Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

the god speak:ing through the (fa priest as the oracle is relayed through a loud speaker:
VOICE: ' You cannot run away from it [the curse] , the gods have willed
that you kill your father. and then marry your mother! '
ODEWALE: ' What must I do then not to carry out this will of the gods?'
VOICE: ' Nothing. To run away would be foolish . The snail may try , but
it cannot cast off its shell. Just stay where you are. Stay where
you are...stay where you are.. .• (60).
Odewale is given definite instructions ro stay where he is.
In the Sophoclean original, Jccasta responds to the oracle given to Oedipus by
sayin g: "Many [mortals] have lain [slept] with their mothers in [their] dreams too "
(98 1-982) . In b.is commentary 0 0 Oedipus Ra. R. D. Dawe asserts thaI the only
meanin g that can beextracted from the Gree k that is faintly plausible for the context is
"in dreams too < as you have been warned you will do by this oracle> . plenty of
men have slep t with their mothers" (196) .26 In this recognition scene, it would seem
that Jocasta Dies to alleviate Oedipus' fears and discredits oracular utterances .
The Oedipus-co mplex in psychoanalytic theory has thrived on Jocas ta.'s remark
which is interpreted as a universal statement that in their dreams men have incestuous
relationships with their mothen. Modem critics, like Freud , find it difficult to accept
that the Greek gods decreed soci etal taboos, and so attempt to explain away divine
intervention by placing the respo nsibility on Oedipus. Even though Freud had a
proble m with the god 's curse on Oedipus. the ancien t Greeks had no prob lem
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