Un oracolo funesto, un principe esposto, una nascita illegittima: Per una ricostruzione degli Aleadi di Sofocle
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Sabrina Mancuso
Abstract
Myth teaches us that the more one tries to escape oracles, the more they tend to be fulfilled. My paper offers a reconstruction of Sophocles’ play Sons of Aleus, focusing on an oracle about Telephus’ birth, which, according to critics, was mentioned in the drama. Since this oracle foretells to Telephus’ grandfather Aleus that the son of his daughter Auge will kill his own uncles, it seems to anticipate motifs that will be thematized in the Oedipus Rex: the identification of common elements between the two plays is thus of paramount importance. My paper will demonstrate that the drama stages the killing of Aleus’ sons by Telephus; this killing was probably accidental (cf. Soph. OT 729– 730). In addition to the plot, I will discuss the title, the genre of the drama, as well as the subject of tragedies such as Mysians, Telephus and Eurypylus, which could belong to the same tetralogy. The purpose of my paper is an in-depth focus on a drama inspired by the myth of Telephus with a broader reflection on Sophocles’ treatment of this myth.
Abstract
Myth teaches us that the more one tries to escape oracles, the more they tend to be fulfilled. My paper offers a reconstruction of Sophocles’ play Sons of Aleus, focusing on an oracle about Telephus’ birth, which, according to critics, was mentioned in the drama. Since this oracle foretells to Telephus’ grandfather Aleus that the son of his daughter Auge will kill his own uncles, it seems to anticipate motifs that will be thematized in the Oedipus Rex: the identification of common elements between the two plays is thus of paramount importance. My paper will demonstrate that the drama stages the killing of Aleus’ sons by Telephus; this killing was probably accidental (cf. Soph. OT 729– 730). In addition to the plot, I will discuss the title, the genre of the drama, as well as the subject of tragedies such as Mysians, Telephus and Eurypylus, which could belong to the same tetralogy. The purpose of my paper is an in-depth focus on a drama inspired by the myth of Telephus with a broader reflection on Sophocles’ treatment of this myth.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements
- Contents VII
- Introduction: A universal idea stored in the mind. Preliminary remarks on prolepsis 1
- L’Eracle ex machina nel Filottete di Sofocle: moduli espressivi e narrativi della profezia 15
- Un oracolo funesto, un principe esposto, una nascita illegittima: Per una ricostruzione degli Aleadi di Sofocle 41
- Il console mandato dagli dèi 81
- Prolepsis in Ancient Narrative Theory and Practice. “Rome” in Virgil’s Aeneid 107
- Profezia e sovranità spartana: ripensare le dinastie regali spartane alla luce del rapporto con l’oracolo di Delfi 127
- The Mantic King: Macedonian kingship and divination 147
- Setting Up the Tyrant in Suetonius’ Life of Nero 167
- Sogni africani: Giustiniano e Procopio alla vigilia della Guerra Vandalica (533) 181
- The “prophet and supreme priest”. Tentative remarks on a Pindaric fragment (fr. 94a.5–6 Snell-Maehler) 199
- Tra oscurità e evidenza: la Guerra di Troia nella profezia sibillina 215
- Passato, presente, futuro, eternità. I tempi della profezia tra Origene e gli Antiocheni 227
- Sogni, apparizioni, visioni, profezie: alcuni esempi di prolepsis nell’agiografia latina medievale 251
- Who Constitutes Pronoia in Athenian Murder Trials? 265
- A lost example of Demosthenic prolepsis in Rutilius’ rhetorical handbook 293
- Prognosi: la previsione come terapia nella medicina antica e nei papiri medici greci 301
- Stoic prolêpsis and Meno’s Paradox. Platonic Echoes in Stoic Concept Formation 315
- Genesis and Textual Stratification of Ancient Exegetical Texts: The Case of P.Oxy. 2506 343
- Profezie, visioni e molteplicità testuale nella letteratura copta: l’encomio “Sui quarantanove martiri di Sceti” 351
- Predicting manuscript evidence: premodern readings of the Apocolocyntosis 373
- Names and Places
- Passages
- Material sources
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements
- Contents VII
- Introduction: A universal idea stored in the mind. Preliminary remarks on prolepsis 1
- L’Eracle ex machina nel Filottete di Sofocle: moduli espressivi e narrativi della profezia 15
- Un oracolo funesto, un principe esposto, una nascita illegittima: Per una ricostruzione degli Aleadi di Sofocle 41
- Il console mandato dagli dèi 81
- Prolepsis in Ancient Narrative Theory and Practice. “Rome” in Virgil’s Aeneid 107
- Profezia e sovranità spartana: ripensare le dinastie regali spartane alla luce del rapporto con l’oracolo di Delfi 127
- The Mantic King: Macedonian kingship and divination 147
- Setting Up the Tyrant in Suetonius’ Life of Nero 167
- Sogni africani: Giustiniano e Procopio alla vigilia della Guerra Vandalica (533) 181
- The “prophet and supreme priest”. Tentative remarks on a Pindaric fragment (fr. 94a.5–6 Snell-Maehler) 199
- Tra oscurità e evidenza: la Guerra di Troia nella profezia sibillina 215
- Passato, presente, futuro, eternità. I tempi della profezia tra Origene e gli Antiocheni 227
- Sogni, apparizioni, visioni, profezie: alcuni esempi di prolepsis nell’agiografia latina medievale 251
- Who Constitutes Pronoia in Athenian Murder Trials? 265
- A lost example of Demosthenic prolepsis in Rutilius’ rhetorical handbook 293
- Prognosi: la previsione come terapia nella medicina antica e nei papiri medici greci 301
- Stoic prolêpsis and Meno’s Paradox. Platonic Echoes in Stoic Concept Formation 315
- Genesis and Textual Stratification of Ancient Exegetical Texts: The Case of P.Oxy. 2506 343
- Profezie, visioni e molteplicità testuale nella letteratura copta: l’encomio “Sui quarantanove martiri di Sceti” 351
- Predicting manuscript evidence: premodern readings of the Apocolocyntosis 373
- Names and Places
- Passages
- Material sources
