Eski Hellen Literatüründe İlahi Cezalandırmanın Tezahürü Olarak Veba Metaforu: İki Örnek

Year 2021, , 457 - 479, 21.09.2021

Muzaffer Demir

https://doi.org/10.33469/oannes.976942

Cited By: 3

Abstract

Bu makale, Eski Hellen literatüründe vebanın mecazi kullanımına dair iki eser üzerine odaklanmaktadır. Bu eserler Homeros’un Ilias (Ἰλιάς) destanı (I.1-487) ve Sophokles’in Oidipous Tyrannos (Οἰδίπους Τύραννος) tragedyasıdır (1-215). Bu çalışmalarda Tanrı veya Tanrı(ça)ların aracılığıyla bir toplum üzerine veba gönderilmesi, miasma olarak adlandırılan insanoğlunun kirleten, ritüel olarak saflığı bozan ve ahlaki açıdan tiksindirici eylemleriyle bağlantılandırılmaktadır. Bu bağlantı açıklığa kavuşur kavuşmaz, bir kent veya toplumu ilahi güçlerin gözünde miasmadan saflaştırmak ve böylelikle vebadan kurtarmak için girişimlerde bulunulması gerekmektedir. Bunun sonucunda günahkar faaliyetleriyle vebayı tetikleyen veya tetikleyenlere karşı yaptırımlar uygulanmaktadır. Böylelikle veba vurgusunda bulunmak ızdırap çekmekte olan toplumdan neyin arındırılması veya defedilmesi gerektiğini tanımlama yöntemine dönüşmektedir. Bunun için öncelikle Tanrı veya Tanrı(ça)lara şükredilmesi gerekmektedir. Bu mecazi kullanım içinde günümüzde de kullanılan ‘bir musibet bin nasihatten iyidir’ deyiminin izlerine de rastlanmaktadır. Veba teması ilahi güç veya güç(ler) tarafından tehdit altındaki sosyal bir hüviyetin hizmetinde bir mecaz olarak kullanılmasına rağmen, ilgili metinlerin analizinden vebaların doğası ve toplum üzerine etkileri hakkında da bazı bilimsel açıklamalarda bulunabilmekteyiz. Bu metinlerdeki deliller aynı zamanda Eski Hellenlerin, MÖ XIII. yy.’ın ikinci yarısında gerçekleştiği düşünülen Troia Savaşları öncesinden itibaren veba hastalıklarına maruz kaldıklarına da işaret etmektedir.

Keywords

Veba, Homeros, Sophokles, Metafor, Eski Hellen Edebiyatı

Metaphor of Plague in Ancient Greek Literature as a Manifestation of Divine Punishment: Two Cases

Abstract

This article concentrates on two works in ancient Greek literature concerning the use of plague as a metaphor. These works are Homer’s Iliad/Ἰλιάς (I.1-487) and Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus/Οἰδίπους Τύραννος (1-215). In these works, a plague, which can be inflicted upon a society by the agency of the God or the Gods, is connected to the defiled, ritually impure, morally repugnant deeds of human beings, called as miasma. Once this connection has been clarified, attempts have to be made in the eyes of divine powers to cleanse a city or a society from miasma and so save from the plague. As a result of this, sanctions are put into place against the person or persons whose sinful agency triggered the plague. Ponting out to plague thus turns out to be a way of identifying what needs to be purged or expelled from the suffering community. In order to do this, first of all, they had to sacrifice to the God or the Gods. Within this metaphorical use, one could see the traces of the expression that ‘one affliction is better than thousands of advice’. Although the theme of plague are used as a metaphor in the service of a threatened social identity by a divine power or powers, the analysis of the relevant texts also offers some scientific explanations concerning the nature of plagues and its effects on the society. The evidence in these texts also shows that ancient Greeks were suffering from plagues before the Trojan Wars, supposed to have occurred during the second half of the XIIIth century.

