The idea that the Oedipus myth also has a link between the quality of the land and the quality of the ruling class intrigued me:
Natasha Mitchell: Well many would be surprised possibly to hear that you've pulled out the Oedipus myth, for example, and applied it to climate change. I mean just a reminder, you know Oedipus unknowingly came to fulfil a prophesy that he would kill his father king and marry his mother Queen Jocasta and the result was that that happened and the city of Thebes became overrun with plagues and failed crops. Isn't that the story -- what's that got to do with climate change?
Jonathan Marshall: Well the myth does several different things: it talks about balance, it talks about the relationship between violence and knowledge. Oedipus does not want to know things, he does know certain things and he tries to avoid them from coming out. All the way through there are people trying to kill each other to avoid the consequences of their knowledge, like Laius tries to kill Oedipus when he's a child.
Natasha Mitchell: His father.
Jonathan Marshall: His father, yes, but also the land itself rebels against the rulers and I think this is quite an important myth which we don't talk about nowadays that in fact the quality of the land, the life of the land reflects the quality of the ruling class.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2009/2746165.htm#transcript
Checking this on wikipedia, I think I see the connection:
As Sophocles' Oedipus the King begins, the people of Thebes are begging the king for help, begging him to discover the cause of the plague. Oedipus stands before them and swears to find the root of their suffering and to end it. Just then, Creon returns to Thebes from a visit to the oracle. Apollo has made it known that Thebes is harboring a terrible abomination and that the plague will only be lifted when the true murderer of old King Laius is discovered and punished for his crime. Oedipus swears to do this, not realizing of course that he himself is the abomination that he has sworn to exorcise.
In my life, I am very frustrated at the dangerously slow pace of government and big business regarding adapting to a low carbonworld
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