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Example research essay topic: Divine Intervention In Odyssey And Oedipus - 1,601 words

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Divine Intervention in Odyssey and Oedipus When one ponders the Greek mythology and literature, powerful images invariably come to mind. One relives the heroes's truffles against innumerable odds, their battles against magical monsters, and the gods' periodic intervention in mortal affairs. Yet, a common and often essential portion of a heroic epic is the hero's consultation with an oracle or divinity. This prophecy is usually critical to the plot line, and also to the well being of the main characters. Could Priam have survived in the Achaian camp if not at the gods' instruction? Could the Argos have run the gauntlet of the Prowling Rocks if not for the gods' advice of using a sacrificial bird?

Moreover, prophecy can be negative as well as positive. Achilles was prophesied to die gloriously in battle if he chose his life's way as a warrior. Oedipus was exiled and condemned by his own words, after he slew his sire and wed his mother. In the Odyssey, prophecy in its myriad forms affects nearly every aspect of the epic. Prophecies are seen in the forms of omens, signs, strict prediction of the future, divine condemnation, and divine instruction. Though conceptually these forms are hard to distinguish, they are clearly separate in the Odyssey.

Moreover, prophecies can be interpreted not only on the "plot device" level, but also on the level of characterization. Whether a character accepts or denies the gods' prophecies tells the reader something about the character himself. Omens are brief prophecies intimately connected to the action at hand, which must be interpreted in terms of that action. Halitheses comments on the eagle attack after Telemakhos condemns the suitors (B. 150 - 196); he correctly interprets it to mean that if the suitors keep feeding off Odysseus's possessions they will be destroyed.

Yet the suitors ignore the omen, inviting their eventual destruction. This haughty treatment of a divine omen is a justification for their deaths. When Penelope says if Odysseus had returned he would, with his son, surely slay the suitors, Telemakhos let loose a great sneeze (R. 706 - 711). This omen reinforces the previous one, and simultaneously prepares the reader for the carnage to follow. Signs are similar to omens, but differ in one crucial aspect: the prophesied is looking for a specific omen in order to decide whether he should or should not take some action.

There is only one good example of a sign in the Odyssey; in U. 110 - 135, Odysseus asks Zeus for two divine signs to decide if it is time to slay the suitors. Zeus answers with a thunderclap from a cloudless sky and allows Odysseus to overhear a maid's want for vengeance. Because of these signs, Odysseus begins his plan to slay the suitors. Later on, with a thunderclap Zeus actually signals for the precise time to strike. Signs are helpful devices; they allow not only a rationalization for when an event occurs but also shows the approval of the gods on such an action.

Not only are signs and omens plentiful in the Odyssey, but also the type one usually associates with prophesying, strict prediction of the future, abounds as well. Penelope states that she will marry the man who can string Odysseus's bow and perform his famous feat (F. 78 - 83). Since Odysseus is the only one to do so, the prophecy is fulfilled. This "prophecy" is just a statement of the future; it contains no judgmental quality whatsoever. Theoklymenos's prophesies to Penelope that Odysseus is at hand on the island and plotting vengeance on the suitors (R. 190 - 202). This, of course, is already true, so the prophecy is technically true as well.

However, it makes no judgement on the rightness or wrongness of either Odysseus's or the suitors' position. Teiresias shade's speech to Odysseus (L. 112 - 152) is a strictly objective foretelling, but nevertheless crucial to the plot and character development. He states that Odysseus will land on Thrinakia; that if his shipmates eat Helios's cattle they will be destroyed; that Odysseus will make the suitors pay in blood; and that if he makes reparations to Lord Poseidon he will be granted a gentle seaborne death. Though Teiresias's prophecy is devoid of the bias which signs and omens possess, it contains enough to characterize not only him but also Odysseus. Teiresias is level-headed and just, "forever charged with reason even among the dead" (K. 547 - 548). Odysseus is characterized by his reply to Teiresias: "my life runs on then as the gods have spun it" (L. 155).

