Oedipus

• Oedipus first line: “Oh my children“
• Oedipus offers his help: “i am ready to help. I’ll do anything. i would be blind to misery not to pity my people”
• Oedipus introduction: “I am Oedipus“
• State of Thebes at the beginning: “Thebes is dying“
• Priest asks Oedipus for Help/guidance: “now we pray to you. You cannot equal the gods… but we do rate you first of men”
• Oedipus‘ concern for his people, trying to think of what to do: “i have wept through the nights“ “groping, labouring, over many paths of thought“
• Oedipus sent Creon to Delphi: “i acted at once”
• Creon’s message from the oracle: “drive the corruption from the land”
• Oedipus angry that no one went after Laius’ murderer: “trouble? your king was murdered- royal blood!”
• Oedipus wanting to find the truth/save Thebes: “I’ll bring it all to light myself!” “I am the land’s avenger by all rights”
• Oedipus saving Thebes for his own benefit: “whoever killed the king may decide to kill me too” “by avenging Laius I defend myself“
• First choral ode asks the gods for help: Zeus, Apollo, Athena, Artemis “the miseries numberless, grief upon grief” “numberless deaths one deaths” “Thebes, city of death, on long cortège“
• Oedipus thinking he is on parr with the gods: “you pray to the gods? let me grant your prayers“
• Oedipus’ punishment for the anyone who knows about the murderer: “he will suffer no unbearable punishment nothing worse than exile, totally unharmed“
• Oedipus’ punishment for the murderer: “my curse on the murderer“ ”let that man drag out his life in agony, step by painful step” “may the curse i called down on him strike me!”
• Tiresias as the bringer of truth: “the truth lives inside him” (Chorus) “master of all mysteries“ (Oedipus)
• Tiresias refuses to tell the truth: “i will never reveal my dreadful secrets“
• Oedipus believes Tiresias is withholding the information on purpose: “you’re bent on betraying us, destroying Thebes?”
• Oedipus gets angry at Tiresias: “you scum of the earth“
• Oedipus accuses Tiresias of lying: “who primed you for this?”
• Tiresias tells the truth: “you are the curse, the corruption of the land“
• Oedipus taunts Tiresias: “you’ve lost your power, stone-blind, stone-deaf-senses, eyes blind as stone!” “Eyes peeled for his own profit- seer blind in his craft!”
• Oedipus asserts his achievements: “i stopped the Sphinx! With no help from the birds”
• Tiresias criticises Oedipus: “you’re blind to the corruption of your life“
• Tiresias makes a naval reference to Oedipus‘ incest: “lusty voyage to the fatal harbour!”
• Oedipus is intrigued by Tiresias: “parents- who? wait… who is my father?”
• Tiresias reveals full prophecy of Oedipus: “he sowed the loins his father sowed, he spilled his father’s blood“
• chorus speak about the fate of the murderer: “he cannot out race, the dread voices of Delphi” dark wings beating around him shrieking doom”
• Chorus act as judge of truth: “not till I see these changes proved will I side with his accusers”
• Creon is content with his own standing: “who in his right mind would rather rule and live in anxiety than sleep in peace?” “I am not that deluded yet to reach for anything but privilege outright” “no lust for conspiracy on me”
• Chorus leader warns against jumping to conclusions: “those who jump to conclusions may go wrong”
• Jocasta intervenes in the fight between Oedipus and Creon: “poor misguided men“
• Creon complains to Jocasta: “Oedipus, your husband, he’s bent on a choice of punishment for me”
• Chorus beg Oedipus to believe Creon‘s innocence: “believe it, be sensible give way, my king, i beg you!””the man’s your friend, your kin, he’s under oath- don’t cast him out, disgraced“
• Oedipus gets angry at the Chorus: “you see what comes of your good intentions now? and all beause you tried to blunt my anger“
• Jocasta discredits prophets: “nothing human can penetrate the future“
• Jocasta recounts story of Laius: “doom would strike him down at the hands of a son” “killed by strangers, thieves, at a place where three roads meet” “fastened his ankles, had a henchman fling him away“
• Jocasta describes Laius: “he was swarthy, and the gray had just begun to streak his temples, and his build… wasn’t far from yours“
• Oedipus realises his killed Laius: “i simply didn't know!”
• Oedipus recounts his past: “Fighting words!” “this thing kept gnawing at me” “you are fated to couple with your mother” “you will kill your father“ “triple crossroads“ “i strike him in anger!”