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oedipus rex by sophocles all new material ©2011 enotes.com inc or its licensors all rights reserved no portion may be reproduced without permission in writing from the publisher for complete copyright information please see the online version of this text at http www.enotes.com/oedipus-rex-text

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table of contents notes 1 reading pointers for sharper insights 2 dramatis personae 3 oedipus rex 4 mythological background 53 the origins of greek drama 54 tragedy and the city 55 conventions of greek drama 56 aristotle s influence on our understanding of tragedy 57 glossary 58 i

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notes the oedipus rex without argument one of the greatest plays ever written in any language is also one of the most complex scholars have spent millennia debating sophocles intentions and how he achieved such a powerful effect at the root of the play s popularity lies its humanity all human beings search for themselves during life and we all want to know who we really are through science religion and art we try to discover who we are as a species what it means to be human this is precisely the search undertaken by oedipus and his quest to understand himself and its horrifying consequences resonate deeply inside all of us the play communicates to us even though we are separated from it by time and language in preparing this translation from the greek i have used the oxford text of lloyd-jones and wilson i have also availed myself of the excellent commentaries by jebb and kammerbeek the manuscripts for the oedipus rex although generally coherent do contain several gaps and troublesome passages in some cases i have used an alternate reading to that of lloyd-jones and wilson in these instances i generally follow the manuscript reading over the emendation and have rarely deviated without the authority of one of the commentators j e thomas translator providence r.i notes 1

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reading pointers for sharper insights as you read oedipus rex be aware of the following 1 the role of dramatic irony in the play the audience knows information specifically about oedipus past that the characters on stage do not 2 the emergence of the following themes concepts and questions sin and retribution divine justice do people deserve what happens to them and do the gods allow it what characteristics make a good ruler the search for one s own identity is universal complete control of one s own fate is not possible in life suffering is inevitable but wisdom can be gained through it there exists a need to search for truth what is the value of human intellect 3 the conventions of greek drama the use of masks with wigs attached the chorus which would sing in verse and dance multiple roles played by the same actor reading pointers for sharper insights 2

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dramatis personae · oedipus king of thebes · the priest of zeus · creon oedipus brother-in-law · chorus of the old men of thebes · tiresias blind prophet · jocasta wife of oedipus sister of creon widow of laius the former king · messenger from corinth · shepherd of laius the former king in the manuscripts called the servant · servant from inside the house in the manuscripts the second messenger or messenger from the house dramatis personae 3

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oedipus rex [scene outside in front of the palace of oedipus there is also a shrine to apollo at which are seated many suppliants oedipus enters the stage from the palace oedipus my children new-sprung race of old cadmus why do you sit at my shrines wearing garlands of the suppliants olive all around the city is filled with the smell of incense all around filled with the sound of hymns and groans 5 these things i did not think it right to learn from messengers and so i have come here myself who am called oedipus and known to all but you old man tell me since it is fitting for you to speak on their behalf why you10 sit out here afraid of something or wanting it so i would be willing to help you in any way for he would be hardhearted who did not pity such an assembly priest oedipus you who rule my land you see15 how many of us sit here at your altars some do not yet have the strength to fly far others are heavy with age i am the priest of zeus and these were chosen from the young men there is another group wreathed as suppliants20 sitting in the marketplace and another at the double-gated temple of athena and at the smoke-filled oracle of ismenus for the city as you yourself can see is badly shaken already and from the waves25 can no longer lift her head above this bloody tossing there is death in the fruitful buds from the earth and in the pasturing herds and even in the childless births of women falling upon us the fire-bringing god 30 most hateful disease drives the city and by him the house of cadmus is drained and dark hades grows rich with groans and wails now i do not hold you equal to the gods nor do these children who sit at your hearth 35 but we judge you the first of men both in the ordinary chances of life and in the contingencies of the divine it was you who came and released cadmus town from the tribute we paid to the cruel songstress 40 and these things you did knowing nothing from us nor instructed at all but with help from god oedipus rex 4

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you spoke and knew how to set our lives straight and now oedipus greatest in the eyes of all we who are here as your suppliants beseech you45 to find some defense for us as you may have heard the voice of one of the gods or have learned something from a man for i think that the ideas of experienced men most often succeed come o best of mortals and save our city 50 come but be careful since now this land calls you her savior for your former zeal and let us never recall of your reign that we first stood straight but stumbled later rather then restore this city to safety 55 for at that time you gave us great fortune be now equal to what you were then since if indeed you would rule this land just as you do now it is far better to rule over men than a wasteland 60 nothing matters neither tower nor ship if it is empty of men to dwell within it oedipus my poor children what you desire is known and not unknown to me for i see well that everyone is sick and being sick 65 still not one of you is as sick as i am for your pain comes upon the individual one by one to each man alone and no other but my soul groans for the city for me and you together hence you do not wake me from sleep 70 but know that i have been weeping much and wandering many roads of the mind and that which my inquiry found our only cure i have done for i have sent creon son of menoeceus my own brother-in-law 75 to apollo s home at pytho so that he may learn what i should do or say to save this city and already enough time has passed that i wonder what he is doing for he has stayed beyond the proper time but whenever he comes 80 i would surely be an evil man not to do whatever the god reveals priest wonderful news both what you have said and what these have just pointed out to me creon is approaching 85 oedipus lord apollo if only he might come as bright with redeeming fortune as shine his eyes oedipus rex 5

