NOBILITY AND SELF-INTEREST
The apparent reason that Oedipus cannot be resigned to the possible destruction of Thebes from the plague is his devotion to Thebes. As he says to the Theban priest, his soul groans for the suffering city (63—4).
And to Creon he remarks, “For I bear the suffering more for these [that is, the chorus of Theban elders] than for my own soul” (93—4). Oedipus suggests that his soul's devotion to the city eclipses its concern for itself, and hence that his dedication to the city's good surpasses his concern for his own individual good. Accordingly, when Teiresias later says that, by solving the riddle of the Sphinx, Oedipus has destroyed himself, Oedipus responds: “But if I saved the city, it [my destruction] is of no concern to me” (442). This devotion to Thebes is especially remarkable since Thebes is Oedipus's adopted city. He does not owe Thebes the debt he would have if he had been raised there (see 322—3; but see also 1378—83). And Oedipus, of all men, knows well that it is possible for a man who loses one city to find his fortune in another. But it seems that his devotion is based, not on a felt duty to or dependence on Thebes in particular, but rather on his dedication to acting as befits a noble human being. As he says, “To benefit a man from what one has and can do is the noblest of toils” (314—15).It seems to be Oedipus's dedication to nobility thus understood that leads him, when faced with the plague, to reject reason, to turn to the gods for help, and to believe that he deserves their help. By his account, a noble man not only strives to benefit others but does so successfully. But consequently the noble man requires power in order to benefit others and hence in order to be noble. Until now, Oedipus has possessed sufficient power to benefit the Thebans, first by saving them from the Sphinx, and then by ruling over them successfully.
He has possessed sufficient power to be a noble human being. But now, by threatening to destroy the community that Oedipus has devoted his life to benefiting, the plague exposes the weakness of his powers and therefore the fragility of his nobility. As the Theban priest tells him: “Let us in no way remember your rule as one in which we stood upright and later fell, but in safety set this city upright once again.... Since if indeed you will rule this land, just as you hold power over it, it is nobler to hold power over a land with men than over one that is empty” (49—55; emphasis added). The priest here points out that if Thebes, the beneficiary of Oedipus's nobility, is destroyed, Oedipus will lose not only the honor due to him as the savior of the city but also in large measure his very nobility.The plague thus poses a radical challenge to Oedipus's dedication to nobility. If, as reason suggests, there is no remedy for the plague, then it is not possible for him to rescue the city and hence to be noble. If Oedipus were to follow reason, he would have to accept the fact that it is not always possible to be noble, since being noble depends not only on himself but also on blind chance or whimsical gods. He would ultimately have to accept the fact that even his ability to avoid what he later calls the “basest” of deeds (1408) — patricide and incest — depends on powers beyond his control. It would seem, then, that the plague would lead Oedipus to question whether it makes sense for him to devote himself to nobility and to make all of the apparent sacrifices he makes for the sake of being noble. For if the city one toils nobly and selflessly to benefit is ultimately destroyed, are not one's toils futile and senseless? More broadly, if one's ability to be noble depends so decisively on capricious fortune or gods, is it reasonable to make nobility the goal of one's life and to sacrifice one's wellbeing for that goal?
Oedipus, however, does not respond to the plague by pursuing such questions.
