Sophocles and the guilt of Oedipus
Abstract
This article, in response to Harris (2010), reconsiders whether Oedipus, on his own account in Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus (798-813) of his encounter with Laius, would have been regarded by fifth-century Athenians as legally guilty of homicide (either wilful or unwilful), and concludes that he would not, because he was responding to a potentially lethal attack. There is no inconsistency between the treatment of this issue in Oedipus Tyrannus and its treatment in Oedipus at Colonus.
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