ῥοπὴ βίου μοι: THE PASSIVE ROUTE TO APOTHEOSIS IN SOPHOCLES' OEDIPUS AT COLONUS

Abstract

This thesis seeks to demonstrate the necessary role of passivity in Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus as a catalyst of Oedipus’ restoration to community, of his ethical innocence and of the renewed personal agency that culminates in his apotheosis. I argue that the exiled wanderer is reconciled to the Eumenides and made a citizen once again through the mediating work of his φιλοῖ. These mediations, coupled with Oedipus’ submission to the will of the gods and the prudent council of his φιλοῖ, enable his transition from utter dependency to daimonhood. The characteristic ambiguity of Sophocles’ poetry is elucidated by comparison with the ethical arguments of Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics.