Describe briefly the play
Oedipus Rex in the light of ancient Greek tragedies and the functions of
Chorus.
Drama is a literary
composition meant to be staged. The term drama is derived from the Greek word
‘dran’ which means ‘to act’. Drama originated in ancient Greece. Ancient Greek
drama took its origin from religious rituals performed during the worship of
Dionysus, the God of wine and fertility.
The villagers celebrated the festivals with a lot of singing and dancing.
Two types of plays originated from such celebration. They are tragedy and
comedy.
Thespis was the first actor
playwright in ancient Greece. Early Greek performances were stage in huge
amphitheaters situated in open areas.
The theatre was rich in music, rituals and dance. Since there were no
barriers between the actors and the audience, the actor-audience participation
was very high. The tragic actors wore marks, padded costumes and thick, high
heeled shoes. The comic actors wore light weight shoes. The masks prevented the
actors from changing expressions and hence the actor’s facial expression
remained unchanged throughout performance.
The Chorus of the ancient
Greek tragedies often functions as the author’s mouth piece. It is usually a
group of people who sing songs and perform dances during the play, guides the
actions, and continually interrupting the dialogue and the progress of the
action with their odes or interludes. The genesis of Greek tragedy is to be
found in the dithyramb, or choral hymn, which as chanted by the village worshippers
around the altar of Dionysus and from this ritual developed the Chorus which is
an essential part of Greek tragedy.
The great Greek dramatist Sophocles perfected
Chorus. In the play Oedipus Rex, the
Chorus performs many functions. Here the Chorus represents the Theban elders
who consult the King on important issues, warn him of the values of virtues and
even makes important judgments on king and others and sings and dances. The
main function of the Chorus was to narrate the events that took place off the
stage and to make commends on the morality of the actions represented on the
stage. But in modern plays, the place of
the Chorus is taken by one of the characters in the play.
Several
Greek poets and playwrights wrote many popular versions of the Greek legend
‘Oedipus’. Hesiod, Aeshylus, Euripides and Sophocles wrote about Oedipus. Among
them, ‘Oedipus Rex’ written by Sophocles is the best of the plays. Oedipus
was the son of Laiuis and Jocasta, king and
queen of Thebes. Having been
childless for some time, Laius consulted the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. The Oracle prophesied that any son born to
Laius would kill him. In an attempt to prevent this prophecy's fulfillment,
when Jocasta indeed bore a son, Laius had his ankles pierced and tethered
together so that he could not crawl; Jocasta then gave the boy to a servant to
abandon ("expose") on the nearby mountain Cithareon. But the servant
felt pity for the child and handed it to another shepherd who worked with him
and was a native of Corinth. He gifted the infant to the king of Corinth.
The infant Oedipus was brought up in the house
of Polybus, king of Corinth and his queen, Merope, who
adopted him, as they were without children of their own. Little Oedipus was
named after the swelling from the injuries to his feet and ankles
("swollen foot).
After many years, at a dinner party, Oedipus
was told by a drunk that he was a "bastard", meaning his biological
parents were not Polybus and Merope. Oedipus confronted his parents with the
news, but they denied this. Oedipus went to the same oracle in Delphi to know
of his real parents. But the oracle informed him he was destined to murder his
father and marry his mother. In an attempt to avoid such a fate, he decided to
run away from Corinth, and went to
Thebes, as it was near Delphi.
On the way, Oedipus came to Davlia,
where three roads crossed each other. There he encountered a chariot driven by his birth-father, King Laius.
They fought over who had the right to go first and Oedipus killed Laius when
the charioteer tried to run him over him. Continuing his journey to Thebes,
Oedipus encountered a Sphinx, who would stop all
travelers to Thebes and ask them a riddle. If the travelers were unable to
answer her correctly, they would be killed and eaten; if they were successful,
they would be free to continue on their journey. The riddle was: "What walks
on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon and three at night?".
Oedipus answered: "Man: as an infant, he crawls on all fours; as an adult,
he walks on two legs and; in old age, he uses a 'walking' stick". Oedipus
was the first to answer the riddle correctly and, having heard Oedipus' answer,
the Sphinx allowed him to carry on forward.
Queen Jocasta's brother, Creon,
had announced that any man who could rid the city of the Sphinx would be made
king of Thebes, and given the recently widowed Queen Jocasta's hand in
marriage.
The
riddle was: "What walks on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon
and three at night?". Oedipus answered: "Man: as an infant, he crawls
on all fours; as an adult, he walks on two legs and; in old age, he uses a
'walking' stick". Oedipus was the first to answer the riddle correctly
and, having heard Oedipus' answer, the Sphinx allowed him to carry on forward.
Many years after the marriage of Oedipus and Jocasta,
pestilence inflicted Thebes., a plague of infertility struck the city of
Thebes, and women became barren and they had no children. Oedipus asserted that
he would end the pestilence.
He sent
his brother-in-Law, Creon, to the Oracle at Delphi, seeking guidance. When
Creon returned, Oedipus learned that the murderer of the former King Laius must
be brought to justice, and Oedipus himself cursed the killer of his wife's late
husband, saying that he would be exiled. Creon also suggested that they try to
find the blind prophet, Tiresias who was widely respected. Oedipus sent for
Tiresias, who warned him not to seek Laius' killer. The blind prophet told the
king that he himself was the murderer and responsible for the pestilence. On
hearing this Oedipus is angry with the prophet and said that Creon and Tiresias
conspire to overthrow the king. He also threatened that both Tiresias and Creon
should be punished because they are traitors.
Jocasta
entered and tried to calm Oedipus by telling him the story of her first-born
son and his supposed death. Oedipus became nervous as he realized that he may
have murdered Laius and so brought about the plague. Suddenly, a messenger
arrived from Corinth with the news that King Polybus had died. Oedipus was
relieved for the prophecy could no longer be fulfilled if Polybus, whom he
considered his real father, was now dead.
Still, he knew that his mother was still alive
and refused to attend the funeral at Corinth. To ease the tension, the
messenger then said that Polybus and Merop are not the real parents of Oedipus
because he is an adopted child.. Jocasta, finally realizing that he was her
son, begged him to stop his search for Laius' murderer. Oedipus misunderstood
her motivation, thinking that she was ashamed of him because he might have been
born of low birth.
Jocasta
in great distress went into the palace where she hanged herself. Oedipus sought
verification of the messenger's story from the very same herdsman who was
supposed to have left Oedipus to die as a baby at Cithareon mountain range.
From the herdsman, Oedipus learned that the infant raised as the adopted son of
Polybus and Merope was the son of Laius and Jocasta. Thus, Oedipus finally
realized that the man he had killed so many years before, at the place where
the three roads met, was his own father, King Laius, and that he
had married his mother, Jocasta. Oedipus went in search of Jocasta and found
she had killed herself. Using the pin from a brooch he took off Jocasta's gown,
Oedipus blinded himself and was then exiled. Thus fate haunted the life of
Oedipus from the womb to his grave. Kjt/15-02-2017
No comments:
Post a Comment