The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-12-14

new ruler married the former queen,
and had by her four children, among
them Antigone. ~
NOTHING could be more tragic
i y than the dawning upon the
mind of Oedipus that he is the MUIR
derer of his father and the husband
of his mother.
Jocasta herself refuses to believe
it; it is only a mad dream. ut hath
been the lot of many men in
Dreams" she : says, summarizing
Freud, ITO think themselves part
ners of their mothers bed. But he
passes most easily through life to
whom these things become trif1eS"
(n. 5000.
When she realizes who Oedipus is
she kills herself, and Oedipus, mad
with horror and remorse, gouges out
his own eyes and leaves Thebes with
only Antigone to help hun.
In another play-Oedipus at Colo
nuS-we see the blind exile bent
over his daughters arm, living out
a bitter old age by begging his
bread.
AT, last he enters the sacred grove,
forbidding his daughter to follow
him, and he does not return.
What form of death
He died knows no man.
But either some one whom the gods
had sent
To guide his steps, or else the abyss
of earth.
In friendly mood had opened wide
its jaws
Without one pang. And so the man
was led
With naught to mourn for-cid not
not leave the world
AS worn with pain and sickness; but
his end,
If any ever was, was wonderful"
Gl. 1920
Here again, as in all Greek trag-
edy, the theme is the hereditary
punishment of crime; the sins OF
the fathers are visited upon their
children
SophocleS, conservative though he
is, begins to doubt the justice of it,
and at times he speaks with a pes
SimiSm as dark as Euripides:-
"Only to gods in heaven
Comes no old age, nor death of any
thing;
All else is turmoiled by our master
Time.
The earth's strength fades and
n1anhood's glory fades;
Faith dies, and unfaith blossoms
like a flower.
And who shall find in the open
seats of men
Or secret places Of his own hearts
love,
One wind blow true forever? (Oedi-
pus at Colonus II. 607f)I
Man, in this dark philosophy, is a
plaything Of the gods, as Lear was
to put it; or, in modern phraSeology,
the individual is the victim of an
cestral causes out of his control.
Indeed, the tragedy is that man,
so great, should seem so helpless;
it would be a lesser evil if man him
self were not so like a god.
Hence the terrible lines at the end
of Oedipus REX-tI1at no man
should be counted happy until he
is dead.
Sophocles hopes these ills will be
remedied, and counsels resignation,
like that German Sophocles,
Goethe; but his peSsimism is the
vestibule to the rebellious radical
ism Of Euripides-as Job led Eccle-
siastes, and Goethe to Heine.
In each nation the road seems
to go from belief to unbelief, from
hone to wondering doubt; religion,
as some one has said, is at the
cradle of every civilization, and phi
losophy is at its grave.
Let us trust that man will some
day make a religion that will serve
adults as well as children, and a
philosophy that will be as true for
laughing children as for tired men.
1T seems ridiculous to conclude this
l. story Of Sophocles by telling how,
in his old age, he became infatuated
with the hetaira Theorists, and had q
son by her.
His legitimate son, Iophon, fearing
according to an uncertain tale) that
the poet would bequeath his wealth
to Theoris' offspring, brought his
father to court on a charge of finan-
cial incompetence.
Sophocles offered no other defense
than to read a chorus from a play
which he was writing, whereupon