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A Religious Function of Greek Tragedy1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

R. P. Winnington-Ingram
R. P. Winnington-Ingram
Affiliation:
King's College, London
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Extract

When the Messenger in the Oedipus Coloneus looked back, he saw that Oedipus had disappeared and that Theseus was screening his eyes with his hand. Then Theseus made adoration to earth and to the Olympus of the gods, both at once: ὁρῶμεν αὐτὸν γῆν τε προσκυνοῦνθ̓ ἅμα καὶ τὸν θεῶν Ὄλυμπονἐνἐν ταὐτῷλόλῳ (1654 f.). There was nothing strange about such a salutation. The Sausageseller in the Knights was bidden to ‘adore earth and the gods’ (ἔπειτα τὴν πρόσκυσον καὶ τοὺς θεούς, 156), and did so, presumably with the same familiar ritual gestures which Theseus used. But the phrasing in the Coloneus is emphatic (ἅμα … ἐν ταὐτῷ λόγῳ), and Jebb has one of his percipient notes: ‘The vision which [Theseus] had just seen moved him to adore both the χθόνιοι and the ὕπατοι. This touch is finely conceived so as to leave the mystery unbroken.’ The mystery, that is, of the passing of Oedipus. οὐ γάρ τις αὐτὸν οὔτε πυρφόρος θεοῦ | κεραυνὸς ἐξέπαξεν οὔτε ποντία | θύελλα κινηθεῖσα τῷ τότ̕ ἐν χρόνῳ, | ἀλλ̕ ἤ τις ἐκ θεῶν πομπός, ἤ τὸ νερτέρων | εὔνουν διαστὰν γῆς ἀλάμπετον βάθρον.

The purpose of the following remarks is to suggest a close relationship of thought between the Oedipus Coloneus of Sophocles and the Oresteia of Aeschylus; to suggest, further, that both dramas performed, in terms of the same conceptions, a religious function which tragedy was peculiarly fitted to perform.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 74 , November 1954 , pp. 16 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1954

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References

2 ‘“in the same address (or prayer)”…: not, “on the same account”’ (Jebb). This seems doubtful, since προσκύνησις was often, if not always, silent (as in the Knights), and a suggestion of words is inappropriate to the picture here.

3 The scholiast's άλάμπετον is on the whole preferable to άλύπητον, which may have been suggested by the following line, where, however, the γάρ is adequately justified by A word of darkness is admirable here, and the contrast can be compared with the enigmatic (106). See n. 17 below.

4 The raising of the fallen Oedipus: 394 f., 1565 ff. That the Chorus see in this a kind of justice is implied by δίκαιος in the latter passage, but the notion of compensation is not expressed. This line of interpretation is acutely criticised by Linforth, I. M., Religion and Drama in ‘Oedipus at Colonus’ (University of California Publications in Classical Philology, Vol. 14, No. 4) 100 ff.Google Scholar, whose general conclusions, however, I am unable to accept.

5 I cannot accept Bowra's view (Sophoclean Tragedy, 349) that, at the end of the play, ‘no unresolved discords remain, no mysteries call for an answer’. He rightly emphasises the importance of the ‘heroisation’ of Oedipus, but this does not solve the mystery: it merely transfers it to the conception of those chthonian powers, the heroes. Weinstock, (Sophokles 202)Google Scholar calls attention to the juxtaposition of curse and peaceful end, and regards it as evidence ‘dass antikes Gefühl an diesem Vater keinen Anstoss nahm’. But should it be confidently assumed that Oedipus rather than Antigone represents ‘antikes Gefühl’ or that this sentiment was unambiguous?

6 It is one of the functions of the scenes with Creon to raise this passion to a higher pitch before the entry of Polynices.

