TheMaterialismofBiologicalEncounters 121
disease (possibly one that is no longer virulent) in Western culture
(PooleandHolladay10-11).
What for Thucydides would later be a mythico-social event is in
Sophocles's treatment of the Oedipus myth a mythico-symbolic event,
something that signifies a hiatus in the symbolic order. Clearly, the
diseaseaffectingthecommunityisasymbol,butwhatisitasymbolof?
In order to explore this question in all its ramifications, the medical
emergency is portrayed asahermeneutic emergency,aquest forhidden
meaning which first and foremost involves the king, begins and ends
withhisperson.Attheoutsetofthedrama,Oedipusprofessestobelost
in his search for an answer: "I would not/be far upon the track if I
alone/were tracing it without a clue" (Oe dipus 236-38). This "clue" is
coming from a semi-divine source and in enigmatic form. Before the
actionofthedramastarted,OedipushadalreadybeensenttotheDelphi
Oraclefromwhichhelearnsinthefirstgeneralscenethatthe"pollution
growningrainedwithintheland"(Oe dipus 113)canonlybeliftedifthe
deathofLaius,Oedipus'spredecessoraskingofThebes,isatonedforby
the banishment of his yet undiscovered murderer. Oedipus commits
himself to seeking out and punishing the culprit and this then starts off
thewell-knownactionoftherestofthedrama.Oedipus'sattempttoheal
thecityfromthevisitationsofamassdiseaseendsupwithhiswounding
himself, blinding his eyes in an attempt at atonement. The drama ends
withtherestorationoftherupturedpoliticalorder,asKreonbecomesthe
newKing.
The key moment ofanagnorisis, the changeover from ignorance to
knowledge, for whose perfect treatment Aristotle praised Sophocles's
Oidipous Tyrannos, is in the action of the play inseparable from, even
precipitatedby,the"crisisenvironment"(Massumi,''Emergency''20)of
a medical catastrophe. Sophocles apparently knew already that
infectious diseases have multiplier effects in the collective that go
beyond the realm of the biological and involve instead the cultural
archivesofknowledgeandinterpretationofthecommunity.Andso,the
etiology of the disease is represented in such a way that the medical
pathologyisbutthesurfacesignifierofadeepermoralpathology.
Ultimately, the "clue" (Oe dipus 238) Oedipus is looking for leads
him to a constellation in which the relationsbetween the individual, the
collective, the natural and the supernatural have become indeterminate.
In this state of exception, the personal has become political while the