Stasis in Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus

Abstract

In my paper I focus on one work – Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus (OC). I try to answer a few fundamental questions: first, how stasis is represented and reflected on in OC; second, whether there are some passages or thoughts about the causes and prevalence of stasis, and third and finally, if stasis is avoidable or unavoidable. I argue that regarding the causes of fraternal strife as a metaphor for civil strife the pollution of the ruling family, which goes back far into the past, forms the preconditions of stasis, by which the set of conditions that enable the occurrence of stasis is meant. The pollution as something that transgresses religiously and socially unquestionable amounts to a propensity to act corrosively or destructively. On the other hand, if and how stasis occurs is influenced and conditioned by the concrete decisions of the members of the royal family. In other words, the case of stasis in OC was avoidable or preventable. The different question is if wars and internal wars are avoidable as such or not or what causes the fluctuation between war and peace, prosperity/stability and decay? In OC Oedipus argues that conflict as such becomes inevitable due to the passage of time. However, this answer needs to be supplemented. The specific mechanism underlying the fluctuation and breakdown of social stability appears to be the erosion of normative behavior.