Oidipous Tyrranos (Sophokleous)

[Scribo]

Ok so I recently re-read this play prompted by a humorous article of Dodd's ("On Misunderstanding the 'Oedipus Rex'"). I figured enough people have read this here so we could maybe discuss this. Thoughts? What kind of readings does this play prompt for you?

If I had to characterise this play in one sentence it would have to be "pregnant with irony". I mean seriously the way dialogue and structure came together was pretty impressive but I also can't help but feel just how unlike able Fattyfoot was.

[cb]

hi scribo, let me read it again over the next few days and i'll give my thoughts after. what do you mean by pregnant with irony specifically, what did you have in mind?

do you mean e.g. lines like 141 κείνῳ προσαρκῶν οὖν ἐμαυτὸν ὠφελῶ, where he tries to make the discovery that will, it turns out, lead to his own downfall, classic aristotelian poetics tragedy? or something else? irony is a loaded word, so i'm curious as to what you meant.

many thanks, chad

[Victor]

what do you mean by pregnant with irony specifically, what did you have in mind?
irony is a loaded word, so i'm curious as to what you meant.

Loadedness is what irony is all about, and a large part of the dramatic impact of O.T. is in its irony. So I don't find it curious at all that Scribo says O.T. is pregnant with irony. Do you understand dramatic irony to mean something very specific perhaps, Chad?

[cb]

hi victor, you're right, i don't find it curious either, or wrong, or anything like that -- i was just asking what scribo meant specifically by irony, which has several meanings. cheers, chad

[Scribo]

Irony in the tragic sense, in particular the drawn out debate between Fattyfoot and Tieresias ca. 300ff. I was drawn to the wonderful structural parallels, seeing/not seeing, hearing but not "hearing", throwing insults/being about to receive them and so on and forth. wonderful.

I meant to answer earlier but I've been pretty ill these past few days and not entirely lucid. BTW given my goal of re-reading all of Soph besides Aias I can make this thread into a general Soph thread if it would make it easier.