Since Laius was predicted by Apollo to die at the hands of his own son, he ordered his wife to leave the newborn on Mount Cithaeron, piercing his tendons at the ankles with a pin. However, the shepherd, who received the child from Queen Jocasta and did not know the true reason for such a decision, took pity on the newborn and gave it to the Corinthian shepherd, whom he met on mountain pastures. He took the child to his childless king Polybus, who named the boy Oedipus (“with swollen legs”) and raised him as his own son. Once, when Oedipus was already an adult young man, some swindling resident of Corinth called him a foundling, and although the adoptive parents reassured their son in every possible way and did not reveal to him the secret of his birth, Oedipus decided to go to Delphi to ask the oracle of Apollo about his origin. Instead of an answer, the oracle gave Oedipus a prophecy that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Not daring to return to Corinth, which he considered his homeland, Oedipus went to seek happiness in a foreign land. On the way from Delphi, at the crossroads of three roads, he met some noble man on a chariot, accompanied by servants. In the ensuing road quarrel, the stranger hit Oedipus on the head with a heavy scepter, and in response, the enraged young man killed the attacker, his driver and all, as it seemed to him, servants with a road staff. However, one person from the retinue of Laius (for it was he) escaped, returned to Thebes and said that the king had died at the hands of robbers. Oedipus, continuing his journey, approached Thebes and guessed the riddle of the monstrous Sphinx. In gratitude for delivering Thebes from a long disaster, the Theban citizens made Oedipus their king and gave the widow Laius as his wife. The only witness of the meeting of Oedipus with Laius, the servant who brought the news of the attack of the robbers, after the accession of Oedipus in Thebes, asked Jocasta to go to a distant pasture and did not show up in the city again. Thus, the prophecy given to Oedipus at Delphi was fulfilled, although neither he nor Jocasta suspected this and led a happy married life for about 20 years, during which four children were born: Polyneices, Eteocles, Antigone, Ismena . Only after a long period of time, when Thebes was stricken with a pestilence and the Delphic oracle demanded the expulsion of the unidentified murderer Laius from Thebes, Oedipus, in the process of clarifying the circumstances of a long-standing crime, was able to establish whose son he was, whom he killed and with whom he was married. He gouged out his own eyes with a gold clasp taken from the dress of Jocasta, who had hanged herself, and was eventually expelled from Thebes. Devoted to him, despite all the disgrace revealed, Antigone volunteered to accompany the blind father. After long wanderings, Oedipus reaches the sacred grove of Eumenides in the Attic settlement of Kolon, where, according to a long-standing prediction, he is destined to say goodbye to life. To Theseus, who sheltered him, Oedipus reveals the secret that in the coming clashes between the Athenians and the Thebans, victory will belong to the side in whose land Oedipus finds his last refuge. Trying to drag Oedipus back to his homeland, Jocasta's brother Creon receives a harsh rebuff from Theseus. He does not find sympathy with Oedipus and Polynices, who came to him for a blessing in the fight against his brother Eteocles: Oedipus curses both sons who expelled him from Thebes, and predicts their mutual death in the upcoming battle. Thunderclaps make it clear to Oedipus that the lords of the underworld are waiting for him. Guided by some force from above, he himself finds the way to the place of his rest and allows only Theseus to be present at his painless death: Oedipus is swallowed up by the open earth, and the place where this happened remains an eternal secret, which Theseus has the right only before death to convey to his heir. In this version, the myth of Oedipus is known from the tragedies of Sophocles "Oedipus Rex" and "Oedipus in Colon". Other sources have preserved earlier or local versions of the myth. In one version of the myth, the parents do not throw Oedipus on Cithaeron, but lower him into the sea in an ark, and the wave nails him to the shore at the same Corinth or at Sicyon; here the child is picked up by the wife of the local king, busy washing clothes (Schol. Eur. Phoen. 26-28, Hyg. Fab. 66, 67). Sophocles' method of saving Oedipus (transferring the child from one shepherd to another) is the invention of the poet; according to other versions, Oedipus is found by shepherds (among whom he grows up) or a random passerby, i.e. people who do not know about the place of his birth. The circumstances of his meeting with Laius and his arrival in Thebes also differ significantly. According to one of the options, Oedipus goes in search of a team stolen from the Corinthian king, whom he considers his father, while he runs into an unfamiliar Lai and kills him, after which he safely returns to Polybus, removing the belt and sword from the murdered man. Subsequently, having already become the king of Thebes, Oedipus one day passes with Jocasta past the place where the murder took place, informs his wife about it and, as proof, shows the trophies taken then. Jocasta recognizes in his new wife the killer of the former, but does not reveal the secret to him, and even more so does not suspect Oedipus of the once-tossed son (Schol. Eur. Phoen. 1760). In this regard, of particular importance is the version in which, in relation to Oedipus, the motif of heroic matchmaking is developed: Creon, who remained the ruler of Thebes after the death of Laius, assigns the hand of the widowed queen along with the royal throne as a reward to the one who will save the city from the Sphinx. Oedipus responds to this call and defeats the monster in battle (Eur. Phoen. 45-52). A mental contest with the Sphinx replaces the initial physical victory over her, probably not earlier than the 7th c. BC, in the era of the heyday of moralizing genres and all kinds of riddles and folklore puzzles.
