Oedipus on the Thebaid's Stage

As a sequel to a study on Seneca’s Oedipus and Phoenissae, this paper deals with the construction of Oedipus’ character in relation to Sophocles and Euripides in the last two books of the Thebaid. The rediscovery of Pietas, Clementia and Natura contradicts Seneca’s tragedies, and anticipates the Athenian solution of the ending. Oedipus’ interior renewal has only a faint precedent in Euripides’ Phoenician Women: Statius comments on his rewriting with self-reflexive markers. In the Oedipus at Colonus, at the start of the war, Oedipus repeats his curse against Eteocles and Polynices; in the Thebaid, the repentant father finally retracts his curse: this late recognition of Pietas picks up Polynices’ invitation to his father, in Sophocles, to be inspired by Aidos. The confrontation with Creon, mediated by Antigone, recalls the Oedipus at Colonus and anticipates the Antigone: Oedipus strikes the pose of a martyr of freedom and is involved in the anti-tyrannical drive that brings the poem to its conclusion.