Instead he embraces the hope that there are gods who support nobility, who would make it possible for him to save the city from the deadly plague and to help it achieve an immortal well-being, and hence who would enable him to act nobly even under these most terrible circumstances (see especially 76—7, 80—1, 135—6, 145—6, 244—54, 269—75, 300—15). It seems that so great is Oedipus's dedication to nobility that he suppresses his all-too-reasonable doubts about the beneficence of the gods in order to remain true to that dedication. And it is that zealous dedication to nobility that leads him to decree that the killer of Laius must be punished, to discover that he is guilty of that regicide, as well as of patricide and incest, and to punish himself, and hence that leads to his downfall.Yet, in the course of the play, Sophocles shows that Oedipus's concern for nobility is not in truth his deepest concern. For, after his confrontation with Teiresias, Oedipus abandons his noble devotion to the city. For example, while Oedipus refers to the city (πoλiς) ten times up to and including that scene, he refers to it only once thereafter, and not at all during the last half of the play (4, 64, 72, 302, 312, 322, 331, 340, 383, 442, 629).[28] Similarly, while Oedipus refers repeatedly to the plague up through his quarrel with Teiresias, he refers to it only once thereafter, and never during the last half of the play (58— 69, 93-4, 143-6, 216-8, 300-15, 330-1; 671-2). More importantly, while Oedipus focuses during the first two-thirds of the play on solving the regicide of Laius, a crime against the city and, according to the Delphic Oracle, the cause of the plague destroying the city, Oedipus focuses during the last third of the play on discovering whether he is guilty of patricide and incest, crimes against the family and crimes apparently unrelated to the plague destroying Thebes. Indeed, so complete is Oedipus's forgetting of the city that, when he finally has an opportunity to interrogate the only witness to the killing of Laius, the event that has purportedly caused the plague, he forgets to ask the witness about the regicide and asks only about his own parents' identity (compare 836-62 with 1037-85, 1119-81).
The two distinctive characteristics of Oedipus as a ruler are his political rationalism and his noble devotion to the city. But, in the course of the play, Oedipus abandons both.The moment Oedipus begins to abandon his noble devotion to the city is shown in the scene with Teiresias. The key development here is Teiresias's charge that Oedipus is the killer of Laius and hence the cause of the plague. Now Oedipus responds to this charge with understandable outrage, given the malice with which it is clearly spoken, as well as the contradiction between what Teiresias says and the accounts reportedly given both by the Delphic oracle and the eye-witness (see, for example, 350-3, 360-2, 435-42, 447-8, and also 100-7, 3059). And Oedipus responds with understandable chagrin and sorrow when it becomes increasingly apparent that the charge is true (738, 744-5, 747, 754, 813-33). Yet one might expect that, given his devotion to Thebes, Oedipus would at least feel relieved to learn who the killer of Laius is, so that Thebes might be saved. But Oedipus never expresses such relief.[29] Instead, he becomes concerned only with establishing his innocence. When he first summons the sole eyewitness of Laius's death, he does not express any interest in asking the witness who killed Laius so that he might solve the murder and end the plague, but only seeks to know whether or not he, Oedipus, could be the murderer (836—47). When he speaks of his hope concerning the interrogation, it is his hope for his own innocence and not for the salvation of Thebes.
Oedipus's abandonment of his noble devotion to Thebes points to a fundamental ambiguity within his understanding of nobility. On the one hand, Oedipus emphasizes that the noble human being is one who is selflessly devoted to benefiting others. This is clearest when, in response to Teiresias's claim that Oedipus destroyed himself by solving the riddle of the Sphinx, Oedipus replies, “But if I saved the city, it [my destruction] is of no concern to me” (443).
It seems clear as well when he says, “To benefit a man from what one has and can do is the noblest of toils” (314—15). Yet Oedipus also believes that being noble benefits the noble human being. A noble human being may receive recognition from future generations, as the Theban priest points out (49—55). Such a human being may enjoy an inner satisfaction from benefiting others. Perhaps most importantly, being noble may benefit one intrinsically, by simply making one a better person. Accordingly, at line 443, Oedipus suggests that, while his destruction does not concern him, he is concerned not only that Thebes be saved but that he be the one who saves Thebes and hence that he be noble. Similarly, when Oedipus originally sends Creon to the Delphic Oracle, he does so, he says, in order to learn, not merely how the city might be saved, but how he might save the city (69—72). Even at lines 314—5, while Oedipus certainly means to say there that benefiting other men is the noblest of toils, the literal meaning of his words is that “to benefit a man from what one has and can do is the noblest of toils.” The sentence therefore may mean that benefiting a man, even and especially if that man is oneself, is the noblest of toils. The question arises, then, is Oedipus'sthrust out violently, dishonored, from this land. For I pity your piteous mouth, not his. This one, wherever he may be, will be hated.” But even there his words are evidently bitter and grudging, as Creon points out (673—5), and no such words are repeated in the rest of the play.
