The Plague In Athens And Thebans

The plague was one of the most devastating points in time for the Athenians and Thebans.They did not know who to turn to for help. The people in the cities of Athens and Thebes had different reactions when they were faced with the plague. In The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, during the plague speech by Pericles, the plague in Athens had made the Athenians lose their faith in the gods and let human nature take over. However, in Oedipus the King by Sophocles, everyone went to the leader for help and never stopped praying to the gods. In both cities their reactions differed in that the Athenians lost their faith while the Thebans continued their faith in the gods while going through the difficult time of the plague.

In Pericles’ Plague Speech, Pericles explained how bad the plague has gotten because so many

families have died. At the time of the plague there were many people which resulted in overcrowding in the small city of Athens. Moreover, there was no sewage system and there was a lack in water supply so people began to get sick. The diseases were contagious making it easier to spread quickly among the people. These diseases were deadly and the people of Greece did not know where the disease was coming from. Thucydides believed that writing about the plague would inform the doctors in the future so they could figure out the problem.
The people of Athens went to the gods for help and panicked during the plague. So many families were dying that the Athenians started to lose their faith in the gods. Pericles describes the social law break affecting the people of Athens. Pericles says, “The temples also, where they pitched their tents, were all full of the bodies of those who died in them, for people grew careless of holy and profane things alike, since they were oppressed by the violence of the calamity, and did not know what to do. And the laws they had followed before concerning funerals were all disrupted now, everyone burying their dead wherever they could.”(52) The Athenians stopped doing was was right and did whatever they wanted to. They stopped going to the temples to pray because they no longer believed in the gods. Also, they did not follow the right funeral procedure when their loved ones died. They did not care where the dead bodies were placed. Most people did not have the right materials so they, “ ...were forced, by a shortage of necessary materials after so many deaths, to take disgraceful measures for the funerals of their relatives.”(52) People threw the dead bodies they were carrying in places that a fire was already made due to the lack of resources. Since people did their own thing, Thucydides was also warning the future generation on the weakness of a mans human nature in devastating situations.
In Oedipus the King the city of Thebes was dying due to the plague and everyone goes to the leader for help.

The suffering people of Thebes surrounded the priest’s palace. The priest had turned to king oedipus and when the king saw the crowd he was confused as to why they were there. He realized that a plagued had come to his city. The crops were dying and a lot of sicknesses everywhere. Oedipus had solved the riddle of the Sphinx so he is seen as a hero at the time, therefore, they wanted him to save Thebes. However, when the people of Thebes goes to him for an answer on the plague he does not know the problem. Therefore, Oedipus sends Creon who is his brother in law to go the the oracle of Delphi in order to find a way to end the plague. Creon found out the reason for the plague and all the citizens hear that it is the king’s pollution. The god Apollo sent for the plague and asks that the killer of the former king Lias be found then be put to exile. In order for the city to be rebuilt and the plague to end thy had to find the murderer. Since he had not known the killer of the former king, he had cursed the murderer and ended up cursing

himself.
Oedipus wants the people to stop praying and just trust that he is going to find the murderer. The chorus still calls for the gods through prayer, “...mothers and wives everywhere stand at the altar’s edge, suppliant, moaning; the hymn to the healing God rings out but with it the wailing voices are blended. From these our sufferings grant us, O golden Daughter of Zeus” (205). Everyone is crying and praying for the gods to end the plague. A big part of the crowd were the barren women. Moreover, no matter what the Thebans are going through they still pray to the gods for help. The Thebans only rely on the gods and they want the gods to see what was going on and save them. Instead of them losing faith in the gods they put all their trust in the gods.
The cities, Athens and Thebes reacted differently to the plague. Through The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, the Athenians called upon the gods for help and relied on them during the play. In the play, Oedipus the King by Sophocles, when the plagues came to their cities they called upon the gods also, but lost faith when so many of their people were dying and did whatever they wanted to do. The Thebans left their problems in the hands of the higher power which was the best thing to do.