TRAGEDY

HONORS ENGLISH 2

BUTLER
27

The Tragic Vision:

Affirmation Through Loss

Tragedy is drama in which a major character undergoes a loss but also achieves
illumination or a new perspective. It is considered the most elevated literary
form because it concentrates affirmatively on the religious and cosmic impli-
cations of its major character’s misfortunes. In ancient Greece, it originated as
a key element in Athenian religious festivals during the decades before Athens
became a major military, economic, and cultural power during the fifth cen-
tury BCE.

Tragedy, however, was not religious in a sectarian sense. It did not drama-
lize religious doctrines and did not prescnt a consistent religious view. To the
Athenians, religion connected the past with the present and with the gods, and
through this connection it served to enrich individuals, society, and the state.

Originally, tragedy in Athens was associated with the worship of a specific

god—Dionysus, one of the twelve principal Athenian deities who, it was
thought, transformed human personality and freed people from care and grief.
To elevate this god in the eyes of his fellow Athenians, the Athenian tyrant
Peisistratus (ruled 560-527 4.0.8.) added the worship of Dionysus to the regular
religious festivals that the Athenians held for their gods, |

"Ancient religion is ditticuit lor us to understand because ol our completely

diflerent reli-
ious traditions and Uae passage of 2.500 years of history. In its origins, Greek
religion was local in
nature-—a by-prochiet of the comparative isolation of the various Creek city-
states. Coliective public
worship of a centralized gad within centr ally located religious hbuiltings—tike
the churches, tem-
ples. and mosques we know today—did not then exist. Instead, the Greeks believed in
inany gods
with varving powers and interests whe could travel invisibly und at will from place
to place within
their dominions, Consequently the Grecks erected many separate local shrines and
sanctuaries,
which were considered holy to particular gods and where people might place
offerings and say
prayers. Large temples built in important ¢ity-states like Athens and Corinth were
dedicated to
gods, such as Zeus, Athena, and Apolo, that important citizens especially revered.
Even then, the
lemples were not designed tor mass worship, but rather were considered resident
sanctuaries for
the gods themselves. Therefore, the major space in the temples was a holy-ofholies
reserved only
for the god. To make public this essentially private worship, the Greek city-states
held religious
festivals such as the Athenian celebrations of Dionysus and Athena. In short, the
gods who became
prominent and who were widely worshiped in ancient Greece achieved their status
because of the
political power of their principal worshipers,

1286
27." The Tragic Vision: Affirmation ‘I rough Loss 1287
THE ORIGIN OF TRAGEDY

Tragedy Is the Earliest of Our Dramatic Forms

From the standpoint of drama, the most significant of these Dionysiac fes-
tivals were the Lenaia and the Great or City Dionysia. The Lenaia was a short
celebration held in January (the Greek month Gametion), and the City Dionysia
was a week-long event in March-April (Elaphebolion, the month of stags), In the
sixth century B.C.£., ceremonies held during the festival of the City Dionysia
began to include tragedy, although not in the form that has been transmitted to
us. The philosopher and critic Aristotle (384-322 3.c.E.), writing almost two
hundred years after the form appeared, claimed that the first tragedies clevel-
oped from a choral ode called a dithyramb—an ode or song that was sung or
chanted and also danced by large choruses at the festivals.? According to
Aristotle, the first tragedies were choral improvisations originating with “the
authors of the Dithyramb” (Poetics IV.12, p. 19).

The Subject Matter of Tragedy Was Drawn

from Tales of Prehistoric Times

From Aristotle’s claim, we can conclude that tragedy soon took on the
characteristics and conventions that elevated it. For subject matter, writers
turned to well-known myths about the heroes and demigods of the prehistoric
period between the vanished age of bronze and the living age of iron. These
myths described individual adventures and achievements, including epic explo-
rations and battles that had taken place principally during the time of the
Trojan War. Like the stories in the Bible, the Greek myths iltustrated divine-
human relationships and also served as examples or models of heroic behav-
ior, With very few exceptions, these myths became the fixed tragic subject
matter. Indeed, Aristotle called them the “received legends” that by his time
had become the “usual subjects of tragedy” (Poetics [X.8, p. 37).

The mythical heroes—many of whom were objects of cult worship—were

kings, queens, princes, and princesses. They engaged in conflicts; they suffered;
and, often, they died. Though great, they were nevertheless human, anda
common critical judgment is that they were dominated by hubris or hybris
(arrogant pride, insolence, contemptuous violence), which was manifested in

* S$. H. Butcher, Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, 4th ed. (New York:
Dover, 1951 } p.
19 (VL12). AH parenthetical references to Aristotle are from this edition. The
origin of the word
dithyramb is obscure, Some ancient evymologists claimed that the word was derived
froin the leg
endary “double birth” of Dionysus. This derivation is based on the idea that
dithyramb is a com-
pound (dis, “two.” and thyra, “tloor”) referring to the myth that Zeus removed
Dionysus from the
womb of his mother, Semele, and then placed the fetus within his thigh. When Zeus
removed
Dionysus, the god had “come through the door” of birth twice. This derivation,
however, has
been disputed, For a description of the origin of comedy during the festivals for
Dionysus, sce
Chapter 28.
1288 Pe The Trigic Affremiton Tirotrh Loss

destructive actions such as deceit, subterfuge, lying, betrayal, revenge, murder,

suicide, patricide, infanticide, anc sclfinutlation, By teuchfully demonstrating
the faults of these heroes along with their greatness, the writers of tragedy also
invoked philosophical and reli

rious issues that provide meaning wil value in

the face of misfortune ancl suffering.

The Word Tragedy Underwent an Elevation in Meaning

One of the puzzles af tragedy is the word itself, which combines the Greck
words tragos (“goat”) and olde (Code” or “song”)-

This meaning raises the question of how so unlik i

tragic form. One oft-repeated answer is that the ward was first applied to choral
ceremonials performed at the ritual sacrifice of a goat, Another is that the word
described a choral competition in which a goat was the prize.

A more persuasive recent answer is that the word vagedy steramed trom
the word @egedor, or “billy goat singers,” which was applied pejoratively to the
young men (ephebes) in the chorus
between the ages of eigh

3 The ephebes were military trainees

on and twenty. Phose trainees who were best at

close-order drill were selected as charal members because the dramatic
choruses required precision movements. Bec:
they were still likened to goats.* Indeee
called tragadia (raged

ise they were young, however,

1. at first tr
atall, but rather tragoidoz,
bers were more important than the words the

dy was apparently not

s though the chorus mem-

spoke. This explanation is
consistent with the improvisatory origins of trage dy that Aristotle describes. In
the decades following its beginnings, the genre

grew in importance, quality,

and stature, and its name underwent the accompanying elevation that it still
possesses

Tragedy Evolved fram a Choral Form to a Dramatic Form

Because the surviving Athentan plays are dominated by acting parts,

modern readers sometimes conclude that the chorus parts annoyingly inter-
rupt the main action, It may be surprising to recognize that in the beginning
there were no individual actors at all, only choruses. The introduction of
actors—and their eventual domination-

as one of the improvisations that

So: Chis argument, see fobn |. Winkler, “The Ep
[. Winkler and Froma b. Aeiilin, eds . Walling to Ln with Dionyses?
(Princeton: Princetou UP, 1990), pp. 20-4
Greek city-state, see Paul Rahe, “The !
val P71. 1 (Winter 1993): 58~70,

“un fohn
an Dyer in Bs Sucial Caitiext
nilitary nature of the ancient
Ho Greece” The Wiken Ouerterly,

ssiany Of tb
arual Repoliics of Chass

2 Forad

' Phere is nothing unusual about this comparison, in modern English, for example, a
common slang word foro cbild is dvd, which isthe stanclard word for a vourg goat
ated alse other
young animals

27 «The Tragie Vision: Affirmation Through Less 1289

Aristotle associates with the evolution of tragedy. We can surmise that during a
festival performance of an unknown choral ode, the chorus leader stepped for.
ward to deliver lines introducing and linking the choral speeches. Because of
this special function, the new speaker-—called a hypocrites (bip-POCK-rih-tayss),
which became the word for actor-—was soon separated and distinguished trom
the chorus.

The next essential step was impersonation, or the assuming of a role. The
Aypocrites would represent a hero, and the chorus would represent groups sich
as townspeople, worshipers, youths, or elders. With the commencement of such
role-playing, genuine drama had begun, According to tradition, the first hyp-
oerites or actor—and therefore the acknowledged founder of the aca profes
sion-—was the writer and choral leader Thespis, tn about 536-533 pce. during
the time of Peisistratus.

THE ORIGIN OF TRAGEDY IN BRIEF

in Athens during the sixth century 8.¢.€., tragedy originated during the City
Dionysia, one of the major Athenian religious festivals held to celebrate
Dionysus, a liberating god and one of the twelve major gods. As a genre, tragedy
first featured improvisations upon a type of choral ode called a dithyramb. tt then
evolved, as Aristotle says, “by slow degrees” (Poetics, IV.12, p. 19), developing
new elements as they seemed appropriate and necessary.

One of the vital new clements was an emphasis an the death or misfortune
of a major character.” This emphasis resulted not from a preconceived theoretical
design, however, but rather from the reality of suffering in the lives of the
heroic
subjects. As writers of tragedy developed the cosmic and religious implications of
such adversity, performances in effect offered philosophic, religious, moral, and
civic benefits, and therefore the simple attendance at a tragedy came to be
regarded as a religious experience,

Because tragedy was originally linked to the choral dithyrambs, it is impor:

tant to stress that tragedy, and therefore drama, began as a form for choruses, not
for actors. Even after actors became dominant in the plays, the chorus was impor:
tant enough for Aristotle to state that “the chorus should be regarded as one of
the actors” (XVIHL7, p. 69).

“Although the tragic protagonist often dies at the play’s ead, the exlant Athenian
tr
not follow this pattern rigidly. It is true that the major figures suifer, and
sometimes they die
they escape punishment entirely, and they may even receive divine pardon,

THE ANCIENT COMP

STITIONS IN TRAGEDY

Once Thespis set the pattern of

w

tion Involving actor and chorus, the

ting of tragedies as a competition within the Dionysiac f
institutionalized.

Livals beqarne
(29000 BF = The Dagic Visteon: Affirmation TMornigh Loss

The Tragic Dramatists Competed for the Honor

of Having Their Plays Performed

Early each summer, a number of dramatists vied for the honor of having
their plays performed at the next C ity Dionysia, to be held the following
spting. They prepared three tragedies (a trilogy) together with a satyr play (a
boisterous burlesque) and submitted the four works to the Eponymous
Archon, one of the city’s two principal magistrates and the man for whom the
year was named. The three best submissions were approved, or “given a
chorus,” for performance at the festival. On the last dz ay of the festival, after
the performances were over, the archon awarded a prize to the tragic play-
wright voted best for that year; there was also a prize for the best writer of a

comedy. The winner's prize was not money, but rather a crown of i ivy and the
glory of wiumph.

The Three Greatest Athenian Tragic Playwrights Were

Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides

‘Te gain the honor of victory during the centuries of the competitions,
many playwrights wrote many hundreds, probably thousands, of plays. Most of
these have long since vanished because the writers were insignificant and also
pecause there were no more than a few copies of each play, all handwritten on
perishable papyrus scrolls.

A small number of works by three tragic playwrights, however, have sur-

vived, These dramatists are Aeschylus (5 96 B.C.E.), who added a second
actor; Sophocles (ca. 496-406/5 B.c.e.), who added a third actor, created scene
design, and enlarged the chorus trom twelve to fifteen; and Euripides (ca.
1406 B . Although these three playwrights did not win prizes every time
they entered the competitions, a conserisus grew that they were the best, and by
the middle of the fourth century B.C.E., their works were rec ognized as classics.
Aithough tragedies had originally been intended for only one performance—at
the festival for which they competed—an exception was made for these three
dramatists, whose tragedies were then performed repeatedly both in Athens
and elsewhere in the Greek-speaking world.
The combined output of the three ¢

sic playwrights was slightly more

than three hundred plays, of which three-fourths were ur agedies and one-
fourth were satyr plays. As many as eight hundred years after the end of the
Hfth cenvury 8.0.8, these plays, together with many other Greek tragedies, satyr
plays, and comeciies, were available ro readers who could afford to buy copies

* Tn the earliest dramas, the tnlogies shared a common subject, as may be seen in
the
Orestia of Aeschylus, which is a evele of three plays on the subject of the royal
house of
Agamemnon, But by the time of Sophocles and Euripides, connected trilogies were no
longer

requir phocles’ Oedipus the King and Ovedipus ox Colonus. for e sample, were
submitted at
widely Gd TLL Ornes.
a7 The Tragic Vision: Affirmation Through Loss 1291

or commission scribes fo copy them.° However, with the increasing dominance

of Christianity, the plays fell into neglect because they were considered pagan
and also because vellum or parchment, which made up the pages of the books
(codices) that replaced papyrus scrolls, was enormously expensive and was
reserved for Christian works, Most of the unique and priceless copies of
Athenian plays were subsequently destroyed or thrown away.

Thirty-Three Tragedies by the Three Great Athenian

Tragedians Have Survived to the Present Day

The Greek dramatic tradition might have vanished entirely had it not
been for the efforts of Byzantine scholars during the ninth century, when
Constantinople became the center of a revival of interest in classical Greek lan-
guage and Hterature. A primary characteristic of this revival was the copying
and preservation of important texts—including those of the major Greek writ-
ers. We may conclude that the scholars copied as many of the plays as they
could locate, and that they tried to shelter their copies in the security of
monastery libraries.

However, security was impossible to maintain during those years. Fire,

neglect, time, political destabilization, and pillage (such as the sack of
Constantinople by Crusaders in 1204) took an enormous toll on the Byzantine
manuscript collections. Even so, seven tragedies by Aeschylus, seven by
Sophocles, and ten by Euripides somehow were saved from destruction.”
Additionally, in the fourteenth century, a scholar named Demetrius Triclinins
made a lucky find of scrolls containing nine more plays by Euripides (part of
what was once a complete set), bringing the total of Euripicdean plays to ninc-
teen. Therefore, of all the hundreds and thousands of plays written by all the
Greek tragic playwrights, thirty-three still survive intact. These plays make up
the complete Greek tragedies as we know them.

“tn the third century 5.6.8., a complete and definitive haned-copied set of Greek
plays was
upparendy deposited in the Egypuian Roval Library that formed a parc of the
Ptolemaic museum
and palace of Alexandria, but at some point all the holdings were fost, thrown
away, or destroyed,
just as the pa‘ace and museum were destroved. In modern Alexandria, not even the
location of the
ancient library is exactly known. See Luciano Cantora, The Vanished Library: A
Wonder uf the Ancient
World (Berkeley: U of California P, 1990),

Many standard reference works contain the assertion that these twenty-Tour plays
wee:
selected by an unnamed Byzantine schoolmaster for use in the Byzantine schools and
that this
anthology was widely adopted and exchisively used thereafter. This claim would e
xplain why the
anthologized plays were preserved while unanthologized plays were lost. L. D.
Reynolds and N.G,
Wilson, in their nuthoritative Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmisyion éf
Greek and 1
Literature, Ord ed. (Oxtord UP, 1991), question this hypat They point out that
there is no
storical record that such an anthology was ever made, that modern scholars are jo
truth ignore
“of the origin ot the selection,” and that therefore “it is perhaps best to abandon
the idea that a
s act of selection by an individual was a primary Pactor in deter mining the
survival of

s survival of Greek drama was under constant threat unui the first printed editions
were published at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
The Tragic Vistin: Affrrmation Through Loss
ie J ®

‘There is, however, just a litte more: Many ancient writers often quoted
brief passages from plays that were not otherwise preserved, and these portions
therefore sull exi Egypt awned many
copies of the ple thing from these collections was lost. In recent
centuries, papyrus and vellum fragmienis-

st. Moreover, collectors living in ancient

,and not ever

same quite extensive-——have becn

recovered by archaeologists from such untikely locations as ancient Egyptian
rubbish heaps, tombs, and the linings of coftins.

ARISTOTL

D THE NAT

RE OF TRAGEDY

Because Aristotle’s Poetics (Peri Poietikes), the first section of his major
critical
work, survives intact from antiquity, he is in effeer the Western world’s first
critic
and aesthetician. From hisu, latee critics derivedl the various “rules” of tragic
composition. He also wrote a se

ond part of the Poetics concerning comedy.

