In teasing out his own identity, Oedipus,
yes, has to reckon with his lineage, his background, with Jocasta and with Laius.
And as these things come to the fore, these awful conclusions he has to wrestle
with them and wind up in a terrible state of, of, of awful suffering.
But, as that part of his story is unfolding, another one is also piecing
itself together, which is another piece of what Greek identity is all about, not just
your lineage, recall, but also where you're from, the city, the land you're
from. Oedipus' story of where he's from is
interesting and complex. And, we can take a look at a, a map to try
to get a grip on how this story starts. You'll see here we've got Thebes,
Cithaeron and Corinth up here on our map showing us all the pieces they are around
from mainland Greece, down to the Peloponnese or the Corinthian peninsula
in-between. Thebes is a famous place, has a, a rich,
complex background. We're gonna talk about that next.
We'll also see that playing out in Euripides's back [inaudible] we're gonna
talk about next for this unit. Then also Corinth, another famous place,
well-known very civilized, very well well-settled.
Cithaeron is a different thing, Cithaeron is a tractless wilderness out on the
hillside, no civilization it's unsettled not, not kind of any well-known famous of
Liaus's place. Oedipus in trying to figure out his own
background and trying to figure out the land he's from yet toys with this
connection to Thebes on the one hand and the connection to Corinth on the other
hand, Where does he fit.
But as the play developes the mean vector connecting Oedipus to the, to the soil
around him actually goes back to this trackless wilderness of Cithaeron. Oedipus
is going to be a hero such as he is. From a place that is absolutely
uncivilized. We start to learn has this important role
in the story. It's looked at, at the very beginning the,
the question about land and what. Where Oedipus is connected to.
It comes up when Creon is talking. He's characterized in the oracle that he
got from, from, Delphi. In line 1.10 he tells us that the clue is
in the land. Now yes that's has one meaning.
He's talking to Oedipus about how they have to find the murderer of Laius and the
murderer of Laius is still among them. So the clue is in their land.
But the statement's also very general and in that sense invites us to read into what
I think a second layer of meaning. That says the clue to finding out what
you're all about Oedipus is also going to be in the land.
The story unfolds. Oedipus starts to develop a further and
deeper identity to this Cithaeron. This nowhere's,
Noman's land in the middle between the two places he thinks he might belong to,
Thebes and Corinth. We hear from a Corinthian Oh sorry from
Jocasta starting line 7.20. Talking about how Laius cast Oedipus out
forth on a pathless hillside. Cast Oedipus forth on a pathless hillside.
Oedipus at this point doesn't know it's him that they're talking about.
It's just the infant son. Unnamed as of yet infant son.
But you can see Oedipus starts to realise that there's some connection here that's
going to be happening with him. On 10.27 this starts to come home.
The Corinthian messenger who starts to piece together Oedipus's story in front of
him. Talks about on Cithaeron slopes in the
twisting thickets you were found. He has a connection to this pathless
hillside. The chorus at 10.95 shortly after that
tells us, or addresses Cithaeron directly saying, Oedipus honors you as native to
him and mother and nurse at once. Cithaeron is now getting the position of
being the actual lineage that makes Oedipus who Oedipus is.
And then Oedipus himself, a, a couple of points at the closing of the play, talks
directly to Cithaeron. Cithaeron, why did you receive me?
Why having received me, did you not kill me straight?
And then, finally, lines 1451 to three Leave me in the mountains where Cithaeron
is, That's called my mountain.
Which my father and my mother, while they were living, would have made my tomb.
But instead, for Oedipus, this becomes his womb.
Cithaeron, he starts to honor, as the entity that gives him his starting life.
He claims to be directly from the land. Now this piece of Greek identity,
remember, we've talked about lineages that have to do with your, your background
lineage identities that have to do with background lineage, your name, where
you're from, and your story about your past.
We've looked at how Oedipus', Biological lineage is compromised.
Cithaeron introduces us to how his connection to the land is compromised, so
he has to kinda find a pathless uncivilized place in the middle that he's
from between these two great places, But doesn't really belong to either of
them. And then his name is gonna come back to
haunt him too as we get toward the close and his own past comes fully together in
what we've already seen and that will come back down to weight on him even more
greatly in our next piece as we look at the connection between heroes and their
land.