Oedipus: A Folklore Casebook

On the Oedipus Myth

On the Oedipus Myth Georgios A. Megas In 1950, Georgios Megas (1893-1976), Professor ofFolklore at the University ofAthens, challenged the findings ofAlexander Krappe with respect to the possiblefolktale sources ofthe Oe.dipus story. By assembling oral texts collected in different regions ofGreece and by referring to additional oral texts from other parts ofEurope including texts ignored by Krappe, Megas attempted to argue that these modern tales are independent of written tradition. For Megas, written texts do not produce oral tales. Rather oral tales may find their way into written tradition. For an idea of Professor Megas's contributions to folklore, see Richard M. Dorson's "Foreword" to Georgios A. Megas, Folktales of Greece (Chicago, 1970), pp. xlii-xlv. Seven years ago, while writing my essay on the legend ofJudas in folk tradition, I made no attempt to discuss the Oedipus myth with which Judas has traditionally been compared. Ijust contented myself with comparing a few elements of the ancient Oedipus tradition preserved by commentators and fabulists obviously derived from the myth of Oedipus.I Unfortunately, I did not know about A.H. Krappe's essay, "Is the Legend of Oedipus a Folktale?"2 I recently received from Paris an extensive summary of the essay through my friend D. Petropoulos, and because I find its contents Reprinted from Epeleris lou Laographikou Archeiou, 3 (1941-42) [1951], 196-209. We are greatly indebted to Athina Hobiti DeBusk for undertaking the translation of this essay from modern Greek into English. 133 134 Georgios A. Megas quite different from my own views, I find it useful to consider his ideas. I will first examine related material and then Krappe's opinion about the ancient myth. Krappe regards the medieval narratives connected with Judas's name as logical fabrications modelled after the Oedipus myth. He claims the many Slavic tales about Andrew of Crete, etc. are borrowings , relatively new, medieval, or taken from Byzantium. With respect to the Pope Gregory I and the St. Alban narratives where the subject of incestuous marriage is brought up twice and there is no mention of a prophecy, or the Sphinx or suicide of the sinner, Krappe contends these stories have so very little in common with the Oedipus legend that one cannot even say with E. Littre that it is only a pale reflection.3 Even the stories that are told by the people as actual folktales and that have been made known to us through L. Constans' writings4 are considered by Krappe to be, like the Judas and Andrew of Crete narratives, merely logical or semilogical fabrications imitating the ancient myth. To the tales the summaries of which I noted above, I have to add a Ukrainian one, republished by J. Frazer,5 which in all its action resembles a Finnish one but which in its main points has been influenced by the Russian version of the Andrew of Crete story.6 I should also add here two Romanian7 and four HungarianS tales which are listed in the Romanian and Hungarian tale type indices under Oedipus tales. For the Romanian ones, the indication given is: "The exposed son marries the widowed mother." For the Hungarian ones, "The characteristic points of their type are very poor." However the original collections in which these tales were published I was unable to see.9 Among the Greek tales of the type belongs a variant which comes from Epirus, and it is written in the semi-peasant dialect. 10 I cite it here, translated word by word as it was rendered by my collaborator in the folklore archives, D. Oeconomides: Potametes There was a time and there was not. Once upon a time, about a hundred years ago, in the end of the world, there lived a man and a woman. They had nine On the Oedipus Myth children. After the ninth child, the woman became pregnant again and the days of birth were near. After the woman had borne the child, the Fates came to order its destiny. Because the woman had a lot of children, she did not await the new baby with a good heart. So the third night, she did not put a cake, or food, or wine on the table. Once the Fates came and did not see the table set, they became very angry and began to order upon the child a life full of miseries: his father to die, his nine brothers to die, to be left all alone and miserable, and when...