‘This second work is lost, but enowgh fragments and suruuimiaries
permit a partial hypothet

survive to

al reconstruction.” Aristotle also considered aspects

of literature in parts of other philosophical wor ks, principally the LiAies and
the
Politics. (n addition he, along with his stuclents, assembled a ¢ amplete cataloguc
of Greek tragedy from its beginnings to his own tme (the Didaskaliae). He was
therefore able to base his criticism on virtually the entire body of Gre k tragedy,
including written copies of many plays that he had probably never seen pe
formed. No one before or since has had more firsthand knowledge of Greek
tragedy. His criticism is therefore especially valuable because it rests not only
on his acute powers of observation, but also on his unique and enevclopedic
knowledge.

As we have seen, Aristotle states that tragedy grew out of anprovisations

related to dithyrambic choral odes. He adds that once tragedy reached its “nat
ural” or ideal form it stopped evolving (Portes TV.L2, p. 1). His criticism is
designed to explain the ideal characteris

ss: Throughout the /oencs he stresses

concepts of exactitude, proportion, appropriateness, and control. His famous
detinition of tragedy is in accord with these concepts. In the

sth chapter of
the Poetics, he states that tragedy is “an imitation of an action that is serious,
complete, and ofa certain magnitde; in language embellished with cach kind
of artistic ornament, the several kinds bemg found tn se

arate parts of the play;

in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the
proper purgation of these emotions” (VL2, p. 23).

Qe . a , : op .
* See Richard Janko, trans, Ansiotle, Poetes | amth the Tractatus Cowhnianus, A
Hypothetical

Reconsimuction of Poetirs U1, the Pragments of the On Poets (indianapolis Macket,

2987), pp. 47655,

The Tragic Vision: Affirmation Thrnugh Loss 128.

To Aristotle, the Key ta Tragedy Is the Concept of Catharsts

‘The last part of this definition-—that purgation or catharsis is the end or

goal of tragedy—crystallizes the earlier parts. In Aristotle's view, tragedy
arouses
the disturbing emotions of pity and fear (eleos and phobes), and, through the
expericnce of the drama, brings about a “proper purgation” or purification of
these emotions. Originally, the word catharsis was a medical term, and ihere-
fore many interpreters argue that tragedy produces a therapeunic cifect
through an actual purging or “vomiting” of emotions—a sympathetic release
of feelings that produces ernotional relief and encourages psychological health.
In other words, tragedy heals.

A complementary view is that tragic catharsis has a larger public and

moral purpose. In this sense, Aristotle’s description of tragedy is an inplicit
argument defending literature itself against the strong disapproval of bis
teacher, Plato. Both master and pupil accepted the premise that human
beings behave thoughtessly and stupidly as a result of uncontrolled emotion.
While in the grip of deep feelings, people cannot be virttous and can do ne
good for others because they make bad decisions that produce bad personal,
social, political, military, and moral results. ¢ consequently, if inelividual
temper
ance and public justice are to prevail, there is a universal need to moderate and
regulate the emotions. Because Plato states that the emotionalism of Hterature

is untrue, undignified, and also unreasonable, he denies that literature can

address this need.

But in the Poetics and in relevant parts of other works, Aristotle shows that
tragedy indeed addresses this need and does so through the effect of catharsis.
By arousing the powerful feelings of pity and fear, tragedy trains or shapes the
emotions so that people become habituated to measuring, shaping, and chan-
neling their feelings—controlling them, and not being controlled by them.
Through catharsis, people are led to the development of an emotional mean, a
condition of poise and balance among emotional forces, and they achieve this

balanced state harmlessly because in the artistic Context of tragedy they are
immume Lo the damage stich emotions may do in actual life. Tragedy therefore
assists in Une development of moral virtue, for people who have experienced
the emotional catharsis or regulation of tragedy will be led to love and hate cor
rectly, to direct their loyalties correctly.
take correct actions, both for chemsely

and also to make correct decisions and

and, more significantly, for the public.

Tt is important to stress that Aristotle states that catharsis is also brought

about by other literary genres, especially comedy and epic, as well as by ouusic.
In other words, artistic works have in common that they cleanse or purity the
emotions. Iris through the continuous and renewed shaping and re ,
feelings—catharsis—that tragedy, like literature broadly, encour
virtue

rll ag

s moral
and therefore on both philosophical and religious grounds it is defers
ble and necessary.

' See Janko, especialiv pp. xviexx, and Butcher's discussion on pp. 245-4 ot
Arestetle’s
Theury of Poeery and Fine Art
1264

«The Tragic Vision: Affirmation Through Loss

e Tragic Plot Is Structured ta Arouse and Shape Emotions

In the light of the concept of catharsis, Aristotie’s description of the

formal aspects and characteristics of tragedy can be seen as an outline of

the wavs in which these characterist

cs first arouse the emotions and then reg-

ulate and shape them.

Tue Tracic Plot Requires rie REPRESENTATION OF 4 SINGLE Major ACTION.

Aristotle concedes that tragedy is not true in the sense that actual history is
truc, He therefore stresses that a tragic plot, or muthos, is not an exact imita-
tion or duplication of life, but rather a representation or mimesis. The concept
of representation acknowledges both the moral role of the writer and the artis-
fic freedom needed to create works conducive to the proper responses, A tragic
plot therefore

consists of a self-contained and concentrated single action.

Anything outside this action, such as unrelated incidents in the life of the major
character, is not to be contained in the play. The action of Oedipus the Aing, for
cxample, is focused on Oedipus's determination as king of Thebes to free his
city from the pestilence that is destroying it. Although other aspects of his life
are introduced in the play's dialogue because they are relevant fo the action,
they are reported rather than dramatized. Only those incidents integral to the
action are inchuded in the play. ’

TRAGIC RESPONSES ARE Brougit ro A Heap Toroucy REVERSAL, RECOGNITION,

AND SurverinG. — Aristotle's discussion of the three major elements of t
is parlcularly significant. The elements all appear near the concle
tragic play because they are the probable and inevitable results of the early ele-
ments of exposition and complication. First is the “reversal of the situation”
(peripeteia) trom apparent good to bad, or a “change [usually also a surprise] by
which the action veers round to its opposite,” as in Oedipus the Ring, where the
outcome is the reverse of what Oedipus intends and expects (XL1, p. 41). Even
the outcome is unhappy—especially if it is unhappy-—it is “the right ending”
(XUL6G, p. 47) because it is the most tragic; that is, it evokes the greatest
degree
of pity and fear,

Second is “a change from ignorance w knowledge producing love or

hate between the persons destined by the poet for good or bad fortune.”
Anistode calls this change anagnorisis or recognition (X12, p. 41). In the best
and most powertul tragedies, according to him, the rev
Hon occur tovether and

rsal and the recogni-

pate surprise. Aristotle considers recognition to be
the discovery of the true identity and involvement of persons, the establishment
of guilt or innocence, and the revelation of previously unknown details, for “Stis
Qpon such situations that the issues of good or bad fortune will depend” (X14,
p. 41}. One might add that recognition is of major importance because ideally,
upon discovering the truth, the prot: ‘ t
responsibility, In Oedipus ihe

nist acknowledges errors and ACCE PES

King, for example, Oedipus finally recognizes the

27" The Tragic Vision: Affirmation Through Loss 2295

truth of his own guilt even though during most of the play he has been trying
to evade it. He then becomes the agent of his own punishment, Because such
recognition ilhistrates that human beings have the strength to preserve their
integrity even in the depths of adversity, itis one of the elements making
uragedy the highest of all literary forms.

Aristotle describes the third part of plot as a “scene of suffering” (pathes),

which he defines as “a destructive or painful action, such as death on the stage,
bodily agony, wounds, and the like” CXL6, p. 43). He stresses that the destructive
or painful action (not necessarily death) should be caused by “those whe are
near or dear to one another” (XIV, pp. 49-50). That is, violence should occur
within a roval household or family rather than against a hostile foe, Because the
trust, love, and protectiveness that one hopes tor in a family is replaced by
treachery, hate, and mayhem, the suffering of the tragic protagonist is one of
the major ways in which tragedy arouses fear and pity,

To Aristotle, Additional Tragic Requirements Are Seriousness,

Completeness, and Artistic Balance

The first part of Aristotle’s definition, asserting that a wagedy is “s

complete, and of a certain magnitude,” can be seen as a vital aspect of bis analy-
sis of how tragedy shapes responses. The term serious, or noble or clevated,
concerns the play’s tone and level of lite, in contrast with the boisterousness
and ribaldry of Athenian comedies. While comedy represents human character
as less serious than it is, tragedy shows it as more serious (IL4, p. 13}. Serious-
ness is also a consequence of the political and cosmological dimensions of the
issues in which the heroic characters are engaged. By complete, we understand
that a tragedy must be shaped and perfected into a logical and finished whole.
The beginning, the middle, and the ending must be so perfectly placed that
changing or removing any part would spoil the work’s integrity (VIL2-3, p. 31).
By stating that a tragedy should be of a “certain” or proportional magnitude,
Aristoue refers to a balance of length and subject matter. The play should be
short enough to “be easily embraced by the memory ” and long cnough to
“admit of a change .. . from good fortune to bad” (VIL5-~-7, p. 33), In other
words, everything is artistically balanced; nothing superfluous is inchided, and
nothing essential is omitted,

For Aristotle, Appropriate Diction and Song

Are Necessary in Tragedy

For modern readers, Aristotie’s description of tragic structure is more

easily understood than his discussion of tragic language. His statement about
tragic poetry—that it is the “mere metrical arrangement of the words” (VLA, p.
25)—-is clear as far as it goes, for the plays themselves show that the tragic play
wrights used poetic forms deliberately and exactly. These characteristics, how-
ever, do not survive translation into modern English. As for song (nelos),
$296 237 * The Tragic Vision: Affirmation Theough Loss

Aristotle’s claim that it is “a term whose sense everyone understands” (V4,

p. 25) is not itlumimating, What is therefore significant about his discussion of

vers

>and sony is his statement that the “several kinds of artistic ornament are
to be found in separate parts of the play” (VL2, p. 23), That is, where verse is
appropriate, the tragic playwrights inchade poetry as a means of elevating the
drama; where music and song are appropriate, they include these to increase
beauty and intensify the drama, As with the other aspects of tragedy, therefore,

placement, balance, and appropriateness are the most fitting standards of

judgment.

The Tragedy’s Hero Is the Focus

of Sympathetic Tragic Emotions

Aristotle’s description of the tragic protagonist or hero, though not

included in his definition of tragedy, is integral to the concept of catharsis and
therefore to his description of tragedy. As with the other parts of his analysis,
he

demonstrates the exact effects and limits of the topic-—the perfected balance of

form necessary to bring about proper tragic responses. To this end, he states
that we, as normally imperfect human beings, are able to sympathize with a
“highly renowned and prosperous” protagonist because that protagonist is also
impertect-—a person who exists between extremes, just “like ourselves” CAIIL2,
p. 45). The misfortunes of this noble protagonist are caused not by “vice” or
“depravity” but rather by “some great error or frailty” (XIH.4, p. 47). Aristotle’s
word for such shortcomings is hamartia, which is often translated as tragic flaw,
and itis this Haw that makes the protagonist human—neither a saint nor a vil-
lain. If the protagonist were a saint (one who is “eminently good and just”), his
or her suffering would be undeserved and unfair, and our pity would be over-
whelmed by indignation and anger—not a proper tragic reaction. Nor could
we pity a villain experiencing adversity and pain, for we would judge the suffer-
ing to be deserved, and our primary response would then be satisfaction—also
not a proper reaction. ‘Therefore, an ideal tragedy is fine-tuned to control our
emotions exactly, producing horror and fear because the sutfering protagonist
is a person like ourselves, and pity because the suffering far exceeds what the
protagonist deserves.

ARISTOTLE’S VIEW OF TRAGEDY IN BRIEF

totle’s detinition of tragedy hinges on his idea that tragedy, as a dra-

is designed to evoke pow! erful emotions and thereby, through cathar-
ath a salutary and ethical purpose. The tragic incidents and plot
ily constructed to produce the “essential tragic effect” (VLT2, p.
There fore Aristotle stresses that plot and incidents, arranged for this effect,
form the end or goal. the “chief thing of all”—of tragedy (VETO, p. 27).

27 = The Tragic Vistan: Affirmation Through Loss 1297

DPRONY IN TRAGEDY

implicit in the excessiveness of tragic suffering is the idea that the universe is
mysterious and often unfair and that unseen but powerful forces—tate, for-
tune, circumstances, and the gods—directly intervene in human lite. Ancient
Athenian belief was that the gods give rewards or punishments to suit their own
purposes, which mortals cannot understand, bring about, or prevent, For cxam-
ple, in Prometheus Bound (attributed to Aeschylus), the god Hephaestus binds
Prometheus to a rock in the Scythian Mountains as punishment for having
given fire and technology to humankind. (A good deed produces suffering.)
C ‘onversely, in Medea, Euripides shows that the god Apollo permits Medea to
escape after killing her own children, (An evil deed produces reward.)

Situational and Cosmic Irony Are Essential in Tragedy

These examples illustrate the pervasiveness of situational and cosmic

irony in tragedy. Characters are thrust into situations that are caused by others
or that they themselves unwittingly cause. When they try to act responsibly and
nobly to ceheve their situations, their actions do not produce the expected
results—this is consistent with Aristotle’s idea of reversal—and usually things
come out badly. For example, Oedipus brings suffering on himself just when
he succeeds—and because he succeeds-—in rescuing his city. Whether on the
personal or cosmic level, therefore, there is no escape—no way to evade respon-
sibility, and no way to change the universal laws that thrust human beings into
such situations.

Situational and cosmic irony is not confined to ancient tragedies.

Shakespeare’s tragic hero Hamlet speaks about the “divinity that shapes our
ends,” thus expressing the unpredictability of hopes, plans, and achievements,
and also the wisdom of resignation. In Death of a Salesman, Miller’s hero, Willy
Loman, is gripped not so much by divine power as by time—the agent of
destruction being the inexorable force of economic circumstances.

The Tragic Dilemma Confronts the Problem

of Free Will us. Fate

These ironies are related to what is called the tragic dilemma---a situation
that forces the tragic protagonist to make a difficult choice. The tragic dilemma
has also been called a “lose-lose” situation. Thus, Oedipus cannot shirk his duty
as king of Thebes because that would be ruinous. He therefore wies to elirni-
nate his city’s affliction, but that course also is ruinous. In other words, the
choices posed in a tragic ditemma seemingly permit freedom of will, but the
consequences of any choice demonstrate the inescapable fact that powerful
forces, perhaps fate or inevitability, baffle even the most reasonable and noble
intentions. As Hamlet states, “O curséd spite, / That ever | was born to set it
right” (1.5, 188-89),
1298 278 The Trage Vision: Affirmation Phrenigh Lass

Dramatic Irony Focuses Attention on the Tragic¢

Limitations of Human Vision and Knowledge

It is from a perspective of something like divinity that we as readers Or

spectators perceive the action of tragedies. We are like the gods because we
always know more than the characters. Such dramatic irony permits us, for
example, to know what Oedipus does not know: In defensive rage, he killect his
real father, and he himself is therefore his city’s bane. Similar dramatic irony
can be found in Shakespeare's Hamlet, for we realize uhat Claudius murdered
Hamlet's father while Hamlet himself has only unconfirmable suspicions of this
truth. The underlying basis of dramatic irony in real life is of course that none
of us can know our own futures exactly, and few if any can anticipate accident,
illness, and all the social, economic, and political adversity that may distress or
destroy our way of life.

THE ANCIENT ATHENIAN AUDIENCE

AND THEATER

Athenian audiences of the fifth century B.C, predominantly men but also a
small number of women and slaves, took their theater seriously, Indeed. as
young men many citizens had taken active parts in the parades and choruses.
‘Admission was charged for Lhose able to pay, but subsidies allowed poorer
people to attend as well, Rich Athenians, as 4 chuty (uturgeia) to che state,
under-
wrote the costs of the productions--excepl for the three professional actors
who were paid by che government. Each wealthy man, for his contribution, was
known as a charagos, or choral sponsor. Po gain public recognition, the choragos
sometimes performed as the leader of the chorus.

Ancient Athenian Theater Originated

in the Marketplace, or Agora

In the beginning, tragic performances were given speciatly designated

space in the Athenian agora, oF marketplace, In the center of the performing
area was an altar dedicated to Dionysus, around which the choruses danced
and chanted. Wooden risers were set up for the spectators.

