The Peloponnesian War enveloped the ancient Greek world between Sparta and Athens and changed it forever. Before the war, the two cities had quarreled for decades, and during the war, the events shifted power from Athens to Sparta, making it the most powerful city-state. The two war periods are separated by a truce of six years. However, after the Athenian surrender, the war ends. In Thebes, the ancient world noted playwright, Oedipus Rex, was an analytical tragedy illustrating the critical events that dominated past events. Despite the undeniable historical and literary value, the play represents a vital medical interest since it mentions an epidemic that devastates Thebes. The reactions of the Athenians and the Thebans in their respective ordeals call for a comparative essay as described by Thucydides and Sophocles.
In Thebes, the congregation, including women, old and young men, and the priest, has been impacted by the plague. As seen in Sophocles, the herds are victims of the epidemic since the plague has caused infertility, making labor in vain. Therefore, the entire Thebes is overwhelmed in misery, the people are grief-stricken, and the whole of Thebes is in despair due to the plague, which has laid waste to the city.
In the accounts by Thucydides, the result of the Athenian plague is entirely social, moral disappearance throughout the time the curse lasts. In his words, Thucydides says, “the plague was so overwhelming that men, unable to predict what to come, were indifferent in every rule of both law and religion” (The History of the Peloponnesian War:ii:52). Further, in his description of the effects of the Athenian plague, Thucydides shows that not only was their religious strife, but they also were in doubt concerning the events attributed to the epidemic.
Both Thucydides and Sophocles show the religious elements of society if greatly affected due to the plagues. In the history of the Peloponnesian War, the plague struck everybody regardless of their piety to the gods. The congregation’s reaction to the religious uncertainty was they felt the gods had abandoned them, resulting in no more worship since there were no benefits attributed to worshiping. While the refugees from the Athenian countryside were forced to seek refuge in the temples, the temples themselves were considered sites of great misery. Soon, they became the place for the dying and the dead. The Athenians pointed to the plague as evidence that the gods disregarded Athens and favored the Spartans. In an oracle by the god of medicine and disease, Apollo, he was to fight with the Spartans if they fought with their might.
In the Peloponnesian War, the events associated with the war were a fulfillment of a previous oracle that predicted. Thucydides says, “A Spartan (Dorian) war was to come, and with it was pestilence” (The History of the Peloponnesian War:ii:54). Sophocles’ lens, the plague comes from religious pollution, and the god Apollo requests that Thebans exile from the previously unknown moral noxious decay. When Creon comes from the oracle at Delphi asking for a salvation plan, and the message from Apollo is conveyed, Oedipus asks Thebans to stop praying and concentrate on finding the cure to the plague.
Oedipus becomes afraid of the reaction of the Thebans, who are about to cause mass destruction in the city. In fear, Oedipus says “I am stretched on the rack of doubt, and terror and trembling hold my heart, O delian, and I worship full of fears for what doom you will bring to pass” (Oedipus the King:184-185). Thebans are angry at the message from Apollo and threaten to engage in mass destruction if life does not seem to improve.
During the plague, people made prayers in temples and they consulted oracles. However, none of this helped them overcome the effects of the plague. Since funeral ceremonies were disorganized, people were forced to bury their dead family members the best way they knew. The reactions of the Athenians, upon realizing the effects of the plague, were they embraced unprecedented lawlessness from the realization the plague was abrupt in taking their lives.
The people resolved to openly venture into acts of self-indulgence, before which they kept dark. Generally, the people agreed to spend their money on pleasure since both life and money were ephemeral. Since the gods could do nothing to save the people, they feared no god the law and agreed that everything was to be contributed towards the pleasure of that moment. The Peloponnese, after laying waste on the Attic plain, moved away from the city to the Paralian district on the outskirts of Laurium, where the silver mines of the Athenians were located. Initially, they laid waste on the side that faced Peloponnese and then on the sides that faced Andros and Euboea.
As long as the plague raged, Athenians suffered from inabilities to rest and sleeplessness in the seven to nine days the people had between infection and death. The effects of the epidemic resulted in, as illustrated by Thucydides, “every beast and bird that preyed on human bodies, either died from tasting or abstained from touching them” (The History of the Peloponnesian War:ii:50). Further, “As the evidence showed birds of prey really disappeared; none was concerned of the bodies or indeed to be visible around” (The History of the Peloponnesian War:ii:50). Thucydides (n.d) argued the plague became the greatest cause for the loss of human life by killing nearly one-third of the Athenian population. In simple terms, the plague was the start of a declining point to the greater lawlessness in the city.
In Sophocles, the reactions of the Thebans reflect the level of distress encountered due to the plague. With the epidemic, “and gray-haired mothers and wives everywhere stand at the altar’s edge, suppliant, moaning; the hymn to the healing God rings out but with it, the wailing voices are blended” (Oedipus the King: 206-208). From the illustration, Sophocles shows the state of the people and land is severe, and by painting death among the people, the play shows the mass destruction.
What compares Sophocles to Thucydides is that the deaths resulting from the plagues were severe in both lands. As further illustrated, ” In the unnumbered death of its people the city dies; those children that are born lie dead on naked earth unpitied, spreading contagion of death ” (Oedipus the King: 203-206). What correlates between the two plagues is that the epidemic at Thebes comes from the same god, Apollo, who initiates the plague at Athens and strikes Thebes.
The reactions of the Athenians and the Thebans have a similarity in terms of response. From the onset of both events, both lands are forced to encounter the wrath of the god Apollo. From Thucydides, worshiping becomes a void option for Athens, while in Thebes, Oedipus asks the people to look for a cure instead of engaging in prayers. Moreover, Sophocles shows that the wrath of the plague within the land results in masses of corpses lying all around. A sentiment shared by Thucydides was due to the significant number of dead bodies, the beasts and birds of prey shied away from eating from the bodies.
References
Sophocles. (2010). Oedipus the King. (D. Grene, Ed.). University of Chicago Press.
Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War.