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    Oedipus the King
    Oedipus the King
    Oedipus the King
    Ebook79 pages49 minutes

    Oedipus the King

    By Sophocles

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    About this ebook

    "Oedipus the King", is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC.

    Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians (Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides) whose plays have survived. 

    Translation by F. Storr, BA 
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPasserino Editore
    Release dateSep 15, 2017
    ISBN9788893452854
    Author

    Sophocles

    Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than or contemporary with those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides.

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      Book preview

      Oedipus the King - Sophocles

      Sophocles

      Oedipus the king

      The sky is the limit

      ISBN: 9788893452854

      This ebook was created with StreetLib Write

      http://write.streetlib.com

      Table of contents

      OEDIPUS THE KING

      DRAMATIS PERSONAE

      Argument

      Credits

      OEDIPUS THE KING

      DRAMATIS PERSONAE

      Oedipus.

      The Priest of Zeus.

      Creon.

      Chorus of Theban Elders.

      Teiresias.

      Jocasta.

      Messenger.

      Herd of Laius.

      Second Messenger.

      Scene: Thebes. Before the Palace of Oedipus.

      Argument

      To Laius, King of Thebes, an oracle foretold that the child born to him by his queen Jocasta would slay his father and wed his mother. So when in time a son was born the infant's feet were riveted together and he was left to die on Mount Cithaeron. But a shepherd found the babe and tended him, and delivered him to another shepherd who took him to his master, the King of Corinth. Polybus being childless adopted the boy, who grew up believing that he was indeed the King's son. Afterwards doubting his parentage he inquired of the Delphic god and heard himself the word declared before to Laius. Wherefore he fled from what he deemed his father's house and in his flight he encountered and unwillingly slew his father Laius. Arriving at Thebes he answered the riddle of the Sphinx and the grateful Thebans made their deliverer king. So he reigned in the room of Laius, and espoused the widowed queen. Children were born to them and Thebes prospered under his rule, but again a grievous plague fell upon the city. Again the oracle was consulted and it bade them purge themselves of blood-guiltiness. Oedipus denounces the crime of which he is unaware, and undertakes to track out the criminal. Step by step it is brought home to him that he is the man. The closing scene reveals Jocasta slain by her own hand and Oedipus blinded by his own act and praying for death or exile.

      Suppliants of all ages are seated round the altar at the palace doors,

      at their head a PRIEST OF ZEUS. To them enter OEDIPUS.

      OEDIPUS

      My children, latest born to Cadmus old,

      Why sit ye here as suppliants, in your hands

      Branches of olive filleted with wool?

      What means this reek of incense everywhere,

      And everywhere laments and litanies?

      Children, it were not meet that I should learn

      From others, and am hither come, myself,

      I Oedipus, your world-renowned king.

      Ho! aged sire, whose venerable locks

      Proclaim thee spokesman of this company,

      Explain your mood and purport. Is it dread

      Of ill that moves you or a boon ye crave?

      My zeal in your behalf ye cannot doubt;

      Ruthless indeed were I and obdurate

      If such petitioners as you I spurned.

      PRIEST

      Yea, Oedipus, my sovereign lord and king,

      Thou seest how both extremes of age besiege

      Thy palace altars—fledglings hardly winged,

      and greybeards bowed with years; priests, as am I

      of Zeus, and these the flower of our youth.

      Meanwhile, the common folk, with wreathed boughs

      Crowd our two market-places, or before

      Both shrines of Pallas congregate, or where

      Ismenus gives his oracles by fire.

      For, as thou seest thyself, our ship of State,

      Sore buffeted, can no more lift her head,

      Foundered beneath a weltering surge of blood.

      A blight is on our harvest in the ear,

      A blight upon the grazing flocks and herds,

      A blight on wives in travail; and withal

      Armed with his blazing torch the God of Plague

      Hath swooped upon our city emptying

      The house of Cadmus, and the murky realm

      Of Pluto is full fed with groans and tears.

      Therefore, O King, here at thy hearth we sit,

      I and these children; not as deeming thee

      A new divinity, but the first of men;

      First in the common accidents of life,

      And first in visitations of the Gods.

      Art

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