Ancient Greek Plays Were Performed

in the Athenian Theater of Dionysus

a halécircular outdoor theater (heaton, or

“place for seeing”) was created out of the hill at the southern base of the
Acropolis in the area sacred to Dionysus (see the photograph on the front of

Insert [HI.). All later performances ot wagedies were held at this Theater of
Dionysus, which held as many as fourteen thousand people (the comic drama:
tist Aristophanes indicated that thirteen thousand were in attendance at one

By the early fifth century 1.

'
\

oF

a7 a The Tragic Vision: Affirmation Through Lass 1299

Ancient theater at Epidauros, Greece. Gian Berto Vanni/sArt Resource, New York, NY.

of his plays). In the earliest days of the theater, most spectators sat on the
slop-
ing ground, but eventually wooden and then stone benches were coustructed 1
the rising semicircle, with more elegant seating for dignitaries in front.
Although the Theater was outdoors, the acoustics were sulficiently good 16
permit audiences to hear both the chorus and the actors, provided that the

spectators remained reasonably quiet during performances,

Tue OncHesrra Was THE FOCAL Point oF BOTH SIGHT AND SOUND.
Centered at the base of the hill—the focus of attention—was a round urea mod-
eled on the one that had been used in the agora. This was the orchestra (or-
kesstra) or “dancing place,” which was about sixtytive feet in diameter. Here,
cach chorus sang its odes and performed its dance movements to the rhythm of
a double-piped flute Caidos), an instrument that was also used to mark the step
in military drill, In the center was a permanent altar.

THe SKENE WAS A VERSATILE BUILDING Usep FOR BOTH ACTION AND
Entrances. Behind the orchestra was a building for actors, costumes, and
props called the skene Ctent’), from which is derived our modern ward scene,
Originally a tent or hut, the skene was later made of wood and decor ated to pro-
vide backdrops for the various plays. Some theater historians argue that the
stage itself was a wooden plattorm ( proskenton OF proscenium) in front of the
skene to elevate the actors and set them off from the chorus. At the center ot
View of modern production of Sophocies’ Gerdes at Colonus at the Theater of
Epidauros (see
also p. 1290), Note the size ol the orchestra, the formation and gestures of the
chovas (fifteen mem-
hers, in masks, together with the Chord feader). the central altar, the
reconstructed: shene, amd the
single actor on the proscenium, DA. Harissiadis’ Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece,
Photographic
Archive,

the skene a double door for entrances ancl exits opened out to the stage and
the orchestra. Through this door a large plattorm (ékkyklyma) could be rolled
outro show interior scenes. Phere was no curtain.

The roof of the skene was sometimes used asa place of action (as in
Aeschylus’s Agamemnon), A mechane (may-KAtl-nav). or crane, was also focated
there so that actors playing gods could be swung up, dewn, and around. as 4
mark of divine power, It was this crane that gave rise to the Latin phrase deus ew
machina ("a god out of the machine”), a term that refers to au artificial and/or
illogical action or device introduced at a play's end to bring otherwise impossi-
ble conflicts to a satisfactory solution.

THE ACTORS PERFOMED IN ALL STAGE AND ORCHESTRA AREAS, AND THE
CHORUS PERFORMED IN THE ORCHESTRA. The performing space for the actors
was matnly in frontof the skene. Vhe space for the cherus was the entire orches-
fa. Vhe chorus entered the orchestra—and left it at the end of the plav—along
the aisles between the retaining wall of the hillside seats and the front of the
shene. Lach of these lateral walkways was known as a parados (“way in”), the
name also given to the chorus’s entry scene. The actors often used the skene for
entrances and exits, but they were also free to use either of the walkways.

27 = The Tragte Vision: Affirmation Through Loss (301

THE THEATER WAS REPAIRED AND RESTORED A NUMBER OF TIMES IN

Antigurty. In the centuries after it was built, the Thearer of Dionysus was
remodeled and restored a number of times. Aeschylus’ trilogy the Oresieia was
performed in 458 b.c.k., for example, not long after a renovation. The ruins
existing on the south slope of the Acropolis today are not those of the theater
known by Sophocles, but rather those ofa Roman restoration. A better sense of
how the theater looked during the time of Sophocles can be gained from the
‘heater of Epidaurus, which has been preserved in excellent condition (see
the photographs, pp. 1299 and 1200) and which even in anuquity was consicl-
ered one of the best Greek theaters.

ANCIENT GREEK TRAGIC ACTORS

AND THEIR COSTUMES

The task of the three competing playwrights who had been “given a chorus” by
the archon to stage their works during the City Dionysia (and later during the
Lenaia) was to plan, choreograph, and direct the productions, usually with the
aid of professionals. By performance time, the dramatists would already have
spent many months preparing the three assigned actors and fifteen choristers.
They also would have directed rehearsals for a small number of auxiliary chorus
members and other silent extras in roles such as servants and soldiers.

Costumes Distinguished the Actors from the Chorus

All these participants needed costumes. ‘The chorus members were lightly
clad, for ease of movement, and were apparently barefoot. The main actors
wore the identifying costumes of tragedy, namely, sleeved robes, boots, and
masks. Their robes were heavily decorated and embroidered. Their calf-high
leather boot, called kothernoi or, in English, buskins, were like the elegant boots
worn by the patron god Dionysus in painting and statuary. During the foltowing
centuries, the buskins became elevator shoes that made the tragic actors taller,
in keeping with their heroic stature.

Masks Worn by Chorus and Actors Helped the Audience

Recognize and Distinguish the Characters

Avital aspect of ancient tragic costuming was the use of conventionalized

plaster and linen masks, which were designed to identify and delineate charac-
ters. These were of particular help for those in the audience who sat at increas-
ing distances away and up from the orchestra and stage, and who therefore
would have had trouble seeing facial expressions. As many as twenty-eight cif
ferent kinds of masks were in use for the tragic productions. Fach mask por-
traved a distinct facial type and expression (e.g., king, queen, young wornuar.
old man). The choristers wore identical masks for their group roles. Apparently
i702

«The Tragie Vision. Affirmation Through Lass

the masks covered the entire head, except for openings for seeing, breathing,
and speaking. They included a high headdress and, when necessary, a beard.

The masks, along with costume changes, gave the actors great versatility.
Each actor could assume a number of different roles simply by entering the
skene, Changing mask and cosuune, and reentering as.a new character. ‘Thus, in
Oedipus the Kinga single actor could represent the seer ‘Tiresias and later reap-
pear as the Messenger. The masks even made it possible for two actors, or even
all three, to perform as the same character in separate parts of the play if the
need arose.

PERFORMANCE AND THE FORMAL ORGANIZATION

OF GREEK TRAGEDY

On performance days, the cornpeting playwrights staged their plays from morn-
ing to afternoon, first the tragedies, then the satyr plays (and after these, come-
dies by other writers), Because plays were performed with a minimum of
snery and props, dramatists used dialogue to establish times and locations.
Rach tragedy was performed in the order of the formally designated sections
that modern editors have marked in the printed text. It is therefore possible to
describe the production of a play in terms of these structural divisions.

the First Part Was the Prologue, the Play’s Exposition

There was considerable variety in the performance of the prologue.

Sometimes it was given by a single actor, speaking as cither a mortal or a god. In
Oedipus the King, Sophocles used all three actors for the prologue (Oedipus, the
Priest, and Creon), speaking to themselves and also to the extras acting as the
Cheban populace.

The Second Part Was the Parados, the Entry of the Chorus
into the Orchestra

Onee the chorus members entered the orchestra, they remained there
until the play's end. Because they were required to project their voices to spec-
tators in the top seats, they both sang and chanted their lines. They also moved
rhythmically in a number of stanzaic sivophes (varns), antistrophes (counter-
turns), and epedes (units following the sougs). These dance movements,
regulated by the rhythm of the audos or flute as in military drill, were done
in straightdine formations of five or three, but we do not know whether the
chorus stopped or continued moving when delivering their lines. After
the parados, the choristers would necessarily have knelt or sat at attention, in
this way focusing on the activities of the actors and, when necessary, respond-
Ath aS a BrOUp,

27a The Tragic Loss: Affirmation Through Vision 1303"

The Play’s Principal Action Consisted of Four

Episodes and Stasimons

With the chorus as a model audience, the drama itself was developed in
four fall sections or acting units. The major part of each section was the
episode. Each cpisode featured the actors, who presented both action and
speech, including swift one-line interchanges known as stichomythy.
When the episode ended, the actors withdrew.!' The following second
part of the acting section was called a stastmon (plural stasima), performed by
the chorus in the orchestra. Like the parados, the stasima required dance rmove-
ments, along with the chanting and singing of strophes, antistraphes, and
epodes, The topics concerned the play’s developing action, although over rime
the stasima hecame more general and therefore less integral to the play.

The Play Concluded with the Exodos

When the last of the four episode-stasimon sections had been completed,
the exedos (literally, “a way out”), or the final section, commenced. It contained
the resolution of the drama, the exit of the actors, and the last pronounce-
ments, dance movements, and exit of the chorus.

The Role of the Chorus Became Less Important as Greek

Tragedy Evolved

We know little about tragic structure at the very beginning of the form,
but Athenian tragedies of the fifth century B.c.r. followed the pattern just
described. Aeschylus, the earliest of the Athenian writers of tragedy, lengthened
the episodes, thus emphasizing the actors and minimizing the chorus (Poe
IV.13, p. 19). Sophocles made the chorus even less important. Euripides,
Sophocles’s younger contemporary, concentrated on the episodes
chorus almost inc

Acs

making the
ental. Ja later centuries, dramatists dropped the choral sec-
ions completely, establishing a precedent for the five-act structure adopted by
Roman dramatists and later by Renaissance dramatists.

& Plays ron STUDY

Sophocles .........cccccsssscssensecsesseassssssessssseenvenssesenarenevreres
Oedipus the King, 1305
William Shakespeare: «0.0... .sesecsesenessnassereiseersennnee Hemiet, 1350

Arthur Miller occ eeeeernteaeeisesssestesseeeeee Death of a Salesman, 1457

Ut por example, at the end of the first episode of Oalipas ihe King, Qedigus gocs
into the

skene—the pulac vhile a servant leads Tiresias off along the parados, thus
indicating that he is
leaving Thebes entirely.
(304 27 8 The Tragic Vision: Affirmation Through Loss

SOPHOCLES, OEDIPUS THE KING

Sophocles was born between 500 and 494 8.0.6. into

an affluent Athenian family. He began acting and
singing early, and he served as a choral leader in the
celebrations for the defeat of the Persians at
Marathon in 480 5.c.£. In 468 he won highest festi-
val honors for the first play he submitted for com-
petition. Triptolemos. He wrote at least 120 plays,
approximately 90 of them tragedies, and he won the
prize a record 24 times. He was also an active citi-
zen. He was twice elected general of his tribe, and
he served as a priest in the cult of Asclepius, the god
of healing, Because of his dramatic and public
achievernents, he was venerated during his lifetime, and after his death in
406-405 B.C.E., a cult was established in bis honor,

When Oedijns the King was first performed between 430 and 425 B.c.E.,
most of the audience would have known the general outlines of the story inas-
much as it was one of the “received legends” of tragedy: the antagonism of the
gods Hephaestus and Hera roward Cadmus of Thebes (of whom Oedipus was a
descendant); the prophecy that the Theban king Laius would be killed by his
own sou; the exposure of the newly born Oedipus on a mountainside; his
rescue by a well-meaning shepherd; his youth spent as the adopted son of King
Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth; his trip to Delphi to learn his origins;
his impetuous murder of Laius (a stranger to him), his solution of the Sphinx’s
riddle; his ascension as king of Thebes and his marriage to Queen Jocasta, his
mother; his reign as king; the plague that afflicted Thebes; his attempts at
restoration; and focasta’s suicide when the truth of Oedipus’ past is revealed.

Although these details were commonly known, there was disagreement

about the outcome of Oedipus’ life. One version told chat he remarried, had
four children with his new wife, reigned long and successfully, clied in bate,
and was finally worshiped as a hero. Sophocles, however, dramatizes a version—
either borrowed ov of his own creation—that tells of Oedipus’ selimposed
punishment.

As we have said, Aristotle prized Ordlipus the Kingso highly that he used it to
illustrate inany of his principles of wagedy. OF particular interest is that the
play
embodies the so-called three unities, which are implicit in the Poetics although
Aristotle does not stress them. Sophocles creates unity of place by using the front
of the royal palace of Thebes as the location for the entire action. He creates
unity of action by dramatizing only those activities leading to Oedipus’ recogni-
tion of the true scourge of the city. Finally, he creates wnity of time because the
stage or action time coincides with reablife time. In fact, the play's time is con-
siderably shorter than the “single revolution of the sun” ¢sia chat Aristoule rec-
ommends as the proper period for a complete tragic action (V4,
p. 23). Above all, Oedipus the King meets Aristotle's requirements for one of the

Sophocles — Qedifnes the Aung, Protignie £305

very best plays because of the skill with which Sophocles makes Oedipus’
recognition
of his guilt coincide exactly with the disastrous reversal of his fortunes (X12, p.
41).
SOPHOCLES = (ca. 496-406 B.c.£.)
F3G4LF BOK,

Oevdipus the King

‘Transtated iy Thomas Gould

CHARACTERS

Oedipus,” The King of Thebes

Priest of Zeus, Leader of the Suppliants

Creon, Oedipus’s Brotheran-law

Chorus, a Group of Theban Elders

Choragos, Spokesman of the Chorus
Tiresias, a blind Seer or Prophet

Jocasta, The Queen of Thebes

Messenger, from Corinth, once a Shepherd

Herdsman, once a Servant of Laius
Second Messenger, « Servant of Oedifns

MUTES

Suppliants, Thebans seeking Ocdipus’s help

Attendants, for the Royal Faimity

Servants, to lead ‘Tiresias and Oedipus

Antigone, Daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta
Ismene, Daughter of Gedi~us and fJocasta

{ The action takes place during the day in front of the royal palace in Thebes.
There are two altars (left anid
night) on the Proscennum and several steps leading down to the Orchestra, As the
play opens, Thebans of var
teus ages who have come to beg Oedipus for Aetp are sitting on these steps and in
part of the Orvhestra
These suppliants are holding branches af tauvel or oltve which have strips of wool’
wrapped armend then
Oedipus enters from the palace (the centred dour of the Skene).]

PROLOGUE

Oepirces. My children. ancient Cadinus° newest care,

why have you hurried to those seats, your boughs
wound with the emblerns of the suppliant?

The city is weighed down with fragrant smoke,

with hymns to the Healer’ and the cries of mourners.

Lihoughe it wrong, my sons, to hear your worcls
through emissaries, and have come out myself,

I, Oedipus, a name that all men know.

Oedipus: The name means “swollen foot.” It refers to the mutilation of Oedipus's
foor by bis
father, Laius. before the infant was seni to Mount Cithacron to be pat to dearth by
ca pasture.
0.1S,D wont: Branches wrapped with wool are traditional symbols of prayer or
supplication
Cadmus: Oceclipus’s yreat-great-yrandéather (although he does not know this} and
the founder of
Thebes. 5 Healer: Apollo, god of prophecy, light, healing, justice, purification,
aad destruction
£306

fhe Tre

‘asian, Affirmation Phresh Loss

{ Ospipus addresses the Priest)

Old mnan—-for itis filting that vou speak

for all —what is your mood as you entreat me,

fear or trust? You may be confident

that Pll do anything. How hard of heart

ifan appeal like this dic not rouse my pity!

PRe

You, Oedipus, whe hold the power here,

you see our several ages, wo who sit

before your altars—some not strong enough

to take lang Hight, some heavy in olrt age,
the priests, as L«

ane from creat youths

a chosen banel. The rest sit with their windings
in the markets, ut the owin shrines of Pallas,

and the prophetic «

Our 8 VOU 8
LOG Tc

mbers of Isménas.*

yourself, is tossed

h, ane can ne longer Hit its head

above the troughs of billows red with death.

It cies in the fruittul Nowers of the soil
it clies in its pastured he

rds, and in its women’s

And the fire-bearing godt?

has swooped upon the city, hateful plague,

an be has left the house of Cadmrus empty.

barren pang

Black Hades” is made rich with moans and weeping.