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priest it seems he brings good news for otherwise90 he would not come crowned with berry-laden laurel oedipus we shall know soon for he is close enough to hear 95 lord kinsman of my wife child of menoeceus what reply do you bring us from the god [enter creon from offstage creon a good one for i say that even misfortunes if somehow put right bring only good luck oedipus what sort of reply is this for what you say100 gives me neither confidence nor fear creon if you wish these people nearby to hear i am ready to speak or should we go inside oedipus speak to everyone for i consider their pain more important even than that of my own soul creon i shall say all i heard from the god 105 phoebus clearly ordered us my lord to drive out the pollution being fostered in this very land not to nurture it unhealed oedipus with what cleansing and for what type of disaster 110 creon by driving a man into exile or undoing murder with murder again since this blood shakes our city like a storm oedipus and who is the man whose fate he decrees creon my lord once laius was our leader in this land before you came to govern this city 115 oedipus so i have heard though i never saw him oedipus rex 6

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creon he died and the god now orders us clearly to take violent vengeance on the murderers oedipus where on earth are they where will be found this indistinct track of ancient guilt 120 creon in this very land he said what is sought can be captured but what is ignored escapes oedipus did laius meet his bloody fate in his home or estate or in some other land creon he left home to consult an oracle he said 125 and never returned again once he had set out oedipus did no messenger or fellow traveler see whom we might use to find something out creon no they died except one who fleeing in fear of those he saw had nothing to say but one thing 130 oedipus what for one thing could lead us to learn many if from hope might come a small beginning creon he said that bandits fell upon them and killed him not with one man s strength but the hands of many oedipus how did a bandit come to dare so much 135 unless he acted with money from here creon this was suspected but with laius fallen we had no helper in our troubles oedipus what kind of trouble when your kingship had fallen thus made you see to this so poorly 140 creon the riddle-singing sphinx compelled us to look at what lay at hand forgetting things unseen oedipus rex 7

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oedipus then i shall reveal these things anew for justly did phoebus and justly did you assign me this case on behalf of the dead 145 so that you will rightly see me as an ally avenging both this land and the god together for not on behalf of more distant friends but as if from myself i shall dispel the stain for whoever he was who killed that man150 would as soon kill me with that same violent hand helping that one therefore i am helping myself but you my children as soon as you can rise from these seats stopping these suppliant wails someone muster here the people of cadmus 155 as i will leave nothing undone for with god s help we shall see whether we are saved or lost priest let us stand up my children those things for which we came here this man himself has promised but may phoebus who sent these prophecies160 come at once as savior and stayer of disease [exeunt omnes [the chorus marches into the orchestra chorus str 1o sweetly worded voice of zeus who are you who come from all-gold pytho to glorious thebes my frightened mind shakes in fear quivering 165 o healing delian paean in awe before you what is it you will achieve for me something new or something known and coming back again tell me o child of golden hope immortal utterance 170 ant 1first i call on you daughter of zeus immortal athena and your earth-protecting sister artemis who sit famous on your throne in the marketplace and phoebus the farshooter i call my threefold protection from death shine forth on me 175 if ever when madness was set upon the city you sent away our burning scourge come also now str 2alas for i bear countless woes disease falls upon my entire crew 180 and no mind s weapon can protect me for the fruit of our famous land does not grow nor do our women emerge from their mournful labors with offspring one upon another you might see each soul 185 oedipus rex 8

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like a well-winged bird surer than irresistible fire setting out for the promontory of the western god ant 2unable to count their number the city is destroyed and unpitied their generations lie upon the ground 190 spreading death finding no mourners while brides and white-haired mothers come together and groan as suppliants over their mournful labors the hymn for healing and the lament ring loud together because of these o golden daughter of zeus 195 send bright-eyed strength str 3furious ares now without bronze shields yet still surrounded by cries confronts me and burns me let him in hurried running turn his back on our fatherland either borne by a wind200 into the great chamber of amphitrite or rushing to the inhospitable thracian wave for if night ever leaves something undone day comes along to complete it this one o reverend lightning-bearer 205 father zeus make him perish with your thunderbolt ant 3and you lord of light from your golden bow i would have your unconquered arrows fly as a guard set in front of me before my enemy and those of shining fire-bringing artemis 210 with which she darts across the hills of lycia and i call upon the one with the golden headband eponym of this land wine-faced bacchus hailed companion of the maenads throng to approach with a torch of shining pine 215 against this god dishonored by the gods [enter oedipus from the palace oedipus you seek and what you seek if you are willing to listen to my words and help in this sickness you may take as help and relief from your troubles although a stranger to both report and victim 220 i shall announce these things for i would not be far in tracking it if i did not have some clue but now since only later did i become a citizen among citizens i decree the following to the people of cadmus 225 whoever among you knows at whose hands laius son of labdacus was destroyed i order this man to tell it all to me and if the culprit fears this accusation he should lose his fear and come forward 230 for he will suffer nothing worse than safe exile from this land but if someone knows that another oedipus rex 9

