‘TRAGEDY’, A DEFINITION, AND COMMUNITY AWARENESS.

The English noun ‘tragedy’ evolves from the Greek word ‘τραγως’ (trayos) meaning ‘goat’. The English word ‘tragedian’ is a construction from two Greek words: ‘τραγως’ (goat) and ωδή (‘ode’) [some historians dispute this theory]; thus the single Greek word: ‘τραγωδία’ (trayos) meaning ‘goat’ (‘goat’ + ‘ode’ = ‘tragedy’). Most academics are of the opinion that the word ‘τραγωδία’ (‘trayothia’) refers to a goat awarded, by the panel of judges; to the best player or tragedian.

Clearly visible ingredients exist in all Greek tragedies. A very high level of responsibility and thoughtfulness regarding matters of human survival, and a total community involvement in anything of ultimate and mutual concern. Sustained by an extremely intellectual standard, unadulterated by satiric and sentimental elements. Moreover, raising questions concerning: the source of human existence, authorship of suffering at the mercy of the inexorable hostile deities; and the elusiveness of justice.

PLOT, STORY, MONOLOGUE, PROLOGUE, AND EPILOGUE.

The ‘plot’ is the morphogenic interrelation of events producing a sense of causality. The Neo-Aristotelians in Chicago think of the ‘plot’ as controlling an audience’s emotional responses. That is to say, attention and tension within a time frame. The ‘story’ is an ordered train of events in chronological sequence. The ‘monologue’ is a passage that a character audibly expresses his thoughts, either solo or accompanied with other players remaining silent. Shakespeare used this device to express the inner thoughts of his characters. The prologue is a prefatory and supplementary portion in verse drama. The epilogue is a concluding explanatory or critical mechanism for comment stressing the play’s central theme.

SOPHOCLES, THE AD-VOCATE OF PURE ART.

Sophocles (c 496-406 BC) was the protagonist of dramatic art, the advocate of scrupulous purity, which set him quite apart, from Aeschylus and Euripides. He maintained integrity to the individual characteristics and feelings of the human person of his characters, in that he is neither subjective, manipulative nor judgmental. He addresses conflicts in the plot at the level of human ‘response’ rather than philosophical concerns with the genesis of ‘whys’ or ‘how’s’. His ‘Oedipus Rex’ has been described as the definitive play of dramatic art.

THE SHRINE AT DELPHI, AND THE OEDIPUS LEGEND.

An introduction to the Oracular Shrine at Delphi is essential to understand the religious, social and political ambience of the ancient Greek world; the backdrop to the Oedipus tragedy. The Shrine at Delphi, where Oedipus sent his brother-in-law. “I sent Creon to Delphi to learn what I might do or say to save our city” (Oedipus Rex, p. 162, ll. 81-4). The city was under the patronage of the god Apollo, and situated 573m above sea level on the southern slopes of Parnassos Oros; 163 km from Athens via Thebes. On the fore-Temple were carved three maxims: ‘Know Thyself, Nothing in Excess and Go Surety, and Ruin is at Hand’.

Priests conducted the Temple, who interpreted the incoherent words of a middle age woman representing a virgin. She was called the Pythia and sat upon a tripod and inhaled incense from burnt barley, hemp, and bay leaves. Her utterances were translated by the priests to private individuals about personal matters, or politicians concerning matters of state, for example, outcomes of theatres of war or establishing new colonies. Delphi was the most prestigious Oracle of the ancient world. During its last thousand years, it had earned the respect of both Greek and Romans as well as the Orientals. It dates back to 2,500 BC; first dedicated to the goddess Ge or Gaia, and then Poseidon; Themis and finally Apollo. The Oracle continued to function during the Roman Empire until the Roman general, and dictator, Sulla; seized all the precious dedicated offerings, to finance his military campaign. Nero removed 500 statues, and later Saint Constantine the Great relocated a significant number of works to the new capital at Constantinople; formerly Byzantium. The remains of the Sanctuary suffered from earthquakes and other disasters; in the ensuing years. The ancient ground of Delphi, although in ruin, gives an excellent picture of the grandeur and wealth of the Temple in its heyday. When the ancient Greeks had no sacred text, The Torah to guide them.