Odysseus does not try to escape his destiny or change the prophecy to suit his personal desire; he merely accepts it and thereby accepts the will of the gods. The moment of decision in the life of Oedipus occurred at Delphi. An oracle there shared with the future king the following thought: You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see -- you will kill your father, the one who gave you life (p. 205). The play about Oedipus unfolds as if this horrific Delphic destiny was the only option open to Oedipus. That is part of the horror. The specifics are bad enough but the fact, that destiny, fate, is hardwired, preprogrammed, that the universe works this way, thats the chill, we mortals we are mere marionettes manacled to malevolent and mischievous gods.

The play unfolds as if Oedipus had no options. These unfortunate events seem to lie before Oedipus as surely as death. I will argue a less hopeless possibility, suggest Oedipus does in fact have options, and provide evidence that the real meaning of Oedipus blindness is the pride that prevented him from understanding what his true options were. We need to forget here that in real 5 th century Greece, the oracle at Delphi was in fact a human person, endowed with certain mystique, and a degree of credibility because of the oracles alleged pipeline to Apollo. Real Greek men and women had as many doubts about all of this as real moderns do about the alleged mystique and connections of contemporary oracles. Perhaps for political and social reasons, believing in oracular proclamations served a purpose.

If nothing it kept a segment of the population in line, much as popular religions do in our world today. There was a great deal of private debate, cynicism and scorn over such things, but for official consumption, the gods provide a gluing function, then, as now. It is useful to remind ourselves of this and to remember that this is a play, a highly secular one at that. In fact, there isn't a single divine intervention or godly appearance in it at all. It was designed for a sophisticated audience and intended, among other things, to provoke, to tease, to satirize, to politicize, to amuse, to horrify, to entertain, and to play with ideas about the meanings of things. As far as meanings go, this is a play about destiny, its significance, and the price one man pays in the relentless pursuit of its truth.

So, back to the play, as play. Destiny is destiny. There are two dictionary meanings to the word destiny. One: what becomes of a person in the end; and, two, what is predetermined to happen in spite of all efforts to change that.

One thing that is always true about destinies is that they are, by definition, irreversible, after we get there, after they are achieved. Another thing that is certainly true about destiny is that each of us has one. The one thing about destinies around which there was and still is confusion is whether they are predetermined, hardwired at the play offers, self-determined, as we moderns wish they were, or completely indeterminate? We capture the meanings of those three options as: Fate, choice, or chance. Does that cover all of the possibilities? These are fundamental questions.

What kind of universe is this anyway? Destiny, being destiny, however it emerges, from fate, choice, or chance, is unavoidable. Destinies simply are. That the gods had a copy of the tapes of Oedipus life (gods can do this because they are outside the normal space-time continuum) and that they chose to reveal to Oedipus piece of his destiny, in advance, does not, of necessity, change anything. At the core Oedipus is a loving father and husband, a paternal and responsible leader, respectful, generous, compassionate, god-fearing, intelligent, inquisitive, quick thinking, as well as fearless and relentless in the pursuit of truth. Oedipus only flaw, a big one, was his blindness to destiny.

If Oedipus had accepted and embraced his destiny, and carved out for himself a life path that would give that destiny meaning. Who knows what that might mean. Oedipus was a solver of riddles and a seeker of Truth, a man who sought meaning in life with mathematical zeal. He knew that in the end. He knew that had he owned this destiny he would have given it meaning by creating a different path and actualized his life as no other man before or since has ever done. But he was blind to this, and horrified in the end by the realization.

He screwed up. Had he embraced destiny, he would have solved the riddle, not only of the sphinx, but perhaps of the cosmos as well. Bibliography: Spencer, Jonathan. The Role of Divine Forces in Ancient Literature. New York: Random House, Inc. , 1998. Matthews, Roy.

The Western Humanities. Lawall, Susan. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces.


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