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or one from some other land is the murderer let him not be silent for i myself shall complete his reward and he will have235 my favor but if you are silent again and someone out of fear pushes away responsibility from himself or a friend then you must hear from me what i intend to do i ban this man whoever he is from all land240 over which i hold power and the throne i decree that no one shall receive him or speak to him nor make him partner in prayers to the gods or sacrifices nor allow to him holy water 245 but instead that everyone must expel him from their homes as this man is the source of our pollution as the oracle of pytho has just revealed to me and so i myself am become an ally250 both to the god and the man who died and i curse the doer whether he worked alone or evaded us with accomplices that he wear out his unlucky life as badly as he himself is bad 255 and i pray if he should be known to me and share in my hearth among my family that i suffer all that i called upon these all these things i charge you to complete on my behalf and on the god s and for this land 260 wasted away fruitless and godless but even if this problem were not put before us by god you should not suffer this unclean thing since the man lost was both very noble and your king so see this through 265 now since i am ruler and hold this kingdom that he held before holding also the bed and wife we have both sown and children of the same mother would have been born to us had his line not been ill-fated since chance270 has driven me into that one s powers therefore i shall fight for him in this matter as if for my own father and i shall try everything seeking to find the one who committed the murder for labdacus son 275 son of polydorus and before him cadmus and agenor kings of old i pray god that to those who do not do these things no crop may spring up from the ground nor children from their wives but they be destroyed in suffering280 more hateful than that which holds us now but to you other people of cadmus to however many approve what i say oedipus rex 10

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may justice and all the gods stay with you always as your ally 285 chorus just as you adjured me under a curse my lord so shall i speak for neither did i kill nor am i able to show the killer but it is the task of the one who sent it phoebus to say whoever has done this thing 290 oedipus you have spoken justly but no man can compel the gods when they are unwilling chorus i would say things secondary to this but things which i think ought to be said oedipus and if there are matters tertiary to it 295 do not fail to say them also chorus i know that my lord tiresias most always sees the same as my lord apollo from him one investigating this might learn the wisest things oedipus but this has not been neglected no 300 even this i have done for i sent two guides after creon mentioned him and it is only surprising that he is not already here chorus there are still other reports though mute and old oedipus what s this i will investigate any story 305 chorus it is said he died at the hands of bandits oedipus so i have heard but no one sees the one who saw chorus but if he has any fear at all hearing such curses as yours he will not remain here oedipus oedipus rex 11

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but to a man who does not shrink from doing310 the thing a word will not be frightening chorus but the one to accuse him is here for already those men lead hither the godlike seer in whom alone of men lives the truth [enter tiresias led by guides oedipus o tiresias who grasp all things 315 both what can be learned and what is unspeakable both of heaven and treading the earth even if you cannot see you still understand what sickness plagues our city and we find lord you alone are our savior and defender 320 for phoebus if you have not heard this also from the messengers in response to our question said relief from this sickness would only come if we should discover and punish well the murderers of laius or send them forth325 as fugitives from this land therefore grudging nothing from the speech of birds or something known from another sort of divination save yourself and the city and save me and ward off all the pollution330 from the dead man we are in your hands and to help a man from troubles when you have the power is the sweetest of labors tiresias alas alas how terrible to know when it does not help the knower for knowing this335 well i let it slip i should not have come here oedipus what s this how dispiritedly you have come tiresias send me home for you will bear your lot easily and i mine if you will yield to me oedipus you speak neither clearly nor helpfully340 to this city which raised you if you guard your thoughts tiresias for i see that your words come at the wrong time and since i would not suffer the same thing oedipus rex 12

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oedipus no by the gods don t hold back what you know when all of us as suppliants bow down before you 345 tiresias none of you understand but i shall never reveal my own troubles and so i shall not say yours oedipus what are you saying you will not explain what you understand but rather intend to betray us and destroy the city 350 tiresias i cause no pain for you or myself why do you vainly seek this for you can learn nothing from me oedipus you worst of wicked men you would anger a stone will you reveal nothing but instead show yourself unmovable and impractical 355 tiresias you have found fault with my anger but your own living within you you did not see but blamed me oedipus who could hear such words and not grow angry words with which you dishonor the city tiresias it will end the same though i hide it in silence 360 oedipus why not then tell me what will come anyway tiresias i should explain no further at these things if you wish rage as much as your heart is able oedipus indeed since i am so angry i ll pass over none of what i understand know that i think365 you too had your hand in this deed and did it even though you did not kill with your own hands but if you could see i would think the deed yours alone tiresias really i say to you abide by that decree you made earlier and from this day address370 neither these men here nor me since you oedipus rex 13

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