Sophocles OT 809: The Response of the Defense

Abstract

This paper is aimed as an answer to the article about the guilt of Oedipus in killing Laius, recently published in Hermes by N. Almazova, where the author concludes that Oedipus is guilty of killing in excess of self-defense. The analysis of the sources on Athenian homicide law shows that the notion “the excess of self-defense” is alien to the Athenian juridical practice and that the killer could be acquitted if it was the killed who started the fight, even in the cases when the reaction exceeded the limits of necessary self-defense. On the other hand, the close look at the description of the scene at the crossroads in Soph. OT 800–813 shows that Sophocles presents Laius and his party as aggressors and Oedipus as defending his life. We interpret διπλᾶ κέντρα in v. 809 as “two goads” and illustrate the possibility of this interpretation by evidence from the vase painting.