Significantly different from the Sophocles version are also variants of the legend about the origin of the children of Oedipus. According to the Odyssey (XI 271-280), the gods soon revealed the secret of Oedipus' incestuous marriage, as a result of which his mother (in Homer she is called Epicasta) hanged herself, and Oedipus continued to reign in Thebes and died, pursued by the Erinyes. The second wife of Oedipus, the Attic author of the beginning. 6th c. BC. Pherecydes (frg. 48) calls Eurygania and from this marriage produces the four children of Oedipus mentioned above.
The original core of the myth about Oedipus should obviously be considered the oldest folklore motif about the battle between father and son who did not recognize each other, in the same version in which the son defeats the father as a younger and stronger rival. This story goes back to the period of matrilocal marriage, when the son cannot know his father, because he is brought up in the mother's family, when he reaches maturity he goes in search of his father, and, not recognizing him, enters into battle with him. On Greek soil, such a motive is attested in its purest form in the myth of the death of Odysseus in battle with Telegon, his unrecognized son by Kirk; the death of Acrisius at the hands of his grandson Perseus, who grew up in a foreign land, can be considered a variant of the same motive.
In the case of Oedipus, matrilocal marriage is replaced by the upbringing of an abandoned baby away from the place of birth, which ultimately leads to the same result; The usual posthumous “recognition” of the father in such cases in the above-mentioned versions of the Oedipus myth corresponds to Jocasta’s identification in Oedipus of the murderer of her first husband.
Lit.: Averintsev S.S., On the interpretation of the symbolism of the myth of Oedipus, in collection: Antiquity and modernity, M., 1972; Propp V.Ya., Oedipus in the light of folklore, in his book: Folklore and reality, M., 1976; Robert C., Oidipus, Bd. 1-2, B., 1915; Deubner L., Oedipusprobleme, B., 1942; Webster T.B.L., The tragedies of Euripides, L., 1967; Astier C., Le mythe d'Oedipe, P., 1974; Yarkho V.N., "Oedipus Complex" and "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles, "Questions of Literature", 1978, No. 10.
V.H. Yarkho
The myth of Oedipus (in ancient literature also developed by Seneca in Oedipus and Statius in The Thebaid) was the object of allegorical interpretation in medieval literature. Voltaire (“Oedipus”), Shelley (“Oedipus the King”), and others turned to the image of Oedipus.
Myths of the peoples of the world. Encyclopedia. (In 2 volumes). Ch. ed. S.A. Tokarev. - M .: "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1982. T. II, p. 657-659.
After the departure of Oedipus, the Theban throne was occupied for the second time by Creon, as the ruler of the country for his young sons, Polynices and Eteocles. But when they grew up, he gave them power. They did not live long in peace: Eteocles, more active and dexterous, expelled his older brother. He, feeling offended, turned for help to the Argos king Adrast. Adrastus was just encamped in front of his city. Before entering the camp, Polyneices encountered another wanderer, the same exile, just like himself. It was at night, and they naturally had a quarrel, and after it a duel. The royal guard separated them.
Like wild animals fighting over a lair! reported to the king.
The king came out to them. Recognizing both princes - the other was Tydeus, expelled from Aetolia by the enemies of his father - Adrastus remembered the oracle that advised him to marry his daughters to a boar and a lion. He received them hospitably and married them to his daughters. But, of course, not so that they would eat his bread all their lives as exiles: he wanted to consolidate their power so that they would then become his reliable allies. He decided first to return the Theban throne to Polynices, and then to Tideus - the Calydonian throne. Adrasta's sister Erifila was married off to the Argonaut Amphiaraus. The ardent and imperious Adrast did not always get along with this son-in-law of his. In order to prevent a quarrel, they concluded an agreement so that all quarrels between them would be resolved by the equally respected Erifila.
Deciding to undertake a campaign against Thebes, Adrast began to collect heroes. The proud Capaneus, the mighty Hippomedon, the young and beautiful Parthenopai agreed. But most of all, Adrastus valued the participation in the campaign of his son-in-law, the Argonaut Amphiaraus, and it was him that he failed to persuade. According to Amphiaraus, Polyneices was right, perhaps against Eteocles, but he was definitely wrong against his homeland.
No truth justifies the blow inflicted on the mother, he said, and the gods of victory will not send unrighteousness.
In view of his stubbornness, Polyneices decided to use a last resort. Leaving Thebes, he managed to take with him the legacy of his mother, the necklace of Harmony. He now offered it to Erifila. The soul of a woman could not resist the brilliance of semi-precious stones in a gold frame; called to judge between husband and brother, she decided that the husband should submit to his brother.
Amphiaraus twirled: he knew that his wife had betrayed him, he knew that she was sending him to death, and, which was the hardest thing for his just heart, to death in an unjust cause. But there was nothing to be done: by virtue of the agreement, he had to obey. Before setting off on a campaign, he called his young son Alcmaeon to him and told him that he was going to certain death and that his killer was Erifil. Alcmaeon remembered his words.
Amphiaraus was the seventh of the heroes who gathered on a campaign against Thebes; the rest were Adrastus, Polyneices with Tydeus, and the above-named three: Capaneus, Hippomedon, and Parthenopaeus. This campaign is called the campaign of the Seven against Thebes. After the Calydonian hunt and the campaign of the Argonauts, this was the third major all-Hellenic affair. The army moved from Argos, rising from the plain to the mountains; the harsh Mycenaean stronghold passed - and now, on the hill, the blessed Nemea, the grove of Zeus, opened up before him. Ahead, in an all-seeing place, is his temple, then a small village, and between the temple and the village is the modest courtyard of the abbot of the temple, the God-fearing priest Lycurgus. All this was known in advance to Amphiaraus, who, according to custom, was in charge of the rituals of the campaign. When an army moves to another area, a sacrifice is necessary, and for a sacrifice - running water. Who will indicate it in the "long-thirsty" Argolis? Most likely this woman, who, with a child in her arms, leaves the Lycurgus house. Amphiaraus approaches her - gods, what is it? In the modest attire of a slave girl, the affectionate mistress of the Argonauts, the Lemnos queen Hypsipyla, stands before him.
They had lost sight of her since the Argonauts' departure from the island of Lemnos. At first, things went well for Hypsipyle. She became the mother of two twins. She named one Evney, that is, "beautiful ship", in memory of the ship of his father Jason, and the other - after her own father's name - Foant. But then disaster struck: when she was alone on the shore, she was attacked by sea robbers, taken away, sold into slavery - and now she serves Eurydice, the wife of Lycurgus, and nurses their baby son Ophelet. She told all this to Amphiareus and added that Lycurgus was away, only Eurydice was at home and two other young men who had come just today on business unknown to her. She did not immediately agree to fulfill the request of Amphiaraus to show them the source. She would be glad to serve an old friend and an Argonaut, but what about the child? After some hesitation, she decided to take him with her - and if the lady is angry with her for her willful absence, let Amphiaraus help out. Mistress! Get angry! But who is she - a slave or a Lemnos queen? No matter how her fate broke her, but today, in front of this Argonaut, she feels like the former Hypsipyla. So let's go!
They go: he, she and several other warriors with buckets. The path winds through a mountain gorge, through potholes and gullies. It is difficult for her with a child in her arms. But here is green grass, all fragrant with thyme. The key is not far, but you still have to jump over boulders and decks. Let Ophelet sit in the grass in the sun, without him it will be easier for her. Here is the key. The soldiers scooped up as much water as needed, you can return. Now there will be a meadow where she left the boy on the grass among the thyme. No matter how a bee stings him! .. What is this? Where is the boy? Ophelet! Ophelet! Gods! A huge serpent slips away into the distance along the dry bed of a winter stream, and in the convolutions of its body, with an overturned head and helplessly raised arms, her pet, the joy of her parents, Ophelet! Amphiaraus sees him, he has already thrown a dart - the monster is struck to death, the rings are slowly blooming ... Too late! A departed soul will not return to a small body.
Again Hypsipyle with a child in her arms. Lonely, sadly, she wanders home. And in my thoughts there is confusion: “It is necessary to bring the murdered son to the mistress ... Is it necessary? After all, you will not resurrect Ophelet, but for the death of a child a slave will be executed! dead child on the threshold of the house and leave before it's too late! your child is killed, and the cause of his death, though unintentional, is me."
She went to Eurydice, brought her a dead child. Eurydice is in despair: joy has perished, hope at home has perished! But despair is replaced by anger. One consolation in grief is revenge on its culprit. She will not deny herself in it! And the boy's soul will be easier if his offender also suffers. Hypsipyle will be executed. She will be executed immediately!
Hypsipyle is led to execution. Eurydice herself wants to be her witness. But now the Argive guest, Amphiaraus, approaches her. He brings her the decree of the Seven. Gipsipila was not the culprit of the death of the child - the gods wanted to send a terrible sign to the entire campaign. There will be no victory for us, we will not be able to share the booty of the city, we will not have to celebrate a joyful return to our own. Ophelet, the bearer of the sign, is no longer Ophelet, a simple dead child, - he is now Archemor, the "beginning of fate", waiting for the participants in the ill-fated campaign. The gods honored him with initiation to the face of "heroes", honored not by families, but by communities and peoples. "Comfort in revenge"? No, Eurydice, - the highest consolation in beauty. The beauty of the Nemean games, instituted today in honor of Archemoros, instituted for all time, will glorify both your son and the grief of your loss.
Eurydice warmly shook hands with her guest. As a true Hellenic, she understood and appreciated the meaning of the words "consolation in beauty." Immediately, a signal was given by a trumpet to the beginning of the funerary games in honor of Archemoros. Eurydice, replacing her absent husband, sat on the platform, Amphiaraus and the rest of the Seven from the bliss. No matter how sad her heart was, she nevertheless felt pride at the thought that henceforth young men from all Hellas would gather here for the sake of a victorious wreath, honoring her son, the untimely deceased Ophelet-Archemor.
