Viewing Ancient Greek Tragedies in Light of Transformative Pollution: Antigone, Oedipus Tyrannus, Hippolytus

Abstract

This article focuses on the Ancient Greek social structure practices, tracing the historical, social, and mythical traces of the idea of pollution, and explains how these ideas and practices took place in the three fifth century BC Athenian tragedies Antigone, Oedipus Tyrannus, and Hippolytus. The pollution motifs in the tragedies of three different periods by two different authors show differences in principle in the context of the transformativeness of pollution. While the Ancient Greek concept of pollution was also deconstructed in light of these differences, the definitions of pollution by Mary Douglas, René Girard, Robert Parker, and Andrej and Ivana Petrovic were read comparatively. To clarify the position of the concept in tragedies, the concepts of ritual pollution and social pollution are also disclosed. In conclusion of the study, it is suggested that the transformativeness of the concept of pollution in tragedies also can be a revolutionary movement.