Edit assignment

Piper Pugh + Mrs. Shafer + AP Literature and Composition + 23 May 2015

Everything that could go wrong in Thebes has, and the way to rid

themselves of the curse, the murderer of Laius must be punished.

This picture is of the Priest of Zeus, the priest

which praises Oedipus and asks for his help in re-

storing order in Thebes.

As people are centered around the altar and the

priest, Oedipus enters and asks the priest to

“explain [his] mood and purport.” He explains

that “the God of Plague/ Hath swooped upon

[their] city,” that everything that could go wrong

has. He asks Oedipus to solve this, chanting,

“Upraise, O chief of men, upraise our State!”

Just as Oedipus says that he had Creon to “inquire

of Pythian Phoebus at his Delphic shrine,” Creon

arrives, looking “joyous,” according to the king.

Creon explains that they must look for the man

who killed the previous king, Laius, and he says

that the only clue that they have is that a band of

thieves attacked and murdered him while he was

abroad. Creon tells Oedipus that “the god’s com-

mand is plain: Punish his takers-off, whoe’er they

be.”

Oedipus, despite some initial apprehension,

agrees to help “avenge this wrong.”

Oedipus demands that if anyone knows anything

they speak up, as he says “Thebans, if any knows

the man by whom Laius, son of Labdacus, was

slain, I summon him to make clean shrift to me.”

He also threatens that if someone knows some-

thing and does not say anything, he will face the

“worst penalty.”

The chorus suggests to Oedipus that he should

speak with the prophet lord Teiresias, explaining

that “he of all men best might guide a searcher of

this matter to the light.”

Having already been sent for, Teiresias arrives.

After a series of protests, a prophet reveals that the killer of Laius

is King Oedipus.

In the picture, the prophet Teiresias is

shown as he appears in many adapta-

tions of the play. The white cloth placed

over his eyes is used to indicate his

blindness.

The chorus suggests to Oedipus that he should

speak with the prophet lord Teiresias, explaining

that “he of all men best might guide a searcher of

this matter to the light.”

Having already been sent for, Teiresias arrives.

Teiresias is described as being in a “melancholy

mood” by Oedipus and asks if he go home. Oedipus

tells him that any true patriot would not “withhold

the word of prophecy.”

Teiresias continues to refuse to speak and angers

Oedipus.

Teiresias reveals that Oedipus is the killer, saying

“thou art the man, thou the accursed polluter of this

land.”

Oedipus asks Teiresias to “repeat it” and “say it

again” because he “but half caught thy meaning.”

Teiresias again states that he is the murderer.

Oedipus becomes more angry with Teiresias and

makes a comment regarding his blindness.

After the prophet revealed his belief that the king was the killer,

Oedipus accuses Creon of plotting to steal his throne.

In an adaption of the play “Oedipus the

King,” the king is shown gripping onto

Creon. He feels particularly betrayed be-

cause Creon was his “familial friend.”

Oedipus asks whether this “is a plot of Creon” or

Teiresias.

Teiresias and Oedipus exit after the prophet tells

Oedipus that he is not “an alien in the land” but is

a “Theban, native born,” that he is both the

brother and the father of the children in his home,

and that he is his mother’s son and husband.

The strophe is “perplexed,” and the antistrophe

finds it challenging to blame the man who “saved

[their] State].”

Oedipus accuses him of being full of “spite and

envy” and accuses “trusty” Creon of “[laying] in

wait to oust [him]” from the throne. He believes that

the men are trying to make him the “scapegoat.”

Teiresias asks “dost know thy lineage?” He also

tells Oedipus “see’st not in what misery thou art

fallen...nor with whom for mate.”

Creon enters after learning of the “most grievous

change” that Oedipus “hath laid against [him]”.

Oedipus enters and calls him “[his’ murderer and

filcher of [his] crown.” Creon attempts to “to make

reply” but Oedipus does not allow him to.

Oedipus questions Creon, asking whether Teiresias

was a prophet when Laius died and why he

“failed...to tell his story then.”

Creon discusses how he would not ever want to be

king, asking “how could a title then have charms for

me above the sweets of boundless influence.”

Oedipus threatens to kill Creon, saying “I would not

have thee banished, no, but dead…”

Jocasta enters. She scolds them for putting their per-

sonal lives on display for the “whole land.”

He lets Creon go, stating that he is doing in for his wife, not

him, and that he will still hate him wherever he goes.