Not judging vou an equal of the gods,

do Land the children sit here at your hearth,

but as the first of men, in troubled times
and in encounters with civ!
You came to Cadmus’ city anc unbound

the tax we had to pay to the harsh singer,

did ie without a helpful word from us,
with 10 instruction: with a god's

you raised up our life, so we believe

US Ars father and king of the gods,

byownas: a reterence to the

Prophecies were maite here by “ceacir
gious lover viewed as a god At

20 Pallas: Athena, seutdess of wisdom, arts, crafis, ane

temple of Apollo neur the river [smenos in Thebes.
the ashe the altar fires. 27 fire-dearing god:
to both the underworld, where the

war,

eee Ss oo

Mack Heacdes
ec at the ainterwarld :
Vs body, and win Phe “tax” that Qe
Gesiruction of all the young men who failed to solve the Sphir
devoured. The Sphinx always asked the same ridcle
legs at naan, und three -gs in the
number of feet?” Oedipus discovere
his prime, and uses a stick in id
destroyed herself when Oedipus ar
Sphinx was

y the Sphinx, a monster with a

tpus freed Thebes fram was the
riddle and were subsequently
What goes on four legs in the morning, iwo
ening, and yet is weakest when suppearted by the largest
1 the correct answer—man, who crawls in infancy, walks in
comand thus ended the Sphinx’s reign of rerr i
ered the nddle, Oedipus’s reward for

he theone and the hand of the recently widowed locasta, (A photograph ots

phinx
built in ancient Feypt appears on p. 904)

Sophocles Oedipus the King, Prologue (307

Again now Oedipus, our greatest power,

we plead with you, as supphants, all of us,
to find us sength, whether from a god's response,
or learned in. some way from another man.
I know that the experienced among men
give counsels that will prosper best of all.
Noblest of men, lift up our land again!
Think also of yourself; since now the land
calls you its Savior for your zeal of old,
ob let us never look back at your rule
as men helped up only to fall again!
Do not stumble! Put our land on firm feet!
The birel of omen was auspicious then,
when you brought that luck; be that same man again!
The power is yours; ifyou will rule our country,
rule over men, pot in an enpty land.
A towered city or a ship is nothing
if desolate and no man lives within,
Qeperus. Pitiable children, oh | knew, 1 know
the yearnings that have brought you. Yes, | know
that you are sick. Ane yet, (hough you are sick,
there is not one of you so sick as I.
for your affliction comes to each alone,
for him and no one else, but my soul mourns
for me and for you, toa, and for the city.
You do not waken me as from a sleep,
for [have wept, bitterly and long,
tied many paths in the wanderings of thought,
and the single cure U found by careful search
I've acted on: sent Menoecens’ san,
Creon, brother of tay wife, to use Pythian
halls of Phocbus,° so that I might tearn
what 1 must do or savy to save this city.
Already, when T think what day this is,
I wonder anxiously what he is doing.
Too long, more than is right, he’s been awav.
Bat when he comes, then [shall be a traitor
if Fdo not do all that the god reveals,
Prrest. Welcome words! But look. those men. have signaled
that it is Creon who is now approaching!
Okprrus. Lord Apollo! May he hiring Savior Luck,
a Luek as brilliant as his eyes are now!
Petest. His news is happy, it appears. He comes,
forehead crowned with thickly berried laurel.
Oxprpus. We'll know, for he is near enough to hear us.

(Pler Crron along one of the Parailos.|

70-71 Pythian... Phoebus: the temple of Phoebus Apoilo’s oracle or prophet ai

Delphi
83 Jawrel: Creon is wearing a garland of laurel leaves, sacred to Apolto,

46

60
1308 27 «The Tragic Viswin, Ajfirmation Through Loss : Sophocles Oedipus the King,
Parados 1309

Lore, brother in marriage, son of Menoeceus! { Orprcs. Then | shall begin again and
make it plain.
What is the god's pronouncement that you bring? | It was quite worthy of Phoebus,
and worthy of you,
CREO it's good. For even troubles, if they chance : to varn our thoughts back to
the murdered man,
to turn out well, Labways count as lucky. : and right that you should see me join
the battle 3s

Onppus. But what was the response

Tm not to fear—but not to take h
Creosx. Tf you will hear me with these men present,

for justice to our land and to the god.

Not on behalf of any distant kinships,

it’s for myself F will dispel this stain.

Whoever murdered him may also wish

to punish me-—and with the selfsame band. eo)

In helping him I also serve myselt.

Pm ready to report—or go inside,

{CREON moves up the steps toward the palace, |

Qenwus. Speak out to alll The grief that burdens ie ; Now quickly, children: up
from the altar steps,
concerns these men more than it does my life. : and raise the branches of the
suppliant!
Carron. Then I shall tell you what 1 heard from the god. | Let someone go and
summon Cadeius’ people:
The task Lord Phoebus sets for us is clear: i say Pll do anything.
drive out pollution sheltered in our land, : a .
and do a shelter what is incurable : [Exit an ATTENDANT along one of the Parades. |

EP VPTic That ie - bry > Ew ahe te cleanse selves: . 5

Orpieus. What is our trouble? How shall we cleanse ourselves? Our luck will prosper
145

if the god is with us, or we have already tallen.

Priest. Rise, my children; that for which we came,
he has himself proclaimed he will accom plish.
May Phoebus, whe announced this, also come
as Savior and reliever from the plague. 4510

Canon. We must banish or ovarder to free ourselves

from a murder that blows storms through the city.

Orprus, What man’s bad luck does he accuse in this?
Crron, My Lord, a king namect Laius ruled our land
before you came to steer the city straight,
Orpirus, [| know. $0 [was told-—-I never saw him.
CREON, Since he was murdered, you must raise your hand

inst the men who killed him with ther hands.

Oeppus. Where are they now? And how can we ever’Tind

the track of ancient guilt row hard to read?

Lbixit OEDIPUS and CREON inte the Palace. The Priest and the SUPPLIANTS exit left
and vaghed
along the Paradus, After a brief pause, the CHORUS (including Lhe CHORAGOS)
enters the Orchestra from the Paradas.}

Creox, Ta our own jand, he said. What we pursue, B

that can be caught; but not what we neglect. PARADOS
Qepieus, Was Larus houie, or in the cauntryside-—-
or was he murdered in some foreign land? Strophe 1°
Creon. He left to see a sacred rite, he said; :
He lett, but never came home from his journey. Y CHorus. Voice from Zeus,’ sweetly
spoken, what are you

Or

is, Did none of his party see it and report—

that have arrived from golden

someone we nught profitably question? Pytho® to our shining

CREON, They were ail killed but one, who flecl in fear, Thebes? 1am on the rack,
terror
and he could tell us ordy one clear fact, Hl shakes my soul. 15S
Oepwus, What fact? One thing could lead us on to more rr Delian Healer,” summoned
by “1!”

if we could get a small start on our hope.

OREON. He said that bandits chanced on them and killed bim—
with the force of many hands, not one alone.
Ororus, How could a bandit dare so great an act— :
unless this was a plot paid off from here! bi
Ceos. We thought of that, but when Laius was killed,
we had ne one to help us in our troubles.
Oenipes. tt was your very kingship that was killed!

L await in holy dread what obligation, something new

or something back once more with the revolving years,

you'll bring about for me.

Oh tell me, child of golden Hope, 16¢
deathless Response!

/ ‘ 4 ‘ cerh vr ; a ceareh 151 Strophe, Strophe and antistrophe Uline 162) are
stanzaic units referring to movements. counter
4 What Kind at irouble Phe kecl you irom a search? movements, and gestures that the
Chorus performe d while singing or ¢ hanting in the orchbesins
CREON. The subtle-singing Sphinx asked us to tum ‘ See p, 1300. L31 Voice from
Zeus: a reference to Apollo's prophecy. Zeus taught Apollo how to
from the obscure to what lay at our feet. prophesy. 3 Pythe: Delphi. 186 Delian
Healer: Apollo.
* The Prapic Vision: Affirmation Threus

Antistrophe 1

Lappeal to vou first. daughter of Zeus,

deauhless Athena,
and to your sister who protects this land,
Artemis

whose famous throne is the whole circle

of the marketplace,
and Phoebus, who shoots from afa

7a

Phree-told defenders against death, appear!

IPever in the past, to stop blind ruin
sent against the city,

you banished ucerly the Gres of su

come now again!

ering,

Strophe 2

Ah? Ah!
[bear. The plague claims all

Jnmumbered are the miseries

our comrades, Nor has thought found yet a spear

by which aman shall be protected, What our glorious
earth gives birth to does not grow. Without a birth
fram cries of labor
do the wornen rise,
One person after another
you may see, like Aying birds,
faster than indomitable fire, sped
to the shore of the god that is the sunset.

Antistrophe 2

And with their deaths wnanumbered dies the city,

Her children tie unpined on the ground,
spreading death, unmourned,
Meanwhile young wives, and pr:

ay-haired mothers with them,

an the shores of the altars, from this side and dhat,

snpplianes from mournful trouble,

ery out their grief.

A byron to the Healer shines,

the thite a mourner’s voiwe.

Against which, golden gould

send love:

daughter of Zeus,

y Strength,

Strophe 3

Cause raging Ares’—whe,

areed now with mo shield of bronze,

burns me, coming on amid Joudl cries—~

195 Aves: god of war and destruction.

Saf virginiy, childbirth, and hundeg, 183 vod |,

1&

tg

, sunsel: Hades, god of

Sophackss Oedipis the King, Bpisode |

to turn his back anc run from my land,

with a fair wind behind, to the great

hall of Amphitrne®
orto the anchorage that welcomes no one,
Thrace’s troubled seal
mething get away at last,

If night lets
it comes by day.
Fire-bearing gods... .,
you who dispense the might of lightuing,
Zeus! Father! Destroy bim with your thunderbolt!

[Enter Ours from the polace.|

Antistraphe 3

an Lord!’ From your looped

bewstring, twisted gold,
{wish indomitable missiles might be scattered
and stand forward, our protectors; also fire-bearing
radiance of Artemis, with which
she darts across the Lycian mountains.
Teall the goed whose bead is bound in gold.

Ler

with whom this country shares its name,

Bacchus,” wine-flashed, summoned by Seuoi!,”
Macnads’ comrade,
to approach ablaze
with gleaming ......
pine, opposed to that god-hated gel.
EPISODE 1

Orprus. [hear your prayer, Submit to what t say

and to the labors that the plague demands
and vou'll get help and a relief from evils
Vil make the proclamation, chough a stranger
to the report and to the deed. Alone,

the track.

Since it was only later that [joined you,

had Pno key, | would soon los

to all the sous of Cadonus 1 say this:

whoever has clear knowledge of the man
who murdered Caius, son of Labdacus,
{command him to reveal it all co me—
nor fear if, to remove the charye, he must
aceuse himself: his fate will not be cruel—
he wall depart unstumbling into exile.

Bat if you know another, ar u stranger,

to be the one whose hancl is euilty. speak:

200 Amphatite: the Atlantic Ocean, 208 Lycean Lord: Apollo,

ty and wine.

210 Bacchus: (onysus.

CHORAGOS, |

245 histral: puritving.

Phe fyragte

Vasten: Affirs

alwon EROUgH LOS

I shall reward you and remember you

But ifvou keep your peace because of feu,

tod shield yourself or kin from my command, Oeowes. Quite right, but to compel
unwilling gods— aes
hear you what [shall do in that event: 2 no man has ever had that kind of power.

I charge all in this land where | have throne Croracos. May [suggest to you a
second w:

and power, shat out that mane—no matter who— Ornieus. A second or a third—~pass
over nothing!

both from your shelter and all spoken words, Cuorscos. | know of no one whe sees
more of what

nar in sour prayers or sacrifices make Lord Phoebus sees than Lord Viresias. Boe
him: partner, nor allot him fustral water. a My Lord, one might learn brilliantly
from him.

Ali men shall drive him from their homes: for he Ovpwus. Nar is this something I
have been slow to do,

is the pollution that the god-sent Pythian At Creon’s word | seni an escart—rwice
now!

response has only now revealed to me. {Lam astonished that he has not come.

Tn this way [ally myselfin wat CHoracos. The old account is useless, It told us
nothing. aye
with Uhe divinity and the deceased.” 28 Oepweus. But tell it to me. VT scrutinize
all stories,

And this curse, too, against the one who did it, Croracos. He is said to have been
killed by wavelers,

whether alone in secrecy, or with others: Opus. T have heard, but the one who did
tt no one

may he wear out his Hfe uablest aad evil! Croracos. If there is any tear tn him at
all,

I pray this, too: if he is at my hearth he won't stay here once he has heard that
curse. a
and inmy home, and | bave knowledge of him, os Orppus. He wou't fear words: he had
no fear when he did

may the curse pronounced on others come to me.

All this [lav ie you to execute, [Ender TIResIAs from the right, ted by @ SERVANT
and two af Oedipus *s ATTENDANTS. |

for my sake, for the god's, and for this land

now ruiged, barren, abandoned by the gods. Cuoracos, Look there! There is the man
who will convict him!

Even if ao god had driven you to i, Oni It's the god's prophet they are leading
here,

you ought not to have Jeft chis stain uncleansed, one gifted with the truth as no
one else.

the murdered man a nobleman, a king! Oeprus, Tirestas, master of all omens— ails

You should have looked! But now, since, ag it happens,

iva d who have the power that he had once,

and have his bed, ancl a wite who shares our seed,

and common bond had we had common children

Chae not his hope of offspring had back hick—

but as it happened, lick hinged at his hea);

because of this, as if for my own father,

Pll Gght for him, Ci leave ro means wntried,

to catch the one who did iowith his hand,

tor the son of Labdacus, of Polydorus,

of Cacimius before bin, and of Agéner.”

This prover against all those who disobey:

the gods send out no harvest from their soil,

nor children from their wives. Oh, let them die

victims of Chis plagtte, or of something worse,

Yet for the rest of us, people of ‘adds,

we the obedient, raay fustice, our ally,

afd all the gods, be abvays on our side!

SORE

ak because i feel the grip of your curse

the killer is not 1 Nov can 1 point

250 the deceased: Lats.

to him. The one who set us to this search,

Phoebus, should also name the guilty man.
public and secret, m the sky and on the earth—
ayar mind, if not your eyes, sees how the city

lives with a plague, against which Thebes can tind

no Saviour or protector, Lord, but you.

For Phoebus, as the attendants surely told you,

returned this answer to ts: liberation

from the disease would never come unless

we learned without a doubt who murdered Laius—

put them to death, or sent thern into exile.

Do not begrudge us what you may learn from birds
or apy other prophet’s path you know!

Tare for yourself, the city, care for me,

©

re for the whole pollution of the dead!

We're in your hands. To do ali that he can
to help another is man’s noblest labor.
Tinesias, How terrible to understand and get
no profit fram the knowledge! | knew this,
but [ forgot, or Thad never come.
Oepieus. What's this? You've come with very little zeal.
Tirestas. Let me go home! If you will listen to me,
You will enchare your troubles berter—and | mine.
Oepwes, Astrange request, uot very kind to the land

phocles Oedipus the King

Episode }

sa... gener reters to Larus be

cing his genealogy. that cared for you-to hold back this oracle:
134400 27 The Tragie Vision: Affirmakon Through Loss

Tiresias, I see your understanding comes to you

inopportunely. So that won't happen to me...
OEDIP Ob, by the gods, you understand about this,

don’t turn away! We're on our knees to vou,

Trresias, None of you understands! [1 never bring
my grief to light--I will not speak of yours.
Oxpt You know and won’t declare it! Is your purpose
to betray us and to destroy this land?
‘Tinesias, Twill grieve neither of us, Scop this futile
crossexamination, Pil tell you nothing!
Orpwus. Nothing? You vile traitor! You could provoke
a stone to anger! You sill refuse to tell?
Can nothing soften you, nothing convince you?
Tiresias. You blamed anger in me—vou haven't seen.

Can nothing soften you, nothing convince your

Onpipus. Who wouldn't fill with anger, listening

to words like yours which now disgrace this city?

Tinestas. It will come, even if my silence hides it.
Oxnprus. Leitwill come, then why won’t you declare it
‘Pirrstas. Ud rather say no more. Now if you wish,

respond to that with all your fiercest anger!

Orpircs. Now Lam angry enough to come right out

with this conjecture: you. | think, helped plot

the deed; you did it—even if your hand

cannot have struck the blow. I you could see,

[ should have said the deed was yours alone.

