Oedipus in Korea: Echoes of Social Clashes in the Legends of Silla

This paper tries to explain some aspects and facts of ancient Korean society as a consequence of the cultural overlaps occurred over the course of the first millennium CE. In particular, foreign elements such as Confucianism and Buddhism thought are hypothesized to have exerted a deep influence upon traditional customs, within a historical process leading to social transformations similar to those occurred in the Mediterranean civilizations after the Indo-European invasions during the second millennium BCE. Relying on a suggestive hypothesis regarding the origin of the Greek tragedy in relation with the social clashes due to cultural conflicts, the author believes to individuate a similar anthropological structure in some events and characters of Korean folklore, as they have been reported by historical and literary sources.