120 RüdigerKunow
isemptiedofitspeoplewhileblackDeath
growsrichingroaningandinlamentation.(Oedipus26-33)The priest acts here as spokesman for the townspeople. Together
they appeal to Oedipus who had once before liberated them from
collective terror, that of the Sphinx. Now they beseech him to become
once again the city's savior and take appropriate action to put an end to
the ravages of the disease. More than would have been necessary for
purposes of the unfolding plot, Sophocles goes some way in detailing
these ravages. The first antistrophe features the Chorus re-emphasizing
theearlierlamentbythePriest:
Oursorrowsdefynumber;
alltheship'stimbersarerotten;
takingofthoughtisnospearforthedrivingawayoftheplague
Therearenogrowingchildreninthisfamousland;
therearenowomenbearingthepangsofchildbirth.
...
Intheunnumbereddeath
ofitspeoplethecitydies;
thosechildrenthatarebornliedeadonthenakedearth
unpitied, spreading contagion of death; and gray-haired mothers and
wives
everywhere stand at the altar's edge, suppliant, moaning. (Oedipus195-
210)In modern parlance, one might say that priest and townspeople are
making the Thebes plague a case of good or bad "governance." In this
way, the urgencies under which Oedipus is expected to act become
vividlypresenttotheaudience,allthemoresosinceinfectiousdiseases
werequitefrequentinGreekantiquityandmanypeopleintheaudience
could be expected to have encountered such diseases first-hand in their
ownlives.Twogenerationslater,suchadisease,moreexactlyachainof
them, would ravish the city of Athens during the Peloponnesian War
(431-401 BCE), killing one in three Athenians and precipitating the
city's eventual economic and political downfall. Thucydides' detailed
account of the disruptions of the social order caused by the successive
plagueepidemicscanberegardedasthefirsthistoricalrecord ofsucha