13. THE JUBILEE: “NO NEVER”

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Music Score

Audio Sample

Featured Speaker

THESEUS, CHORUS, OEDIPUS

Reference

FC 90: CHORAL DIALOGUE after SCENE I

The words are taken from the Chorus' first response to Oedipus' plead, before knowing his cursed history and questioning him

FC 99-101: SCENE II

The words are part of Oedipus' plea to the Chorus

Jubilee: Year of Release

Hebrew origin:

God proclaimed that every 7th year was to be a sabbath for the land: crops were not to be planted, and they were to live on what God had provided before that time and what grew up by itself. After seven sabbath years came a year of Jubilee, which along with being a Sabbath for the land, also was a “year of release.”

This meant that all Israelites who were in bondage were freed, anyone who had sold his ancestral property would receive it back, and all debts were forgiven. The word “Jubilee” comes from the word Yovel, a Hebrew word for the ram’s horn that was used to proclaim the year.

Review from Scene 1:

"Promised Land," "EXODUS," Oedipus, Israelites

Exodus in Greek Tragedy

The last scene of a Greek tragedy, the departure/exit of the actors and the chorus.

See more: an Overview of Greek Tragedy Structure

Exodus in Christianity

The second book of the Hebrew Bible, which recounts the departure of the Israelites from slavery in Biblical Egypt, their journey across the Red Sea and through the wilderness led by Moses, the giving of the Ten Commandments, and the “Promised Land” Canaan.

Just as Canaan to the Israelites, Colonus is the promised resting place to Oedipus. Both stories are regarded as myths with historical basis.
The Israelites and Oedipus also lived around the same time: scholars date Israelites’ journey variously between 1580 and 1200 BC, and the Bronze Age Greece of Oedipus (1000 years before Sophocles) was also roughly 1500 - 1200 BC.
OEDIPUS AT COLONUS as staged in 401 BC. The Book of Exodus also became a written, unchangeable sacred texts around 400 BC.

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