New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-07-11
GREEK RELIGION.
,ory WEISS AGAIN-FATE AND FATALITY-THE
"V STORY OF RDIPUS.
".

tory convention Of which we hear hst IN one place theh
in anotherfrom unrgheous judges and juries who vex
our righteous sous-from stormy and sOng politics. to
no hack in these lovely afternoons with John Weiss TO his
MD Greeks whose very crimes time has made poetcal by
tending 10 them the enchantment Of distance Hisfourh
lecture treated of the something which is not exactly
Fate but which MI Weiss called Fatality, and which he
Illustrated by the story Of Gdpus whose head such
Aweight Of undeserved msfortunes rested.
Fate according to the Greek notion embodied the IDEA
OF retrbution-of misfortune which deserved. The
motive OF Greek tragedy was IAN appeal to the material
conviction that the invisible powers kept strict tally OF
mans guilt for which in due time the accumulated pun
ishment was sure come Ordinarily the Greek sense OF
Justice was 700 fine to believe that personal misfortune
were tax which the innocent paid for the sins Of their
ancestors They could not TO be sure, in those pre-
scientific days. conceive that pestence was the conse
0uence Of violated physical laws but they regarded
rs visitation for direct quit and if they consulted
oracle IL 10 inquire who was the sinner. When,
during rsvsges of the cholera the Scotch clergy
titioned Lord Pameson to appoint time for national
fasting and prayer for the removal Of the plague they
were less logical than the Greeks His LOrdship sug
gesed instead Of national fast national draining and
neodOrizing national emptying of cesspools and this
was the shrewd of whose reign Locke and
were prophets 1t would be too much to expect
70 find before the birth Of philosophical methods the
Greek connecting caamtes with natural causes; but
his sense Of justice strict that confused notion
Of general deprayy served him, and he expected TO find
in the solid concrete vice Of person family the
cause of each hard blow from the hand Of Fate and the
tragic stage gave TO this universal feeling the emphasis
Of imagination.
There occasionally however a notable departure
from this general conception in the story of Gdpus,
which embodied the idea Of the occasional something
amss in human affairs which could not be traced to any
violation of divine laws, though it might perhaps, be
aseribed 10 ignorance weakness-somethngu nfortu
nate rather than retributive.
~
that fortune which does not altogether follow mans
deserts when say 1t is inst his luck" To be sure,
calm reasoning would force to confess that there
effect without cause, and that there must be- il
could only look deep enough TO find it, some way in
which to for attracting, like magnet,
good fortune, and another ill., But the reason lies too
deep for hasty discovery. Sometimes we arrive
ut il by following back the line Of inheritance,
but who would undertake 10 account in this
wise for the appearances of Shakespeare, the heir
OF all the agesi Doubtless TO the power which oversees
ALL and knows the end from the beginning Shakespeare
surprise than we're the depravities of the
Aride of Nero of BOrga The misfortune of Charles
not that he lost his head before Cromwell severed
it from his body. He perfectly convinced Of the
divine right OF kings and so had been convinced also
long line OF irresponsible majesties before him. But
another conviction had been maturing side by side with
this one-a deepening sense OF popular rights. 1t
misfortune of Charles that he and other was
the throne when these two prerogaves at last coded
and crushed him between them in the shock. Nor was
Marie Anoinette sinner beyond others. Innocent of
everything but vanity Ind the sehsbness which was
natural 10 her gee she put her ersh feet into paths
already prepared for her. and stepped into the whr of
French corruption and just then came the counterwhrl
of French democracy, "the Uniformed and tri-coCred
Pate and the remembering Fures," revenging ON her
the nfanies a thousand years. careless that frvoty
was her own greatest crime.
We cannot tell why sometimes whole family seems
%. 1I,.aIv
crops out from generation TO generations while you shall
find plenty OF other families wicked and more for
tunate This unexplained residue in Of misfortune
Is the puzzle of the and it this, and not his
40 tragic He was the of Laus King of Thebes and
Jocssa, his wife. As this royal pair were married long
an oracle and told that he would lose his life at the
hands of his If he should have one The unex-
peoted birth Of Edpus made the oracle seem so impress
the parents that they concluded to by
destroying their child They pierced his feet through
ron TO the clements and abandoned MN 10 ms doom.
shepherd pressed thus into the service OF Destiny
found him. and carried him to the court OF Poybus and
MerOpe at COTnth By them he was adopted and brought
up to believe himself their child. When he is grown
toward manhood some hraggart full of vino taunts him
with being founding, ana not the true son OF the King
and Queen He IA vain TO his supposed parents Ior
satisfaction, and wn they put him off with vague re
plies Of he tctakes himself TO an oracle Equally
oracle does not tell him precisely what he
wants to know, lat informs him that he must beware OF
meeting his father and his mother If he meet his father
he will slay hs If his mother crime yet more dread
fu win ensue stin impressed with the idea that Poly
and AerOfe his tSolNcs
NOW about this time the sphynx devastating the
and acetSousy eating u when they failed; and
again OF course, King La us starts from TheDes 10 Dep
70 consult the oracle. In narrow place his charlot
meets the advancing one OF OEdpus Thelr chrloteers
quarrel about the right OF way ana an anIy ensSs,
with premeitatiOn OF murder in his heart he leaves
oa S of the Se proceeds TO Thebes He finds
the people there very much cast down Dy tne presence
Of tie Sphynx with her enigma she refuses 10 leaVo
until this riddle ia guessed and meantime IS
cherfuly stocking her harder with the youth OF the
into her presence the Ororn hope OF guessing her puz
ze Alright aud Kidding his country OF her JUST aDOut
The time qdipus arrives upon the scene Inc u9e
despariDg ThebaDs, aware OF tnen hng
death, make proclamation that whoever rsb may
guess the riddle shall become Inc Sne it nsoamu
Of the widowed Jocasa, and their king FIRED with al
animal II That which walks on Tour Ieet IN lhe
ON two at noon, and on three at night IL mas bnt one
Too simple riddle you think, for chid's magazine,
out vast with the surmses Of whole generations What
Greek and he himself the answer Is the greatest nd
die of ALL for though nc crawls az babe walks IN the
OF manhood and declines upon stan at night ne
mas but voice and that the inspired inspiring sou
The sphynx taxes herself on and Destiny secure VI
quite unconscious that she Il his mother, ana becomes
the father of several children. But 10y and by pestl
Hence breaks which usual is supposed to be the
punishment for sin, and again, Of course, corpus
ssds 70 consult the oracle at Delphi The answer tn
the murder OF King Laius is unayenged anu
hs murderer still lives among them; Then
old blind prophet ~ called, ana
he says Gdpus, like another Nathan, Thou art the
man" qipus struggles against this accusation OF Des
Tiny, until at last evidence comes strong enough 10 con
vince him. and makes him aware at the same time tna
ius his father JOcasta Is the first TO reahIe tne
awful phcatiOn which has made OF her apparently
innocent relations with Hdipus nameless horror ana
she PUSHES u her chamber and kills herself. Hdipns
snatches the golden buckles from her robe aud plunges
them again and again into ms eyebals Let me 90
slghtless into Hades" he eAeaims for how can ever
behold ms father again." Then, by the other members
81 the royal house. he s thrust forth into exile allowed
only the sOaee OF his children 10 share ms msforunes
30, bhlQ, lame gray with the agony that has over
thrOWn bis life, he tOters away ms despair invoking
upon ms own head the Efnnys Of his mother But they
40 moi come 10 scOuTge him AT his bidding. Hls suffer
1ngs have