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yes, the sun began to decline, the games were over: a new trumpet signal reminded the audience that the distribution of wreaths to the winners would begin. And then the herald stepped forward: "Evne, the son of Jason, from Myrina of Lemnos! He won the run! Foant, the son of Jason, from Myrina of Lemnos! He won the discus throw ..."
Hypsipyle did not hear the rest. Her eyes blurred. Evney, Foant, the sons of Jason, her sons! Where are they from? Where are they? Here they enter the platform, here Eurydice crowns one, then another with a green wreath. Gods! Why, these are the young men whom she herself brought into the house of Lycurgus! Her sons... are they really sons? Or is it an evil mockery of the implacable gods? She stands without taking her eyes off these young beauties: joy and doubt struggle in her soul.
Sunset. Spectators dispersed - some in the camp, some in the suburbs. Eurydice also went to her place: she forgave the slave, but she doesn’t want to live with her, she can’t - it’s so understandable! Amphiaraus with both young men approaches her:
Evney, Foant, here is your second, highest award: hug your mother!
To embrace! Oh, how willingly ... Only they see her doubt - are her sons smiling at her?
Let's calm you down, dear! On the shoulder we both have a golden speck in the form of a grapevine. This is the sign of Dionysus, the ancestor for all his offspring.
Yes, now there is no doubt! The gods have returned my sons! But where should we go?
Of course, back to my homeland, to Mirina Lemnos. There the female kingdom has already ceased, Foant the First rules again. He sent us to look for you. The tests are over, ahead is cloudless happiness.
So, in spite of everything, the house of Jason flourished on distant Lemnos, and his body lay in an unknown grave, under the golden idol of Hera, among the ruins of his wonderful ship.
Oedipus, Greek - the son of the Theban king Laius and his wife Jocasta, one of the most tragic heroes of Greek myths and dramas.
Oedipus owes his fame primarily to Sophocles, who, using ancient Theban traditions, in two of his tragedies created the image of Oedipus with unsurpassed skill, thanks to which Oedipus remains today one of the greatest figures of Greek and world drama. Oedipus in the interpretation of Sophocles reminds us of the eternal impermanence of human happiness and appears as proof of the inevitability of fate, which inspires horror - however, only as long as we remember with relief that we do not believe in fate.
The tragic fate of the royal son Oedipus
The fate of Oedipus was predetermined by a terrible curse brought on by his father Laius, who kidnapped the young Chrysippus, the son of the king of Elis Pelops, and caused his death. This curse was supposed to haunt Lai's clan until the third generation, and Lai himself, doomed to fall at the hands of his own son, was to become its first victim. Therefore, when a son was born to Laius, he ordered the slave to throw him in the forest on the slopes of Cithaeron, so that wild animals would tear him to pieces. For greater fidelity, he pierced his legs at the ankles and tied them with a belt. But the slave took pity on the child and gave it to the shepherd, who happened to be met in the forest, and the shepherd brought the boy to his master, the childless Corinthian king Polybus. Polybus adopted the boy, gave him the name Oedipus (more precisely, Oidipus, that is, with swollen legs) and, together with his wife Merope, raised him as befits the heir to the throne. Oedipus, of course, considered Polybus and Merope his parents - and everything was in the best order, until one tipsy Corinthian youth called Oedipus a foundling. Oedipus told Polybus and Merope about this and guessed from their reaction that they were hiding the truth from him. Then he went to Delphi to find out from the oracle how things really are with his origin. However, the Pythia did not tell Oedipus anything about his past, but predicted the future for him: he would kill his father, marry his own mother, and she would give birth to sons for him, whom he would curse, wishing them death.
Shocked, Oedipus decided to do everything to prevent the prophecy from coming true. The Pythia did not tell him the names of the parents, which means that they could well be Polybus and Merope. In this case, Oedipus could not return to them - and he preferred to remain a rootless tramp, just not to endanger the lives of his parents. But can a man escape his fate? Oedipus did not return to Corinth and went straight to Thebes.
Oedipus at Thebes: killing his father, marrying his mother
In a narrow gorge near Parnassus, Oedipus met with a chariot, on which some noble old man was sitting. Oedipus gave way, but this seemed not enough to the charioteer, he rudely ordered Oedipus to get off into the roadside ditch and, for greater persuasiveness, whipped him with a whip. Oedipus answered blow for blow and wanted to continue on his way, but then a worthy old man got up and hit him with his staff. With all due respect to the gray hairs, Oedipus could not resist and answered him in the same way - unfortunately, the blow was too strong and the elder died on the spot. His companions attacked Oedipus, but he killed them all, with the exception of one slave who escaped at the very beginning of the battle. The first part of the prophecy came true: the unfamiliar old man killed by Oedipus was his father Laius, who was heading to Delphi to ask the oracle how to rid Thebes of the monstrous Sphinx. Instead of Laius, a slave returned to Thebes, reporting that the king had died at the hands of robbers.
Arriving in Thebes, Oedipus rid the city of the monster, as described in the article "Sphinx". The grateful Thebans proclaimed him their king, since Creon, the brother of Queen Jocasta, declared after the death of Laius that the one who would save Thebes from the Sphinx would become king. Oedipus settled in the royal palace and married Jocasta. Everything went exactly as the prophecy predicted: Jocasta bore him two daughters, Antigone and, and two sons, Eteocles and Polynices.