7 I will merely call attention to two themes, (i) When Ismene first speaks of his sons, before ever he hears her news, Oedipus breaks into a diatribe against them for their neglect. Neglect of his maintenance. The theme is introduced at 330 with τροφαί, followed by τροκφάς (338), τροφεῑα (341), τροφῆς (346), τροφήν (352), τροφήν (362). Though not every occurrence relates logically to the maintenance of Oedipus, the notion is thus kept insistently before the hearer. (This could, I think, be shown to be a characteristic Sophoclean use of words.) Thus Sophocles brings out, not only the offence of the sons, but the preoccupation of one who has lived for years at or below the level of subsistence, (ii) Then comes the news of the oracle. ‘They say’, says Ismene, ‘that their power (κράτη) is coming to be in your hand (ἐν σοί).’ Old emotions stir in the masterful king of the Tyrannus Sophocles now bathes the ears of his audience in κράτο and κρατεῑν—a theme first introduced at 373, repeated at 392, 400, 405, 408. But the hope of restoration is dashed: it is a matter of Oedipus coming under the mastery of Thebes and not even finding a grave in Theban soil. So he moves from the bitter grumble of his earlier speech (337 ff.) to the first tentative curse. ‘May the gods not quench their fatal strife, and may the decision (τέλος) concerning this their warfare come to be in my hand.’ (422 f.) corresponds to (392). If the mastery cannot be his in one way, then let it be in another.

8 The two passages are further linked by θυμός (592, 1193) and by νουθετεῑν (593, 1193).

9 Compare Oedipus's own comment on the blinding: (438 f.). In bringing the blinding and the curse into close relationship Sophocles is following Aeschylus (Sept. 782 ff.).

10 266 ff., 510 ff., 969 ff.

11 A slight, but perhaps significant, modification of the claim (266 f.) that his actions (ἔργα) were a matter of suffering rather than doing

12 The student of form in Greek tragedy will observe with interest how the total defence of Oedipus is, as it were, framed by the repetition of this theme.

13 To bring it out is another function of those scenes (cf. n. 6).

14 The threat: 860. The curse: 864 ff.

15 See the passages quoted by Bowra, op. cit. 320. But we can assume too easily that Euripides, Socrates, and Plato were isolated voices. Plato, , Protagoras 324 aGoogle Scholar, may be instructive: the view that vindictive punishment is bestial and irrational is put into the mouth, not of Socrates, but of Protagoras, who affects to regard it as a commonplace. Nor should we be too ready to contrast Greek morality with our own. The Greeks, paying lip-service to the principle of retaliation, no doubt acted frequently with magnanimity and restraint. We, who pay lip-service to Christian ideals, commonly act, as individuals and as nations, on the principle of retaliation.

16 Ἐρινύς occurs twice, the speaker in each case being Polynices. At 1299 means the Fury which pursues Oedipus and his race, for the son knows nothing yet of a father's curse; by 1434 the Ἐρινύς of Oedipus have acquired a fuller meaning.

17 That being so, it is not necessary to consider whether the title was originally a euphemism nor indeed, since Sophocles clearly accepts the equation of Eumenides with Erinyes, what was the pre-Aeschylean character of the former (see n. 34 below). For an early statement of the paradox see the prayer of Oedipus at 106 ff.: This to the implacable powers of the nether world.

18 Not pronounced in the form of a curse, but later regarded by Oedipus (1375 f.) as having the force of one. Cf. Linforth, op. cit. (above, n. 4) 111.

19 It is the value of a study such as F. Solmsen's Hesiod and Aeschylus that it enables us to isolate the characteristic thought of Aeschylus. In my review of that work (Gnomon xxiii, 414 ff.) I have already developed some of the notions of this article.

20 βιαίως must certainly be retained, if only because it pulls the structure of the sentence together. If we read βιαίως (Turnebus), the clash of ideas is unaffected, but becomes an appendage, a quasi-decorative epithet, not at all in the Aeschylean manner.

21 The disharmonies of the Parodos are well brought out by Fraenkel, E., Aeschylus, Agamemnon II, 111 ff., 146 f.Google Scholar On χάρις and he comments: ‘Between these two contrasted phrases there is an interplay like that between πάθος and μάθο, between ἅκοντας and σωφρονεῑν.’ See also Reinhardt, K., Aischylos als Regisseur und Theologe, 20 ff.Google Scholar

22 The principal relevant passages are as follows: (i) 60–7, esp. (ii) 320–37, esp. 326–9, which describe the plight of the Trojan women and children. At 328 must by all means be retained, for reasons given by Fraenkel, ad loc. and for another which will appear, (iii) 355–62, where the great net which was cast over Troy catches, not only the great (who are guilty), but (who are not). Aeschylus did not use μέγας four times in seven lines through inadvertence: by contrast it brings into relief which should remind us of 328 (and perhaps of the still grimmer fate of Iphigenia). (iv) 429–55: the sufferings of the Greeks at home, (v) 555–74: the sufferings of the Greeks before Troy. Even in his first speech the Herald cannot help striking a sinister note, e.g. at 506 f., 509 f., 517 (cf. 568 f., 573). (vi) 636–80: the sufferings of the Greeks on the homeward journey. This passage (the importance of which is rightly stressed by Reinhardt, op. cit. 80 ff.) balances 188–98, which also comes into the reckoning. The two passages describe the two limbs of the δίαυλος (343 f.). The Greeks suffer famine on the outward journey, drowning on the return.

