Oedipus

The act’s opening line establishes its tone. Upon Creon’s return, Oedipus states, “Your face itself bodes tears” (509). As the actors are wearing masks, this line establishes Creon’s appearance. Creon’s troubled expression suggests the sincerity of Creon’s motivations and counters Oedipus’s accusations of treasonous plotting—Creon is not happy with what he has discovered. Creon’s troubled appearance foreshadows the impending tragedy for Oedipus, and it predicts Creon’s own suffering and imprisonment.

Oedipus and Creon’s disagreement illustrates the play’s exploration of the effects of ignorance and knowledge. In this scene, both men have strong arguments for why it is better to know or not know. Throughout their debate, Oedipus often unwittingly incriminates himself. When he states that “[i]gnorance is a weak remedy for evil” (515), he unknowingly condemns himself, as it is his ignorance of his true identity that caused this crisis.

When Creon describes the other spirits he sees during the ritual, he alludes to many other classical Greek figures. One of the last figures to appear before Laius is Agave, explicitly condemned for being a bad mother. She appears “[f]renzied” and “leading the whole troop / Who dismembered the king” (615-617), Cadmus. Driven mad, Agave mutilates her own son’s corpse. In Act III, Jocasta is compared to Agave. By establishing Agave as an example of depravity, Seneca foreshadows the later comparison between her and Jocasta.

In many ways, Seneca seems to draw from Greek ideology in his use of the ghost of Laius. Ghosts are unnatural and not supposed to return to the land of the living in most cases. The ancient Greeks categorize ghosts into three different types: those unburied or buried without proper rituals, those who died prematurely, and victims of violence. Laius falls under the last two categories, causing him to be caught between two worlds. The state of limbo allows the ghost to appear briefly to the living, in this case to ask for revenge. When Laius speaks to Tiresias, Manto, and Creon, he is enraged that his murder has been rewarded, not punished.

Without explicitly naming Oedipus, Laius makes it clear who he is describing and why. The ghost of Laius makes the connection between his murder and the plague when he states, “You, you, whose right hand bloodies my sceptre / You—your unrevenged father and all the city / Will hunt” (642-643). He places the blame firmly on Oedipus, as it is “human sin” (631) and not the “gods’ wrath” (630) that destroys the “fatherland” (630). Laius invests the word fatherland with a double meaning, as both Oedipus’s country of origin and as the kingdom of Oedipus’s father, further emphasizing the crime and implicating Oedipus.

The reveal of Oedipus’s parentage comes much earlier and much more explicitly in Seneca’s play than in Sophocles’s. Seneca is less concerned with creating tension around the discovery and more interested in considering how Oedipus responds to this confirmation of fate. Oedipus’s immediate denial of the truth illustrates how much more Oedipus needs to change.

Although not stated within Seneca’s play, in other retellings Creon is usually the one who assumes the throne after Oedipus exiles himself. Oedipus suggests that Creon lies about the message as he wants to become king, but Seneca removes this possible motivation by jailing Creon and removing Creon from the final acts of the play that culminate in Oedipus’s abdication. Unlike in Sophocles’s version of the tragedy, Creon is not responsible for Oedipus’s exile. By not focusing on the political aspects of the situation, Seneca’s play remains focused on Oedipus’s personal reckoning and tragedy.

As with the majority of Senecan tragedies, the chorus’s third speech directly responds to the dramatic action. The chorus here defends Creon, stating that he “did not cause this crisis” as “[n]o fates” pursue him (709-710). The chorus’s vindication of Creon suggests that Oedipus’s resistance to his fate is his tragic flaw. In linking Oedipus to his ancestors, the chorus suggests that Oedipus’s sins equate to the mythological monsters they describe in his family history.