enowning
Monday, February 20, 2012
 
Ḥayim and Rivca Gordon on seeing Aletheia in Οἰδίπους Τύραννος.
Here is an example of such centrality of truth as unconcealment in a play by Sophocles, King Oedipus, which is based on the Greek myth of Oedipus. To the best of our knowledge, Heidegger did not discuss this myth as an example of aletheia.

Quite soon after the beginning of the play, King Oedipus learns that he must strive to unconceal the truth about his past. He must discover the truth of his birth and the significance of his deeds before he solved the riddle of the sphinx and became King of Thebes. Only by unconcealing this truth, Oedipus may succeed in saving the residents of the city of Thebes, which he rules, from a terrible plague that has afflicted them. Oedipus grasps that his search for this aletheia, for this truth as unconcealment, is crucial to his existence and to the lives of his suffering subjects in Thebes. Hence, he struggles to open a carefully concealed realm in which the truth about his past and deeds will emerge. Only after the realm of his past and deeds has been opened, and the truths there unconcealed, is it possible to state that Oedipus’ search for truth is an attempt to formulate a statement that will accord with some matter at hand.

Using Heidegger’s terms, it is correct to state that Oedipus’ search for truth is an act of freedom. It is a struggle to wrest truth from concealment, an engagement. Sophocles shows that upon undertaking such a struggle and engagement, a person may encounter grave difficulties. Reluctantly, and with royal hubris, Oedipus exerts himself in the search for truth. During this search, he is often in conflict with other people. Yet, he continues toward his goal which is to open a region which has been forcefully concealed by many people with whom he lived and thrived. In the course of this arduous struggle, Oedipus slowly recognizes that, only by opening this concealed region, will the truth of his birth. deeds, and life become unconcealed.

We know the end. Horror engulfs Oedipus when the truth of his birth and life finally becomes unconcealed and he learns that he has killed his father, married his mother, and fathered children by her. Oedipus cannot bear the sight of his deeds. He blinds himself and goes into exile, living the life of a wanderer.

We grant that the myth of Oedipus describes a terrible and tragic personal and social situation in which fate, or, if you wish the godly decree, was exceedingly cruel to Oedipus. Yet Sophocles has written a poetic rendering of the supposed life of Oedipus that goes beyond describing the cruelties of fate and the random decrees of the Greek gods. Sophocles’ drama and poetry also portray the difficulties of living in freedom and attempting to open a realm and wrest unconcealed truths from concealment. Heidegger often stated that great poetry resides in the neighborhood of thinking. Here we can state that Sophocles’ poetry resides in the neighborhood of Heidegger’s thinking.

Pp. 21-2
Continued.
 
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