Una de las asignaturas que tengo más pendiente es leer las obras clásicas griegas más importantes, entre ellas «Edipo Rey», de Sófocles que fue escrita y representada en el siglo IV a. C.. Esta obra de teatro representa un arquetipo de la tragedia griega, nos muestra el devenir del ser humano, que por más que lo intente y sortee obstáculos tomando distintos caminos, nunca podrá huir de su destino impuesto. Una corta pero intensa degustación de la más antigua y simbólica literatura.

En ella, veremos representada la historia de Edipo, que se convierte en el rey de Tebas y desencadena la terrible profecía que vaticinaba que él mataría a su progenitor y se casaría con su madre. Tras la llegada de la peste, el pueblo desesperado acude al rey y este, en busca de respuestas, descubrirá una verdad que trastornará su presente y futuro, desencadenando el horror y el desconsuelo de su protagonista y los de su alrededor.

Excepcionalmente, «Edipo Rey», está formada en un solo acto dividida en ocho capítulos, manteniendo una misma línea temporal que sorprende estructuralmente. La red que reconstruye Sófocles está plagada de secretos, mentiras y una red turbia con muchos más participantes de lo que aparenta en un principio. La reflexión acerca del poder de los dioses que al fin y al cabo eran los únicos que podían dominar el tiempo y el destino, es sumamente interesante e imperecedera. ¿Somos realmente dueños de nuestro devenir o estamos predestinados desde que nacemos?

Sin duda, Sófocles nos brinda una joya, una obra magna de la historia de la literatura de la que se han nutrido durante siglos escritores y filósofos. Sorprendente, triste y en parte, inquietante. Un ineludible si disfrutas de la mitología y los textos antiguos.

It's really interesting to follow along as Oedipus realizes his disaster. The audience knows exactly what's going on, lots of the characters know - but aren't really sure how to break it to the poor guy.

see... i get that this is, just speaking in terms of the technical aspects of the plot and structure and character, well done, especially if you’re looking at it in the context of what aristotle considers a great tragedy to be (which is what my understanding going into this was based on).

but i still don’t care because gross. i would please like to take five thousand baths now.

...

current stress level: the kid in my class who yelled ”NO! NO NO NO NO!!” when we reached that part.

...

i’m pretty Not Excited For This but oh well

"Assim, aos olhos dos mortais que esperam ver o dia derradeiro, ninguém pareça ser feliz, até ultrapassar o termo da vida, isento de dor." (p. 151)

I'd say "spoiler alert" but it seems ridiculous . . .

I've taught this play for years, and I think this year I finally decided what makes this play great. My students never feel sympathy for Macbeth, but they do for Oedipus, and that always used to bother me. They whine in their teenage attitudinal voices, "But he didn't know that was his father." I always respond, "So it's ok to KILL PEOPLE if they're not your father?!"

In identifying with Oedipus, they forget the nature of the atrocities he committed, and that is where the greatness of this play lies - in creating a character who does horrible things, but who never seems like a monster to his audience: to them, he's just a human with human failings. He is essentially a good man, one who tries to help people, who makes tragic mistakes. In this sense my students mirror the feelings of the people of Thebes: the chorus defends Oedipus to the end, unable to believe evil of this great man who saved them once and is trying to save them again. When Oedipus is revealed as not being the son of Polybus and possibly the son of slaves, the chorus believes then that he must be the child of a god, for who else could spawn such a great man?

But Oedipus' humanity lies in his course of action which spirals out of his control - and that, I think, is the element in Oedipus with which my students identify. Oedipus becomes a victim of the unforseen consequences of his own actions. These actions, of course, are fueled by his own pride - arrogance to think he can avoid Apollo's prophecy, and pride turned to anger in being pushed off the road when he feels the other driver should be giving way to his own great self (Ancient Greek road rage!). He may have been doomed since before birth by Apollo's curse on his family, but Oedipus creates his own problems. In believing he can avoid Apollo's prophecy, he shows us that he thinks he has outsmarted the gods, that he is greater than the gods. This, then, is the ultimate hubris and his ultimate undoing.

I would rather suck a moldy lemon out of the ass of a dead skunk than read this book again.

"..nasıl bir felakete uğradığını, nerede oturduğunu, kimin yanında ömür geçirdiğini görmedikten sonra o gözlerin neye yarar?"

"Sadık bir dostu reddetmek, bence kendi kendimizi hayatın en aziz bildiğimiz bir parçasından yoksun bırakmaktır."