Keywords

Plague, Homer, Sophocles, Metaphor, Ancient Hellenic Literature

References

• Ael. Peri zoon idi. (= Aelianus, Peri zoon idiotetos) Aelian: On the Characteristics of Animals, Volume III, Books XII-XVII, with an English Translation by A. F. Scholfield, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1959.
• Aisk. Per., Hik. (= Aiskhylos, Persai, Hiketides) Aeschylus, 2 Volumes, with an English Translation by H. W. Smyth, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1926.
• Apoll. (= Apollodoros) Apollodorus, The Library, 2 Volumes, with an English Translation by J. G. Frazer, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
• Diod. (= Diodorus Sicilus) Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes, Volumes IV-VIII, with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.
• Eust. Comm. Hom. (= Eustathius, Commentarii ad Homeri Iliadem) Eustathii Commentarii ad Homeri Iliadem, Volume I, Edited by J. G. Stallbaum. Cambridge University Press 2010.
• Hdt. (= Herodotos, Historiai) Herodotus. Translated by A. D. Godley. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
• Hes. Erg. (= Hesiodos, Erga Kai Hemerai) Hesiod. The Homeric Hymns and Homerica, with an English Translation by H. G. Evelyn-White. Works and Days. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1914.
• Hom. Il. (= Homeros, Ilias) Homer. The Iliad, 2 Volumes, with an English Translation by A. T. Murray. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
• Paus. (= Pausanias, Periegesis tes Hellados) Pausanias Description of Greece. Volumes I-IV, with an English Translation by W. H. S. Jones - H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1918.
• Prok. Hyp. Pol. (= Prokopios, Hyper ton Polemon Logoi) Procopius, Volumes I-VII, with an English Translation by H. B. Dewing. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1914-1940.
• Sam. (= Samuel Kitabı I) www.bible.usccb.org/bible/1samuel
• Sop. Oid. Tyr. (= Sophokles, Oidipous Tyrannos) Sophocles. The Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles, Edited with introduction and notes by R. Jebb. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1887.
• Strab. (= Strabon, Geographika) The Geography of Strabo, Volumes I-VIII, with an English Translation by H. L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
• Thuk. (= Thukydides) Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War, Volumes I-III, with and English Translation by C. F. Smith. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 2003 (11. Ed.).
• AHRENDORF, P. J., 2004. “The Limits of Political Rationalism: Enlightenment and Religion in Oedipus the Tyrant”, Journal of Politics, 66 / 3, ss. 773 - 799.
• ALLAN, W., 2014. “The Body in Mind: Medical Imagery in Sophokles”, Hermes, 142 / 3, ss. 259 - 278.
• ATKINSON, J. E., 2001. “Turning Crises into Drama: The Management of Epidemics in Classical Antiguity”, Acta Classica, 44, ss. 35 - 52.
• BERNHEIM, F. - ZENER, A. A., 1978. “The Sminthian Apollo and the Epidemic among the Achaeans at Troy”, Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-2014), 108, ss. 11 - 14.
• BLICKMAN, D. R., 1987. “The Role of the Plague in the ‘Iliad’”, Classical Antiquity, 6 / 1, ss. 1 - 10.
• BUDELMANN, F., 2006. “The Mediated Ending of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus”, Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici, 57, ss. 43 - 61.
• CHANG, Y., 2008. “Nosos [νόσος]: Plague, Disorder, Disease, and Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus”, Humanitas Taiwanica, 69, ss. 223 - 250.
• COUGHANOWR, E., 1997. “Philosophic Meaning in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex”, L'Antiquité Classique, 66, ss. 55 - 74.
• CRAIK, E. M., 2001. “Thucydides on the Plague: Physiology of Flux and Fixation”, Classical Quarterly, 51 / 1, ss. 102 - 108.
