[Oedipus - anthropology of enlightenment and interpretation]

Abstract

The myth of oedipus follows - from an anthropological-phenomenological point of view - an interpretation as a tragedy of enlightment. Oedipus solves the riddle of the sphinx concerning the finality of human life. By this he has done the step from the cyclical conception of life, essential for early humanity and childhood, towards the causal and teleological thinking of modern man. But by this step he looses the instinctual-prelogical knowledge of early humanity - still observable among so called "savages" - about the ties of blood and the signification of incest. The loss of this knowledge throws him into the fateful marriage of his mother. Only after blinding himself he gains insight into the relations that are hidden to the "enlightened" thinking.