Time in Oedipus Rex -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 10:49:26 03/12/08 Wed
Author: Kiernan
Subject: Time in Oedipus Rex

In Ode II (pg.46), the Chorus describes the ways of right:

Those generations of the realms of light;
Ah, never of mortal kind were they begot,
Nor are they slaves of memory, lost in sleep:
Their Father is greater than Time, and ages not.

This description seems to embody positive perspective on mythology implicit in the crowd. Mythology involves forgetting the fundamental innocence of the victim, and rewriting the story of the founding murder from the perspective of the mob. This rewriting, this forgetfulness, seems good to the crowd. Thus, the Chorus praises the righteous man for not being a "slave of memory." The God, the "Father," who guides these righteous ones, is "greater than Time," like a mythology which reshapes events from a particular perspective.

This forgetfulness, incidentally, reminds me of "King Lear," when Albany exclaims at the end, "Great thing of us forgot!" I don't necessarily know that there's any connection; this passage just reminded me of that.

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