Unmasking Oedipus
In the twentieth year of the prosperous reign of Oedipus, pestilence began to rage in Thebes, accompanied by crop failure. At the request of Oedipus, Creon went to Delphi to find out how to get rid of this disaster, and brought the answer of the Pythia: the Thebans should be expelled from their midst, who brought punishment to the city of the gods.
But for this, the killer had to be found. Oedipus turned to the blind soothsayer Tiresias, but he flatly refused to name the killer, although he did not deny that he knew it. Oedipus begged, persuaded, threatened, but the blind old man was inexorable. Finally, yielding to the insistence of the people and the threats of Oedipus, Tiresias declared: “So know, Oedipus, that you are the murderer of your father! And you unknowingly married your own mother!”
Tiresias' calm confidence alarmed Oedipus. He called Jocasta to him, repeated the words of Tiresias to her and asked if Laius had a son and could he return to Thebes, as the prophecy claims? Yes, answered Jocasta, she gave birth to a son Lai, but Lai ordered the child to be carried into the forest, frightened by the prophecy. The slave who took the child to be eaten by wild animals is still alive and can confirm her words.
The need for evidence indicates uncertainty: Oedipus sent for a slave. As soon as the servants left for him, an ambassador from Corinth appeared with the news of the death of King Polybus. In the soul of Oedipus, sorrow mixed with joy. He did not kill his father, he escaped his fate - which means that other prophecies may turn out to be false!
The tragedy of Oedipus, Jocasta and their children
This was the last happy moment in the life of Oedipus, as the ambassador continued: the people of Corinth invite him to take the throne of Polybus, and, so that he does not fear the prophecy given to him, Merope tells him to tell him that he is not at all the son of her and Polybus. Oedipus is a foundling, whom the servant of King Laius handed over to the Corinthian shepherd, who gave it to Polybus. At that moment, I understood everything. With a terrible cry, she rushed into her bedroom and took her own life.
Before Oedipus had time to recover from this blow, another one followed him. The brought slave confessed that he did not follow the order of Lai and indeed gave the newborn shepherd King Polyb. He was the same companion of King Laius, who survived the fatal skirmish in the gorge near Parnassus, when Oedipus accidentally killed his father. Out of despair, Oedipus rushed into Jocasta's bedroom and found his wife and mother already dead. Oedipus pulled a gold pin out of Jocasta's dress and gouged out his own eyes. He did not want to see the sunlight, which would show him the full depth of his fall, he did not want to see his children or his native Thebes anymore. In the struggle with fate, he lost everything, including hope.
The Theban people deeply sympathized with the tragedy of Oedipus, but this did not last long, as the famine did not stop. People who until recently respected Oedipus for his wisdom, justice, services to the city began to demand that he leave Thebes. Creon alone protected him and gave him shelter in his palace. Finally, Oedipus was opposed by his own sons, Eteocles and Polynices, who were eager for power, and. He shared power with them, and Oedipus sent him into exile as a man hated by the gods, bringing trouble to society.
Under the blows of fate and human ingratitude, the blind, helpless Oedipus reached the very bottom of the abyss of humiliation. Accompanied by his daughter Antigone, who voluntarily followed him into exile, Oedipus wandered for a long time through the forests and mountains, as people abhorred them and the cities refused to accept him. Finally, Oedipus came to Colon near Athens and made a halt in the forest, away from human dwellings. From the villagers, he learned that he was in the sacred grove of the Eumenides, the pacified goddesses of vengeance. Oedipus accepted this news with relief, because he knew that he was destined to leave this world here - Apollo had once announced this to him in Delphi. He remembered the further words of Apollo: the one who provides him with the last shelter and consolation will be rewarded a hundredfold. Therefore, Oedipus asked the peasants to bring him from Athens.
Meanwhile, the youngest daughter of Oedipus Ismene came to Colon and informed him that his sons had become implacable enemies. Eteocles, in alliance with Creon, expelled Polynices, who joined with the Argives and brought a formidable army under Thebes. Both camps want to bring Oedipus to their side, since the Delphic Pythia announced that in the struggle for Thebes, the one on whose side Oedipus will win will win. Following Ismene, Creon appeared, then Polyneices, but Oedipus did not succumb to either their requests or threats. In the end, he cursed his sons with a terrible oath, wishing them to kill each other.
Death of Oedipus
As soon as Oedipus uttered the words of the curse, there was a thunderclap. It was a sign of the supreme guardian of fate, Olympian Zeus, that Oedipus could descend into the realm of shadows. Oedipus said goodbye to his daughters and called Theseus to him. He took an oath from the Athenian king to take care of Ismene, and as a reward for this good deed, he revealed to him the secret of the location of his grave, which would protect Athens more reliably than shields and city walls. Oedipus calmly said goodbye to the world and, imperceptibly for everyone, went into the gloomy, on the threshold of which the life of a mortal and his fate cease.
