俄狄浦斯是僭主吗——索福克勒斯《俄狄浦斯国王》中城邦的自然

Is Oedipus A Tyrant?—— The Nature of the City in Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus

在索福克勒斯的《俄狄浦斯国王》中,俄狄浦斯破解斯芬克司之谜,意味着他依从自然,从而是一个哲人。这必然如尼采所说,挑战"所谓的"神圣自然,从而挑战祖传宗教立法者。可俄狄浦斯努力依从真正神圣的自然,并成为了新式宗教立法者。其途径是依从城邦的自然,即当一个好国王。但他对城邦自然的依从方式是如此狂狷,以至于"强暴了自然"(尼采语):弑父娶母,逼死母亲,最终自戳双眼,逊位隐居。似乎哲人当王必然狂狷,而"狂狷产生僭主"。可实际上,他的瞎眼意味着真正依从城邦的自然,从而真正开启了哲学生命。故俄狄浦斯最终并非僭主,而是变作潜在的柏拉图式哲人王。

In Sophocles＇Oedipus Tyrannus, Oedipus＇solution of Sphinx＇ riddle means that he complies with nature in order to be a philosopher.Thus it is necessary for him, as Nietzsche says, to challenge the ＂socalled＂ holy nature, that is, to challenge the legislator of the ancestral religion. Oedipus, however, strives to comply with the true holy nature and thus to be the legislator of the new religion by complying with the nature of the city, that is, by making a good monarch. But he complies with the nature of the city in such a hubristic wayas to ＂rape nature＂ （Nietzsche）： to kill his own father, to marry his own mother, to hound her to death; at last he digs out his own eyeballs and abdicates and leads a secluded life.It seems that a philosopher being a monarch has to be hubristicwhile＂hubris gets birth to tyrants＂. As a matter of fact, his diging out his own eyeballs means truly complying with the nature of the city and thus truly beginning his own philosophic life. To sum up, Oedipus is finally not a tyrant, but becomes a potential Platonic Philosopher-King.