Tirestas, [s that right! Then I charge you to abide

by the decree you have announced: from this day

say no word to either these or me,

for you are the vile polluter of this land!

Ovpipus. Aren’t you appalled to jet a charge like that

come bounding forth? How will you get away?

Tiaesias. You cannot catch me. | have the strength of truth.
Opes. Who taught you this? Not your prophetic craft!
Tiresias. You did. You made me say it. [ didn’t want to.
Orprus. Say what? Repeat itso PU understand,
Traesiss. Limade no sense? Or are you wying me?
OOP OPT No sense [ understood. Say it again!
Tigksias, [sa
Orpwus. Ag
TH
Orpirus. Anything you like! Your words are powerless,
Tikesias, You live, unknowing, with those nearest to you

in the greatest shame. You do not see the evil

OEDiPus, You wort go on like that and never pay!
Tiresias. [can if there is any strength in truth,
CORDIPEIS.

you are the murderer you seek.

in that horror! You'll wish you hadn't said that.
As. Shall F sav mere, and raise your anger higher?

In rrath, but net in vou! You have no strength,

blind in your ears, your reason, and your eves.

366

Sophocles Oedipus the King, Episode | E35

Unhappy man! Those jeers you burl at me

‘e long all these men will hurl aryou.

You are the child of endless night; it’s not

for me or anyone who sces to hurt you,

Teresias. Li’s not my fate to be struck down by you.

Apollo is enough, That's his concern.

Orowus. Are these inventions Creon’s or your own?

Pmesias. No, your alfliction is yourself, nat Crean,

Orppus. Oh success!—in wealth, kingship, artistry,

in any life that w
the €
to get at my comroand, a gift did not
seek, which the city pat into my hands,
mny loyal Creon, colleague from the start,
longs to sneak up in secret and dethrone me.

mach admiration—

vious iH will stored up for you!

So he’s suborned this fortuneteller- emer!

deceitful beggarpriest!—who has good eyes

for gains alone, though in his craft he’s blind.

“vs ever proved?
Why, when the dog who chanted vers
did gou not speak and liberate th ,
Her riddle wasn't for a man chancing by
to interpret; propheti
but you had none, it

Where were your prophet’s pow

cart was needed,

ems—learned from birds
or from a god. L came along, yes 1,

QGedipus the ignorant, and stopped her—

by using thought, not augury from birds.
And itis Lwhom you may wish to banish,
yse to the ©

eontian throne.
“and the plot's concocter-—will drive out
ou look quite old
or you would be the victim of that plod
CHORAGOS, Lt
in anger, Qed

so youll be c
You

pollution to your grie

ms to us that this man’s words were said

nus, and yours as well,

Insight, not angry words, is what we need,

ube best solution to the goc’s response.

TIRE

As. Youre the king, and yet lam your equal

in my right to speak. ta that (too am Lord,

for DP belong to Loxias” nor you.

fam not Creon’s man. He's nothing to me,

Hear this, since you have thrown my blindness at me:

Your eves can’t see the evil to which vou’ve come,

aor where you live, nor who is in your house.

Do vou know your parents? Now kuowimg, you are

their enemy, in the underworld and here,
Armother’

sand a father's

doubledashing

396 dog... verse: the Sphinx. Aid i Apollo,

‘The Tragic Vision: Affirmation Through Loss

terrible-footed curse will soon drive you out,

Now you can see, then vo

1 will stare into darkness.

What place will not be harbor to your cry,
ar what Cithaeron’ not reverberate
when you have beard the bride-song in your palace
to which you sailed? Fair wind to evil harbor!
Nor do you see how many other woes
will level you to yourself and to your children,
So, at my message, and at Crean, too,
splatter muck! There will never be a man
ground into wretchedness as you will be.
OKDU Am [to Hsten to such things from him!
yyou be damned! Get ont of here at once!
Gol Leave my palace! Tarn around and gol

[ Tinesia

S begins to move away from OEDIPUS. |

Tinksias. [wouldn't have come had you not sent for me.
Oerpipus. 1 did not know you'd talk stupidity,
orl wouldn't have rushed to bring you to my house,
“TIRESIA! Stupid F seem to you, yet to your parents
who gave you natural birth seemed quite shrewd,
Orpieus. Who? Wait! Who is the one who gave me birth?
TIRESHAS, “This day will giv you birth,° ane ruin too,
Gepipus, What mu rky, riddling things you always say!
Piresias. Don’t you Surpass us all at finding out?
OkDIPUS. You sneer at what year ll find has brought me greatness,
Trresias, And that’s the very hack that ruined you,
Oxpires. Lwouldn’t care, justso T saved the city.
Tiresias, Tn that case | shall go. Boy, lead the way!
Orpmus, Yes, let him leact you off Here, underfoot,
you irk me, Gone, you'll cause no further pain.
Tiresias. Tl go when I have said what I was ent for.
Your fee won't scare me. You can’t ruin me,
Tsay to vou, the man whom you have looked for
as yout pronounced YOUP CUurs
on the blood

es, your clecrees

death of Laius~-he is here!
Aseeming stranger, he shall be shown to be
a Theban born, though he'll take no delight
in that solution, Blind, who once could see,

a beggar who was rich, through foreign jands

he'll yo and point before him with a stick,

To his beloved children, he'll be shown

a father who is also brother: to the one

who bore him, son and husband; to his father,

his seed-ellow and killer. Go in
and think this out: and if you tind Pve fied,
say then [have no pre »phet’s understanding!

iG Cithavrm: reference tg the mountain on which Oedipus was to be exposed as an inf

AS give you birth: thacis, identify v var parents,

ant

4a

436,

1407

HB |

450

60

4605

CHORUS.

Sophocles Oedipus the King, Episode |

Strophe I
Who is the man of whom the inspired
rock of Delphi? said
he has committed the unspeakable
with blood-stained hands?
Vime for him to ply a foot
mighter than those of the fior ses
of the storm im his escape: -ceapomed
upon him mounts and plunges the weap *
son of Zeus,? with fire and thunserbo 18,
and in his train the dreaded goddesses
of Death, who never miss.

Antistrophe 1

The message has just blazed,

gleaming from the snows

of Mount Parnassus: we must track

where the unseen man.

ever
He wanders, hidden by wild
forests, up through caves

and rocks, like a bull, -

anxious, with an anxious faot, forlorn.

He put a
navel,” at its center, vet these ive
forever and still hover round him,

Strophe 2

Terribly he troubles me. oe

the skilled interpreter of bu ds!

can’t assent, nor speak against bun.

Both paths are closed to me.

[hover on the wings of doubt. arsto come

uot seeing what is here nur what's to Come.

i se of Labdacus
What quarrel started in the house of Labdac’

or in the house of Polybus,”

either ever in the past
or now, T never a oe
heard, so that with this Fact for my touchstone
veard, so that...

bhi: Apollo's aracie at Delphi. 1 of

oe , hen etn 401 Luterbreter of birds: Tires
407-83 earl u dete

7 the Line of Lapis.

ALLONS. 496 house of Labdacus: the Line of Lat
SALONS. *

€ exits into the palace % his ATT

by a MERVAN' DEUS into the palace with
AS, lei by a SERVANT. ORDIBUS exit. p £

476 son of Zeus:

497 Polybus: Ocedipus’s foster

i317

ANTS. |

ee? de come fr arth’s

away from him the mantic? words come from ¢e
‘

Apollo. A87 mantic: prophetic,

he Chorus is roubled by his acct

13g

The Trtgie Vision: Affirmation Through Loss

Loould attack the public

fame of Oedipus, by the side of the Labdaceans

an ally, against the dark assassination.

Antistrophe 2

Na, Zeus and Apollo

understand and know things

raortal, but that another man ,

can do more as a prophet than Ecan—

for that there is no certain test,

though, skill to skill,

one nian might overtake another.

No, Never, not until

Tsee the charges provecl

when someone blames him shall 1 noe

vher assent.
For once, as we all

pr once, saw, the winged maiden? came

against him: he was seen then to be skilled
proved, by that touchstone, clear to the

wer wi . /eople. So
never will my mind convict him of the peop '

evil,
EPISODE 2

[Enter CREON fr 2
NEON from the right door of the skene and Speaks to the CHORL s,]

CRE 1N Citzens, | hear that a fearful charge

is mace against me by King Oedipus!
Uhadl to come. If, in this crisis,

he thinks that he has suffe

trom anything that [ have saiel or done

I have 10 appetite for a long life :

bearing a blame like that! It’s

the punishment I'd take from

it's the ultimate hurt to be call

by the city, by you, b

CHORAGAS,

red injury

no slight blow
what | id:
led traitor

ty v fay own people!

The thing that forced that ac
could have been an

CREON, i
head het be re him that thoughts of mine
the propbet inte telling lies?
RAGOS. Edo not know the thought be
CREON. But diel he look straight at vou?
when he said that 1 was at “this
CHORAGOS, :

CRSALION Out

ger, not the power of th

, 1oUght,
But who persuade ‘

hind his words,

Was his mind right
uulty of this charge? :
Uhave no eyes to see what rulers do
But here he comes himself out of the house,

Linler ORDIPLS from the patace.|

OFDIPUS. What? You her

the face and daring to

And can you really have

approach Trey house

O14 winged maiden: the Sphinx

5O5

5105

x
oe

520

SSO F

Sophocles Oedipus the King, Kipisode 2 $319

when you're exposed as its master’s murderer

and caught, too, as the robber of my kingship?
Did you see cowardice im ine, by the gods,

or foolishness, when you began this plot?

Did you suppose that Twoukd not detect

your stealthy moves, or that Ud not fight back?

fs your atterapt that’s foily, isn’t it—

if
kingship which is caught with wealth and numbers?

‘king without followers or connections,

Orpox, Now wait! Give me as long to answer back!

judge me for yourself when you have heard me!
Ormeus. You're cloquent, bui I'd be slow to learn
from yon, now that (ve seen your malice toward me,
Creon, That Ldeny. Hear what} have ta say,
Oenrus. Don'tyou deny it! You are the traitor here!
CREON, Lf you consider mindless willfulness
a prized possession, you are not thinking sense.

Oxpieus. PP vou think you can wrong a relative

and get off free, you are not thinking sense,
Cron. Perfectly just, | won't say no. And yet
what is this injury you say [did you?
Opus. Did you persuade ime, yes or na, to send
sotueane to bring that solemn prophet here?
Carron. And Estill hold to the advice t gave.
Opes. How many years ago did your King Laius...
Lains! Do what? Now | don't understand.
Vanish—victiin of a rnurderous violence?

Thar is a long count back imto the past.

Well, was this seer then practicing his art?

Yes, skilled and honor

d just as he is today.
Dicl he, back then, ever refer to mer
He dic not do so in my presence ever.

yeus. You did inquire into the murder then.

CREON, We hari to, surely, though we discovered nothing.

emus, But the “skilled
CR
Oepirus. Bur you're nor krnorant of your own part.

* one did not say this then? Why nov

kos, Lnever talk when [arn yrorant.

Caron. Whatdo you mean? (i tell you if know.

Qenirus, Just this:
he'd not have told about my murdering Laius.
Creon, Uf he said that, yu are the one who knows.
But now it’s fair that you should answer me,
Oenrus. Ask on! You won’t convict me as the killer.

if he had not conferred with vou

i My sister is your wife?

Orpipus, Now there's a statement that L can’t deny.
Creon. You ovo have equal power in this country?

Creon. Wellthen, answe

Oprvirus. She gets from me whatever she desires.

Crros, And [ma third? The three of us are equals?
Oepipus. That's where you're teacherous to your kinship!
om: Affirmation Through Lass

CREON. But think about this radioually, as I de,

First look at this: do you think anyone
prefers the anxieties of bein + king
lo untroubled sleep-—if he he equal power?
Pn not the kind of man who falls in love
with kingship. Tam content with a king’s power.
And so would any ian who's wise and prudent.
T get all things from you, with no distres
as king Lwould have onerous cluties, too,
How could the kingship bring me more delight
than this untroubled Power and influence?
Pim not misguided yelto such a point
that profitable honors aren't enough,
As itis, all wish me well and all salute:
those be iging you for something have me summoned,
for their success depends on that alone,
Why should £ lose all this to become king?
A prudent mind is never traitorous,
‘Treason’s a thought Pm not enamored of
nor could | join a man who acted so.
In proof of this, first 89 yourself to Pytho®
and ask if] brought back the true response,
Phen, if you find 1 plotted with that portent
veader,® con't have me put to cle by your vote
oaly—P'0) vote myself for my conviction,
Dom tlet an unsupported thought convict me!
{Us not right mindlessly to take the bad
for good or to Suppose the good are traitors,
Rejecting 4 relation who is loyal
is like rejecting life, our greatest love,

In time you'll know securcly without stumbling,

for dime alone can prove a just man just,
though you can know a bad man ina day ,
CHORAGOS. Well said, to one who's anxious not to fall,
Swift thinkers, Lord, are never safe From stumbling,
ORDPUS. But when a swift and Secret plotter moves
against me, Linust make switt counterplot,
TT lie quiet and await his move,
he'll have achieved his aims and Pil have missed,
CREON. You surely cannot mean you want me exiled!
Oepipt Not exiled, ne. Your death is what T want!
if vou would first define what envy is...
OEDIPLIS. Are you sull stubborn! Still disobedient?
C Tsee vou cannot think!
OrpiPt For me Tecan,
GREGN. You should for me as well!

808 Pyho: Delphi. BLOF portent reader: Apollo's oracle or prophet.

AOh

600 |

CHLDIPUS.
CREON.
OeDIPUSs.
CREO. . 4
CupiPus.
CREON,
CHORAGOS.

JOCASTA,

B05

610

§20

880

Sophocles

> yyy t
But you're a traitor!

That if you're wrong? as tates mel

What ifyot ° Authority must be maintained.

Ou) s ritler’s & 7

Nouns ar that, Thebes!

[cis my city too, Not yours alone: «tame twee

Please don’t, my Lords! Ab, just in time,
“es i : » palace.
Jocasta there, coming from the palac a
tht settle your quarrel,
With her help you must settle your qua

(Enter focasrs from the Palace.| 7

Wretched men! What has provoked this ill-

go ge 7 ame
vised dispute? Have von no sense of sham 7
AGQVISEE yf! r ; : " ° -
with’ sick, to sUr up private troubles:

with Thebes 8 : ou
1 And Creon, you go home!

- at
. ; atof nothing!
a general anguish out

Don tmak ut on
CReon, My sister, Oedipus your husband her
"sees fit to do one of two hideous things: salted!
MOASS ‘ ~~ - a
io bave me banished from the land-—~or kille

" 3 4 ae] ; .
yecnpus. ‘That's right caught hic, Lae ¥, PROLLY Marie

i naligne SCIeTICE.
against my persan—with a malignant ss “
age St a - ee ,
Y ife fail, may [die cursed,
CRRON. May roy life { ail, Me ee
dic any of the things you saic 7 ke, Oedtipus
Believe his words, for the god's sake, ©

OCASTA, the
| in deference above all to his oath

for me, 7 ‘or these mer

to the gods. Also for me, and fa

KOMMOS”
Sirophe {

Cnorus, Consent, with will and mind,

, - . 4 t

my king, [beg of you! render?

1 pircs What do you wish me 20 surre YY

EDIPUS.

CHORUS. nwo eas ve

aud is now great in the power oi his oat 1
pus, Do¥ roure asking?

s s you know what you're ask

Orowus, Do you kno \ es
aC

OEDIPUS.

ve 2 imself by curse,
_ uption, a kinsman whe has bound himseit by
assul a kins

you TH Rae dd, When yeu ask UALS.

Orpirus. | Now vo Us derstand, when 4 .
: A. NOW 0 ; 4 . et wu
ou ask my death or banishment from the ian 1
VO . y ‘
Sir uphe 2

Crierus. No, by the ¢

the Sun! No! Gocless,

d who is the foremost of all gods,

mos: a dings

MH.

633 Ke

Oedipus the King, Episode 2

row derere 9 PME % snmotteeble in Gime past

St deference 16 him who w feeble IE
Rel ie Pe

‘rete Tell ne then.

