Oedipus: The Meaning of a Masculine Life

199 Pages·1998·3.145 MB·English

by  Thomas Van Nortwick

OEDIPUS
OKLAHOMA SERIES IN CLASSICAL CULTURE
0 S
K LAHOMA E R I ES I N (LASS I CAL ( U LT UR E
Series Editor
Susan Ford \V iltsh ire, HmderbiltU niversitv
Advison' Board
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Alfred S. Bradford, Universitvo f Okl,1honh1
Jr.,
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Helene P. Folc}; B.1nwrd Cllltgc
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Ronald Leprohon, Umversi(v ~f Tt.1rL1nfL1
Thornas R. Martin, Collt~~~c f the JL 1{vC rl1ss
A. Geoffrey \Voodhcad, Corp11sC hristi Cl1llt~~t',
c:111,hridOgch/i oS h1te [/11/\1t'rSl(V
OEDIPUS
THE MEANING OF
A MASC U LI N E LI FE
BY
THOMAS VAN NORTWICK
UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS
NORMAN
Also by Thomas Van Norcwick
SomewherIe Have Never TravelledT:h e SecondS eifa nd theH ero~jo urney rn AncientE pic
(New York, I 992, I 996)
( ed., ,vith Judith Hallett) CompromisinTgr aditionsT:h eP ersonaHl ,icein CfossicaSlc holarship
(New York, 1996)
Excerpts from "Antigone" by Sophocles, "Oedipus at Colonus" by Sophocles,
"Oedipus the King" by Sophocles, from THREE THEBAN PLAYS by Sophocles,
translated by Robert Faglcs, translation copyright© 1982 by Robrrr Fagles. Usrd
by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Rooks USA lnc. Excrrpt
from THE ILIAD OF HOMER, translated by Richmond Larrimore copyright© I 951
by The University of Chicago, reprintrd by permission of The University of Chicago.
Excerpts from THE GIFT by \V. Lewis Hyde, reprinted by permission of Random
House, Inc., and by permission of Gcorgrs Borchardt, Inc., for the author.
This book is published with the generous assistance of the Kerr Foundation, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publicarion Dara
Van Norrwick. Thomas, 1946-
0edipus: the mraning of a masculine life/ by Thomas \'an Nort,vick.
p. cm. - (Oklahoma series in classical culturr ; v. 22)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8061-3009-1 ( alk. paper)
I. Sophoclrs-Characcers-Ordipus. 2. Greek drama (Tragedy)-Hisrory and
criticism. 3. Oedipus (Greek mythok1b'}') in literature. 4. Masculinity (Psycholq,~·~
in literature. 5. Sophocles. Oedipus at Colonus. 6. Sophocks. Oedipus Rex.
7. Men in lirt'rarure. I. Title. II. St·rit·s.
EA.44I 3.07\'35 I 998
882'.0l-dc21 97-40655 CIP
0t'dipiH:I ht 1\,fe1-111111~,~f , 1 Masrul11L1e: fei s Volume 22 nf the
Okbhom.1 Series in Classical Culture.
Text is set in Centaur with display in Lithos.
Text design hy Alicia I fcmbek1des.
The paper in tlllS book meets the gui~klincs for pcrm.1ncnce and durability of
the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council
on Library Resources, Inc.
Copyright© 1998 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norm:m, Publishing
Division of the Un1versiry.
All righrs reserved. Manufactured in tht' U.S.A.
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 IO
For lvlarr
,
Nothing is better and stronger,
~ ~
than when a 1nan and won1an,
joined in their thoughts,
keep a hon1e together
Homer,
O~vsse6y . 182-184

CONTENTS
Preface
1x
Introduction 3
Chapter I 21
Self-Creation as Self-Destruction: OedipusR ex I
Chapter 2 57
Self-Destruction as Self-Creation: OedipusR ex 2
Chapter 3 93
Apollo's Gift: Oedipusa t Co/onusI
Chapter 4 I 25
Beyond Tiresias: Oedipusa t Co/onus2
Conclusion: I 57
Ancient Heroism and the Meaning of a Masculine Life
Further Reading I 7 I
Bibliography I 75
Index 179
..
VII

PREFACE
Indeed. the world is not unlike a vast, shapeless Rorschach
blot which we read according to our inner disposition, in
such a way that our interpretations say far n1ore about our
seh·es than about the blot.
Alan \Vans, Nature,M an and vHm1an
This book focuses on a tenacious pattern of responses to the
world and its 1neaning, which I find dran1atized in two Greek
dra1nas by Sophocles, Oedip11Rs ex and Oedipus at Colonus . My
choice to write about these particular works of art reflects a
reciprocal process: I was preoccupied with the shape of a mas
culine life as it might be reflected in literature; I thought that
Sophocles' two plays, since they cover such a long period in
Oedipus's fictive life, might give a unique view of the issues I was
thinking about. I was not disappointed, and in fact reading the
plays taught me much more about the n1eaning of a n1asculine
life than I could have foreseen before reading then1 fron1 this
perspective.
The form of this book reflects that initial interplay. I will
pass over son1e aspects of the plays that classical scholars would
consider crucial to a full understanding of them as Athenian
dra1na. At the same time, I will try to be open to Sophocles' way
of telling the story so as not to rniss, by tuning in too precisely
IX
X p R E F A C E
to n1y own n1ctaphors, nuances that would enrich rny under
standing of a n1asculinc life. The analogy I have in mind is a
Mozartcan interplay of voices: Sophocles tells me a story. I tell
it back, and in the process there emerges, I hope, a third story.
with its own particular harmonics.
Though I an1 looking at patterns of growth and perception
that I believe arc con1n1on, in one form or another, to many peo
ple, and so will not hesitate to use "we" in talking of modern
analogues to the Oedipus n1yths, I am also in search of the
n1eaning of a particular 1nasculinc life, my own-behind the
"we" is always the story about me. I am a middle-aged, North
A1ncrican, white n1alc professor, twice rnarricd, who feels some
kinship with Oedipus. The details of my story arc not irnpor
tant here. Let it be enough to acknowledge that in telling Oedi
pus's story ( or Sophocles' version of his stoq~ or rny version of
Sophocles' version ... ), I a111a lso telling rny stor : and this
1
means I am seeing the plays through a particular lens.
The lens is, for instance, "gendered." The patterns of emo
tional and spiritual dcvelopn1cnt I will be tracing through Sopho
cles' 1nctaphors is one that the Greeks tended to see as biologically
based and characteristic of the n1alc sex. This view has been,
until quite recently, tenacious in n1odcrn cultures: n1ost of the con
tc1nporary studies of adult devclopn1cnt that apply to the n1odcl
I sec dramatized in Sophocles' plays arc based on a 1nalc popu
lation. But these days there arc 111anyw ho insist that rnuch of
what the Greeks saw as biological is actually rnlt11rali n origin,
that what we label "masculine" bchavior is not confined to-or
only appropriate to-n1cn, or "fen1ininc" to won1cn. 1-hc con
nection of these categories to biology 1night in fact be seen as
sanctioned by those in a particular culture who have sonic in
terest in their being understood as a part of "nature," and there
fore not to be opposed.