Sophocles: Oedipus the King

722 Pages·2018·5.496 MB·English

by  Patrick J. Finglass

CAMBRIDGE CLASSICAL TEXTS
AND COMMENTARIES
editors
J. DIGGLE N. HOPKINSON S. P. OAKLEY
J. G. F. POWELL M. D. REEVE
D. N. SEDLEY R. J. TARRANT
57
SOPHOCLES: OEDIPUS THE KING
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SOPHOCLES
OEDIPUS THE KING
EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION,
TRANSLATION,
AND COMMENTARY
BY
P. J. FINGLASS
HenryOvertonWillsProfessorofGreek
andHeadoftheDepartment
ofClassicsandAncientHistory,
UniversityofBristol
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AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
names:Sophocles,author.|Finglass,Patrick,1979–editor.
title:Oedipustheking/Sophocles;editedwithintroduction,translation,
andcommentarybyP.J.Finglass.
description:Cambridge;NewYork,ny:CambridgeUniversityPress,2018.|
series:Cambridgeclassicaltextsandcommentaries
identifiers:lccn2017023993|isbn9781108419512(hardback)
subjects:LCSH:Sophocles–TranslationsintoEnglish.|Oedipus(Greek
mythologicalfigure)–Drama.|Antigone(Mythologicalcharacter)–Drama.|
GSAFD:Tragedies.
classification:lccpa4414.a2f562018|ddc882/.01–dc23
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MARTINILITCHFIELDWEST
INMEMORIAM
κεκλῆσθαιδ’ἐςδαῖτα,παρέζεσθαιδὲπαρ’ἐσθλόν
ἄνδραχρεὼνσοφίηνπᾶσανἐπιστάμενον.
τοῦσυνιεῖν,ὁπόταντιλέγῃσοφόν,ὄφραδιδαχθῇς
καὶτοῦτ’εἰςοἶκονκέρδοςἔχωνἀπίῃς.
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CONTENTS
Preface pageix
INTRODUCTION 1
1 DateoftheFirstPerformance 1
2 ProductionandStaging 6
3 MythandOriginality 13
4 WhatKindofaPlayisThis? 40
5 TransmissionandText 82
TEXT AND CRITICAL APPARATUS 95
Sigla 97
ΣΟΦΟΚΛΕΟΥΣΟΙΔΙΠΟΥΣ 103
COMMENTARY 163
Prologue(1–150) 166
Parodos(151–215) 207
FirstEpisode(216–462) 236
FirstStasimon(463–512) 317
SecondEpisode(513–862) 336
SecondStasimon(863–910) 428
ThirdEpisode(911–1085) 447
ThirdStasimon(1086–1109) 492
FourthEpisode(1110–85) 501
FourthStasimon(1186–1222) 521
Exodos(1223–1530) 539
BIBLIOGRAPHY 620
1 Abbreviations:ReferenceWorks 620
2 Abbreviations:Scholars’Names 623
3 EditionsandTranslationsofSophocles’
OedipustheKing 623
4 WorksCitedbyAuthor’sName 625
5 WorksCitedbyAuthor’sNamewithDate 632
vii
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CONTENTS
INDEXES
IndexofGreek 677
IndexofSubjects 686
viii
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PREFACE
OedipustheKingisacentralworkofwesternliterature,aplayfor
whichtheterm‘canonical’mighthavebeeninvented;yetthere
has been no new critical edition of the play with introduction
and detailed commentary (editio maior) in any language since
1883.Theaimofthisbookistofillthatdauntinggap.
At the heart of the volume lies a new text of the drama.
Establishing the text of a long-studied author like Sophocles
might seem otiose – yet the two major critical editions of the
sevenplays,theOxfordClassicalTextandtheTeubner(theonly
critical editions published since the discovery of Sophoclean
papyriandthecollationofadecentnumberofmediaevalmanu-
1
scripts),differfromeachotherinmorethanathousandplaces,
whichgivesanindicationofjusthowcontroversialthisquestion
remains. My text in turn differs substantially from those two
2
recent editions; intended to present, as accurately as the evi-
denceallows,andsubjecttomodernprintingconventions,what
Sophoclesactuallywrote,itwillforsurerepeatedlyfallshortof
that aim. The accompanying critical apparatus offers the evi-
dence for readings adopted in the text, as well as important
variantsinthemanuscripttraditionandsignificantattemptsby
modernscholarstoemendthosemanuscriptswhentheybelieve
them to be corrupt. The complexity of the tradition and the
substantialcorruptionsufferedbythetextmeanthattheappa-
ratus is fairly substantial. Itis nevertheless highly selective, and
couldeasilyhavebeenmuchbigger;butreaderscanalwaysturn
to the commentary for fuller consideration of any individual
point.
1 ForalistseeRenehan(1992)335,374–5.
2 Forexample,Icountfifty-sixsubstantivedifferencesbetweenmytext
andthatoftherevised1992OxfordClassicalTextbyLloyd-Jonesand
Wilson (excluding matters of orthography and so forth), or more
thanoneeverythirtylines;manyofthesehavemajorimplicationsfor
sense and interpretation (e.g. 162, 175/6, 230, 463/4, 510/11,
611–12, 624, 625, 677, 892–893/4 ~ 906–907/8, 1196/7, 1453,
[1524–30]).
ix
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PREFACE
The commentary repeats the Greek text of the entire play,
herelemmatisedintosectionsthelengthofasentenceorother
easily-recognisable sense unit, and each lemma is immediately
followed by a translation. As a result the commentary contains
afairlyliteraltranslationoftheentireplay–placedthere,rather
thanoppositetheGreektext,becausetranslatingalemmais,for
3
me,anessentialpartofcommentingonit. Bybeginningeach
lemmawithatranslation,Itellthereaderfromtheoutsetwhat
I understand aparticular sentence to mean; where the transla-
tionisnotobvious(andinSophoclesitrarelyis),orwhereany
English rendering will fail to bring out some key aspect of the
original(again,frequentlythecaseinSophocles),thenotegives
a fuller explanation, just as it discusses any textual decision
relevanttoitslemma.
Inadditiontoestablishingandtranslatingthetext,thecom-
mentary discusses the impact and significance of individual
words, of phrases, of speeches, and of episodes and choral
songs.Thecloseconsiderationoflanguageandstylewhichthis
demandsisinterwovenwithanalysisofstagingandproduction.
To allow analysis of units larger than any individual lemma,
I include notes on whole chunks of text, such as particular
speeches or sections within an episode. Individual episodes
and choral songs each have their general note too, printed in
the larger type used in the introduction to the volume to indi-
catetheirstatusasintroductorymaterial.Thecommentaryalso
containsafullmetricalanalysisofalllyricsections;theseidentify
the metres used in a song and, where possible, discern stylistic
patterns.
AparticularproblemforthecommentatoronOedipustheKing
is the all-pervasiveness of irony within the drama; indeed, the
conceptof‘dramaticirony’wasfirstexplicatedinthecontextof
4
a discussion of this very play. The gap between what the
3
Of published translations I have found most helpful those by Paul
MazonandOliverTaplin.Lloyd-Jones’sLoebisoftenusefultoo,but
sometimesfallsshortofadequatelyrenderingthesenseoftheGreek
(contrast,forexample,histranslationof547withMazon’s),andthe
original1994impressionofthebookoccasionallyomitsentirelines.
4 Thirlwall(1833)(althoughhedoesnotusethisexactphrase).For
arecentdiscussionofironyintheplayseeRutherford(2012)346–8;
x
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