Interpretation in Oedipus Rex -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: [1], 2 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 18:19:05 03/06/08 Thu
Author: Shannon
Subject: Interpretation in Oedipus Rex

So, in class last Wednesday we discussed the different translations of Oedipus, especially in reference to the number of killers. Dr. Jackson commented how one of the translations used the singular because it was reading the end of the play back into the beginning. Interpretation seems to be a theme in the play itself, especially considering the numerous oracles that shape the characters' vision of the action and Iocasta's insistence that all oracles are false and unreliable. In several passages, Oedipus actually falls into the same falicy as the previously mentioned translaters did: reading his vision of the world into the oracle.
For example, when discussing the reliability of oracles with Iocasta, Oedipus recounts the Delphic oracle given to him in his youth, but changes it from murdering his father--the oracles actual words--to murdering Polybus, the man he believed to be his father:
"Why should a man respect the Pythian hearth, or
Give hedd to the birds that jangle above his head?
They prophesied that I should kill Polybus,
Kill my own father; but he is dead and burried,
And I am here--I never touched him, never,
Unless he dies of grief at my departure,
And thus, in a sense, through me. No, Polybus
Has packed the oracles off with him underground.
They are empty words."

Likewise, Iocasta distrusts the oracles because her prophecy has also seemed unfulfilled:
"He can not ever show that Laios' death
Fulfilled the oracle: for Apollo said
My child was doomed to kill him; and my child--
Poor baby!--it was my child that died first.
No. From now on, where oracles are concerned,
I would not waste a scond thought on any."

Both characters base their unbelief on a misreading pf the text--perhaps a proper caution from Sophocles to his readers and an apt reminder fo all we bring into a reading.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]