THE BODILY CATHARTIC IN SOPHOCLES’ KING OEDIPUS, ANTIGONE, АND PHILOCTETES

Abstract

This paper examines Sophocles’ plays King Oedipus, Antigone, and Philoctetes in order to explore whether catharsis is possible without body torture. Referring to the ideas of Michel Foucault from his seminal work Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975), the paper investigates the role of the body in Sophocles’ plays and, within the realm of Sophocles’ fiction, reassesses Foucault’s claim that over time the reform of the soul had become more important than the punishment of the body.