements, he was venerated during his lifetime, and after his death in 406—405 B.C.E., a cult was established in his honor. When Oedipus the King was first performed between 430 and 425 B.C.E., most of the audience would have known the general outlines of the story inasmuch as it was one of the "received legends" of tragedy: the antagonism of the gods Hephaestus and Hera toward Cadmus of Thebes (of whom Oedipus was a descendant); the prophecy that the Theban king Laius would be killed by his own son; the exposure of the newly born Oedipus on a mountainside; his rescue by a well-meaning shepherd; his youth spent as the adopted son of King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth; his trip to Delphi to learn his origins; his impetuous murder of Laius (a stranger to him); his solution of the Sphinx's riddle; his ascension as king of Thebes and his marriage to Queen Jocasta, his mother; his reign as king; the plague that afflicted Thebes; his attempts at restoration; and Jocasta's suicide when the truth of Oedipus's past was revealed. Although these details were commonly known, there was disagreement about the outcome of Oedipus's life. One version told that he remarried, had four children with his new wife, reigned long and successfully, died in battle, and was finally worshiped as a hero. Sophocles, however, dramatizes a version—either borrowed or of his own creation—that tells of Oedipus's self-imposed punishment. Aristotle prized Oedipus the King so highly that he used it to illustrate many of his principles of tragedy. Of particular interest is that the play embodies the so-called three unities, which are implicit in the Poetics although Aristotle does not stress them. Sophocles creates unity of place by using the front of the royal palace of Thebes as the location for the entire action. He creates unity of action by dramatizing only those activities leading to Oedipus's recognition of the true scourge of the city. Finally, he creates unity of time because the stage or action time coincides with real-life time. In fact, the play's time is considerably shorter than the "single revolution of the sun" that Aristotle recommends as the proper period for a complete tragic action (V.4, p. 23). Above all, Oedipus the King meets Aristotle's requirements for one of the very best plays because of the skill with which Sophocles makes Oedipus's recognition of his guilt coincide exactly with the disastrous reversal of his fortunes (XI.2, p. 41). Author Links
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"Oedipus the King"
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