23 See also Gnomon loc. cit. 419, n. 1, on the notion of χάρις.

24 ‘Μῆνι and belong closely together’, as Fraenkel (op. cit. II 93) observes on 154 f.—the passage immediately preceding the Hymn to Zeus. Compare 699 ff.: followed by the more explicit (748 f.).

25 This means that to the enigmatic relationship of Zeus to the Furies is added the equally enigmatic relationship of Apollo to the Furies (on which see CR XLVII, 97 ff. and JHS LXVIII, 141, n. 93) and of both to Zeus. Note the sequence: 246 ff. (Zeus); 269 ff. (Apollo); 283 ff. (Furies). Reinhardt also (op. cit. 125 ff.), from a rather different point of view, calls attention to the complication of divine responsibilities in this play.

26 Cf. 150, 162, 172 333 f. 391, 778 f. 837 f.

27 Limited, that is, to interest in the blood of kinsmen. But in the Agamemnon any bloodshed may evoke Erinyes (461 ff.) and another crime besides murder (748 f., cf. 60 ff.). I suggested (Gnomon loc. cit. 418) that the point at which the conception of the Erinyes, which has been narrowed for dramatic purposes, broadens out again is the ode Eum. 490 ff., where the language of the Agamemnon is recalled.

28 The detailed interpretation of Διόθευ … μεταβαίνει involves difficulties, which do not, however, affect our present point.

29 When the principle is restated in narrower form at 400 ff., there is specific mention of an Erinys.

30 Eum. 850, 974. Cf. also 826

31 Zeus comes gradually into prominence—and into relationship with the nether powers—as the play proceeds. Three passages may be mentioned here, (i) 1044 ff. Zeus presides over the punitive operation ( 1079). But tnis operation is, in effect, an answer to Oedipus's prayer (1010 ff.) that the Eumenides will help him, with the men of Athens as their agents, (ii) 1447 ff. The winged thunder of Zeus, which is bringing Oedipus to the lower world, evokes from the Chorus the same emotional reactions as the Eumenides in the earlier portions of the play: fear and the desire to propitiate (1464 fr., 1480 f.). (iii) 1432 ff. Polynices recognises that he is destined to evil by the Erinyes, but prays that Zeus may grant good to his sisters. But there is no such clear distinction. In fact, Antigone will be involved in his evil fate precisely if she fulfils the condition which he lays down for Zeus granting her good. (The uncertainties of the text do not affect this essential point.)

32 Guthrie, W. K. C., The Greeks and their Cods, 220.Google Scholar

33 V. 117.

34 ‘The chthonioi … have two primary functions: they ensure the fertility of the land, and they preside over, or have some function or other connected with, the realm of the souls of the dead’ (Guthrie, op. cit. 218). Aeschylus makes use of this double function in the closing scene of the Eumenides; in fact, in equating Erinyes and Eumenides he seems to be equating two sets of chthonian powers in which the one and the other function predominate respectively. (See also Reinhardt, op. tit. 154 ff.) For the Olympians as a potential source of evil a general reference to Homer is perhaps sufficient.