“Not a single work of ancient dramatic creativity has left such a noticeable mark on the history of European drama as Oedipus Rex,” said Soviet historian of ancient literature, I. M. Troisky, and almost all literary critics agree with him. This is a truly magnificent work, incomparable in its simplicity and monumentality, the characteristics of the images, the conciseness and dynamism of the action, a work that is equally exciting today as it was thousands of years ago. Sophocles created "Oedipus Rex" in 429-425. BC e.; he later returned to the Oedipal theme in the equally famous Oedipus at Colon, which he did not live to see (Sophocles died in 406 BC). Before him, motives from the myth of Oedipus were developed by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey (he calls Jocasta Epicaste), then the unknown author of Edipodea, the first of three (or more) great poems of the so-called Theban cycle, then Aeschylus in tragedies "Laius" and "Oedipus", which, unfortunately, have not reached us. Of the Roman authors, the tragedy "Oedipus" was composed by Seneca (and in his younger years, Caesar).
The image of Oedipus in world art
Like other images of the tragedies of Sophocles (Antigone, Electra), Oedipus prompted the authors of modern times to numerous adaptations and revisions of the story about his fate: "Oedipus" by Corneille and Voltaire, "Oedipus in Athens" by V. Ozerov (1804), the satirical drama "King Oedipus" by Shelley (1820), "Oedipus and the Sphinx" by Hofmannsthal (1906), "Oedipus Rex" by Cocteau, "Oedipus" by A. Gide (1931), "Oedipus in Colon" by R. Bayer (1946). Robbe-Grillet used the story of Oedipus in his novel Rubber Bands (1953), Pasolini directed the film Oedipus Rex (1967).
Ancient artists most willingly depicted Oedipus and the Sphinx. Large frescoes with Oedipal scenes were found in the ruins of ancient Hermopolis on the Nile (they date back to the beginning of our era). Of the paintings by European artists, we will name two created in the 19th century: Oedipus and the Sphinx by Ingres (1827) and the painting of the same name by G. Moreau.
The fate of Oedipus has also inspired a number of composers. The opera "Oedipus Rex" was written by Leoncavallo, the opera "Oedipus and the Sphinx" (to the text of Hoffmannsthal) - R. Strauss, the opera "Oedipus" - Enescu (1931), the stage work "Oedipus Rex" - Orff (1959). The stage music for Oedipus at Colon by Sophocles was created by Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1845), the opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex by Stravinsky (1927). Of the works of Czech composers, the parody operetta Oedipus Rex by Kovarzovic (1894) deserves attention with its unconventional interpretation.
Oedipus complex and more
A whole literature has arisen about Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, and in this connection we will allow ourselves a small remark. The magnificence of this work led cultural historians (especially in the 18th and 19th centuries) to overgeneralize. Since Sophocles' Oedipus Rex is a "tragedy of fate", they often summed up the entire ancient tragedy under this definition, opposing it, for example, to Shakespeare's "tragedy of character". In reality, the creators of ancient tragedies developed the theme of fate relatively rarely. Allegations that the problem of the son's painful love for his mother is the axis of this tragedy of Sophocles are also exaggerated, because Oedipus, by the way, did not know at all that Jocasta was his mother. The so-called "Oedipus complex" is only a category of modern psychology or psychoanalysis.
Stills from Oedipus Rex (Italy, 1967)
And now Oedipus is one of the most popular and symbolic characters in ancient Greek myths about heroes. Homer already knew the sad story of Oedipus, he knew that Oedipus' father, the Theban king Lai, received a terrible prediction about him and ordered him to throw his baby son with his legs tied in the deserted area of \u200b\u200bthe mountains of Cithaeron. Oedipus was miraculously rescued and raised in Corinth. Having reached adulthood, he went to Thebes and on the way, in a narrow gorge, killed Laius, not knowing that he was his father. After that, Oedipus married the widow of Laius, the beautiful Jocasta, not knowing that she was his mother. When the gods revealed this secret, Jocasta strangled herself, attaching a noose to a high crossbar, and the soul of Oedipus, the goddess of vengeance Erinia, was plunged into severe torment, and he gouged out his eyes. The myth of Oedipus further said that the whole family of this unwitting lawless man was subjected to a curse whose power destroyed generation after generation. Blind Oedipus was offended by his sons, Polynices ("the quarreling one") and Eteocles. They did not give him a proper honorable share of sacrificial meat, and Oedipus, in anger, doomed them to a deadly quarrel, saying: "let them divide their father's property with a sword." This came true. The strife between Eteocles and Polynices over the inheritance became the reason for the Campaign of the Seven against Thebes. The sons of Oedipus killed each other in this war.
All these details were already set forth in the original, ancient legend. But full development the myth of Oedipus and his house received only in later times, in the works of the Attic tragedians. They liked to take this myth as the subject of poetic development, based on the idea of the omnipotence of fate and the fragility of human assumptions and hopes. But already before the tragedians, the legend was modified by the influence of Egyptian mythology: the monster Fix, who lived on Mount Fikion and devastated its surroundings, was turned into a Sphinx - a winged creature with the body of a lion and the head of a woman. It offered passers-by a riddle and threw them all into the abyss, because no one could find the right answer to it. Only Oedipus solved the riddle of the Sphinx, and then the monster itself threw itself off the cliff.
