Oedipus King of Thebes
on the left. Away to the south a wild and desolate valley opens, running
up among the waste places of Helicon, a scene of inexpressible grandeur
and desolation" (Jebb, abridged).
P. 44, l. 754, Who could bring, &c.]--Oedipus of course thought he had
killed them all. See his next speech.
P. 51.]--Observe the tragic effect of this prayer. Apollo means to
destroy Jocasta, not to save her; her prayer is broken across by the
entry of the Corinthian Stranger, which seems like a deliverance but is
really a link in the chain of destruction. There is a very similar
effect in Sophocles' _Electra_, 636-659, Clytaemnestra's prayer; compare
also the prayers to Cypris in Euripides' _Hippolytus_.
P. 51, l. 899.]--Abae was an ancient oracular shrine in Boeotia; Olympia
in Elis was the seat of the Olympian Games and of a great Temple of
Zeus.
P. 52, l. 918, O Slayer of the Wolf, O Lord of Light.]--The names
Lykeios, Lykios, &c., seem to have two roots, one meaning "Wolf" and the
other "Light."
P. 56, l. 987, Thy father's tomb Like light across our darkness.]--This
ghastly line does not show hardness of heart, it shows only the terrible
position in which Oedipus and Jocasta are. Naturally Oedipus would give
thanks if his father was dead. Compare his question above, p. 54, l.
960, "Not murdered?"--He cannot get the thought of the fated murder out
of his mind.
P. 57, l. 994.]--Why does Oedipus tell the Corinthian this oracle, which
he has kept a secret even from his wife till to-day?--Perhaps because,
if there is any thought of his going back to Corinth, his long voluntary
exile must be explained. Perhaps, too, the secret possesses his mind so
overpoweringly that it can hardly help coming out.
Pp. 57, 58, ll. 1000-1020.]--It is natural that the Corinthian hesitates
before telling a king that he is really not of royal birth.
Pp. 64, 65, ll. 1086-1109.]--This joyous Chorus strikes a curious note.
Of course it forms a good contrast with what succeeds, but how can the
Elders take such a serenely happy view of the discovery that Oedipus is
a foundling just after they have been alarmed at the exit of Jocasta? It
seems as if the last triumphant speech of Oedipus, "fey" and almost
touched with megalomania as it was, had carried the feeling of the
Chorus with it.
P. 66, l. 1122.]--Is there any part in any tragedy so short and yet so
effective as that of this Shepherd?
P. 75, l. 1264, Like a dead bird.]--The curious word, [Greek:
empeplegmenen], seems to be taken from Odyssey xxii. 469, where it is
applied to birds caught in a snare. As to the motives of Oedipus, his
first blind instinct to kill Jocasta as a thing that polluted the earth;
when he saw her already dead, a revulsion came.
P. 76, ll. 1305 ff.]--Observe how a climax of physical horror is
immediately veiled and made beautiful by lyrical poetry. Sophocles does
not, however, carry this plan of simply flooding the scene with sudden
beauty nearly so far as Euripides does. See _Hipp._, p. 39; _Trojan
Women_, p. 51.
P. 83, ll. 1450 ff., Set me to live on the wild hills.]--These lines
serve to explain the conception, existing in the poet's own time, of
Oedipus as a daemon or ghost haunting Mount Kithairon.
P. 86, l. 1520, Creon.]--Amid all Creon's whole-hearted forgiveness of
Oedipus and his ready kindness there are one or two lines of his which
strike a modern reader as tactless if not harsh. Yet I do not think that
Sophocles meant to produce that effect. At the present day it is not in
the best manners to moralise over a man who is down, any more than it is
the part of a comforter to expound and insist upon his friend's
misfortunes. But it looks as if ancient manners expected, and even
demanded, both. Cf. the attitude of Theseus to Adrastus in Eur.,
_Suppliants_.