Introduction
Religion is a social institution which plays major roles in providing the community with the expected code of conduct. There are norms that are supposed provide standard values and beliefs that act as guide to people’s behavior. The aspect of the gods is also paramount and they are feared since they are thought to be very powerful and ready to punish anyone who goes contrary to the stipulated rules and regulations.
The following discussion will focus on two plays in trying to see whether they had any aspects of religion in them.
Discussion
The plays ‘Oedipus the king’ and the ‘Darker Face of the Earth’ can be said to be based and revolve around religion. There are many instances in both plays where there is the mention of the gods, prophets, diviners and many connotations of the supernatural powers. Such people are associated with certain divine powers that transcend human thought and control. They are respected by the society as they are feared that failure to do that may result to the occurrence of certain plagues and curses which require repentance and cleansing for one to be restored.
The play ‘Oedipus the King’ is mythological in that most of what happens there is not expected in the real life situation. It is dominated by the existence of prophesies that have to be fulfilled.
The tragedy in the play begins at the early age of Laius who happened to be the guest of King Pelops of Elis. He was very skilled in the chariot races and therefore he was entrusted with the duty of training the king’s son Chrysippus, in those races. It is said that in the process, he raped the king’s son thereby violating the sacred laws. Customarily, this was not expected of him since he had been a visitor there and he was supposed to have expressed gratitude for the hospitality accorded.
Matters of religion arise here in the fact that after committing such an evil, a curse was laid upon him that his own son would kill him and lay with his wife. This was a prophesy that was to ensure that he together with his descendants were doomed forever. The powers of this prophesy is demonstrated in the fact that when he became a king, he married Queen Jocasta of Thebes and together had a son by the name of Oedipus. Due to the fear of what was contained in the prophesy, he requested his wife to kill the child because was going to cause a bad omen to the whole family (Foster 56).
There is the mention of the god’s when Oedipus is left in the field by queen Jocasta’s servant. Apparently, the queen had ordered the servant to help her kill Oedipus because she could not stand the pain. The servant instead abandons the child in the field where she reasons that the god’s were going to take care of him. The fact that she had this kind of belief is an indication that the people of this society actually relied on the divine power of gods and they believed that they had power to control events. They also had the responsibilities of protecting helpless people like the poor child who was to die.
The powers of the gods were really in control because Oedipus is rescued by a shepherd who takes him to another distant shepherd who lives with him for a while before taking him to Corinth to a palace of a childless King Polybus. As he was growing up, he knew that this was his biological father but later on he learns through rumors that Polybus and his wife Merope were not actually his parents. This leaves his disoriented and he seeks to find out who his real parents were.
The other demonstration of religion is the fact that Oedipus sought to seek the intervention of the gods in his quest to find out who his real biological father was (Brunner 67). This shows that the gods were very vital to the lives of the people as they were looked upon to provide the solutions that were challenging and beyond the society’s capability.
He is said to have met with the Delphic Oracle which was from a powerful priestess by the name of Pythia. The oracle is said to have been established in the 8th century BC and had been very authoritative in laying down the rules and the regulations that had to obeyed failure to which resulted in disasters. Even the most powerful kings in Greece are said to have been guided by the wisdom from this priestess and punishment was administered to anyone who did contrary to the norms.
The fact that Oedipus approached this priestess is a demonstration of the role that the religion played in his times. They were the people most trusted to provide way and solutions to the people. However, instead of the Oracle providing him with a concrete answer, she echoes the same words that were said to King Laius several years before his birth that ‘ he marry and lay with his own mother while by his own hands he would shed his father’s blood’( lines 711- 714).
He seems not to be convinced by this and he walks away believing that actually King Polybus and Queen Merope were his biological father. It is said that for the fear of killing his own father and marrying his own mother, Oedipus leaves Corinth to stay away from them. This demonstrates the power of the prophesy and he new that he could not change it. However, he was looking for desperate measures to see whether he would stay away from such curses.
The fulfillment of the prophesy came when Oedipus was on his own way running from Corinth. He was headed to Thebes where he met King Laius his biological father but none could recognize the other. A conflict arises between them as they argued on who had the right to the way. Both were riding the chariots. The king got annoyed and got out to strike him, but Oedipus was too strong for him. In the midst of the struggle, Oedipus kills him. This brought about the fulfillment of the prophesy and to demonstrate the fact that all what had been foretold by the divine people remained abiding and unaltered.
The above act which takes biggest part of the play is a great representation of what the religion meant to the Greek society. They did not have power to change what was already said.
Another myth that demonstrates the existence of the supernatural powers is the one appearing immediately after he killed his father. It is said that before was granted the entrance to Thebes, he had to provide an answer to a riddle which came from a certain creature known as Sphinx (Dawe 1) It used to guard the entrance to Thebes and anyone who provided the wrong answer usually got killed on the spot. He provided a right answer and was allowed in.
The prophesy and the signs of religious act continue to dominate the play. Oedipus becomes the king and it and he marries his mother Jocasta though he did not know about this. However, the foretold had to be fulfilled and there was nothing that he could do to change that fact. It is said that the two had two daughters which is an indication of what had been said that one day; he would kill his own father and consequently marry his own mother.
