Pedagogical Dreams of the Past in the Tragedies by Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles about Eteocles and Polyneices: Paradoxes of Brotherly Hatred

• Main Author: Victoria Pichugina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hypothekai 2018-06-01
• Series: Hypothekai
• Subjects: ancient tragedy
• Online Access: http://www.hypothekai.ru/images/Nomera/2/-Hypothekai_1-282-34-53.pdf

The tragedies of Aeschylus “The Seven Against Thebes”, Euripides “The Phoenician” and Sophocles “Antigone” are compared in terms of ideas about the role and mission of education in war and peace. As depicted by the classic playwrights, Thebes is a city where the military takes place outside, and inside is an intellectual confrontation. The clever and the noble are found on one or on the opposite sides of the barricades together with the stupid and misguided sometimes both literally and figuratively. Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles associate what is happening to the city with its origins, in order to be able to build pedagogical bridges between the past, the present and the future. Each tragedy is a different story, which in one way or another represents an archaic scheme of seven pairs of opposite warriors standing in seven gates. The tragedies are different in that the heroes choose different lines of defense of the city, which was threatened with destruction because of the confrontation of their sons. The acts of the Eteocles and Polynices are regarded by some heroes as punishment for the city for its painful past, and by others – as an instruction for a better future. With pedagogical intent, representatives of different generations and social layers turn to the myth of the city foundation, dreaming of how good it would have been to prevent such a plight. Thebes, in the view of the classic playwrights, is a city either narrowed down to a single unique family with a special pedagogy for the home, or expanding to a universal community of citizens who are instructed by its ruler through a wise power or a strong wisdom. This “pulsing” city exists in a tragic circle: the bloody victories of the past have not taught anything to those who crave for new and new victims in the present, thus setting for a special type of pedagogical dreams about the future.