OnOedipus

and theWink(l)ing

of hiseye

Efimia D. KarakantzaCenter for the Study of Myth and Religion in Greek and Roman Antiquity

University of Patras, Greece

Human intelligence

humanisticmoralisticdeterministicartistic

inte

rpre

tatio

ns

Oedipus complex

Freudian approach

structuralism

Lévi-Strauss

Kadmos goes off to find his sister

Kadmos kills the chthonic dragon

Labdakos is lame (?)

Laios is deficient on its left side

Oidipous marries his mother

Oidipous kills his father

Oidipous kills the Sphinx

Oidipous’ swollen feet

Antigone buries her brother despite Kreon’s prohibition

Eteokles and Polyneikes kill each other

Column I:

(Over)Emphasis on blood relatives

Column II:

Negation of blood relatives

Column III:

Negation of autochthony

Column IV:

Man is rooted in mother earth like a plant

Lévi-Strauss’ analysis of Oidipous mythP

arad

eig

mat

ic o

r d

iach

ron

ic a

xis

Syntagmatic or synchronic axis

phar

mak

osmyth/ritual approach

René Girard

pharmakos

Lacan

Father authoritative voice law

order telos

seductive voice confusion randomness fortuitous

Lacan

Mother

narratology

Narratives of

origin and

movement

…..