Book 27: The Oedipus Cycle by Sophocles

It's time to get back to the classics.  I've read a lot of old Greek and Roman classics, including Oedipus Rex, but I don't remember reading all three pieces.  I actually enjoy reading ancient Greek works.  I like how the characters are still very relatable, very human.  From what I remember of Oedipus, it's more like a Shakespeare play than something by Plato or Aristotle and was very gripping throughout.

My copy is 216 pages, which gives a very easy 31 pages per day.  I may finish this one early.

REVIEW: As you may or may not know, I’m a big fan of Ancient Greek literature.  Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I really enjoyed this book.  To me, the fact that an author can successfully convey emotion though he’s writing in a different country and culture, 2,500 years ago, shows something definingly human.  Anything that can cross that divide must be universal amongst all people.

The Oedipus Trilogy consists of three plays, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone.  The first play portrays the events that Oedipus is famous for: the killing of his father and marrying and having children with his mother.  Though most people are familiar with this plot, I have to wonder how many have actually read the story and realized it’s subtleness.  On the surface, taken literally, Oedipus’ acts are unthinkable, even villainous.  But Oedipus didn’t realize what he was doing at the time.  He didn’t know that it was his father he killed (in self-defense, no less) and he didn’t know that it was his mother he was marrying when he freed Thebes and took her for his queen.  Informed by prophecy, Oedipus goes looking for the wretch who would commit such sins only to find that it is himself.

The second play, Oedipus at Colonus, shows Oedipus as he arrives at Athens.  He is now blinded and beggared led and assisted by his daughters Antigone and Ismene.  Oedipus is befriend by the king of Athens, Theseus and taken under his protection.  Confronted by his son, Polyneices who is at war with his brother Eteocles, Oedipus refuses to return to Thebes and, after a rescue from Theseus, he dies at Colonus, just outside Athens.

The third play follows Oedipus’ daughter, Antigone after she has returned to Thebes.  Her brothers have killed each other and Thebes is now ruled by Creon, her uncle.  Because of the war that Polyneices waged against Thebes, Creon has declared him a traitor and refused him burial rites.  Antigone, as Polyneices’ sister, performs the rites anyway and is arrested.  The whole trilogy basically tells of the downfall of Oedipus and his relations.

The series as a whole inspire a wide range of feeling, from disbelief to revulsion to compassion.  Oedipus falls from a King to a blind beggar, but regains some of his power through justice and prophecy.  I think that anyone who takes the time to read through the myth of Oedipus will find him a far more sympathetic character and far from the deviate implied by a cursory reading of the main plot.  In this, as in most literature, the details make the story.

9 out of 10