: ead
= 0 cast inte dis oredd gw WILD af Lu proves
Never cast into dishonored gu alt,

“pat

thief charaucte:s
2 of the chief charuc

nt sang by the Chorus and one or more of ¢

oF lame ug by

OA

Bde
The Tragic Vix a
ragte Viewm: Affirmation Thrmugh Loss

friendless, whateve

; ¥ death is worst of ;
let that be my de mon

t struction, if this
thought ever moved me!
But my ill-fated soul
this dying tand
Wears Gut—ihe more if to the:
she adds new trouble
OLDIPLS,

¥ se older troubles
cls uibres Lrora the two of you!
Phen let him go, the i “he
Peo Then tet 89, Though it must mean m les
M vise usgrace and exile from the land a
My pity is moved by y at by
: BY Your words
Y pi v5 ne
he'll only have uy hate, wh
CREON, You're sullen 1
when you'ye

y his
ver he goes,
as you yield: you'll be de
wet passed] through this an
ardest on theinselves, That's

OEDIPLS, Then y ONE yc Tle

Ten won't y x
"EON. WORT you gO and le

TI

pressed

ger. Natures like yours

as it should he, ,
tme he?

tough you're un reasonable icy Know [ny | “OLS

Bu © unreas able, they kn w Em righte
: g PLS.

Antistrophe I
Ct 'S |
on 8. Why are you waiting, Lady?
onducet him back inte the c
JOCASTA. Twill, wh
: + When [have hes
hon ave heard what chanced

and nothing base:

our a man.

from both sides?

palace!

Conjec fures—words
But even (

Jocasta,
CHORUS.
Jon ASTA, What was said? vs
CuORES,

nectures alone,
an Hijustice can cle
Dict the words come

To me it sec
that this shoulet re
Orpius,

Ts & :
Ts enough! enought! the land alre
f «i Mtg *

See what you've

PES. CONE to in your ho

in seeking to relax hee

nest tho:
and bhine ny heart? she

Antistrophe 2

CHORL
FOR 8 Thave not saic this only
Phatl had lost MY sanity,
_ without a path in thinking—
Be sure this would be cle ;
if [pat you away
who, when my che

once, my Lord.

ap

rished land
wandered crazerl
with sufferin
Now, too, be
Jooasta. Pleas
the re
OFDPDS,

8, brought her back one

a lucky helmsman!
€, for the god's sake
son why you h

Ourse.

Be sake, Lord, explain to me

ave Conceived this wrath?

ot them,*
Creon has conspire

E honor you, n and P i

tom he and Pi explain

d against me,

dian th ought,

st where it has slopped wy moubled,

Sophocles Oedipus the King, Episode 2

Jocasra. Allright if that will explain how the quarrel started.

Orpwus. He says Lam the murderer of Laius!

Jocasta, Did he claim knowledge or that someone told him?

‘Oxpieus. Here's what he dic: he sent that vicious seer

so he could keep his own mouth innocent.

fasTA. Ah then, absolve yourself of what he charges!
Listen to this and you lla

ree, no mortal
is ever given skillin prophee
(ll prove this quickly with one incident,

It was foretold to Laius—I shall not say

by Phoebus himself, but by his ministers—

that when bis fate arrived he would be killed

by ason who would be born to him and me.

And yet, so itis told, foreign robbers

murdered him, at a place where three roads meet.

As for the child I bore him, not three days passed
before he yoked the ball-joints of its feet.’

then cast it, by others’ hands, on a trackless mountain.

That time Apollo did not make our child
a patricide, or bring about what Larus
feared, that he be killed by his own son,
That's how prophetic words determined things!
Forget them. The things a god must track
he will himself painlessly reveal.
OEDIPUS.
what a profound distrac tion seized my mind!
Jocasta. What made you turn at ound so anxiously?
Oxpius. Lthought you said that Laius was attacked
and butchered at a place where three roads meet.
Jocasta. That is the story, and it is told so sill,
Oxpiwus. Where is the place where this was done to him?
Jocasta, The land's called Phocis, where a two-forked road
comes in from Delphi and from Daulia.

Just now, as Lwas listening to you, Lady,

Opus. And how much time has passed since these eventsr
Jocasta, Just prior to your presentation here

s published to the city.

Orpreus. Oh, Zeus, what have you willed to do to me?

as king this news w

Jouasta, Oedipus, what makes your heart so heavy?

Oxpics. No, tell me first of Laius’ appearance,
what peak of youthful vigor he had reached.
Jocasta. A tall man, showing his first growth of white.
He had a figure not unlike your own,
Oxppus. Alas! It seems that in my ignorance
[laid those fearful curses on myself,
Jocasra. What is it, Lord? I finch to see your face,

cae

705 th “o% Orpirus. I'pa dreadfully afraid the prophet sees.

iy Bi thes 1” + : .
vm: the Chorus, But [Tl know better with one more detail.

723 hali-goints of its feet: tive ankles,

B27 8 The tragic Vi
276 The Tragic Vien: Affirmation Through Loss
Jocasta, Pm frightened too. But ask: } ‘ll

OG ; . : ans
Oepreus. Was his retin ue smal wel

ws I or did he trave
Joc a “ hee ‘ro0p, as would betit a pance.
. There Wo . Were just five in all, one avherald.
Orvis, aE 5 cat riage, 100, bearing Laius,
8. Alas! Now I see it! But who was it
Joca at who told you what you know about this?
Orme ‘ Se Fvant who alone was saved unharmed.
DAPUS, By chance, could he be now in the palace?
Jocasta, No, he is not, When he returned ; i" o
you had the power of the murdered L; ius ™
he touched my hand and begged me foe
to send him to the fields and to the pastures
80 he d be out of sight, far from the eit ues
I did. Although a slave, he well deserved

to win this favor, and indeed f

Orppus. Le

Jocast:
OEDIPUS,

ne au more.

fi shave him called back in immediately,

; lat can be done, but why do you desire it?
fear, Lady, I have already said _
too much, That’s why | wish to see
A. Then he shall came;
that I, too, T ord,
Qepipus,

him now,

all but itis right somehow

pe Tore tld know what troubles you.
Celt gone “eep into the things I feared
vou everything, Who has a right
greater than yours, while :
Polybus of Corinth was my father,

my mother was the Dorian

I was first citize:
attacked me.
but not worth

jocs

Meropé,
n, until this chance
“striking enough, to be sure
{not wo all the gravity J gave it, ’
wt 2 feast aman who'd drunk too much
Twas ct a re wine, I was my father
ts clepressed anct
held it in. Next day [ put the question
io my mother and futher. They were ©
at the man who'd let this fiction fly at mee
ies much cheered by therm, And yet it kept
stinding into me. His words on
Withour my actly ve nores Rept ara a
went to Pytho. But Phoebus sent ne nee
dishonoring my demand, Instead othe
wretched horrors he flashed forth iz spe
He said that Twould be my mother's lee

show offs oring ta mankind they

and be his murderer w

V Phiaay Ey gary ye, bee

Vhen I heard this, and ever since

the way to Corinth by the

“8 son,
all that day I barely

nt me away

could not look at

hose seed I am.° ;
» L gauged

Stars alone,

798 be > thati

~~. m2 that is, murder ny father.

cross through this chance?

_t
ue
e

760

780

790,

800

Sophocles Oedipus the King, Episode 2 1328

running to a place where [would never see

the disgrace in the oracle’s words come true.
But Lsoon came to the exact location
where, as you tell of it, the king was killed.
Lazy, here is the truth. As f went on,
when I was just approaching those three roads,
a herald and aman like him you spoke of
came on, riding a carriage drawn by colts.
Both the man out front and the old man himself?
tried violently to force me olf the road.
The driver, when he tried to push me off,
1 struck in anger. The old man saw this, watched
me approach, then leaned out and langed down
with twin prongs” at the middle of my head!
He got more than he gave. Abrupdy—struck
once by the staffin this my hand—he wunbled
out, head first, from the middle of the carriage.
And then [ killed them all. But if there is
a kinship bewween Laius and this stranger,
who is more wretched than the man you see?
Who was there born more hated by the gods?
For neither citizen nor foreigner
may take me in his home or speak to me,
No, they must drive me off. And itis I
who have pronounced these curses on myself!
I stain the dead man’s bed with these my hands,
by which he died. Is not my narure vile?
U
in exile [may not see my own parents,
or set foot in my homeland, or else be yoked
in marriage to my mother, and kill my father,
Potybus, who raised me and gave me birth?
If someone judged a cruel divinity
cd this to me, would he net speak the truth?
You pure and awful gods, may J not ever
see that day, may I be swept away
o great and so

clean?—if Lam banished and even

from menu before T see

calarnitous a stain fixed an my person!
CHoracos. ‘These things seem fearful to us, Lore, and yet,
watil you hear it from the witness, keep hope!
Ormpus. That is the single hope that’s left to me,
to wait for hirn, that herdsman-—-unul he comes.
Jocasta. When he appears, what are you eager for?
Oepirus. Just this: if lis account agrees with yours
then I shall have escaped this misery.
Jocasta. But what was it that struck you in my story?

809 old man iumself: Latus. ALS=14 lunged... prongs: Latus strikes Oedipus with a
two-pronged

horse goad or whip

ROS

ao

A206

Rwy
Che Tragic Vision: Affirmation Through Lass

Oppirus. You said he spoke of robbers as the ones

who killed him. Now: if he continues sall

to speak of
peak of many, then | could not have killed him

One man ar

- and Many men ju ate ot fi

i aby “i st do not jibe

But if he be

__ gone. The halance tips toward me. I did it

Jocasta, No! He told it as told you. Be certain,
He can’t reject that and reverse himself _
The city heard these things, not! alone.

But even if he swerves from what he said

hell never show that Laitus’ murder, Lord
occurred just as predicted, For Loxias
orpressly said my son was doomed to kill him
Xs boy—y 200r boy-—he never had a chane

to cut him down, for he was cut down fir “ _

‘ever again, just for some oracle * :

_ will [shoot frighte
Orpreus. The

A ned glances right and left.

VS UIT Of sense. Nonetheles:

7 z stheless, se:

to bring that farm hand here ie

Jocasra, vay.

t aman
re the i Will vou do it?
send one right away. But le

Wi t's go i 865
Woukl do anything ag; goin, 5

atast your wishes?

Esat Onpipus aM, . A throw. te centre, Or THLE LACE,

DIPUS a d JOCAST. thr gn ihe ce 2 dow 10 th. Pp te
Zt FPL A ih t ihe patace.

STASIMON 2

Strophe I

CHORUS,
th
May there accompany me
nie tO keep a reverentia
in all do, for which the }
and walk on hig
highest upper air; Olym
is their father, nor was it
mortal nature

al pucity in what I Say,

aws have been set forth
h, bern to traverse the brightest "
pus* only i

that fathered them, and ne

oblivion tull thern inte slee:
the god in them is great

ver will
p: S875
and never ages.

Antistrophe 1

The will to violate, seed of the

‘fit has drunk mindlessly of wealth and 5
without a sense of time or true advan te
mounts to a peak, then ee

plunges to an abrupt... d
where the useful foot

tyrant,

S80

SUT,

4 Obvingnts: t Hy
5 nip Mount Olympus, h ome of the zods realed as a go:
5, FC gous, ated as : g d.

says one belued man, the doubt Bo

i327

Sophocles Oedipus the King, spisorke

is of no use. Bur the kind

of struggling that is good for the cy

Lask the god never to abolish. .

The god is my protector: never will T give that up.

Strophe 2

Burt if a man proceeds disdainfiully

in deeds of hand or word
and has no tear of Justice
or reverence for shrines of the divinities
(may a bad fate catch him
for hig luckless wantonness!),
if he’ll not gain what he gains with justice
and deny himself what is unholy,
or if he clgs, in foolishness, to the untouchable
twhat man, finally, in such an ction, will have strength
ssion's arrows fror his soul?y,

enough to fend off 5

if, [ say, this kind of
deed is held tn honor

why should [ join the sacred dance?

Antistrophe 2

No longer shall | visit and revere

Earth’s navel,” the untonchable,
it Abae’s® temple,

or ¢ Jivmpia .

nor v

if the prophecies are not matched by everits

for all che world to point to.

No, you who hold the power, if you are rightly called
ape you

Zeus the king ofall, let this matter not es

and your ever-deathless rule,

for the prophecies to | aius fade...
and men already disregard them,
nor is Apollo anywhere

glorified with honors.

Religion slips away,

EPISODE 3

of incense. “

{Enter JOCASTA from the palace carrying a branch wound with wool and a j
attended by tua women. |

Jocasta, Lords of the realm, the thought has come to me

to visit shrines of the divinities

with suppliant’s branch in hand and fragrant smoke.

908 Earth’s navel: Delphi. O04 Abae: a town in Phocis where there was another o
Apollo. 905 Olmpra: site of the oracle of Zeus,
the Tragie Vision: Affirmation Through Loss

For Oedipus excites his sout too much

with alarms of all kinds. He will not judge
the present by the past, like a man of sense.
He’s at the mercy of all terror-mongers,

(Jocasta approaches the alter on the right and kneels.}

Since ean do no good by counse ling,

Apollo the Lycéan!— you are the closest —

t come a suppliant, with these my vows,

for a cleansing that will not pollute him

For when we see him shaken we are all

afraid, like people looking at their helmsman.

[Enter aM
the CHORUS

Where is the palace of King Oedipus?

: Or tell me where he ¢ himself, if you know.
CHORDS, This is his house, stranger, He is within
This is his wife-and mother of his children ,
MESSENGER. May she and her family find pros erity,
if, as you say, her marriage is fulfilled, “
Je EAST. You also, stranger, for you deserve as much
Wea Brac ious words, But tell me why you've come.
Mrssee yeu whe Or what have you to tell us?

; shan es news, iny Lady, both for your house and

JOCsTa. What is your news? And who has sent you [0 us?
MESSENGER. T come from Covinth. When you have heard

news . “ey

7 you will rejoice, I'm sure—and grieve perhaps

fest. en is Hed Tow can it have this double power?
ASSED . 1ey will establish him their King, so say
the people of the land of Isthimia.® _—
pe STA. But is ole Polvbus not still in power?
Joon When tet for death has clasped him in the tomb,
New ween ans his: Has Oedipus’ father died?
TeSSes “ER. IFT have Hed then T deserve to die
Jocasra, Attendant! Go quickly to your master,
aud tell hie this, a —_

Joc

(Exit an ATTENDANT into the

Oracles of the gods!

Ww here are you now? The man whom Oedipus
fled long ago, for tear that he should kill him—
he’s been destroved by chance and not by him!

3 land of Isthona: Corinth, which is on an isthmus

SENGER. rould be ple: if

{ would be pleased if you would help me stranger.

NGER along ane of the Para ad thy r hs ddlresses

g e arados. He sees Joc ASTA taZ
SEE Al at the alta and th
se Ph address

palace)

920

O25

930

935

940

945

S50:

Jocasta.

Sophocles Ordipus the King, Episode 3 1329

[Enter Oepus from the palace)

Orpipus. Darling Jocasta, my beloved wife,

Why have you called me from the palace?
First hear what this man has to say. Then see
what the god’s grave oracle has come to now!
Orpipus. Where is he from? What is this news he brings me?
Jocasta. From Corinth, He brings news about your father:
that Polybus is no nore! that he is dead!
Opus, What's this, old man? Iwant to hear you say it.
MESSENGER. If this is what must first be clarified,
please be assured that he is dead and gone.
Ormpus, By treachery or by the touch of sickness?
MESSENGER. Light pressures tip agéd frames into their sleep.
Oxpipus. You mean the poor man died of some disease.
MESSENGER. And of the length of years that he had tallied.
Orpprus. Aha! Then why should we look to Pytho’s vapors,”
or to the birds that scream above our heads?’
If we could really take those things for guides,
I would have killed my father. But he’s dead!
He is beneath the earth, and here am I,
who never touched a spear. Uniess he died
of longing for me and T “killed” him that way!
No, in this case, Polybus, by dying, took
the worthless oracle to Hades with him.
Je A. And wasn’t I telling you that just now?
Oxrpipcs. You were incleed. I was misled by fear.
Jocasta. You should not care about this anymore.
Oxppus. I must care. 1 must stay clear of my mother’s bed.
JocasTa. What's there for man to fear? The realm of chance
prevails. True foresight isn’t possible.
His life is best who lives without a plan.
This marriage with your mother—con’t fear it.

