Usages sournois du don et objets mortifères chez Sophocle

Abstract

Insidious uses of the gift and deadly objects in Sophocles’ tragedies This article looks at the gift of objects in Sophocles. Numerous objects can be found in the plays of the tragedian, and they serve many functions ; they can be deadly and, in the semantic context of the plot (war, ritual, funeral, for instance), they can carry important values for their owner. Beside these functions, the way the objects are given as a legacy, or as a gift is also significant. In Ajax on the one hand the gift of the sword leads to the death of the hero and on the other the gift of the shield signifies the transmission of the father’s heroic values to the son. In the Trachiniae the gift of the peplos in the context of the sacrifice and the bestial world is the answer to the «gift » of Iole by Heracles, fi rst to Deianeira then to Hyllos in the context of the wedding, as an «object » linked to the power or Eros. In Electra the gift of the facticious urn allows Orestes to unfold his identity and the urn represents the peak of the mise en abîme of tragic fi ction ; Clytemnestra’s offerings bring to light the opposition between language and non verbal signs. In Philoctetes the restitution of the bow to the hero puts an end to Ulysse’s trickery and echoes the previous gift by its fi rst owner, Heracles. These transactions, when deadly, are mostly linked to a trickery or a contrivance (μηχανή ) and are caracterized by a reciprocity (χάρις), which is false or unbalanced. In this context objects can be agents and express intentions which go beyond the action of the protagonists who handle them.