The Tomb of Oedipus: Why Greek Tragedies Were Not Tragic

Marx, a comparative literature professor at the Collège de France, refreshes ancient literature and the concept of tragedy in this intelligent work of criticism. A “chasm of misunderstanding has opened” between ancient Greek poetry and modern readers, Marx argues, because it references places and practices now lost. Using Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus as his exemplar, Marx demonstrates how contemporary interpretations of tragedy have distanced modern readers from the original Greek corpus, of which only around 5% survives. The confusion, he argues, arises in part from the difficulty Christian literary theorists had in understanding the role of the pagan divine, and Marx traces modern understandings of the term as meaning a “major misfortune” from the German Romantics and Nietzsche. Marx attempts to demystify “the absolute strangeness of Greek tragedy” by examining parallels in Noh theater, Freudian psychoanalysis, and Catholic Mass—the ritual reenactment of Christ’s death, Marx suggests, is a close remnant to a concept of tragedy as the sacrifice of a scapegoat. Elliott’s translation is smooth and elegant, matching the sophistication of Marx’s thought as he reinvigorates Greek tragedy as “not about something that happens, but someone who arrives.” This accomplished, provocative work of literary criticism offers much to consider. (Oct.)