Sophocles’s Theban plays: King Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone

1/ My first ancient Greek play is Oedipus Rex or Oedipus Tyrannus or King Oedipus, in E. F. Watling’s translation. Compared to the plays I’m used to, there’s hardly any action as such—the entire play is one scene about the search for, and discovery of, the truth—and yet, there’s great suspense, tension, conflict, and tragedy. 

New to ancient Greek drama, I don’t have a lot to say, so I’m just going to note this: 

“JOCASTA (white with terror): What does it matter

What man he means? It makes no difference now… 

Forget what he has told you… It makes no difference. 

OEDIPUS: Nonsense: I must pursue this trail to the end, 

Till I have unravelled the mystery of my birth.

JOCASTA: No! In God’s name—if you want to live, this quest

Must not go on. Have I not suffered enough?

OEDIPUS: There is nothing to fear. Though I be proved slave-born 

To the third generation, your honour is not impugned. 

JOCASTA: Yet do not do it. I implore you, do not do it. 

OEDIPUS: I must. I cannot leave the truth unknown.

[…] JOCASTA: Doomed man! O never live to learn the truth!” 

This passage makes me think about Ibsen’s exploration of the concept of truth: Ghosts for example is a play about the danger of living for years with a lie, The Wild Duck is about the danger of pursuing absolute truth. 

Another thing I’d note is the layers and layers of irony. Laius and his wife Jocasta hear the oracle that their son would kill his father and marry his mother. In sending away the baby, they make the oracle become true, the same way Oedipus makes it become true by avoiding it and running away from his (foster) parents. Oedipus, now King of Thebes, is determined to find the murderer of the previous king (Laius) and ready to impose the heaviest punishments, only to find himself the guilty man and discover more painful truths.

Magnificent play. The depiction of Oedipus’s mind and behaviour, as he slowly discovers the truth and realises what he has done, is wonderful. 

2/ I had a harder time with Oedipus at Colonus and have little to say, being so unfamiliar with ancient Greek culture and drama. 

I like this passage though: 

“OEDIPUS: Time, Time, my friend, 

Makes havoc everywhere; he is invincible. 

Only the gods have ageless and deathless life; 

All else must perish. The sap of earth dries up, 

Flesh dies, and while faith withers falsehood blooms. 

The spirit is not constant from friend to friend, 

From city to city; it changes, soon or late; 

Joy turns into sorrow, and turns again to joy…” 

This is also good: 

“CREON: […] I may be old, but anger does not cool 

Except with death—that ends all bitterness.” 

The play is full of anger—at least Oedipus is—it makes me think of King Lear and Timon of Athens. 

“OEDIPUS: They see us both, and judge, 

Knowing that I, who am so ill-used in act, 

Have no defence but cursing.” 

Oedipus here is very different from Oedipus in the previous play—much time has passed, the self-disgust has evaporated, he is now full of resentment—but can we blame him? Like Lear, he’s abandoned by his own children. Worse, he’s condemned by society for things he’s unwittingly done. I can’t help thinking though that Oedipus seems rather… entitled and patronising in the way he speaks to Theseus, the king of Athens, wanting this, demanding that. Maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about.  

This is the translation by E. F. Watling. At some point I’m going to look at other translations. 

3/ In terms of the story, King Oedipus is the beginning, followed by Oedipus at Colonus, then followed by Antigone, which is about Oedipus’s children.  

In terms of the order of writing, however, Antigone was the first play (ca 442-440 BC), followed by King Oedipus (ca 429-427 BC), and Oedipus at Colonus (ca 407 BC) was written shortly before Sophocles’s death ca 406 BC. 

The story is this: Oedipus’s sons Eteocles and Polynices fight each other for the throne; Polynices goes to Argos and comes back in invasion of his own land; after their deaths, Creon (Jocasta’s brother, Oedipus’s brother-in-law and uncle) is restored to the throne and rules that Eteocles, the defender of Thebes, would be buried with honour whereas Polynices would be left unburied, to be eaten by birds and dogs; Creon also rules that anyone who disrespects him and buries Polynices would be condemned to death. 

“ISMENE: […] Now we two left; and what will be the end of us, 

If we transgress the law and defy our king? 

O think, Antigone; we are women; it is not for us 

To fight against men; our rules are stronger than we, 

And we must obey in this, or in worse than this. 

May the dead forgive me, I can do no other 

But as I am commanded; to do more is madness.” 

Antigone is unafraid—she wants to do her duty for her brother, despite what he did. 

“CREON: And yet you dared to contravene it? 

ANTIGONE: Yes. 

That order did not come from God. Justice, 

That dwells with the gods below, knows no such law. 

I did not think your edicts strong enough

To overrule the unwritten unalterable laws

Of God and heaven, you being only a man. 

They are not of yesterday or to-day, but everlasting, 

Though where they came from, none of us can tell. 

Guilty of their transgression before God

I cannot be, for any man on earth. 

I knew that I should have to die, of course, 

With or without your order. If it be soon, 

So much the better. Living in daily torment 

As I do, who would not be glad to die?...” 

Such a strong, dignified response—in those last lines, Antigone especially reminds me of Hermione at her trial in The Winter’s Tale. 

Antigone has many great speeches. 

“HAEMON: […] Therefore I say, 

Let not your first thought be your only thought.

Think if there cannot be some other way. 

Surely, to think your own the only wisdom, 

And yours the only word, the only will, 

Betrays a shallow spirit, an empty heart. 

It is no weakness for the wisest man 

To learn when he is wrong, know when to yield. 

So, on the margin of a flooded river

Trees bending to the torrent live unbroken, 

While those that strain against it are snapped off. 

A sailor has to tack and slacken sheets

Before the gale, or find himself capsized…” 

This is translated by E. F. Watling—I think I’d want a more poetic translation—but this is still a great speech. 

I also like this: 

“MESSENGER: […] What is the life of man? A thing not fixed 

For good or evil, fashioned for praise or blame. 

Chance raises a man to the heights, chance casts him down, 

And none can foretell what will be from what is. 

Creon was once an enviable man; 

[…] Now all is lost; for life without life’s joys 

Is living death, and such a life is his. 

Riches and rank and show of majesty 

And state, where no joy is, are empty, vain 

And unsubstantial shadows, of no weight 

To be compared with happiness of heart.” 

This is another great play, a great depiction of tyranny. Apart from some Greek mythology I read as a kid, this is perhaps the first time I’ve read Western literature from before Christianity. I struggled with Oedipus at Colonus but loved King Oedipus and Antigone—human beings haven’t changed much after all.