How many mes have men in dreams, too, slept

with their own mothers! Those who believe such things
mean nothing endure their lives most easily.
Orprus. A fine, bold speech, and you are right, perhaps,
except that my mother is still Hving,
so T must fear her, however well you argue.
JocasTa. And yet your father’s tomb is a great eye.
Orpipcs. Uluminating, yes. But I still fear the living.
MESSENGER. Who is the wornan who inspires this f
Ororus. Meropé, Polybus’ wife, old man,
MF R. And what is there about her that alarms you?
Ororvs. An oracle, god-sent and fearful, stranger.
MESSENGER. Is it permitted that another know?

969 Pytho’s vapors: the prophecies of the oracle at Delphi.

derived from interpreting the fights of birda.

970 birds... heads: the prophecies

Tragie Vision: Affirmation 'T hrough Loss

Tt is. Loxias once said to me

I must have intercourse with my own mother
and take ty father’s blood with these my hands,
So T have long lived far away from Corinth.

This has indeed brought much good luck,

to see one’s parents’ eyes is happiest,
MESSENGER. — Was it for this that you have lived in exile?

Oropus. So Pd not be my father’s killer, sir,

MESSENGER. Had [ not better free you from this fear,
ny Lore? That’s why
OEnirus, :
Mess

and yet,

Tcame—to do you service,

Indeed, what. a reward you'd get for that!
‘NGER. Indeed, this is the main point of my trip, |
to be rewarded when you getback home,

OEDIPUS, TIL never rejoin the givers of my seed!®

M *ER. My son, clearly you don’t know what you're doing,

Orpipus. But how is that, oll man? For the gods’ sake, tell me!
MESSENGER. IF it’s because of them you won’t go home.
OEDIPUS. f fear that Phoebus will have told the truth,
MESSENGER, Pollution from the ones who gave you seed?
Orpirus. Thatis the thing, old man, I always fear,

MESSENGER. Your fear is. groundless, Understand that.

Orprpus, Groundless? Not if I was born their son,

M GER. But Polybus is not related to yous
OEDIPUS. Do you Mean Polybus was not my father?
MESSENGER. No more than L. We're both the same
OeDIPUS, Same? One who be
MESSENGER.
OErDIELsS,
MESSENGER.
Orpipus.
GER,
OFDIPLS
MESSEN

to you,
got me and one who didn’t?
He didn’t heget you any mhore than [ did,
But then, why did he ay Twas his son?
He got you as a gift from my own hands,
He loved me so, though from another's hands?
His former childlessness persuaded him.
But had you bought me, or begotten me?
Found you. In the forest hallows of Cithaeron,
What were you doing traveling in that region?
Iwas in charge of flocks which grazed those mountains.
A wanderer who worked the flocks for hire?
Ab, but that day I was your savior, son,
Frox n what? What was my trouble when you took me?
I he ball-joints of your feet might testify,
WwW wes pat "What makes you name that ancient trouble?
' ere pierced and fam your rescuer,
A fearful rebuke those tokens left for me!
That was the chance

ORD PES,
MESSENGER,
OEDIPUS,
MESSENGER,
ObrbIPuS,

thar names you who vou are.

By the gods, did amy mother or my father do this?
That? don’t know. He mi ,
Ow. Fie might who gave y
From someone else? Yj id’ cconmes
we Solieane else? You didn chance on me?
Another shepherd handed you to me.

MESSENGER.

ie

SUErS Of wy seed. thatis, my nar edi ill thi

é if my seed: that is, ayy Parents. Oedipus still thinks Meropé and Polyhus

are his parents,

1000

LOS

TOO

1915

120

1025

{030

1935

140

1045

Sophocles Oedipus the King, Episode 3

Who was he? Do you know? Will you explain! _

They called bim one of the men of-—was it Laius?
‘The one who once was king here long ago?
That is the one! The man was shepherd to him.
And is he still alive so T can see him?
MESSENC But you who live here ought to know that best.
Ormpus. . Does any one of you now present know ;
about the shepherd whom this man has named?
Have you seen him in town or in the fields? Speak out!

OEDIPUS.
MESSENC
OEDIPUS,
MESSENGER.
OEDIPUS.

‘The time has come for the discovery!

Croracos, “The man he speaks of, | believe, is the same
as the field hand you have already asked to see.
But it’s Jocasta whe would know this best.
Oxrpieus. Lady, do you remember the man we just
now sent for—is that the man he speaks of? _
Jocasta, What? The man he spoke of? Pay no attention!
; His words are not worth thinking about. [1's nothing.
Opus. With clues like this within my grasp, give up?
Fail to solve the mystery of ray birth? 7
Jocasta. For the love of the gods, and if you love your life,
give up this search! My sickness is enough. a
Cent is. Come! Though my mothers for three generations
were in slavery, you'd not be lowbhorn! a
tA, No, listen to me! Please! Don’t do this thing!

Joc

‘OEDIPUS, L will not listen; [ will search out the truth.

Jocasta. My thinking is for you—it would be best.
‘Orppus. This “best” of yours is starting to annoy me.

cA. Doomed man! Never find ont who you are!

Will sameone go and bring that shepherd here:

SDIPUS. ; ;
Leave her to glory in ber wealthy birth!

Jocasta. Man of misery! No other name

, shall Laddress you by, ever again.

[Exit JOCASTA into the palace after a long parese.|

Crtoracos. Why has your lady left, Oedipus,

hurled by a savage griet? Lam afraid
disaster will come bursting from this silence.
Let it burst forth! However low this seeck
it.

OEDIPG
of mine may be, yet | desire to s
She, perhaps—she has a woman’s pride-—

is mortified by sry base origins.

But Twho count myself the child of Chance,

all never know dishonor.

ry mother,” and the months my brothers
who first marked out my lowness, then ry greamess.
shall net prove untrue to such a nature

by giving up the search for my own birth.

1087 She... mother: Chance is my mother.

3st
CHORUS.

OEDIPLS,

LEnter the old Bi

will nod look ai OLDIPUS, |

1105 P

* The Tragiv Vision: Affirmation Through Lass

STASIMON 3

Strophe

if [ have mantic power

and excellence in thought,
by Olympus,
you shall not, Cithaeron, at tomorrow's
full moon,
fail to hear us celebrate you as the countryman
of Oedipus, his nurse and mother, :
or fail to be the subject of our dance,
since you have given pleasure
to our king.

Phoebus, whom we summon by “ié!,”

may this be pleasing to you!

Antistrophe

Who was your mother, son?

which of the long-lived nymphs
after lying wich Pan,”
the mountain roaming... Or was it a bride
of Loxias?*
For dear to him are all the upland pastures.
Or was it Mount Cylléné’s lord,’
or the Bacchic god,°
dweller of the mountain peaks,
who received you as a joyous find
from one of the nymphs of Helicon,
the favorite sharers of his sport?

EPISODE 4

If someone like myself, who never met him,

may caleulate—elders, [ think I see
the very herdsman we’ve been waiting for.

His many years would fit that man’s age,

and those who bring him on, if] am right,

are my own men, And yet, in real knowledge,

you can outstrip me, surely: you've seen him.

a trusty herdsman if he ever had one.

2 god of shepherds and woodlands, half man and half gos
id af s vodlands, h F goat.
1109 Mount Cylliné’s lard: Hermes, messenger of the gods. ‘

1995

1100

LLOb

Ti

THIS

1130

SMAN escorted by two of Oedipus’s ATTENDANTS. Al first, the HERDSMAN

CHORAGOS, T know him, yes, a man of the house of Laius,

1107 Lowias: Apollo.

{110 Bacchic god: Dionysus,

Sophocles Gedipus the King, Episode 4

CEprt
is this the man you spoke off

Messi . That's he you see.

Orpirus, Then you, old man. First look at me! Now answer:
did you belong to Laius’ household once?

Lask you first, the stranger come from Corinth:

HerpsMan. I did. Nota purchased slave but raised in the palace.

Ornrus. How have you spent your life? What is your work?

HIERDSMAN,
OEDIPUS.

Most of my life now I have tended sheep.

Where is the usual place you stay with them?
Herpsm: On Mount
Oxpwes. Do you recall observing this man there?

TferpsMan, Doing what? Which is the man you mean?

Qeppus. ‘This man right here. Have you had dealings with him?
AN, Tcan’taay right away. 1 don’t remember.

Cithaeron. Or mm thac district.

No wonder, master. PH bring clear memory

to his ignorance. Pn absolute

he can recall it, the district was Cithacron,

he with a double flock, and I, with one,

lived close to him, for three entire seasons,

six months long, from spring right to Arcturus.”

‘fhen for the winter Pd drive mine to my fold,

and he'd drive his to Laius’ pen again.

Did any of the things I say take place?

You speak the truth, though it's from long ago.

ser. Do you remember giving me, back then,

a boy Lwas to care for as my own?
HRpsMAN. What are you saying? Why do you ask me that?

Messencer. ‘There, sir, is the man who was that boy!

HerpsmMan. Damn you! Shut your mouth! Keep your silence!
Opus. Step! Don’t you rebuke his words,

Your words ask for rebuke far more than his.

HeRDSMAN, But what have | done wrong, most royal master?
Oenwus. Not telling of the boy of whom he asked.
Herrnsman. He's ignorant and blundering toward ruin,
Oxpieus. Tell it willingly—or under torture.

Hexpsman, Oh god! Don’t-—T am old—don’t torture me!

FIPUS.
HERDSMAN.

Here! Someone put his hands behind his back!

But why? What else would you find out, poor yan?
Oepipus. Did you give bim the child he asks about?

ata an. 1 did. L wish that I had died that day!

Oeppus. You'll come to that if you don’t speak the truth.

HERDSMAN. It’s if L speak that I shall be destroyed.

Oeppus, [think this fellow struggles for delay.
HERD No, no! [said already that | gave him.

From your own home, or gor from someone else?

1142 from spring right to Archerus: that ia, 1

(in the constellation Boot

again undl the following spring.

n spring to carly fall, when the summer star

) is no longer visible in the early evening sky, It does tt rise at n

334

* The Tragic Vision: Affirmation Through Lass

gt L g

HernsMan. Not from my own. I got him from another.

Obtreus. Which of these citizens? What sort of house?
Herpsman. Don’t—by the gods!—clon’t, master, ask me more!
Oroirus. Itmeans your death if | must ask again.
HrrnsMan. One of the children of the house of Laius,
Aslave—or born into the family?

Thave come to the dreaded thing, and I shall say it.

Oppieus. And lito hearing it, but hear 1 must.
HERDSMAN. He was reported to have been—his son.

Your lady in the house could tell you best.

Orpirus. Because she gave him to you?

HERDSMAN.

1L70

Yes, my lord,
Orbis. What was her purpose?
LIERMSMAN.

Orne:
He AN,

Opus. What were they?

HERDSMAN.

OEDIPUS.

Ewas to kill the boy.

The child she bore?

She dreaded prophecies. 180
The word was that he'd kill his parents,

Then why did you give him up to this old man?

Herpsman, In pity, master—so he would take him home,

to another land. But what he did was save him

for this supreme clisaster, Ifyou ure the one

he speaks of-—know your evil birth and fate!

Oepirus. Ab! All of it was destined to be true!

Ob light, now may I look my last Lpon you,

shown monstrous in my birth, in marriage monstrous,

a murderer monstrous in those I killed,

T&S
1190.
[Exit OEDIPUS, run ning inte the palace.|

STASIMON 4
Strophe 1

CHORUS. Ob generations of mortal men,

while yon are living, | will
appraise your lives at zero!
What mun
comes Closer to seizing lasting blessedness
than merely to seize its semblance,
and alter living in this semblance, to plunge?
With your example before us,
with your destiny, yours,
suffering Oedipus, no mortal
can [judge fortunate.

ios

£200

Anitistraphe 1

For he,” outranging everybody,

shot his arrow? and became the lord
1202 he. Oedipus.

1208 shot his arrow: took his chances: made a guess ai the Sphinx’s riddle.

Sophocles Oedipus the King, Fxodos

of wide prosperity and blessedness,

oh Zeus, after destroying
the virgin with the crooked talons,”
singer of oracles; and against death,
in my land, he arose a tower of defense.
From which time you were called my king
and granted privileges supreme—in mighty
‘Thebes the ruling lord.

Strophe 2

But now—whose story is more sorrowtul than yours?

Who is more intimate with fe calamities,
with labors, now that your life is altered?
Alas, my Qedipus, whom all men know:
one great harbor”
unre alone sufficed for you,
aS S$ d father,
Son ent umbled,° plowman’? of the woman's chamber.
How, how could your paternal
furrows, wretched man,
endure you silently so long.

Antistrophe 2
‘fime, all-seeing, surprised you living an unwilted life samviawe
and sits from of old in judgment on the marriage, nota marriage,
where the begetier is the begot as well.
Ah, son of Laius...,

would thar—ob, would that

I had never seen you!

| wail, my scream climbing beyond itself ;

To say it straight:

from my whole power of voice.

from you [gol new bpreath—
but I also lulled my eye ta sleep.

EXODOS

{Enter the SECOND MESSENCE: from the palace. ]

Seconp MESseNGER, You who are first among the citizen

See MESS NGE 8

you are about to hear and see!

you IL carry, if, true to your birth,

what deec
What er ; |
you still respect the house of Labdacus!
Neither the Ister nor the Phasis river

seat allusion te foca-ta

1216 ene great harbar: metaphorical allusion to Joca st

1206 virgin... salons: the Sphinx. art here ae aoe

‘a: Plowing i
ere os: ad sex. plowman: Plowing is
body, 1219 bonbled: were born and had sex ? “ sa bewght
meta (232 L steep: | faaled to see the corruplion yo!

232 2... sheet

metaphor,
1336 27 =) The Tragic Vision: Affirmation Through Loss

could purify this house, such suffering

does it conceal, or soon must bring to light— |
willed this time, not unwilled. Griefs hurt worst 140
which we perceive to be seléchosen ones. \
CHORAGOs. They were sufficient, the things we knew before, |
to make us grieve. What can you add to those?
SECOND MESSENGER. The thing that’s quickest said and quickest heard: |
our own, our royal one, Jocasta’s dead. 14h
Cuoracos. Unhappy queen! What was responsible? |
SECOND MESSENGER. Herself. The bitterest of these events |

is not for you, you were not there to see,

but vet, exactly as I can recall it,

you'll hear what happened to that wretched lady. 1250

She came in anger dirough the outer hall,

and then she ran straight to her marriage bed,

tearing her hair with the fingers of both hands.

Then, slamming shut the doors when she was in,

she callect to Laius, dead so many years, is |

remembering the ancient seed which caused i
his cteath, leaving the mother to the son

to breed again an ill-born progeny,

She mourned the bed where she, alas, bred double-—

husband by husband, children by her child. 1260

From this point on | don’t know how she died,
for Oedipus then burst in with a cry,

and did not let us watch her final evil.

Our eves were fixed on him. Wildly he ran

to each of us, asking for his spear

ancl for his wife—no wite: where he might find

the double mother-field, his and his children’s.
Ife raved, and some divinity then showed him— Theatre of Dionysus, fourth century
BCE, Athens, Greece.
lor none of us did so who stood close by. j Michael! Holford Photographs.

With a dreadful shout—as if some guide were leading—- 1276

he lunged through the double doors; he bent the hollow

bolts from the sockets, barst into the room,

und there we saw her, hanging from above,

entangled in some twisted hanging strands.

He saw, was stricken, and with a wild roar

ripped down the dangling noose. When she, poor woman,

tay on the ground, there came a fearful sight:

he snatched the pins of worked gold from her dress,

with which her clothes were fastened: these he raised

and struck into the ball-joints of his eyes.°

He shouted that they would no longer see

the evils he had suffered or had done, Q

see in the dark those he should not have seen, i
and know no more those he once sought to know.

1265

1280

|
i
|
i
$
{
|

1280 hall-foints of his eyes: his eyeballs. Oedipus blinds himself in both eves at
the same time.
Sophocles OQuiipies ihe Kane, Pxndas £337

While chunting this, rotonce bid imnany tines less

he sasedl bis heard and steack dito dis eves.