Myths of ancient Greece. Oedipus. The one who tried to comprehend the secret
All three major Attic tragedians - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides - used the content of the myth of Oedipus and his children in their famous tragedies ("Seven against Thebes" by Aeschylus, "Antigone", "Oedipus Rex" and "Oedipus in Colon" by Sophocles, "The Petitioners » Euripides). Each of them modified it according to the peculiarities of their views and character. But the main features of the story are the same.
Lai, the Theban king, a descendant of the founder of Thebes, Cadmus, in the third generation, received a prediction from the Delphic oracle of the god Apollo that the son who was born to him would kill his father, marry his mother and destroy his own family with these crimes. Laius began to avoid his wife Jocasta, without explaining to her the reasons for this. Dissatisfied Jocasta made her husband drunk, persuaded him to love pleasures and soon gave birth to a son. Wanting to avert the fulfillment of the prophecy he had received, Lai pierced the baby's ankles with nails and ordered him to be thrown on Mount Cithaeron. But the boy was found and saved by a shepherd who named him Oedipus ("with swollen feet"). The shepherd took Oedipus to Corinth, where he was taken in by the childless king Polyb and his wife Periboea. The royal family passed off Oedipus as their own son, without telling anyone that he was an adopted child.
However, when Oedipus grew up, the Corinthians began to notice that he did not look like either Polybus or Periboea. Various rumors about this began to circulate in the city. The young man Oedipus became interested in the true circumstances of his birth and went to Delphi to ask the oracle if he was really the son of King Polybus. “Get out of the sanctuary, unfortunate one! - the Pythian priestess, who saw Oedipus, screamed in horror. “You will kill your father and marry your mother!”
Deciding that this prediction refers to Polybus and Peribeus, Oedipus decided not to return to Corinth and wandered towards his true homeland - Thebes. At the crossroads of two roads (along Sophocles, in the Parnassian Schist - a gorge through which the road from Delphi went south; along Aeschylus, near Potny, near Thebes), he met his real father, the Theban king Lai, who was riding a chariot. Mistaking Oedipus for an ordinary commoner, Lai rudely demanded that he give way. The proud young man refused, and Lai's charioteer drove a wheel over his leg. Oedipus, in a rage, pierced the driver with a spear and began to whip the horses. They got it. Lai tried to jump off the chariot, but got entangled in the harness. Crazed horses dragged him along the ground, and Oedipus' father died.
Sphinx. Detail of a painting by F.C. Fabre. Late XVIII - early XIX centuries
Lai went to Delphi to ask the oracle how to get rid of the Sphinx, a monster that flew into his kingdom from Ethiopia and killed many people. The Sphinx (or rather, the Sphinx, for this monster was female) was the daughter of the terrible Typhon and Echidna and had the body of a lion, the head of a woman, the tail of a snake and the wings of an eagle. He was sent to Thebes by the goddess Hera because King Lai illegally kidnapped Chrysippus, the son of the hero Pelops. Nesting near Thebes, on Mount Fikion, the Sphinx asked all travelers who passed by a riddle: “Which of the living creatures walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?” People could not solve it - for this the Sphinx threw them into the abyss, and then devoured them. Many Thebans have already died from him, including the handsome Haemon, son of Creon, brother of Laius's wife, mother of Oedipus, Jocasta. Creon, who became the ruler of Thebes after the death of Laius, announced that whoever liberates the country from the Sphinx will be made king of Thebes and will receive the hand of the widow Jocasta.
Oedipus and the Sphinx. Painting by Gustave Moreau, 1864
Oedipus went to the place where the Sphinx lived, and gave the correct answer to his riddle: a person crawls on all fours in infancy (during the morning of life), walks on two legs in adulthood and on three in old age, when he needs a stick. After the riddle of the Sphinx was solved, the monster rushed down the mountain and crashed to death. The triumphant Thebans proclaimed Oedipus their king. He married Jocasta, unaware that she was his mother. Oedipus did not know that the oncoming one he killed on the road was the Theban king Lai.
Oedipus and the Sphinx. Painting by J. A. D. Ingres, 1808-1825
According to the myth, the married life of Oedipus and Jocasta lasted for many years. They had several children. But suddenly a pestilence began in Thebes. Citizens turned to the greatest Greek prophet, Tiresias of Thebes, asking him to tell what caused the disaster and how to get rid of it. Appearing at the palace of Oedipus, Tiresias announced to him that he was the murderer of his father, King Laius, and the husband of his own mother, Jocasta. A pestilence was sent by the gods to Thebes as punishment for this incest. From sadness and shame, Jocasta strangled herself. Oedipus blinded himself with a gold fastener removed from her clothes, and voluntarily retired from Thebes into exile.
