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MISQUOTING SOPHOCLES’ OEDIPVS TYRANNVS. A NEW PROOF OF THE INAUTHENTICITY OF PS.-ARISTOTLE, ON THE COSMOS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 February 2019
Extract
Chapters 6 and 7 of the pseudo-Aristotelian treatise On the Cosmos (Περὶ κόσμου = De mundo) display ‘a series of well-crafted and carefully organized analogies’ in order to represent the power of god pervading the whole universe. The last analogy (400b14–28), which is by far the most important in this section, compares the rule of god over the world to the rule of the law in a Greek city (ὁ τῆς πόλεως νόμος). As shown by the author in the previous analogies, the perfect order of the universe is the result of the continuous creation and dissolution of single things: this process—based upon the harmony of opposites—is the keystone of the eternity and equilibrium of our world. Similarly, the law is the unmoved (ἀκίνητος) mover of every activity and experience in the city: both positive and negative situations involving single citizens contribute to the supreme order and stability of the city. Positive examples include the activity of rulers, officials and members of the assemblies (ἄρχοντες, θεσμοθέται, βουλευταί, ἐκκλησιασταί), whereas negative examples include those who go to trial defending themselves (ὁ δὲ πρὸς τοὺς δικαστὰς ἀπολογησόμενος) and those who are imprisoned and destined to capital punishment (ὁ δὲ εἰς τὸ δεσμωτήριον ἀποθανούμενος). In spite of their difference, all of these actions are due to one single order (κατὰ μίαν πρόσταξιν), that is, the civic law, which ensures the stability of the city. To stress and illustrate this concordia discors, which characterizes both the city and the universe, the author of the treatise closes the passage with a quotation from Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus (lines 4–5):
- πόλις δ' ὁμοῦ μὲν θυμιαμάτων γέμει,
- ὁμοῦ δὲ παιάνων τε καὶ στεναγμάτων
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- Copyright © The Classical Association 2019
References
1 Betegh, G. and Gregoric, P., ‘Multiple analogy in Ps.-Aristotle, De mundo’, CQ 64 (2014), 574–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 575.
2 Betegh and Gregoric (n. 1), 578.
3 Ps.-Apul. De mundo 35.27–31.
4 See Finglass, P.J. (ed.), Sophocles: Oedipus the King (Cambridge, 2018), 168CrossRefGoogle Scholar, which also points out that παιάνων here does not mean ‘joyful cries’. Swift, L.A., The Hidden Chorus: Echoes of Genre in Tragic Lyric (Oxford, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 75 proposes an alternative reading of the lines, which identifies an ironic juxtaposition or paradox, based upon a purposive ‘ambiguity in the way the paian is deployed’.
5 See Longo, O. (ed.), Scholia Bizantina in Sophoclis Oedipum Tyrannum (Padova, 1971), 3Google Scholar, Scholia Moschopuli 5.l. παιάνων] τῶν εἰς τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα ὕμνων· οὗτος γὰρ αἴτιος τοῦ λοιμοῦ; see also 167, Scholia Thomae 5.1 παιάνων] ὕμνων ἐπὶ ἀφέσει λοιμοῦ ᾀδομένων. The wrong interpretation is found in the Suda: see Adler, A. (ed.), Suidae Lexicon (Leipzig, 1933–8)Google Scholar, 4.160, Soph. π 1912 παρ' ὅσον οἱ μὲν μηδὲν πεπονθότες ἐπὶ ἀποτροπῇ τοῦ κακοῦ θύουσι καὶ παιᾶνας ᾄδουσιν, οἱ δὲ ἑαλωκότες ἐπ' οἰκείοις κακοῖς ἀποιμώζουσι.
6 See Plut. De amicorum multitudine 95C5–13; De superst. 169D12–E1; De uirtute morali 445D3–8; Vit. Ant. 24.3. As for Plutarch's quotations from classical tragedy, see Carrara, P., ‘I poeti tragici maestri di virtù nell'opera di Plutarco’, in Ferreira, J. Ribeiro, Stockt, L. van der, do Ceu Fialho, M. (edd.), Philosophy in Society. Virtues and Values in Plutarch (Leuven – Coimbra, 2008), 65–74Google Scholar.
7 See Carrara (n. 6), 66 n. 4.
8 Compare the Italian expression croce e delizia, from Francesco Maria Piave's libretto of Giuseppe Verdi, Traviata (Act I, Scene III), which has become almost proverbial (regardless of its original context) to indicate a person or situation which is a source of both joy and torment.
9 Wright, M., ‘Euripidean tragedy and quotation culture: the case of Stheneboea F661’, AJPh 137 (2016), 601–23Google Scholar, at 612–14.
10 Zeitlin, F.I., ‘Thebes‚ theater of self and society in Athenian drama’, in Winkler, J.J., Zeitlin, F.I. (edd.), Nothing to do With Dionysos? Athenian Drama in its Social Context (Princeton, 1990), 130–67Google Scholar, at 147.
11 Vidal-Naquet, P., ‘Oedipe entre deux cités: essais sur l’Oedipe à Colone’, in Vernant, J.P., Vidal-Naquet, P. (edd.), Mythe et tragédie en Grèce ancienne, vol. 2 (Paris, 1986), 181Google Scholar.
12 See Finglass (n. 4), 51–3.
13 Misquotations cannot give us clear information about the contentious issue of the author and the date of the treatise, on which see Thom, J.C., ‘Introduction’, in Thom, J.C. (ed.), Cosmic Order and Divine Power. Pseudo-Aristotle On the Cosmos (Tübingen, 2014), 3–19Google Scholar. Nevertheless, Plutarch and Ps.-Apuleius’ misquotations of Sophocles’ lines show that by the Early Imperial era these lines had already become a proverb. Remarkably, most modern studies about On the Cosmos propose the Late Hellenistic period or the Imperial era as a suitable period for the composition of this text.
14 See Morales, M. Sanz's article on Homeric quotations in the treatise as a proof of its inauthenticity: ‘Las citas homéricas contenidas en el tratado De mundo, atribuido a Aristóteles, prueba de su inautenticidad’, Vichiana 4 (1993), 38–47Google Scholar.