Blood from his worded eves poured down his chin.

notbreed ii moistering crops, but all at once

astormy rabo ol black blood burst ike hail,

Phese evils, conpling then niaking Heer ane, [hate

have broken toose Gpon both man wil wife

Pho dd prosperi¢ that they bad oace

Wis TRG prosperin, cand yer Locka,

mnournine, ria, deatly. disgrace, and every

evibvou could aameaot one is alse! lens

CEfORAGOS. Tas he allowed litiseH some peace Horm all his erict?
SECOND MPSSESGER, Ele shouts (bat samicoae slide the belts ancl shass

toalbthe Cacineians the pauicide,

his mother s-[ can’t sayin i's unhiob

so be cau cast biiseH out of die lund, rn)

not stay uind civse bis bouse by his own crcese,

He ticks the steongeh, thonet. aad le aecds a viide,

for bis ds a sickiiess that’s too @reat to bear,

Now voit vourself will see: the bolts of the coors

are Opentig, You are about to see Iau)

]VIsLon even One who betes rust pity.

[Enger the bilnded Oentit s fiews te patlace, led ier ly at household SERVANT. |

CHORAGOS. Phis sufleving scads terror through men’s oVES,

terrible beyond aay subberiag
anyeyes Tave touched, Ob man of pain,
what ontdtress reached vou? Which vod frou: far olf. rato
surpassing We vane bis longest spring.
sfpuick bared agaist voor vorkabarictoredl fate?
Oh man of pain,
Leama book pon vou—thoupb theres so intel

Twontdbask your so tach to lear ray

secmuch that holds any eves
soupvesomie The couvalsions vou send through me,
Ohputs. ART OALT Lana mia of misery,
Where ai |ecuried? Pity me! Where
as ery Voice seatiered abroad, on wats? plo
Diving where bas vor baer Gaspard ie?
CGR AGOs. “To something horrible, uot to be hoard or seen.

slave of ihe Globe Theatre, seventeenth century,

London, England. Dr. Franklin J. Hildy, photographer.

KOMMOs

Strophe {

Ovpets. Oban cloud

of darkness, abommabhe, tuspeakable ay it adacks me,

Hot to be fared awn, brouwht by aa esi) wind! as

Phe feuges Vesiia Affeantinns PHrcragh d an
Akis!
Anat adas! Born cater die ad one
the stag Gh dhe prongs. the gacross of ovis!
Gores. Leto sion marvel Giati diese albnettons

yoriady douulite giiets aid cloubbe evibs

Antistruphe |

Ceorpes. AK, fiend.

sooyottat least abe Tere, resohaie ser vant
Sullwith a hesat to care for mic
On On!

throw Uae vou dae thicis

the bli aan

Tiss oyiase
ever tamide tay darkiiess. that vnce of vous.
Choris. Doer ob frormot baw dict wou beas to quetih

your visions What divinity raised your barely

Sirophe 2
Grote. Howse Apollo there. Apotha. bcds,
whto brought av sorrows, vile soricaes do dbei: per ter tion,
Lye ovis tab were chore to ete
Bia dhe one who sack cera wach bas dane.

that one was dole but Loin vwactchectauss.

bot why was Lb to see

when uthing toot sce would boi pee joye

(Hoke Yes Halas boa ab was

OFempies. Whataoulet l sev

nile
ot win onjgauyewhnut i Cetin
phere Poorld Rear with picasute. 8 aouacdse
fondue mie out of the hua
as quachty as you can!

Caneiaci pie atit, ay beiciicks.

the rose utterdy ciiaed,

Sappencly cursed,

the tau who is by gocks

thes

CHORES.

dost detested ub allie!

Wretched ta disavter ane iat kieidedye
Ob. corddl wish vat ch taever «one

lo Ruraw!

Antistrophe 2

opis. Miay fie he desttoved, whoove: Hood the savaue shia kles

from aw feelwheu ld beou sent io the wid oastupe,

whocwer tesctied ie trois meuder
and Bee aie aay savicr——

a bitiea wail:

VSES Jetauas tetors te both (he whip tat Litas acd and dic two gokd pins Crdipus
used to blind
bhnsetl .

Sophocles

iT had died then,

Pd not have been such grief to self and kin.

Lalso would have had it so.
Vd not have returned to be my father’s

CHORUS.
OEDIFUS.

sai murderer, Pd not be called by men

my mother’s bridegroom.
Now Ui without a god,
child ofa polluted parent,
fellow progenitor with bin
who gave me birth in misery.
If there’s an evil that
surpasses evils, that
Bss5 has fallen to the lot of Qeclipus
CHoracos. How can | say chat you have counseled well’
Better not to be than live a blind man.
Ovpeus. ‘hat this was not the best thing T could do—
don’t tell me that, or aclvise me any more!
Should I descend to Hades and endure
w see my father with these eyes? Or see
van ary poor unhappy mother? For | have cone,
pt

to both of these, things too great for hanging.

Or is the sight of children to be yearned for,
to see new shoots that sprouted as these did?
Never, never with these eyes of mine!

Nor city, nor lower, nor holy inages

of the divinities! For , allbwretched,

most nobly raised—as no one else ‘Uhebes-—

deprived myself of these when | ardained

that all expel the impious one~-yod-shown
to be polluted, and the dead kings son!
Once Lex

Paya . .

, sosect this great stain upaore me,

could Lhave looked on these with steady eves?
Not No! And if there were a way to block

the searce of hearing in my ears, Ud gladly

_ have locked up my pitiable lady,
mp so Ud be blind and deat. Evils shut out
that way my mind could five in sweouiess.
Alas, Cithaeron,” why did you receive tics
Or when you had me, not killed me insuunty?
Vd not bave had to show my birth to mankind,
Polybus, Cormth, halls-—ancestral,
they told me—-how beautiful was your ward,
bens ascar that held hack festering disease!

Evil nw pauire, evil my origin.

Vou, three roads, and you, secret ravnie,

[894- E295

ricide and incest.

. AOS

Oedijrrs the King, Voxodos

i339

Oedipus refers to bis own Curse agaist the murderer as well as his sis Of pal-
LOL Githaenm: the mountain on which the adant Oedipus was expe.

Way

485

DAKE

Bay

1400

1 yGs
ERG 27 «The Tragte Vision: Ajfireation Poaangh Luss

you bak grove, narrow phice al thase three paths

that drank my blood® from these my hands, frora him ito

who Fathered me, do you cemeniber sill

the things I did to vou? When Pal come here,

what L then did once more? Oh marriages!

Marriages!

You gave us Hle and when you'd planted us

you sent the sane seed up, and then revealed bts
Hithers, brothers, saris, and kinsman’s blood,

and brides, and wives. aad mothers, all the most

atrocious things that happen to mankind!

One should aot name what never should have been.

Somewhere out there, then, quickly, by the gods, Pee)

cover me up or tiurder me, or throw mie

to the ocean where you will never see me nore!

[Onnirus moves toward the CHORUS and they back away from him]

Come! Dor t shrink to touch this wretched man!

Believe me, da not be frightened! [alone
of all mankind cau carry these afflictions. Lis

[Enter Caron from the palace unth APTRNDANTS. |

CHoracos, Tell Creon what you swish far Just when we need him
he's bere. Fle can act, he can advise you.
He's sow the land’s sole guardian in your place.
Opus. Ah! Are there words that f can speak to him?
What ground tor trust can | presenc bs proved esd)
that | was bilse to hin in ever vihing.
CREON. [have not come to mock you, Oecipus,
nor to reproach vou for your former falseness,
You Wien, i vou have Ho respect Tor SONS
of mortals, let your awe for the allfveding hgh
flames of lordly Héhus” prevent
your showing unconcealcd so great a stain.
abhorred by earth and sacred rain anc ght
Escort him quickly back mto the house!
te blood kit only see and hear their own eotg
afflictions, we Hl have ao imipions delilement.
Oroirus. By the gods. you've treed me Hom one terrible fear,
so nobly meclng my unwordiness:

grant me something—-not for me: for vou!

Caron, Whatdo you want Uiat you should ber me so? 14a
Opus. To crive me trom the land at once, to a place
where there will be to rian to speak to me!
Creon. Pwoulel have done past thar—had | aot wished
to ask first of the god what | should co.
Orpipus. His answer was revealed mn tull—-that L, eae

the pauicide, untioly, be destroyed.

1310 ay Alood: Chat is, the blood of my father, Laius. (436 Helins: the sun,

Sophocles Oedipus the King, Exodos

CREON. Ele saict that, but our need is so extreme,

it’s best to have sure knowledge what must be done.

Orpirus. You'll ask about a wretched man like me?
CREON. — {s it uot time you put your trust in the god?
Ovpeus, But T bic you as well, and shall entreat vou,

Give her who is within what burial

you will—you'll give your own her proper rites:

but me-——do not condemn my fathers’ land

to have me dwelling here while Um alive,

but let me live on mountaing—on Cithaeron

farmed as maine, for my mother and my father,

while they yet hved, niade it my destined womb,

and PU be killed by those whe wished my ruin!

And yet | knows no sickness will destroy me,

nothing will: Pd uever have been savect

when left to clic unless for some dread evil.

‘Then let my fate continue where it will!

for my children, Creon, take no pains
for my sons—the

vre men and they will never lack

the means to live, wherever they may be---

but my two wretched, pitisble girls,

whe never ate but at my table, never

were without me—everything that |

would touch, they'd always have a share of it—

please care for them! Above all, let me touch
them with my hands and weep aloud my woes!
Please, my Lord!

Please, noble heart! Touching with my hands,

Vd think I held thern as when LE could see.

[Pater ANTICONE, and ISMENE from the palace with ATTENDANTS. |

What’s this?

Oh gods! Do I hear, somewhere, my two dear ones

sobbing? Has Creon really pitt

2a me
and sent to me my dearest ones, my chikdre
Is that it?

(GREON. aved Chis fur you, for L knew

youd feel this joy, as you have always done.
O8.DEUS, Good fortune, then, and, tor your care, be guarded
far better by divinity than I was!
Where are you, children? Come tome! Come here
to these my bands, hands of your brother, hands
of binn who gave you seed, hands that made
these once bright eyes to see now in this fashion,

LOnDIPUS colraces fas den ers. |

He, children, seeing nothing, knowing nothing,

he fathered vou where his own seed was plowed.
Uweep tor you as well, though [can’t see you,

PEAS

450

PEAS

LATA

Langs

TABS.

Laie

Hye
13420 27 a The Tragic Visi: Affirmation Through Loss

imagining your bitter life to come,

the life you will be forced by men to live,

What ¢
what f
im fear
And when you've reached the time for marrying,
where, children, is the man who'll run the risk
of taking on himself the infamy

atherings of fowasmen will you join,

tivals, without returning home

instead of wawhing holy rites?

thar will wound you as it did my parents?

What evil is not here? Your father killed
his father, plowed the one who gave him birth,

and from the place where he was sown, from there

he got you, from the place he too was born.

‘These are the wounds: then whe will marry vou?
No man, I

must wither in dry barrenness, unmarried.

children. No, it’s clear that you

[OrDIPUS addresses CREO

Son of Menoeceus! You are the only father

left to them-—we two who gave them seed

are both destroyed: watch that they don't become

poor, wanderers, unmarried they are your kin.
Let not my ruin be their ruin, too!

No, pity them! You s

hereft of everyone, except for you.

how young they are,

Consent, kind heart, and touch me with your hand!

CREON grasps OFTMPLS’S right hand. |
§ §

You, children, if you had reached an age of sense,

T would have couns

cled much. Now, pray you may tive

always where its allowed, finding a life

better than his was, who gave you seed.
CREON, Stop Unis now. Quiet your weeping. Move away, into the house.
Orppus, Bitter words, but Tobey ther.

CREON, There's an end to all things.

Ormpus. Lhave first this request.

CREON, twill hear it.

Qropus. Banish me from my bomeland.

CREGIN, You must ask that ot the god.

Orpieus. But lam the gods most hated man!

CREQN. Then you will soon get what you want.

Orprees, Do you consent?

CREON, [never promise when, as now, Pm ignorant.

Orpipus. Then lead me in.

CREON, Come. But tet your hold fall from your children.
Orppus. Do not take them from me, ever!

CREON. Do not wish to keep all of the

power, You had power, but that power did not follow you through life.

£500

1505

1510

1515

520

1530

LOknipUS’S daughiers ary taken from heim and led into the palace by ATTENDANTS.
OnuirUs as ded pido ©.

Sephocies Oedupus the Kfug

iy

palace in a SERVANT. CREON and. te uther ATTESDANTS fella, Only the CHORUS remains,
|

Chorus. People af Thebes, my country, see: heve is that Oedipus

he who “knew” the Famous ciddle, anc atained the highest power.
whom all citizens admired, even cnvying his buck!
See the billows of wild troubles which he has entered now!

Here is the trath of each man’s life: we must wait, and se

“his ene,
scrutinize his cying day, and vefise to call him happy

ail he has crossed the border of his lite without pain,

[Batt the Crores along each of the Parados.|

QUESTIONS

Prologue and Parados

What is the situation in Thebes as the play begins? Why does Ov

find Laias’s murderer?

SUES WUE 1

Episode 1 and Stasimon 1

How does Qedipus react to Tiresias’s refusal to speak? How is this reaction char
acteristic of Oedipuse What other instances of this sort of behavior can you find
in Oedipus’s story?

When Tireshts does speak, he answ

rs the central question of the play andl tells

the ruth. Why doesn’t Oedipus recognize this as the tach?

Episode 2 and Stasimon 2

What does Oedipus accuse Greon of doing? How does Creou detend hinmsell?
Do you find Croon’s defense couviicaig? Why?

What is jocasta’s atitude toward oracles and prophecy: Why does she have this
antioude?s Flow does it contrast with the attitude of the chorus?

At what polit in the play does Oedipus begin to suspect that he killoct Caissr
What details make him begin to suspect himself?

Episode 3 and Stastmon 3

What news does the messenger from Cortath bring? Why does this news seers
to be good at firsty How js chis situation reversed?

Episode 4 and Stasimon 4

What do vou make of the coincidence that the sarne herdsman (1) saved dhe
infant Oedipus frorn death, (2) was with Laius at the place where three roads
mece and was the lone survivor of the adack, and (3) will now be dic agent oo
destroy Oedipus

What moral does the chorus see in Qediynis’s titer

Visranes Afftvwiatvane Prough facss

‘ados

Why dors Ocdipus bliie bist He Winat as the significuune of the Gisu tanents
that he uses to blind binwsclty

LL. Who or what does Oedipus blac fot his tragic Tite anc destruchon?

GENERAL QUESTIONS .

yoda dedip

grotment. Wher bs thts moment: Who is riost severck adfected by ne

s the poripetet, amaggnorisis, tad catistophe alfoccur at the sane

2. Rayphoutes tells the events of Qedtpus's fife out of Chronological order. Pat
all
the events of bis Hho ne chronological order and consider how vou might dra

nruize them. Why does Sophar tes’s ordering af these events produce an effee-

tive play?

Bach episude of the play ioedaces Hew conflicts: Oedipus agaist the plague.
agaiust Testa, agaist Grcon What is the central conthet el the phy? Why is tt
cenual?

4 Alf the violent acts of Uhis play-the auitide of focasta and the blinding of

Oucdipiiye-occ ar Ol isttye and are reported rather than shown, What are the

advantages and disdvantages of doing with violence thas way?

) Discass the use ob coiie tle cs it the play, How ilo you react to them? Do they
seern Comviicing or rorceed, giyeur the plotal the play?

6 Baxplore the ways un which Saphuckes tiphoys draaalic Hoty with reference to
three sperihe saniples

7. Camasicher that Geclgrtes doa ravedy of both the incdivicuad am fohe state. What
do
you think will happen te Piebes after Oedipuy ts exihedy

List pos tiie biog uions ot Ue cords andthe Choragus. What do ife horal odes

coutirate da the play’

Feale ba Hite play ertipits bogatin a ae at’ Hforaimtiaderce. How does the object
ob bis search change as the play prraresses? Why does id changes

RENAISSANCE DRAMA AND SH AKESPEARE’S THEATER

In the earky years of the Bagtish Retiiissance. there was a Hourishing mative tra
dition of theater tat Hed developed bist withtin the church and then with the

souperation of the chureh? Phe bridge trom religious draiia to the druina of
the Renaissance was creaied faa Huanbe! of ways. Of greab mirporlance was the
growl of traveling dranitic proles ioral Companics, wihto porforiuied thei
plays i oe al Liavards-siptie OT quad angukar Spaces stu rounded by the
rooms of the tin. tna addition, plays were pertormed at court, ia the wreat
roons of aristocratic Houses, 1 the Jaw courts, ahd al universives.

YO pay $22 be

data cound of Hie (aed val 1ACULGE ee t hapte