26 January 1983

Abstract

SO, IF YOU LIKE, we will continue reading Ion, and I would like to pursue it in the following way: to read this tragedy as a tragedy of truth-telling, of parrēsia, of the foundation of free-spokenness. As you know, this tragedy tells the story of the secret son born of Creusa’s secret lovemaking with Apollo, a son who is abandoned, exposed, disappears, is thought to be dead, and that his mother, now accompa­nied by Xuthus, her lawful husband, comes to ask for her son again from the Apollo at Delphi. And when she comes, accompanied by Xuthus, to ask Apollo for her son again, or to find out from Apollo what could have become of this disappeared son, the son is there in front of her. He is in front of her in the guise of a temple servant, but she does not know that he is her son. And he, not knowing his own identity, does not know that he is looking at his mother. Such then, you can see, is the somewhat oedipal story of the exposed son who is lost and then finds himself in front of his parents, or his mother, but not knowing who she is. It is an oedipal story except for the fact that Oedipus—you recall I tried to emphasize this—precisely in discovering who he was, was driven from his land, whereas the situation is exactly the reverse in Ion’s case, since he needs to know who he is in order to be able to return home with authority, and to exercise there the fundamental rights of speech. And it is when he has discovered who he is that he will be able to return home. So there is, if you like, an oedipal framework, but with an exactly opposite meaning, polarity, and orientation.

Continuation and end of the comparison between Ion and Oedipus: the truth does not arise from an investigation but from the clash of passions.∽ The rule of illusions and passions.∽ The cry of confession and accusation.∽ G. Dumézil’s analyses of Apollo.∽ Dumézil’s categories applied to Ion. — Tragic modulation of the theme of the voice ∽ Tragic modulation of the theme of gold.