ولی به‌نظرم اصل داستان اون دانش و داستان پیش‌زمینه‌ایه که خواننده قبل از خوندن نمایشنامه باید بدونه. اصلش ماجرای تقدیر و رها کردن ادیپ و به واقعیت پیوستن پیشگویی بود، این فقط داستان به دانایی رسیدن ادیپ بود. البته کم هم نبود. خدایان واقعاً ناعادل‌اند و زیر سلطه‌ی اونا و تقدیرهاشون ته بی‌انصافیه...
درد داره دونستن.
از خیلی وقت پیش می‌گفتم، کاش احمق بودم و خوشحال. همچین داستانی اصلاً تو ذهنم نبود و به هدف دیگه‌ای اینو می‌گفتم. اما واقعاً بیاید و ببینید، آدم احمق باشه و ندونه دلش خیلی خوش‌تره.

این نمایشنامه رو با ترجمه‌ی شاهرخ مسکوب خوندم که بسیار زیبا بوده و دوست داشتم.

Tragedy is the end of the big famous fight between the free human being and the Gods, where Gods (fate) always win. Odipus is a big winner who loose to the Gods.
اودیپوس شاه، مشهورترین تراژدی سوفوکلس، در باره ی ستیز اودیپوس با تقدیر خویش است. اودیپوس که برخلاف همه ی دیگران، تقدیر خویش را می داند، هر چه از آن بیشتر می گریزد، در چنبر آن گرفتارتر می شود.
سه گانه ی سوفوکلس (ادیپوس شاه، ادیپوس در کولونوس، انتیگونه) را ابتدا محمد سعیدی به فارسی برگرداند�� که در اواسط دهه ی سی شمسی توسط بنگاه ترجمه و نشر کتاب منتشر شده. همین سه گانه به زبانی بسیار والا توسط شاهرخ مسکوب در ابتدای دهه ی چهل شمسی ترجمه و منتشر شد. این ترجمه ها در 1346 توسط نشر اندیشه و در 1352 توسط انتشارات خوارزمی به چاپ های بعدی رسیده است. به گمانم نجف دریابندری هم این سه گانه را ترجمه کرده ولی تا آنجا که به یاد دارم تنها "آنتیگونه" به ترجمه ی دریابندری منتشر شده است.

“How dreadful the knowledge of the truth can be. When there’s no help in truth.”

The Oedipus complex gives rise to the theory that children can possess a desire for a parent of the opposite sex while seeing the parent of the same sex as a rival, and of course its origin is to be found in Greek mythology where all great tragedies come.

Prophesied to kill his father and marry his mother. The natural parents of the infant Oedipus, Laius, king of Thebes and Jocasta give the child to a shepherd to leave at the side of the mountain. Taking pity on the baby the shepherd instead gives the young Oedipus to the childless King Polybus of Corinth and his wife.

Having consulted the Oracle, years later, Oedipus learns of the prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother. To break the curse and avoid such tragedy Oedipus flees his home for fear of killing his adopted father Polybus. However, upon entering Thebes he clashes with a man driving a chariot which results in the death of his natural father, thereby fulfilling the first part of the doomed prophecy.

Unknowingly he then solves the riddle and enters Thebes to marry the recently widowed Jocasta, fulfilling the final part of the prophecy he had desperately tried to avoid.

Tragic, intense and dramatic, and the source of much debate about whether we really do possess free will or is our future predetermined and predestined in some way?

A familiar story. A nice opportunity to explore the ancient myths that have provided some wonderful entertainment over the years.

“Alas, alas, what misery to be wise When wisdom profits nothing!”

نمايشنامه ى مشهور اديپ شهريار، يكى از بزرگترين تراژدى هاى يونان باستان.
از لحاظ داستان، واقعاً اعجاب انگيزه. داستان ابتدا با معمايى شروع ميشه كه نجات شهر "تِبس" از نابودى به حل اون بسته است، ولى هيچ كس جوابش رو نميدونه. بعد كم كم كه معما حل ميشه، پاسخ وحشتناك و تراژيكش آشكار ميشه و نجات شهر از نابودى، به بهاى بسيار سنگينى حاصل ميشه. اين روش طرح معما و حل مرحله به مرحله ش، بسيار شبيه به داستان هاى جنايى امروزيه، و از خيلى از اين داستان ها به مراتب بهتره.
اما اثر، طبعاً به مقتضاى زمان نگارشش، مشكلات خودش رو هم داره. از جمله اين كه تمام نمايشنامه فقط با ديالوگ روايت ميشه و چيزى "نمايش" داده نميشه.
حتا خودكشى و کور شدن ادیپوس هم، که اوج تراژيك داستانه، فقط از قول يه خادم نقل ميشه و ما چيزى نمى بينيم.

