Jocasta's Fatalistic Ethic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4312/keria.4.2.59-77Keywords:
Stoicism, Epicureanism, Jocasta, Greek tragedy, Greek drama, Greek philosophyAbstract
The structure of Oedipus Tyrannus is the most perfect, the most successful and at the same time the simplest of the dramatic types used by Sophocles (Kirkwood). Although the structural focus is on the single figure of Oedipus, the minor characters - first and foremost Jocasta - are also allowed to utter ethical ideas of the utmost importance to the main theme of the tragedy. While the role of Jocasta itself is a secondary one, her passive attitude and fatalistic credo, set in striking contrast to Oedipus' firm determination to act and thus bring relief to the plague-stricken Thebes, express one of the most important ideas of the play. There are some striking similarities between her words and the ethical principles of the most prominent Hellenistic philosophies, i. e. (late) Stoicism and Epicureanism, as well as those of Martin Heidegger's and his followers' thought. All these systems of ethics, each in its own way, are based on a reduced concept of' humanity, and the same is true of Jocasta's reasoning. This paper attempts to show that all the above-mentioned fatalistic attitudes are to be attributed to an inability to face the tragic reality of life.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors are confirming that they are the authors of the submitting article, which will be published (print and online) in Keria by Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia). Author’s name will be evident in the article in journal. All decisions regarding layout and distribution of the work are in hands of the publisher.
- Authors guarantee that the work is their own original creation and does not infringe any statutory or common-law copyright or any proprietary right of any third party. In case of claims by third parties, authors commit their self to defend the interests of the publisher, and shall cover any potential costs.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