The death of King Laius who is said to have been a divine hero causes a catastrophic plague in the land of Thebes prompting the priests to approach Oedipus to give directions on this. He reacts by sending his brother in law Creon to seek for the divine intervention from the same Oracle at Delphi where he had earlier visited. It emerges that the plague was as a result of the death of Laius which brought about pollution of the temple.
The above description shows pure religious acts in which the priests are mentioned who had the duty to offer sacrifices to the gods. On the other hand it is said that the king also performed the religious duties owing to the fact that king’s death causes plague since he was to be revered.
The whole prophesy and the climax of the works of religion is demonstrated when the Oedipus approaches a blind prophetess by the name of Teresia who is at first hesitant to give the answer. She is so pressed that finally she tells Oedipus that he was the one responsible for the murder of the king. The prophesy is then fully fulfilled and at the end of the play, he ruins his own life by piecing his eyes with pins making him blind.
That play can be compared with the play ‘Darker Face of the Earth’ in that it also has instances of religious symbolism. The play was written with an aim to address the plight of the life that the slaves in California were in. they were harassed and expected to work hard earning pea-nuts. No one cared about their security while they worked in the mines. It is said that most the women got raped and such cases were just part of the normal life.
The play compares with Oedipus the King in that Augustus was born in a mysterious way and raised just like Oedipus. Her mother Amalia, who was a white slave was married to Louis. Unfortunately, she got impregnated by a black slave giving birth to a child with mixed races. Louis could not stand this and expected his wife to get rid of this child. This compares with what king Laius had asked his wife to do. It happens that they plan with the doctor to suggest that the child died at birth while in the real sense he was given to someone to be raised as a slave.
Many years down the line Augustus comes to the Jennings plantation where accidentally got into an affair with Amalia his mother but none of them knew about that. It is said that he had been accorded with the duty of killing his own mother and father failure to which he was to face the wrath of the gods.
There emerges a resistance by the slaves who were doing this to seek for better treatment. In the process Augustus kills Hector his biological unknowingly. He did this because Hector had witnessed him having an secret affair with another lady by the name of Phebe who was a slave. Fearing that the person will disclose this secret to his wife, he killed him.
The play has a lot of comparison with the one of King Oedipus especially the story line. However, this particular one has no dominance of the religious matters although some can be felt.
One of the main instances where the divine powers are seen at play is when Hector decides to live in the swampy areas as he was seeking to search for the snakes and the symbols that were haunting him. He felt that the whole issue of losing his son must have been because the god’s were unhappy and that they were trying to punish him especially for raping Amalia. As seen earlier, the gods were unhappy when Laius raped the son of the king who had invited him at his place. The power and the control of the gods are therefore observed in this play.
To fulfill what he had been ordered to do, Augustus kills Louis thinking that he was his real father. He did this for the fear of what would befall him if he dared not to do it. Later on he learns from his mother who is now his wife, that the man he had killed was not his real father. At the same time she discloses to him that, that was his husband.
It is said that the slaves would console themselves with the word from the Holy words from the scriptures in the book of Psalm. The psalm, ‘by the river’s of Babylon, there we sat down, and we wept when we remembered Zion,’ (Dove 78) is one of the main songs that the slaves sung to help them overcome the oppression and the hard work that they had to do.
The above demonstrates also the position of religion in that particular society. Religion was interpreted to mean a form of social institution which cared for the welfare of the people even if no one else seemed to care. The fact that people referred to the scriptures is a good indication that this play places the matters of religion highly and of great importance. For this matter, it can be concluded that this play also has its roots in the supernatural forces though they are not so explicit like those in the play preceding it.
Finally, the two plays compare in that in both, the outcome is being determined by fate. The spirit of fatalism seems to dominate. This is the belief that one has no power to control their destiny and that what has been said or foretold must come to fulfillment no mattes what the person tries to alter. The person is seen as having little power to work things out in their lives and this is purely left in the hands of the gods who are believed to posses much power.
As it was observed in the play ‘king Oedipus’ he struggled so much to alter the prophesy but as it is observed, he did not succeed. Fate had already determined his life and there was little he could do about that. In both plays therefore, fate is the main thing that determined the life of the two main characters and the role of religion was very vital and dominant.
Conclusion
The two plays can be said to be religious because of the many instances that religious symbols are observed to be the key players especially in determining the life of people. Fate is the main theme in the two plays and this is predetermined by the gods.
Reference:
Dallas, Ian, Oedipus and Dionysus, Freiburg Press, Granada . ISBN 1-874216-02-9. p. 78 1998
Brunner, M. “King Oedipus Retried” Rosenberger & Krausz, London, 2000
Foster, C. Thomas. “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” HarperCollins, New York, 2003
Dawe, R.D. ed. Sophocles: Oedipus Rex, revised edition. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. p.1 2006
Rita Dove, The Darker Face of the Earth: Completely Revised Second Edition (Paperback Story Line Press; 2nd edition July 1996