What's interesting about fate, and what's different from our world and Oedipus's, is that "fate" doesn't really exist in our world. No real oracles go around telling you you're going to sleep with your mother. Instead, it's a philosophical device. On one side you've got "free will" (traditional very Western, very American even with the idea of the individual going forward), and on the other side you've got your fatalists (see my mom and her Vietnamese cosmology [is that the word? Whatever, I’m going to use it], in which the people who are around you are literally born to be so because of the debt you owe each other in the present, owed in the past, and/or will use in the future). I'm not really a fan of philosophy, and as far as I'm concerned the goodness of each approach is only to be judged by how useful they are to a specific person in a specific situation (and place and time).

I say that there is no fate in our world, but that's not really true. What separates fate from free will is foresight, and there's plenty of that in our world. A cancer patient (like my aunt) being told she has six months to live. One step lower on the surety scale, my remaining aunts and my mother living under the knowledge that they're likely (what, like 50/50 chances) to get this dubious inheritance from their father (oh hey! Antigone, didn’t see you there). Or even to the much lower level of common sense, like stock markets: what goes up so precipitously, without merit, is likely to come down just as precipitously.

What’s interesting about Oedipus, is at first glance the prophecies within are so abhorrent, who wouldn’t react in horror to the idea of killing one’s father and sleeping with one’s mother? But at second glance, is it not common sense, is it not true for all families that one day the son will surpass the father, one day the father will fall and the son will take the father’s place? Is it not true men will judge their relationships with women against that first relationship with their moms?

The prophecy given to Oedipus and to his birth parents is a sensationalist version of the common sense truth for all families (even to those where the son cannot so literally inherit a father’s throne). And the real-world response to that un-sensational real-world dilemma is: “Hey, one day I’m going to die, and I’m going to try and leave the world(kingdom) in the hands of a good human being” (& “I’m going to teach my son to treat the women he loves with respect” & “I’m going to be good to my father while he’s alive and a really good person when he’s gone”).

You might say I’m unfair in comparing Oedipus to an unchangeable fate (cancer, though for most people, I don’t think killing one’s baby is really an option on the table… but we’ll get back to that). No, my aunt couldn’t change her rapidly-growing tumor, but she could change the way she went out. She took hold of her finances for the first time in her life, she aired her grievances towards her husband (and the frightful in-laws) and her children instead of stewing in them, she tied up her inheritance to provide for her youngest through college, she got the death she wanted (at home and with Buddhist rites), all so she could live her remaining months in peace, and die in peace, instead of continuing to live (practically a lifetime) in sorrow. Is it fair she died so young? Is life fair?

My mom doesn’t know if she’s going to get cancer in 4 years, but she’s you know, de-stressing her life, selling the house, doing things she wants to do, and going in for all her medical tests. No, it’s no magic trick to see one’s future, it’s magic to decide what to do about it. It’s easy to get desperate and anxious to change one’s fate, hey, how else do you think those snake doctors make a living… It’s not always easy to see the difference between trying to ‘master your fate’ and trying to make the best of it/just being proactive/smart.

I say sensationalist, but that’s not really true—you needn’t look far—when there’s a real shortage of women in the world (China and India are the real places of impact, though considering how much of the world population is from those two countries, it is effectively, a world impact) due to selective-gender abortion and female child abandonment (told you I’d get back to it). The ‘making the best world’ response (from parents, and from governments/society) is to educate girls, give them the same chances as boys, give them a world where women can be as useful to their families as men. The ‘master your fate’ response has created increased demand for sex-trafficking (and increased forced marriages and honor killings). Of course people want to escape “fate”, it is so human (and what makes the play so human)—of course, whether you call if “life” or “gods” or “fate”, it isn’t fair, but how much of it is really “fate” and how much is it our (humans) own choices?

And if we think the answer is to try ignorance, how can we try ignorance (no foresight)—people spend their whole lives trying to know, trying to make the world make sense (and we make gods and science to try and make sense of it for us) and it really is for the best psychics are really charlatans, because we got plenty of foresight on our own thanks, we just don’t know what to do with it (can’t ignore it either, see global warming). As the alcoholics/Christians say: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,/Courage to change the things I can,/And wisdom to know the difference.”

Basically what I’m saying is Sophocles is pretty genius, and Freud as usual gets it half-right, half-wrong.