英文摘要 |
The dominant ritual ”pharmakos” figure and the disease theme in Sophocles' ”Oedipus Tyrannus” and ”Philoctetes” have elicited considerable scholarly concern; but the subject pertaining to feet and the related medical concepts are not yet adequately addressed. For this reason, this paper seeks to make a re-assessment of the problems concerning the distinctive podiatric vexations which embitter the two heroes, Oedipus and Philoctetes, and the rudimentary medical concepts which are revealed in these two plays. An in-depth examination of the way how Sophocles fashions two completely different types of heroes and how abundant chiropodist diction is employed, and how the theme of diseased feet is developed is of substantial help to explain why Oedipus and Philoctetes do not succumb to their diseases and how their proverbial debilitated feet mark out their unique heroic features. The threefold aims of this paper are: to explore how the pun of the name Oedipus as deformed feet and distorted knowledge evolves in the ”Oedipus Tyrannus”, to inspect how the striking image of cankerous foot is expounded in the ”Philoctetes”, and to scrutinize how the theme of diseased feet varies in these two plays. Two conclusive remarks are: first, although the ”Oedipus Tyrannus” extraordinarily elaborates the multiple-layered meanings of the feet riddle, the ”Philoctetes” provides a better archetypal illness narrative; second, that the cardinal antagonist in the ”Philoctetes” is uncharacteristically the brutalizing foot disease devouring Philoctetes' body, his soul, and his life brings to light an emerging medical concept with respect to the invasive pathogens. |