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Contextual And Cultural Considerations In Oedipus Rex
There were so many things that I did not realise as I read the play. The interactive oral made me apprehend those things I could not imagine at first. During the discussion, student D. expatiated on the fact that the curse did not start on Oedipus at first but really began with what Laius did. The curse actually began at the stage of the ancestors. Before Oedipus’ parents took over the throne, Amphion and Zeth usurped the throne of Thebes. Moreover some Thebans, wishing to see the streak of Cadmus keep on, smuggled Laius out of the city before the assault, in which they slain Lycus and took the throne. My classmate clarified this when he said Laius was welcomed by Pelops, king of Pisa.
According to some sources, Laius abducted and raped the king’s son, Chrysippus, and carried him off to Thebes teaching him how to drive a chariot. This abduction is thought to be the subject of one of the lost tragedies of Euripides. With both Amphion and Zethus having died in his absence, Laius became king of Thebes upon his return. Before the class discussion, I thought that Oedipus was the first to receive a curse. I never understood where the curse came from.
Furthermore, the metaphor that Teiresias used to describe the blindness of Oedipus when he prophesises to him that he is the murderer of Laius. I only understood the primary meaning of that metaphor which was the act of Oedipus removing his eyes at the end of the story. I only got the secondary meaning when my classmate talked about it. The secondary meaning was the fact that he could not realise the fact that he accomplished the prophecy.
The development of my understanding of the contextual meaning of the riddle of the sphinx also made me acknowledge how it described Oedipus. The riddle was; What walks on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon and three at night? Oedipus crawled when he broke his ankles, walked as he grew up on his two legs when he became king and walked with a stick when he was old and blind after accomplishing the prophecy.
Women in the traditional Greek society were treated differently from the men and were seen as inferior to them. The men controlled womens lives and made sure the women felt this way and knew their place. From birth girls were given fewer opportunities than boys. Girls were not allowed to go to school; they stay home with their mothers to be taught how to run a household. Boys attended school until they are nineteen and then were sent off to war.Men overpowered women in many aspects,notably,women were not allowed to have jobs and had no way to receive money of their own. When girls became aged for child bearing they were married offby their fathers usually to men more than double their age.In Sparta, men stayed in barracks until they were thirty. Since Spartan women did not have this restriction, they had more freedoms and responsibilities in public life. They were able to go out in public unescorted, participate in athletic contests and inherit land. In the fourth century, over two-fifths of the land in Sparta was owned by women. In Athens, the law required all inheritances to go through the male line and limited propertieswere owned by women. It was the wives who supervised the slaves and managed the household responsibilities, such as weaving and cooking. In affluent homes, women had a completely separate area of the house where men were not permitted. In the homes of the poor, separate areas were not available. Poor women often worked outside the home, assisting their husbands at the market or at some other job. Poorer women often went to the market without a male escort.
Talking about this aspect in Oedipus the king, women played the same roles that women in ancient Greece had; they are just there to serve men. The female characters in the play are Jocasta, Merope, the sphinx, Antigone and Isméne. The sphinx is actually a female character in the Greek mythology. Goddess Athena also plays a role in the play.
The female who plays a great role in Sophocles’ play is certainly Jocasta. From the beginning, one can assume that she has no say in the events of her life. As queen of Thebes, she had little power over the rulings of the kingdom.She got married very early to Laius in Corinth and that is why she was not too old to marry her son Oedipus. Her role is just to accomplish the prophecy of the oracle which stated that Oedipus will kill his father and marry his brother. Women have little responsibility in the workings of society and are basically seen as child bearers. For example, anytime Jocasta is mentioned, the fact that she is the bearer of children seems to always follow. In the first scene, Oedipus describes how indebted he is to Laius. ‘Now I, having the power that he held before me, having his bed, begetting children there, upon his wife, as he would have, had he lived their son would have been my children’s brother, if Laius had had luck in fatherhood!’ (727) Jocasta is not presented as an actual being; instead, she is described as Laius’ property that had come into Oedipus’ possession along with the throne, land, and power. A similar instance occurs in the third scene when the Chorus says, ‘It is this very place, stranger; he is inside. This is his wife and mother of his children.’ Instead of presenting Jocasta as the queen of Thebes, the chorus introduces her as belonging to Oedipus and as the bearer of Oedipus’ offspring showing how they minimized the role of the women.
