The curse of Oedipus: Action and utterance in three tragedians.

Abstract

In this dissertation I examine the way in which Oedipus' cursing of his sons--as part of the transmitted mythological framework--is manipulated by Sophocles in Oedipus at Colonus, Aeschylus in Seven Against Thebes, and Euripides in Phoenissae. To start with, then, Oedipus' curse is an embedded element in the story; but its significance expands when viewed as a paradigmatic example of the intersection of language and action, epitomized by a species of language-acts called performatives in recent language theory. On one level the curse is the example par excellence of words that do (or try to do) things; on another, the curse is shown to be limited, like other speech, to contain only delegated or negotiated power. Although exploring the power inherent in language is one interest shown by the dramatists, their concerns move beyond a simple equation of speech and action, for internally a gap develops between what various characters seem to believe they can effect through language, and what the evidence of the dramas bears out. By dramatizing their characters' struggle for power, security, or solace through attempts to manage words, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides problematize the question of language and its efficacy; while they collapse the dichotomy between logos and ergon, they refuse to redefine human interaction in terms which are less complex.