Antigone leads the blind Oedipus out of Thebes. Painting by Jalabert, 1842
Even earlier, Oedipus was angry with his own sons from Jocasta, Eteocles and Polynices, who sent him a piece of meat of a sacrificial animal unworthy of a king: a thigh instead of a shoulder blade. It is said that in anger he pronounced a curse, wishing that Eteocles and Polynices would share their inheritance from him - the Theban kingdom - with a sword. According to another version of the myth, Oedipus cursed his sons because they abandoned him after being expelled from Thebes, when he, a poor blind man, did not find shelter anywhere. The support of Oedipus in his difficult wanderings was his daughters, Antigone and Ismene, who went everywhere with their father. Blind Oedipus was terribly tormented by the goddess of vengeance, Erinyes. They aroused pangs of conscience in the old man for previous iniquities, although Oedipus committed all of them involuntarily. After many years of suffering, Oedipus came to the Attic town of Colon, near which there was a grove of Erinyes with a “copper threshold” - the entrance to the underworld of Hades. In this grove, the Erinyes finally reconciled with Oedipus. His mental anguish subsided. The gods, out of respect for the suffering endured by Oedipus, forgave his sins, and he died in Colon, filled with blissful peace.
Oedipus in Colon. Painting by Harriet, 1798
His sons Eteocles and Polynices were already at war with each other for dominion over Thebes. The oracle announced that the king would be the one of the two brothers who would own the coffin of their father, Oedipus. Polynices, expelled from the city by Eteocles, wanted to take him away from Colon to himself shortly before the death of Oedipus, but did not allow this. great hero Theseus, who then ruled Athens. This is how Sophocles depicts the fate of Oedipus, following the ancient Attic tradition that he died in Colon, and putting his lofty moral and religious concepts into the legend. The broken life of Oedipus was in Sophocles an example of divine justice, which mercilessly punishes every sin, and the blessed death of Oedipus inspired a reassuring thought that the wrath of the underground deities is softened by suffering and repentance.
The daughters of Oedipus, Antigone and Ismene, returned to Thebes and tried to reconcile their brothers, but they did not listen to them. The enmity between Eteocles and Polyneices led to the Campaign against Thebes of the Seven Heroes, the death of both sons of Oedipus, who killed each other in a duel, and the tragic death of Antigone.
Before the birth of Oedipus, the oracle predicted that he was destined to kill his father and become the husband of his own mother. Laius, king of Thebes, pierced his son's feet and ordered him to be left to die in the wilderness.
But the child did not die. The shepherd picked up the child and carried it to Corinth, where the king Polybus and his wife Merope, being childless, they accepted and raised Oedipus as their own son. And the boy considered them his parents. And when the young man became a warrior and found out what was predicted for him, he left Corinth without a moment's delay, so as not to bring misfortune to those whom he loved with all his heart, and went to Thebes. In a gorge at the crossroads of three roads, a certain old man insulted a young man; angry Oedipus killed him. It was Laius, king of Thebes, his father. Without knowing it, Oedipus fulfilled the first part of his destiny.
Great despondency took possession of Thebes: the king died, and the Sphinx devastated the surroundings.
Sphinx- a winged monster with a lion's body and a female head, the offspring of Orff, the twin brother of Cerberus. (In all literary works it is mentioned as a male being, but in the images it has a clearly female body)
The Sphinx asked the same riddle to all passers-by, and killed those who did not give the correct answer. No one could solve this riddle. To save the city, Oedipus went to the Sphinx. The monster asked: "Who walks on four legs in the morning, on two legs in the afternoon, and on three legs in the evening?" "Man" - replied Oedipus, finding the right solution. And the Sphinx threw himself from a cliff into the sea, for it was decided by the gods that he would die if someone solved his riddle.
So Oedipus freed Thebes from the monster. For this act, Oedipus was proclaimed king of Thebes and received the reigning widow Jocasta as his wife. He had two daughters by her Antigone and Ismenu, and two sons, Eteocles and Polynices. Avoiding the prediction, he fulfilled it.
The truth was revealed to him a few years later, when a great plague attacked the kingdom of the parricide and incest. The soothsayer Tiresias revealed to him why such a punishment was sent down. Jocasta could not bear all the horror that opened before her and committed suicide. Mad with grief, Oedipus blinded himself. The Thebans expelled him from the country, and the former king, accompanied by his daughter Antigone, left to wander in foreign lands.
Oedipus in Athens
After long wanderings, Oedipus finally came to Attica, to the city of Athens. There he asked for shelter from the then ruling city of Theseus. In Athens, his daughter Ismene found him to convey the sad news: the sons of Oedipus initially ruled together in Thebes. But the younger son, Eteocles, seized power alone and expelled Polynices from Thebes. Polynices went to Argos, where he found help for himself and is now marching with an army against Thebes. The Oracle at Delphi will win, on whose side Oedipus will be. Creon soon appeared, brother of Jocasta, ruling with Eteocles. He tried to persuade Oedipus to return with him to Thebes, but he refused. Then Creon decided to capture Oedipus by force, but the Athenians, under whose protection the unfortunate old man was, did not allow him to do this. Polynices, who arrived from Argos, tried to persuade his father to his side, but Oedipus cursed his sons, who expelled him.
Oedipus died in the sacred grove of the Eumenides, finding rest only in death.
Genealogy:
Cadmus and Harmony: in this branch appears the origin of Oedipus and his children from Jocasta.
The beginning of time: and in this branch you can see the origin of the Sphinx, which belongs to the oldest generation of gods.