Also, the sphinx has a vital position in the play because she is actually one of the points about which the story revolves. She is the one who will give a riddle to Oedipus to answer and save Thebes from the plague threatening the city. Her appearance brings him closer and closer to his malediction. We can spot this out with the direct enthronement of Oedipus and his reward, the hand of Jocasta, queen of Thebes but unfortunately his mother. Without the sphinxs encounter with Oedipus, he would surely not meet Jocasta due to the plague she was about to trigger. She is a good example of the weakness of women as compared to the men. Although she is powerful and can destroy the whole city of Thebes, she still gets defeated by Oedipus who did not even struggle that much to have the correct answer to the riddle.
Just like the sphinx, Merope is a minor character. She appears less on stage but has a great position in the development of the plot. She is Oedipus foster mother and she was presented to Oedipus when he was still young. Jocasta and Lauis attempted to kill Oedipus after they heard the prophecy of the oracle but a servant of Merope and her husband Polybus found him and adopted him as their son. Merope and the sphinx play the same role which is, bringing Oedipus closer to his destiny. Oedipus is aware that he will kill his father and marry his mother but he thinks that Merope and Polybus are his real parents so he runs away from them. Merope could say the truth when Oedipus came to her to find out if they were his biological parents and due to this Oedipus flees to Thebes to avoid killing Polybus and marrying his mother . She is not courageous enough to tell Oedipus the truth about his origins.
Antigone and Isméne are Oedipus’s sisters and daughters and their mother is Jocasta. They say nothing in the play but are living symbols of Oedipus’s doom and the curse that he has brought upon his family by fulfilling his fate. In murdering his father, he stains his children’s honor, but in marrying his (and their) mother, he tainted his children’s being. They are destined to be shunned by all people in their entire life. Oedipus grieves for them now that he realizes their true nature. Antigone and Isméne are just victims of circumstances and the circumstance here is Oedipus fate. They cannot say something about that since women had no say in Thebes, they just saw things happen. Nevertheless, their role is to make Oedipus realize the gravity of theerrors he made and how it affected people around him.
However, despite the fact that women seem to be insignificant, some like the goddess Athena, daughter of Zeus seemed to play an important role. She is the goddess of wisdom and she first appears in Oedipus the king in the first chorus at the end of the interaction of Oedipus with Creon and the priest of Zeus. Just like gods she protected a city and she was venerated. Teiresias was bathing and she appeared to him but she sprinkled some water in his eyes and so he became blind and to cover up she gave prophesying powers. She was always uplifted by the chorus and she can be related to Oedipus capacity to solve problems and his manner in which he overcome certain challenges.
In a nutshell, ladies generally play a role in Oedipus the king; the one that was played by women in ancient Greece at the exception of female gods like Athena who was praised worshipped and idolized. Specifically, some of them played the role of pushing Oedipus towards theachievement of the prophecy. The sphinx and Merope, although they are minor characters intervene efficiently in making Oedipus accomplish the divination of the oracle. The riddle of the sphinx represents the pride of Oedipus and Meropes lies represent the symbol of Oedipus inability to escape from his fate. Antigone and Isméne are Oedipus victims of his misfortunes. Jocastas role is to accomplish the prophecy by getting married to her own son. We can also cite the role of the women in the crowd which was to seek Oedipus to save them from the plague attacking the city and be their male protector since most of their men passed away.From theabove it can be concluded that women in Oedipus the king play a minor role like the women in ancient since most women in the play are minor characters.
REFERENCES
- https://www.bartleby.com/writing
- https://brightkite.com/essay-on/women-in-ancient-greece
- https://www.debate.org/opinions/are-women-inferior-to-men
- https://brightkite.com/essay-on/the-roles-of-ladies-in-ancient-greece-and-the-reasons-with-regards-to-their-subordination
- https://www.bartleby.com/essay/The-Significance-of-Women-in-the-Play-FKBS2JNMJ
- https://quizlet.com/97786349/oedipus-rex-flash-cards/
- http://historylink101.com/2/greece3/women.htm
- https://answers.yahoo.com/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laius
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus
- https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-role-women-sophocless-oedipus-king-221575
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