The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-12-14
-- THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION --
SObhOcIeS THE First Psychologist
Written for The Times By VIII Durcmt

sword and wanders mad by the sea.
Come and look on me,
0 Death, o Death!-and yet in
yonder world
shall dwell with thee, speak enough
with thee;
And thee I call, thou light of golden
day,
Thou Sun, who drivest on thy glo-
rious car,
Thee for this last time, never more
again.
o Light o sacred land that was
my home!
o Salamis! where stands my fathers
hearth;
Thou glorious Athens, with thy kin
dred race;
Ye streams and rivers here, and
Troia's plains,
To you that fed my life, I bid fare
well;
This last. last word does Ajax speak
to you;
All else I speak in Hades to the dead.
Gals on his sword and dies.)"
= q
THIS is still in the romantic
Il heroic mood; not till we come
to Sophocles' masterpiece do we
reach the summit of his art and
thought Oedipus Tyrannus (Oedi-
pus Rex, King Oedipus) is the most
famous of all Greek plays; initiated
by Caesar, Lucullus, Seneca, Cor
nellie, Voltaire, Dryden; and taken
with almost literal homage as the
inspiration of a currently fashion
able psychology.
On the stage its impressive open
ing prepares the reader for great
things; a throng Of citizens-men
women, boys. girls, infants-sits be-
fore the doors of Oedipus' palace in
Thebes, holding boughs of laurel
and olive as signs of supplication.
A plague has fallen upon the city,
and the people have come to i'm
plore that something be done to
appease the Unsuitable gods.
Oedipus meanwhile has sent
Creon to seek guidance from the
oracle at Delphi; Creon returns to
say that according to the oracle the
plague will leave Thebes only with
the assassin Of Laius, it's former
king.
This is perfect instance Of that
method which Horace advised, of
plunging in medals roS, beginning a
play or a tale with some dramatic
episode, and bringing in the
preparatory information later on.
Sophocles had the advantage that
his audience knew the story; for
the legend of Laius, Oedipus and
the Ephinx was part of the folk
lore of the Greeks.
An oracle had told LaiuS and his
queen, JocaSta, that they would
have a son who would slay his
father and marry his mother.
For the first time in history two
parents wanted girl; butt the son
came; and to avoid fulf1llment Of
the oracle he was exposed on the
mountains after the delicate Greek
fashion of controlling population
There a shepherd found him, called
him Oedipus from his swollen feet
and gave him to the king and
queen of Corinth, who reared him
as their son.
Grown up, Oedipus learns, again
from the oracle, that he is destined
to kill his father and to marry his
mother.
He fees at once from Corinth
thinking so to leave his parents al
a distance. But on the road he
meets an old man, quarrels with
him and kills him; he does not
know that 1t is his own father
Nearing Thebes he encounters the
Sphinx, a creature with the face OF
a woman, the tail Of a lion and the
wings of a bird; and hears her IA
nous riddle: What is that which is
four-footed, three-footed and two
footed?"
The Sphinx destroyed all who
could not answer; and the terrified
Thebans had made solemn vow
to have as their next king the man
who could solve the riddle, for the
Sphinx had agreed to commit sui
eide as soon as the answer came.
Oedipus replied: Man, for as q
child he crawls on four feet, as an
adult he walks on two, and as an old
,,.o,, H1n dds 0or1nD
There must have been goodly
element of mercy in the Sphinx, fol
the answer was accepted as cor
rect, and the Sphinx plunged tc
death. The Thebans hailed OedipuS
and when Laius failed to return
they made the young man king.
BY the custom Of the land the