Oedipus and the Messenger
This south Italian vase painting is from the second half of the fourth
century BC and, unlike the previous painting, seems to have the theater
as its primary reference. The overly large heads of the two male
figures along with their relatively fixed expressions suggest theatrical
masks. The old man on the left is making a speaking gesture, but
does not look at the man and woman to the right. He seems to be speaking
to an unseen audience. The background with its columns also suggests
the stage. The scene depicted here is almost certainly the messenger
scene in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. The old man in this
painting is the messenger who had come from Corinth to to tell Oedipus
that his father Polybus was dead, but in the course of the conversation
also revealed that Oedipus was not the true son of Polybus. The baby Oedipus
had been given by a slave of Laius to this messenger, who in turn had given
the child to Polybus. This revelation will lead to Oedipus’s
discovery that he has killed his father and married his mother. Jocasta,
the female figure on the right, has already realized the horrible truth
and puts her right hand to her chin and her left to her cheek in a standard
gesture of grief and anxiety. Her next action is to go offstage and
commit suicide. Oedipus reveals his confusion with the gesture of
stroking his beard. The artist has beautifully captured the horror
of the moment. The two children are Antigone and Ismene, incestuous
offspring of Oedipus and Jocasta,. The artist has included them for
pathetic effect, although they do not appear in this scene of the play.
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