Oedipus Rex

Introduction

xv Introduction Historical Background The Age of Mycenae (1600–1200 BCE): The Historical Setting of Greek Myths and Legends Greek myths and legends, such as those concerning Oedipus, were passed along orally by imaginative storytellers for hundreds of years before they were written down. Hence they are mostly fictional. They do, however, have an authentic historical setting: the Mycenaean Period, when Greek-speaking people made their first appearance in world history. Archaeology shows that they had settled in Greece by 1600 BCE. The first settlement from this period to be excavated was at Mycenae in southern Greece, whose impressive remains lent credence to the legend that Agamemnon, a king of Mycenae, was the leader of the Greek armies during the Trojan War. Evidence of major settlements dated to this period turned up in Athens, Iolcus, which is associated with the legend of Jason and the Argonauts, and Thebes, Oedipus’ hometown. Heracles, the son of Zeus and greatest of all heroes, had a Mycenaean mother, but he grew up in Thebes. The prosperity of Mycenaean Greece was short-lived. Archaeology shows that starting around 1200 BCE, the major settlements were destroyed and abandoned. Only Athens xvi seems to have escaped. It is not known what led to all this destruction. Perhaps an economic collapse led to a period of chaos and pillaging. Whatever the disruption was, its effects extended beyond the Mycenaean world. Hattusas, the capital city of the Hittites, was burnt to the ground, and the Egyptian pharaoh Rameses III boasts of his destruction of a marauding horde, the “peoples of the sea,” who invaded his land with the worst of intentions. The city of Troy, located on the shore of present-day Turkey, just south of the mouth of the Hellespont, also seems to have been destroyed by warfare during this period. The legendary Trojan War was just one chapter in a long story of violence and destruction. The Dark Age (1200–800 BCE): The Growth of the Oral Tradition The collapse of Mycenae was followed by what is called the Dark Age, although archaeologists and historians who specialize in the period dislike the term, which conjures up a picture of utter desolation that is undoubtedly misleading. There is evidence that foreign trade continued, and the Greeks established some foreign colonies at this time. Nevertheless, very few luxury items from this period have been found. The palaces were gone, and they had not yet been replaced by walled cities. The population decreased, and there is no evidence of literacy. The age was at least somewhat dim. There was one undeniable bright spot. The Dark Age Greeks developed a rich oral tradition inspired by memories of the wealth and power of their Mycenaean ancestors. The tradition was embodied primarily in the songs of bards, who traveled from settlement to settlement singing in return for food and gifts. Many of their stories were inspired by the Greeks’ religious observances. Each locale had favorite gods and goddesses to Introduction xvii whom its inhabitants prayed and offered sacrifice. The oral tradition sifted out the most important stories and wove them together into a coherent picture, which achieved its definitive form in the poems of Homer and Hesiod. There the most important gods are imagined as a large, dysfunctional family living on Mount Olympus and answering to Zeus, the supreme authority, and Hera, his wife and sister. Down on earth, the cities of Mycenae and Thebes come to the fore as the great capitals of the heroic world of memory. Thebes in central Greece is founded by Cadmus, an exiled Phoenician prince; Mycenae in the south by Zeus’s son, Perseus. Although he does not know it at first, Oedipus is the fifth descendant of Cadmus to rule Thebes. When he abdicates because of the misfortunes dramatized in Oedipus Rex, his sons, Polynices and Eteocles, fight over the throne. The strife unleashed by their struggles leads to the destruction of Thebes by Mycenae and its allies a generation later. Thereafter Mycenae, now ruled by Agamemnon, becomes the dominant power in Greece and takes charge of the great expedition against Troy. The best-known legends of Greece conclude with the story of that war and the travails of its heroes, especially Odysseus, when they finally turn toward home. Whatever its nature, the cataclysm that caused the actual destruction of the Mycenaean settlements in 1200 BCE is not represented in myth and...