Oedipus the King Sophocles First performed around 429

Oedipus the King Sophocles First performed around 429 BC

Three Theban plays • Oedipus Rex • Oedipus at Colonus • Antigone (written first)

Family tree

Riddle of the Sphinx • What is the creature that walks on four 4 legs in the morning, 2 legs at noon and 3 in the evening? MAN

Temple of Apollo- Delphi: Know thyself (moderation, limit)

Anarchy (arche: origin; head) Law of the city (relative) Law of the absolute Seeing with your biological eyes (organization) Absolute seeing (prophecy; disorganization, nomadism, opening up new paths, holiness, martyrdom). • Relics accepted, can procure good for latter generations • •

Antigone (worthy of one’s parentsinstead of one’s parents).

Oedipus at Colonus • But in what manner Oedipus perished, no one of mortal men could tell but Theseus… • A: “we wish to see the place ourselves, in which our father rests”. T: “no, it is not permissible to go there”. A: “ why? ”. T: “Because you father told me, that no one should go near the spot, no mortal man should tell of it… it is HOLY…If I keep this pledge, he said, I should preserve my land from its enemies…”.

Antigone • Like father, like daughter, both headstrong, deaf to reason! • She has never learned to yield. • A : Your edict, King, was strong. But all your strength is weakness itself against the Immortal unrecorded laws of God. • T: Anarchy, anarchy! Show me a greater evil. This is why cities tumble…No, no: good lives are made by discipline. We keep the laws then, and the lawmakers. And no woman shall seduce us.

Oedipus: Freud vs. Deleuze • Freud: necessity of accepting limitationsreality (neurosis)- Psychoanalysis • Gilles Deleuze- The Anti-Oedipus- Desirenomadism-intensity-creation-(psychosis) Schizoanalysis • Freud (guilt); Deleuze: “there is nothing scarier than innocence”)

Oedipus (REX) the King. Keep going! THANK YOU