 | the harsh alternatives his quick mind poses: Oedipus sees that if Kreon's conspiracy is not stamped out, it will lead ultimately to his own destruction. The Chorus gropes for a less severe outcome. The gradual detachment of the Chorus from identification with Oedipus will emerge as his life is revealed to them.
|
| 787
the Sun
The Sun appears as source of final appeal frequently in tragedy, as it will later at l. 1635 when Kreon orders Oedipus out of its ''nurturing light."
|
| 793
let him go
That Oedipus yields, however grudgingly, shows that his stubbornness and self-confidence are not immune to persuasion or insensitive to the wishes of those close to him.
|
| 829
He says I murdered Laius
Kreon did not say this, of course. Oedipus so passionately believes in the truth of his inference that Kreon is responsible for Tiresias' charges that he does not present it at first as an inference.
|
| 838
I don't say that Apollo . . . sent it
This qualification both absolves Apollo from false prophecy and expresses skepticism concerning oracles, skepticism that must have been shared widely in a world where oracles were constantly put to dubious political use. The Chorus has the strongest commitment to the divine authority of oracles. Oedipus' belief is conditioned by experience and changes with events.
|
| 841
his killer . . . be a son
In Jocasta's version, the oracle to Laius was unqualified and not a punishment. Gould notes that by omitting the aspect of punishment present in earlier versions of the myth, Sophocles establishes the pure and unexplained malice of Apollo's destruction of Oedipus.
|
| 843
three roads meet
It is this detail that disturbs Oedipus, and the one he reverts to as soon as Jocasta ends her speech. Some gesture of recognition must have been made by the actor to account for Jocasta's line 857. Oedipus' reaction to Jocasta's mention of the crossroads may have been intended by Sophocles to explain why Oedipus was distracted from hearing another fact with direct bearing on his identity: the fact that Jocasta's child's feet had been "yoked together," as Oedipus' own had been, and which produced the swollen scars that gave him his name. However, the weight to be given Oedipus' crippled feet may not be as conclusive as some commentators think. If exposure of children was common, Oedipus might not be expected to connect himself instantly and absolutely with Laius' son, even had he heard Jocasta's words.
|
| 852
54
god wants . . . with ease
Lit. "Of what things the god hunts the use, he reveals easily himself." The image of the hunt appears also
|
|