Term 3 - Lecture 2 Flashcards
What universal taboo is an obliteration of origin?
Parricide
What three cities are involved in Oedipus?
Thebes, Delphi and Corinth
Who is the god of healing, purification, and prophecy?
Apollo
What hero does Oedipus supplicate?
Theseus, the king of athens. Oedipus is seeking refuge. He has just arrive in Coronis - the place where the oracle of Delphi said he would die.
What does Oedipus’ name mean?
Swollen foot - refers to his exposure at birth. His parents bound him at the ankles and left him on the mountainside.
What does “philosophy” mean?
Love of knowledge
Who was Socrates? What did the Delphic oracle have to say about him?
Socrates was a philosopher in Plato’s dialogues. The Delphic oracle proclaimed him as the wisest person. The only thing he KNEW was that he didn’t KNOW. Socrates was put to death by the Athenians in 399 BCE.
Does Oedipus know the acts that he is committing? Is he still stained with miasma?
He does them unconsciously, and thus he is innocent. He is still stained by ritual pollution.
How does Oedipus Rex begin?
With Oedipus confronting his city, they are acting as suppliants. He calls them CHILDREN.
In Plato’s dialogues, who was an early hero of Philosophy who challenged accepted truths?
Socrates. Socrates annoyed everyone so much by contradicting them that they wanted him executed
What is the Riddle of the Sphinx? What happens if the riddle is not solved?
What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, three legs in the evening? (answer is a person). If the riddle is not solved, then the person is killed. If the riddle is solved the Sphinx is killed.
What universal taboo is the confusion of cause and effect?
Incest with mother
How was Oedipus a philosopher?
He was a lover of knowledge. As a philosopher he tried to understand the truth about the world and the nature of knowledge itself, including its limitations.
How many plays did Sophocles write? Which concerned the house of Laius?
He wrote 7 tragedies. Three concerned the house of Laius: 1. Antigone 2. Oedipus the King 3. Oedipus at Colonus (between 496–406 BCE)
Who are the actual parents of Oedipus? Where are they from? What is their lineage?
Labdacus has a son, Laius. Laius marries Jocasta, Jocasta and Laius have Oedipus. Oedipus and Jocasta have children together - Eteocles, Polyneices, Antigone and Ismene They are from Thebes
What does Sigmund Freud have to say about Oedipus?
That Oedipus’ destiny moves us because it might have been ours - sexual impulse towards the mother, and murderous hatred towards the father.
What does the oracle to Thebans tell him?
That after Oedipus dies, whoever have possession of his bones will prosper in battle.
Who was Sophocles? When did he live?
An ATHENIAN tragedian. He lived from 496–406 BCE.
Where does Oedipus come of age?
Away from home, in Corinth
What two acts are Oedipus fated to commit?
Incest with mother and parricide
What does the oracle to Oedipus tell him the first time?
The he would kill his father and marry his mother. He tries to avoid this, but fails because he thinks King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth are his true parents.
What are the 2 universal taboos presented in Oedipus?
- Parricide: an obliteration of origin 2. Incest with mother: a crime against time, confusion of cause and effect
What tension is there in Oedipus Rex?
The human drive to KNOW about himself, and the HORROR of the truth. Oedipus himself is the answer to all of his questions
What does Aristotle say about Oedipus in Poetics? (384–322 BCE)
That Oedipus the King is the perfect tragedy. Both Anagnorisis and Peripeteia occur spontaneously in Oedipus the King
