This article compares the dramatisation of the Oedipus myth by Sophocles in his Oedipus Rex and by Cocteau in his La Machine Infernale. Both dramas are based on fundamentally the same story but ...nevertheless there are great differences in structure. This fact is due to a difference in attitude towards Fate on the part of the two dramatists. Sophocles admits the fact that Fate frequently intervenes in the life of man in a way which seems to be cruel. But he accepts this as something which we cannot understand and cannot alter. Therefore in his dramas he does not emphasize the cruelty of Fate but rather concentrates on the ignorance of man and also on the heroic way in which he endures his fate. So in the Oedipus Rex, Sophocles does not show us how Oedipus is led to commit those terrible crimes — at the beginning of his tragedy the worst has already happened — but he shows how Oedipus gradually discovers the truth and what his reaction is. Cocteau, on the other hand, wishes to demonstrate the cruelty of the gods towards man. Therefore he takes the events in chronological sequence and shows how Oedipus is caught in the web of Fate. To emphasize this he even invents incidents of his own. In the first three acts he takes three critical moments in the history of Oedipus. The first incident is wholly his own invention. While Thebes is suffering under the reign of terror of the Sphinx, the ghost of Laius appears on the city walls and tries to warn Jocasta against the coming of Oedipus, but by a combination of circumstances she never receives the warning. In the second act Oedipus' encounter with the Sphinx is depicted. But instead of conquering her by his superior wisdom, Oedipus is completely in her power and only escapes because she falls in love with him and tells him the answer to the riddle beforehand. Oedipus does not realize this and departs in triumph to claim Jocasta as his wife. In the third act Oedipus and Jocasta is shown on their wedding night. Time and again they are on the brink of discovering their real relationship, but each time the discovery is averted. Finally, in the fourth act, Cocteau describes Oedipus' discovery of the truth, following the main lines of Sophocles' tragedy. Although Cocteau has succeeded in giving us a fascinating dramatisation of this ancient myth, he has given no radically new interpretation of the myth.
Tries to show some of the main differences between the Antigone of Sophocles and that of the modern Jean Anouilh. Feels a comparison of this drama with the original tragedy by Sophocles can throw ...light on the essential differences between ancient and modern drama. Hopes to show it to be possible to admire both these dramas as the manifestation, in two very different ages, of the power which this myth has over the minds of men.
States Oidipus, as almost every Greek myth, is a very complex structure - the collective achievement through the centuries, of people, and of poet, and of plastic artist, all adding motifs to the ...Oidipus edifice and thus raising it to its majestic structure. Presents with a mere catalogue of viewpoints on Oidipus mythology. Relates the first introduction to Oidipus in literature is found in the Iliad and in Hesiod, later in the Nekyia.
König Ödipus - King Oedipus (Greek Oιδίπoυς τύραννoς) - anonymously published probably in 1804 German-language translation of one of the most outstanding works of world literature, the Greek tragedy ...written c. 427 BC by Sophocles, gr. ΣοφοκλÀ ς (around 496 BC - 406 BC) - the greatest tragedy of ancient Greece next to Ayschylos and Euripides. King Oedipus, next to the other two plays of Sophocles Antigone and Oedipus in Cologne, belongs to the so-called cycle (trilogy) of Theban. Tragedy presents powerlessness towards the irreconcilable laws of fate. He shows the story of Oedipus, a man trying to deceive destiny, wanting to live peacefully, in line with the world. A curse over Oedipus pregnancy, from which despite efforts it is impossible to free. Incest and patricide are unforgivable offenses. The stigma also remains on children (siblings) Oedipus. Sophocles to write art inspired contemporary political events, especially the terrible plague that struck Athens at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. According to some German-language sources, the author of the translation is the German philosopher and scientist Karl Wilhelm Ferdinad Solger (1780-1819).
König Ödipus - Król Edyp (gr. Oιδίπoυς τύραννoς) - wydany anonimowo najprawdopodobniej w 1804 roku niemieckojęzyczny przekład jednego z najwybitniejszych dzieł literatury światowej, tragedii greckiej napisanej ok. 427 p.n.e. przez Sofoklesa, gr. Σοφοκλῆς (ok. 496 p.n.e. - 406 p.n.e.) - największego obok Ajschylosa i Eurypidesa tragika starożytnej Grecji. Król Edyp, obok innych dwóch sztuk Sofoklesa Antygony i Edypa w Kolonie należy do tak zwanego cyklu (trylogii) Tebańskiego. Tragedia przedstawia bezsilność wobec nieodgadnionych praw losu. Ukazuje historię Edypa, człowieka próbującego oszukać przeznaczenie, chcącego żyć spokojnie, w zgodzie ze światem. Nad Edypem ciąży klątwa, od której mimo starań nie da się uwolnić. Kazirodztwo i ojcobójstwo są niewybaczalnymi przewinieniami. Piętno pozostaje także na dzieciach (rodzeństwie) Edypa. Sofoklesa do napisania sztuki zainspirowały ówczesne wydarzenia polityczne, a zwłaszcza straszliwa zaraza, jaka dotknęła Ateny na początku wojny peloponeskiej. Według niektórych źródeł niemieckojęzycznych autorem tłumaczenia jest niemiecki filozof i naukowiec Karl Wilhelm Ferdinad Solger (1780-1819).