concern for nobility motivated primarily by his desire to benefit others or himself? Now, Oedipus throughout the play emphasizes that to be noble is to be devoted primarily to others. He emphasizes — to others, but also to himself — that he is more concerned for others than for himself. But once it appears that he may be the cause of the city's suffering rather than being its savior, and hence that he may be ignoble rather than noble, he seems to forget entirely about the sufferings of the city and to focus exclusively and, one must say, selfishly, on establishing his own innocence.
This change suggests that, notwithstanding Oedipus's self-understanding, his concern for nobility has always been motivated primarily by a desire to benefit himself. It would seem, then, that Oedipus cannot resign himself to the destruction of Thebes, not primarily because of his desire to save the Thebans from death and to help them achieve an immortal wellbeing, but rather, as the priest suggests, because of his concern lest his fame and his nobility perish along with the city, as well as because of his own desire for immortality (compare 58—67, 93—4, 442 with 49—57; see also 273—5).The scene in which Oedipus learns of the death of Polybus, the man he believes to be his father, reveals especially starkly Oedipus's narrowly self-regarding nature, not only with respect to his city but also with respect to his family. When the messenger from Corinth arrives, he tells Jocasta that he brings good news to Oedipus, but also remarks that the news may cause distress as well (934—6). The messenger expects that Oedipus will be pleased to learn that he is ruler of Corinth but saddened by the death of his father. Here, however, is Oedipus's response to the news, after two questions about how his father died: “Ah! Ah! Why, then, lady, would someone look to the altar of the Pythian soothsayer, or the screaming birds above, according to whose guidance I was to kill my father? The dead man is hidden beneath the earth. And I am here and haven't touched a spear” (964—9). Now, it seems understandable that Oedipus is relieved that the oracle was apparently mistaken and that he (Oedipus) does not have the blood of his father on his hands. Oedipus, however, expresses no grief whatsoever over the death of his father, but only pleasure that he himself is not responsible for his death. Oedipus then goes on to consider momentarily the possibility that Polybus may have died because he pined for his son, because he loved his son and was heart-broken by his absence. “Unless through longing for me (τωμa πθθω) he wasted away. In this way he would be dead because of me” (969-70).
What is striking here is that Oedipus does not pause to express regret for having broken the heart of his father. He only considers here whether he might be deemed in any way responsible for his father's death. We see, then, that Oedipus's concern regarding the oracle that he would kill his father is not that his father would be harmed and killed but that he would be held responsible for his father's death. Later, when explaining to the Corinthian messenger why he fled Corinth after learning from the oracle that he would kill his father, Oedipus does not say that he wanted to prevent the death of his father but only that “I did not want to be the killer of my father, old man” (³00³). Oedipus dreads not the death of his father, but rather being held guilty of causing that death.
