Oedipus Tyrannos

A tragedy by the great Greek tragic poet Sophocles. It is said to have been performed around 430 BC. Aeschylus and Euripides also wrote works on the same subject, but Sophocles' work is particularly famous.

An oracle predicts that the child born to King Laius of Thebes and Queen Jocasta will kill his father and marry his mother, so Oedipus orders his servants to abandon the baby. The servants take pity on Oedipus and entrust the baby to a servant in Corinth, where Oedipus grows up as a prince in the royal household. The same oracle also comes to him, so he leaves Corinth in fear, but on the way there he gets into a fight with a group of strange old men at a three-way crossing, killing all but one of them. This old man is actually his real father, Laius. Oedipus arrives in Thebes, defeats the monster, takes the throne, marries Jocasta, the previous king's widow, and has a child with her.

The play begins at this point and unfolds towards the revelation of the terrible truth of the past. An oracle tells Oedipus that the plague raging in Thebes will be eradicated by punishing the murderer of the former king, so an investigation into the murderer becomes urgent. The prophet Tiresias tells Oedipus that the king is the culprit, but Oedipus does not understand and sees it as a plot by his brother-in-law, the regent Creon, who brought the prophet, and a dispute ensues. The queen intervenes and tries to reassure him by saying that the murder of the former king was the work of bandits at a three-way crossroads, but the king becomes anxious when he hears the three-way crossroads, and the only surviving old servant is sent to fetch him. An envoy from Corinth reports the death of the old king and asks him to return home, but while he is relieved that his father was not killed by his own hand, he hesitates, fearing that he will marry his mother. The envoy then tells him that the Corinthian queen is not his real mother, and that the envoy himself once received the baby of unknown origins from a servant in Thebes.

Upon learning the truth, Jocasta commits suicide, and the old servant called in to investigate the murder turns out to be the same man who had entrusted the baby to the Corinthians, and the king, having learned the whole truth, gouges out both his own eyes and wails. In the development of the play and in the events that serve as its premise, everything moves in the opposite direction to his will, and the contrast between the illusion and reality of human existence is vividly depicted.

[Rinsho Takebe]

"Oedipus Rex, translated by Norio Fujisawa (Iwanami Bunko)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

古代ギリシアの大悲劇詩人ソフォクレスの悲劇。紀元前430年ごろの上演と伝える。アイスキロス、エウリピデスにも同じ題材の作品があるが、ソフォクレスのものがとくに名高い。

　テーベの王ライオスと妃イオカステの間に生まれる子は、父を殺し母と結婚すると神託が告げたので、生まれた赤子は召使いに命じて捨てられる。召使いは哀れんで赤子をコリントの家来に託し、そこの王家でオイディプスは王子として成人する。彼にも同じ神託が下るので、恐れてコリントを去るが、その途中、ある三叉路(さんさろ)で見知らぬ老人の一行と争い、1人を除いてすべてを殺す。この老人こそ実父ライオスであった。テーベにきたオイディプスは、怪物を退治して王位につき、先王未亡人の実母イオカステを妃とし、子までもうけた。

　劇はこの時点から始まり、過去の恐ろしい真実の暴露に向けて展開する。テーベに荒れ狂っている疫病は先王の殺害者を罰することによって退散するとの神託で、殺害者の捜査が急務となる。預言者テイレシアスは王が下手人であると語るが、オイディプスはまったくわけがわからず、預言者を連れてきた義弟の執政クレオンの陰謀とみて争いとなる。仲裁に入った王妃は、先王を殺したのは三叉路での盗賊のしわざであったと語って安心させようとするが、三叉路と聞いて王は逆に不安にかき立てられ、ただ1人の生き残りの老僕がよびにやられる。コリントからきた使者が老王の死を報告し、帰国を要請するが、父が自らの手で殺されなかったことに安堵(あんど)する一方、母との結婚を恐れてしぶる。そこで使者は、コリント王妃が実母ではなく、使者自身がかつてテーベの召使いから素性の知れぬ赤子の彼を受け取った事実を語る。

　イオカステは真実を知って自殺し、殺害者捜査のためよばれた老僕が、赤子の彼をコリント人に託した召使いと同一人物であることがわかり、全真実を知った王は自らの手で両眼をくりぬいて号泣する。劇展開においても、その前提の事件においても、すべてが意志とは逆の方向に動いており、人間存在の虚像と実像との対照が鮮明に描かれている。

［竹部琳昌］

『藤沢令夫訳『オイディプス王』（岩波文庫）』

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