OT critical perspectives

• Play set in 13th C Thebes instead of 5th C Athens to create a sense of distance and smooth over any social issues (plague, politics) in OT that could relate to Athens since it was technically in Thebes


  Felix Budelmann
• No matter what Oedipus does he can't escape fate/the oracle


  Felix Budelmann
• Apollo is the biggest god in OT and therefore a constant


  Felix Budelmann
• "This is not a play of crime and punishment"


  Rutherford
• Oedipus isn't suffering because he did something wrong, he's suffering because it's his fate to suffer


  Rutherford
• "Divine power and human agent are working together"


  Rutherford
• Fate is not entirely fixed -> fate = end result, not the journey to that end result


  Rutherford
• 'Sophoclean hero' main characteristic = inability to hear/understand


  Knox
• Hamartia = a mistake, NOT a moral flaw


  Aristotle
• OT shows that 'man is ignorant [and] knowledge belongs to the gods'


  Knox
• Oedipus is not a puppet, he has choice within fate


  Knox
• Oedipus' hamartia = arrogance which leads to hubris


  Wyles