Karsai György Sophoklés-szemináriuma - meghívó

COLLEGIUM
BUDAPEST

Institute for Advanced Study

Szentháromság utca 2.
H-1014 Budapest

Seminar Room

Thursday, 4 November, 2010, 11 a.m.

Fellow Seminar

György Karsai: Creon and the Delphic oracles in Oedipus Tyrannus

The conflict between the king of Thebes, Oedipus, and his brother-in-law, Creon, creates one of the most surprising episodes of Sophocles’ tragedy. The king considers Creon not only a member of his family, but – from the very beginning – his closest and most trusted friend and ally in his struggle against the plague imposed by the Gods on Thebes. The play starts with the notion that Oedipus sent precisely Creon to consult Apollo’s Delphic oracle on the origin of the Gods’ anger. First, Prof. Karsai will analyse the text of the prologos (vv. 1-146), focusing on what message Creon brings from Delphi on the one hand, and on the exact text of the oracle on the other.

Later, Prof. Karsai will examine the changes in the relationship between Oedipus and Creon; more specifically, why – in the end – Oedipus accuses Creon of conspiracy against his kingship (377sqq.) after having had extreme faith in him at the beginning of the play. In the last part of the seminar, Prof. Karsai will examine the end of the play, when Oedipus – after his revelation as the murderer of his father and husband of his own mother – blinded himself. So, it was the king himself, rather than the Gods, who imposed this terrible punishment (vv. 1416-1523). Finally, Creon arrives as the new king, one of his first measures being the delegation of a person to the Delphic oracle to find out what to do with Oedipus, the murderer of Laius.

You are kindly encouraged to reread the above play, or at least the quoted passages for the seminar.

Selected bibliography for the seminar:

Alister Cameron: The identity of Oedipus the King. New York 1965., Charles Segal: Oedipus Tyrannus. Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge. New York 1993., Richard Buxton: Blindness and its Limits: Sophocles and the logic of Myth. JHSt 100 (1980) 22-37., Frederick Ahl: Sophocles’ Oedipus. Evidence and Self-Conviction. Ithaca and London 1991., Jean-Pierre Vernant-Pierre Vidal-Naquet: Mythe et tragédie en Grèce ancienne. Paris 1986.

tel: +36 1 2248 301, fax: +36 1 2248 310, email: kcsepi@colbud.hu http://www.colbud.hu/programme/calendar/