Degrees of death
When Oedipus interrogates the herdsman,the herdsman is fearful for his own life. He says that it would've been better for him to die by some other means than for him to tell Oedipus the truth. Oedipus then tells him that it certainly would have been. He implies that his death will be worse off than it would have if he had simply died before telling Oedipus the truth. This leads to the question: Are there degrees of death? I believe so. We certainly covered this when we studied the Iliad and the Odyssey. It's once again brought up in Oedipus. I'm not really sure how high a degree of death can go however. Perhaps the most disgraceful? Example: Dying in battle as opposed to dying of old age in your comfy bed. Reminds me a bit of the Scandinavian Viking's mental picture of death. Fame never dies and what not. It's slightly depressing to me because everyone just seems to embrace death in Greek culture. Not sure if this is the case in this instance, but it certainly caught my attention.
-Brian Burkhardt
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