Mythology

These legends deal with the founding, the hardships, and the fall of Thebes. As in the stories of Crete, the quality of leadership has a good deal to do with the fortunes of the city. And yet here we see a strain of innocence and unmerited suffering that the other tragic dynasties lack. Why Cadmus and Harmonia had such a hard old age, why Oedipus should unwittingly fulfill the horrid prophecy, and why Antigone and Haemon should die for serving the will of the gods are perplexing questions, for in each instance the misery seems unjustified or out of proportion to its causes. Sophocles, who dealt with the tales of Oedipus and Antigone in his tragic dramas, faced up to this problem squarely. In the end he can merely say that the ways of heaven are not man's ways, and that unmerited suffering is inexplicable by human standards. However, Sophocles still maintains his faith in the gods even it he can't understand them, but above all he maintains his faith in men, who can bear up under terrific agony and still retain their humanity. We see this most clearly in the legend of Oedipus' death and transfiguration, where Oedipus is granted a special dispensation from the gods after braving a merciless fate. Oedipus is a new kind of hero. If he is bold, resourceful, and intelligent, his outstanding trait is his ability to suffer. After blundering into a deadly trap set by the gods, he accepts the responsibility for the sins he committed in innocence by blinding himself and resigning his throne. He then undergoes long torment and at last emerges purified through his suffering. Antigone is also a new type of heroine, one who follows divine law and family duty at the expense of the state and who accepts death as her penalty. Only a race as unflinching and intellectually honest as the Greeks could have created or understood this family.