Oedipus and the Gospels -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 06:39:24 03/07/08 Fri
Author: Janelle
Subject: Oedipus and the Gospels

As I was reading Oedipus Rex I was trying to figure out why it is that Girard places Sophocles as being a little farther along than Euripides in revealing the mechanism. As I was reading, the passages that stood out to me were all lines said by Teiresias to Oedipus. They were lines like: "You are all ignorant", "You can not see the evil", and "You mock my blindness, do you? But I say that you, with both your eyes, are blind: You can not see the wretchedness of your life".

Granted, these obviously apply to Teiresias' knowledge of Oedipus killing his father and sleeping with his mother, but I think that these passages can be read another way. If read in light of passages from the Gospel of Luke, such as "Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see" (Ch. 10, verse 23) and "For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known" (Ch. 12, verse 2) I think that Teirisias' words could be taken as implying that all are ignorant of the mechanism they have succomb to, and that only he can "see" it. I think that if Girard read the passages in this way then that may be way he is giving Sophocles perhaps more credit than Euripides.

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