Indeed, this scene makes it clear that, ever since Oedipus heard of the oracle, he has always longed for the deaths of his father and mother precisely so that he need no longer fear being considered guilty of patricide and incest. WhenJocasta says that Oedipus should no longer worry about the oracle now that his father is dead, Oedipus says, “All these things would be nobly spoken by you if she who bore me were not alive. But now, since she lives, it is entirely necessary, even if you speak nobly, to shrink in hesitation” (984—6). And when Jocasta remarks, “But a great comfort is the grave of your father,” Oedipus replies, “Great, I agree. But there is fear of she who lives” (987—8). Oedipus here indicates quite clearly that he wished for his father's death and now wishes for his mother's death. Yet, while he is terrified of being considered guilty of killing his father, he does not seem to feel at all guilty about having wished for the death of his father. LikeJocasta, he separates entirely the wish to commit a crime from the actual commission of the crime (see 976—83). Oedipus may link the wish for his father's death and the responsibility for that death at lines 969—70. For while I have translated those lines here as, “Unless through Iongingfor me he wasted away. In this way he would be dead because of me,” they may also be translated, more literally, as “Unless through my longing (τfather. Oedipus's true fear is of being polluted by the crimes of patricide and incest, of being considered guilty by the gods of patricide and incest, and of being punished by them. Indeed, Oedipus goes so far as to suggest to the Corinthian messenger that he has “always” feared committing the crimes of patricide and incest lest he take upon himself the pollution of those crimes and lest Apollo punish him for them (1Î11—13). Earlier, he prays that the gods help him avoid committing those crimes and thereby save him from the “stain of misfortune” and, it seems, the divine punishment that would follow (823—33). And later, after he has discovered that he is guilty of those crimes, he expresses the fear of being punished in Hades for his crimes by being forced to confront his dead parents (1371—4; see also 971—2 and compare with 955—6). Indeed, within the play, Oedipus exhibits a singularly strong interest in the afterlife. He is the only character, apart from the priest, to speak of Hades (29—30). And each time he mentions Hades, he does so in order to reject the apparent suggestion first of Jocasta and then of the chorus that there is no afterlife (compare 971—2 with 955—6 and 1371—4 with 13 67—8). Oedipus, then, does not dread committing patricide because he dreads harming his father but rather because he dreads harming himself, not intrinsically by, say, defiling or degrading his soul but rather by incurring the wrath of the gods, and not only in the here and now, but also in the hereafter. Consequently, Oedipus did not flee Corinth — and apparently sacrifice all of his apparent hopes and ambitions of becoming king — after he heard from the oracle that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother — out of love for his parents but rather out of love for himself.
Moreover, the scene in which Oedipus learns of the death of Polybus reminds us that he (Oedipus) did not sacrifice his ambition to rule when he left Corinth but actually advanced it. By bringing the “good” news that Polybus is dead and that Oedipus has been chosen as tyrant of Corinth, the Corinthian messenger reminds us that, if Oedipus had stayed in Corinth, he would not have become a ruler until now, some fifteen years since he became ruler of Thebes (934, 936—7, 939—40). During those years his position would have resembled that of Creon under Oedipus, able to pursue private pleasures but unable to fulfill his ambition to rule. But while Creon claims to eschew such ambition, Oedipus enjoys ruling (577—602). Furthermore, Oedipus says that, as a young man in his early twenties, he was already considered “the greatest man of the townsmen” in Corinth, and thereby suggests that he may have been considered greater than even his father Polybus, the ruler (774—6). Oedipus must have foreseen, as a young man, that in the ordinary course of things he would not be able to fulfill his greatness for many years, but would have to live in his father's shadow and wait until his death in order to become ruler. Perhaps he was especially sensitive to the oracle's claim that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother precisely because he already sensed uneasily a tension between his ambition and his position as a subject of his father the ruler.[30] At any rate, by leaving Corinth Oedipus made it possible for him to fulfill an ambition that would have been thwarted as long as he lived under his father's rule in Corinth. Moreover, when Oedipus left Corinth he did not leave his ambition aside. He clearly welcomed the opportunity to win glory by defeating the Sphinx and saving Thebes (390—8, 439— 41). And although he did not ask to be made tyrant of Thebes, he also did not decline the Thebans' request. Accordingly, Oedipus's sacrifice of his position at Corinth was not the selfless act it seems at first. While Oedipus does express regret that he had to leave Corinth, he also acknowledges to the Corinthian messenger that it was “with good fortune,” and hence fortunate for him that he left Corinth (822—33,
994-9). Oedipus's departure from Corinth, then, was not noble but rather self-interested, inasmuch as he sought both to avoid being punished for killing his father and sleeping with his mother and to fulfill his ambition to rule.