The myth of king Oedipus versus the "Molinism" of Corneille's great tragedies

Abstract

he article tries to shed light on the internal dynamics in the plays by Pierre Corneille. As a comparative basis it uses the story about king Oedipus as it was first presented by Sophocles. In this connection it researches the role of coincidence or hamartia, as defined by Aristotle and comes to the conclusion that coincidence has an important role in the genesis of the great tragedies, although it is not so explicit as with Sophocles.