35 All these antitheses are prominent—are indeed of structural importance—in the Oresteia.

36 This function of the Erinyes is clear, whether we accept or reject the view that in essence and origin they were the vengeful dead. (For a recent discussion see Dodds, E. R., The Greeks and the Irrational, 7, 21.Google Scholar)

37 For the Coloneus see above. At Agam. 1385 ff. Clytemnestra, with grim irony, associates the title σωτήρ and the ‘third libation’, proper to Olympian Zeus, with Ζεύς. (Enger's Διός, as Fraenkel says ad loc., is clearly right. It is in the light of that passage that we can read the implications of Cho. 577 f. Cho 382 ff. has already been mentioned. Orestes prays to Zeus to send up from below (the epithet recalls Agam. 58). The phrase suggests that the nether Zeus is addressed. At 395 f. Zeus is once more Olympian, since implies the thunderbolt, but is associated in a way characteristic of the trilogy with Earth, chthonian powers, Erinys and Arai. Is it possible that (‘the exact meaning of the epithet cannot be determined’, Fraenkel, op. cit. III 523) hints at the ‘ambivalence’ of Zeus, operating with power in both worlds, both and

38 Cf. Dodds, op. cit. 6 ff. Zeus, μοῑρα, and Erinys are associated in a famous line of Homer (Il. 19. 87)—a line which may well have stimulated the thought of Aeschylus.

39 It is surprising that philosophers and theologians, in their debates on good and evil, have so neglected the evidence of tragedy, though tragedians are experts in the nature of evil and its place in the world order.

40 Something more is said on this theme in an article on Agam. 1348 ff. to appear this year in the CQ (1954) 23 ff.

41 Cf. Thomson, G., Oresteia I, 69.Google Scholar

42 Further remarks on the antithesis will be found in Gnomon, loc. cit. 420. I should like to refer here, as I do there, to the Epilogue to Cornford, Plato's Cosmology (361 ff.)Google Scholar, where he calls attention to this striking Aeschylean conception and brings it into relation with an aspect of Plato's thought in the Timaeus. Whitehead, (Adventures of Ideas 213)Google Scholar refers to Plato's conviction ‘that the divine element in the world is to be conceived as a persuasive agency and not as a coercive agency’ and comments that ‘this doctrine should be looked upon as one of the greatest intellectual discoveries in the history of religion’. With the addition of one word (‘not merely a coercive agency’) this is the doctrine of Aeschylus in the Oresteia.

43 (i) 106 ff. The prayer for pity, which at the beginning of the speech was addressed to the Eumenides only (qualified as ), is now addressed jointly to the Eumenides (now qualified as γλυκεῑαι) and to Athens. The inclusion of Athens mitigates the paradox (see n. 17), and rightly so, if it was Athens and Athena that had transformed Erinyes into Eumenides. (ii) 457 ff., where the men of Colonus stand as representatives of the πόλις. (iii) 1010 ff., which implies that the goddesses act in defence of Oedipus through Theseus and his citizens. (See also n. 31.)

44 The Chorus, in their superstitious fear, nearly drive their benefactor away. Contrast their caution at 490 ff. with the attitude of Theseus at 561 f. Not until 1650 ff. does Theseus show fear.

45 1125 ff. (cf. 913 f.).

46 566 ff.

47 904 ff. Contrast Creon (874) and Oedipus (855).

48 Lucas, D. W., The Greek Tragic Poets, 144.Google Scholar

49 Roughly just, because the sons had indeed behaved badly. But it is no part of the intention of Sophocles that Oedipus should be fair to his sons. Thus, if at 1354 ff. Oedipus attributes to Polynices a degree of responsibility hardly con sistent with what we are told elsewhere about the developing political situation at Thebes, no hypothesis is needed to explain this fact. Oedipus is not a dispassionate judge, but an ill-used man brimming over with θυμός.

50 1769 ff. The theme of the Antigone has already been suggested at 1405 ff. It may be observed that the destruction of Antigone is also involved in the fulfilment of the curse which Oedipus lays upon Creon (868 ff.).

51 Nor can Aeschylus, for that matter, have conceived the reconciliation and transformation of the Furies as a event which had happened, once and for all, at a fixed point of mythological time—rather as a process continuing, intermittently and with variable success, throughout human history.

52 The degree of the triumph can be judged by contrasting 1617 ff. with 529 ff. (esp. δύο ἄτα). They, no less than their brothers, were fruits of the incestuous Fury-haunted marriage.

53 254 ff.: she moves the Chorus to pity only. 1181 ff.: despite her limited success in obtaining audience for Polynices, Oedipus remains unmoved as a rock in the sea (1239 ff.) and the force of her arguments (esp. 1189 ff.) is lost. 1414 ff. 1770 ff.

54 With cf. Cho. 314 and the claims of the Erinyes in the Eumenides (see n. 26).