‘FREE WILL’ vs. ‘DETERMINISM’, A PSYCHO-PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE.

The Greeks considered fate to include ‘ανάγκη’ (‘anagke’ = necessity) and ‘τύχη’ (‘tyche’ = chance ) which were central to the functions of three goddesses. Namely, Clotho, spinner of the thread of life (“an oracle came to Laius one fine day … and it declared that doom would strike him down …” (Oedipus Rex, p.201,ll. 784-87)). Lachesis, who ties the knots. And measures it (“… the boy’s father fastened his ankles, had a henchman fling him away on a barren, trackless mountain” (ibid., p. 201, ll. 791-93)). Moreover, Atropos, who cuts the thread (“I killed them all – every mother’s son!” (ibid., p. 206, ll. 98)). The English noun fate comes from the Latin word fatum meaning: ‘that which has been spoken’. The Greek word ‘θέσφατον’ (‘thesfaton’) translates as ‘lot’ or ‘portion’. Both fatum and ‘θέσφατον’, in Roman and Greek mythology, represented the foreordained patterns of both individual and collective existence that they anthropomorphized into three goddesses: Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos; the Fates.

The three Fates play a central role in the Oedipus tragedy. It is Fate, the Oracular Shrine at Delphi, who sets the stage of impending gloom for Oedipus. (“Drive the corruption from the land, don’t harbor it any longer root it out!” (ibid., p. 164, ll. 109-11 )) The curse to be fulfilled. In Oedipus’ world, there was no concept of a benevolent monotheistic deity. It was an environment of polytheistic divinities who were, at times, quite hostile toward man. (“…Poseidon, who pursued the heroic Odysseus with relentless malice” (‘The Odyssey’, 1: 20-1)), and among themselves (“He ( Zeus) immediately seized the goddess (Ate) and hurled her out of the starry heaven” (‘The Iliad’, 19: 125-129)).

Although the goddesses (the Fates) had fixed the scene for Oedipus to kill his father and marry his mother, he was aware that he could, to some degree, offset the influences of the goddesses: “…running toward some place where I would never see the shame of all those oracles come true” (Oedipus Rex, p. 205, Il. 878-80 ), “yet in the teeth of the forces of fate,…toward … (the) … triple crossroad” (p. 206,l I, 884) his upward rush, from his unconscious, drives him to patricide; the fulfilment of the oracle.

Fate manipulates Oedipus as he seemingly acts independently exercising his ‘free will’. He is ignorant of the protagonist in the drama. He seemingly chooses, time and again, without the constraints of the Fates, to search assiduously for the protagonist’s identity – “What – give up now, with a clue like this? Fail to solve the mystery of my birth? Not for all the world!” (ibid., p.222, ll. 1160 – 62) so that he can liberate Thebes from the curse while bringing down upon himself inevitable pain and suffering; the tragic loss of his wife (mother), kingdom, sight and exile.

Oedipus is the most tragic heroic figure. He courageously steps out of the influences of the Fates, vulnerably and relentlessly searching for the (truth) protagonist (himself) of the curse, and then becomes his own judge who passes sentence to blind himself: “I, with my eyes, how could I look my father in the eyes when I go down to death?” (ibid., p.243, ll. 1500-2).

Discussions over the centuries have established free will to be very controversial. In the field of philosophy, many plausible theories have been put forward but the problem is that the nature of ‘free will’ can be neither proved nor disproved. Exogenous human activities might well be seen as representing, in space-time continuum, causally connected physical events; during endogenous processes of the mind that could be assigned to environmental or heredity effects, or to determinist psychology, that is to say, activities motivated by exogenous forces external to the will. These processes may involve a conscious awareness of ruminating over various courses of action, choosing one in preference to others.

History of philosophy has not satisfactorily established free will as reality nor demonstrated it as an illusion, nor activity determined by pre-determined factors other than the conscious choice between alternatives. Determinism can be perceived as physical or psychological, but both are inconclusive. Free will is a presupposition of man’s temporal thinking; it cannot be empirically demonstrated.

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