Atualização ideológica do mito na tragédia Édipo Rei, de Sófocles.

Abstract

Knowing that the myth originates in the oral tradition and that literature emerges with the advent of writing and derives from changes of the myths made by the poets, the present work aimed to analyze the tragedy Oedipus the King by the Athenian author Sophocles, in order to show that in this work occurs an ideological update of the Oedipus myth. To understand this statement, it is necessary to comprehend the context of the time in which the drama was written. For this purpose, it was made a survey of the historical period of Athens in the fifth century B.C., time when Sophocles lived. It is important to notice that at that moment happen many political, social and cultural transformations that will contribute to an increasing rationalization of the way of thinking of society and this is noticeable in the discourse of the characters Oedipus and Jocasta. Thereby, we note that the way of thinking is already in the process of change and, so it, is inevitable that the myths are read differently. It is in this context of changes that the update of the work can be understood and explained. Therefore, this work is supported in the theoretical assumptions of Eliade (2006), Grimal (1987), Szondi (2004), Vernant (2006), Vieira (2004), among others.