• DIMOCK, G., 1968. “Oedipus: The Religious Issue”, Hudson Review, 21 / 3, ss. 430 - 456.
• DYSON, M., 1973. “Oracle, Edict, and Curse in Oedipus Tyrannus”, Classical Quarterly, 23 / 2, ss. 202 - 212.
• FINNEGAN, R., 1999. “Plagues in Classical Literature”, Classics Ireland, 6, ss. 23 - 42.
• FOSSO, K., 2012. “Oedipus Crux: Reasonable Doubt in ‘Oedipus the King’”, College Literature, 39 / 3, ss. 26 - 60.
• GRAVES, R., 1960 (rev.ed.). Greek Myths I, Iowa, US: Perfection Learning Corporation.
• GRIFFITH, R. D., 1993. “Oedipus Pharmakos? Alleged Scapegoating in Sophocles’ ‘Oedipus the King’”, Phoenix, 47 / 2, ss. 95 - 114.
• HEXTER, O., 2002. “Of Mice and Emperors: A Note on Aelian ‘De natura animalium’ 6.40”, Classical Philology, 97 / 4, ss. 365 - 370.
• JOUANNA, J., 2012a. “Air, Miasma and Contagion in the Time of Hippocrates and the Survival of Miasmas in Post-Hippocratic Medicine (Rufus of Ephesus, Galen and Palladius)”, Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen, Ed.: P. van der Eijk, Leiden, ss. 121 - 136.
• JOUANNA, J., 2012b. “Hippocratic Medicine and Greek Tragedy”, Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen, Ed.: P. van der Eijk, Leiden, ss. 55 - 79.
• KALLET, L., 2013. “Thucydides, Apollo, The Plague and The War”, American Journal of Philology, 134 / 3, ss. 355 - 382.
• KNOX, B. M. W., 1956. “The Date of the Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles”, American Journal of Philology, 77 / 2, ss. 133 - 147.
• KOPER, P. T., 2006. “Myth and Investigation in ‘Oedipus Rex’”, Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture, 12 / 13, ss. 87 - 98.
• KOUSOULIS, A. A. et al., 2012. “The plague of Thebes, a historical epidemic in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex”, Emerging Infectious Diseases, 18 / 1, ss. 153 - 157.
• LITTMAN, R. J., 2009. “The plague of Athens: epidemiology and paleopathology”, Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine, 76, ss. 456 - 467.
• MAILLUARI, F., 2012. “The Consistemcy of Inconsisteny in Sophocles’ ‘Oidipous Tryannos’ (Connections With Aristotle’s ‘Poet.’ 1454 A 26-28)”, Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica, 102 / 3, ss. 55 - 85.
• MICHELAKIS, P., 2019. “Naming the Plague in Homer, Sophocles and Thucydides”, American Journal of Philology, 140 / 3, ss. 381 – 414 = ss. 1 - 47. Https://research-information.bris.ac.uk
• NALIMOVA, N., 2019. “Symbolism and Narrative in the Sculptural Decoration of the Apollo Smintheus Temple in Troas”, Numismatica e Antichità Classiche Quaderni Ticinesi, 48, ss. 79 - 94.
• RENBERG, G. H., 2017. “‘Homeric Verses and the Prevention of a Plague?’, A New Inscription from Roman Termessos and ıts Religious Context”, Albert’s Anthology, Ed.: K. M. Coleman, Cambridge, ss. 165 - 171.
• RUSSELL, D. A. - KONSTAN, D., 2005. Heraclitus: Homeric Problems. Writings from the Greco-Roma World, Atlanta.
• RYZMAN, M., 1992. “Oedipus, Nosos and Physis in Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus”, L'Antiquité Classique, 61, ss. 98 - 110.
• SARIBAŞ, S., 2019. “Geçmişten Günümüze Veba Hastalığı ve Kollektif Bilinç: “Çağımızın Vebası” Söyleminin Kökenleri”, Uluslararası Sosyal ve Beşeri Bilimler Araştırma Dergisi, 6/42, 2019, ss. 2470 - 2485.
• SOLOSKI, A., 2010. Feigned Illness: Drama and Disease (Phd Thesis), Columbia University.
• SOMMERSTEIN, A. H., 2011., “Once More the End of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus”, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 131, ss. 85 - 93.
• SWAIN, S., 1994, “Man and Medicine in Thucydides”, Arethusa, 27/3, ss. 303 - 327.
• TSOUCALAS, G. et al., 2014. “Demystifiying Epidemic among the Achaeans during the Trojan War”, Le Infezioni in Medicina, 22 / 4, ss. 342 - 348.
• WILLIAMS, R., 2017. “Plague as Metaphor”, Plagues, Eds.: J. L. Heeney - S. Friedemann, Cambridge, ss. 196 - 212.