After he learns some specific details surrounding Laius’s death,

King Oedipus first realizes that he is the likely killer.

This picture is a map which shows

where the three roads from Delphi,

Daulia, and Thebes intersect in Phocis.

This is the location where Oedipus

killed his father.

Jocasta wants to understand what has occurred,

pleading to “make thjs clear.”

He tells her that Creon used the prophet, “a knav-

ish seer,” to name him as Laius’s murderer..

She attempts to “ease [his] conscience by telling

him the story of her child who was killed.

After figuring out the location of Laius’s death and

what he looked like, Oedipus cries “O woe is me!

Methinks unwittingly I laid but now a dread curse

on myself.”

He tells Jocasta to find the sole survivor of the inci-

dent, a serf, to question him.

Oedipus tells Jocasta that if the man “speaks of rob-

bers, not a robber” he did not kill him. However, if

he says there was only one man, he will believe that

he is guilty.

After a messenger reveals that his father had died on natural causes,

Oedipus experiences short lived relief at the supposed falsity of the

prophecy.

In a version of the play in which

all the characters wear masks, the

me s s e n g e r f r o m O e d i p u s ’s

“native” land arrives to tell him

about his adoptive father.

A messenger arrives saying that Oedipus’s father

has died of natural causes and that “the Isthmian

commons have resolved to make [Oedipus] king.”

Jocasta is happy about this news, and Oedipus de-

cides that the oracle was false. She essentially states

that she had been telling him this all along, and he

says he “was misled by fear.” He experiences relief

that he will not marry his mother.

The messenger reveals that Polybus is not the father of Oedipus

and that he himself gave the baby to the childless man after the

baby was found on a mountain.

This picture to the right is

of a shepherd with the

young Oedipus among the

trees. In the photo, the fa-

cial expression of the man,

revealing possible nervous-

ness or worry, is an impor-

tant aspect to note.

The messenger tells Oedipus hat Polybus is not his

father and that he himself had given him to Polybus

after another shepherd found him on the mountain

with bound ankles.

The man who found was a herdsman of the Laius,

whom Oedipus then tries to locate. He asks Jocasta,

who tells him to “let it be.” He thinks that she does

not want him to continue because of “her pride of

ancestry;” he thinks she is upset that he is not from

royalty.

(More of the information from this section can be

found in the Past Timeline)

Jocasta then exits, saying that she will be forever

quiet.

The herdsman reveals after much hesitation that the baby that he

gave to the messenger was the child of Laius and Jocasta, and

Oedipus puts everything together.

In this picture, the man in the

background is the messenger,

while the man in gray is the

herdsman speaking to King Oedi-

pus.

The herdsman enters, and the messenger asks if he

remembers giving him a child. The herdsman ac-

cuses him of “[babbling] like a fool.”

He eventually reveals that the child was Laius’s and

that he was supposed to “make away with it.”

Oedipus finally puts everything together and exits.

(Much of what occurs in this part is discussed in the

past timeline.)

A second messenger reveals that after discovering the truth, a dis-

traught Jocasta kills herself, and Oedipus gauges out his eyes.

The photo to the right is of King Oedipus

after using his wife/mother’s brooch to

blind himself. The blood can be seen com-

ing from his eyes.

The picture to the left was a cover of the playbill and

the advertisement for an adaption of the play. King

Oedipus is seen with blood dripping from his eyes

after he blinds himself.

A second messenger reveals that Jocasta has com-

mitted suicide by hanging herself,.

Oedipus “tore the golden brooches” from her

clothes and plunged them into his eyeballs.

He asks Creon to “send [him] from the land an exile.”

An oracle, a minister of the Delphic god, came to King Laius and told him that he would be killed

by his son with Jocasta.

At three days old, the child, Oedipus, was left with his ankles tied “on the trackless mountain

side.”

The messenger, a shepherd, gave the king, Polybus, a childless man, Oedipus after another shep-

herd gave the baby to him in Cithaeron’s wooded glens with his feet bound.

This picture is of Oedipus the King with Themis, a goddess

who prophesized for Apollo, depicted on a cup from the fifth

century B.C.E.

This picture is of the mountain Cithaeron where

the baby, young Oedipus, was supposed to be left by a

herdsman.

In this photograph, the baby is being given to the

messenger, a shepherd, by the herdsman who wanted

for the baby to be able to live.

He was taken care of and became the son of Polybus of Corinth and Merope, a Dorian.

A man told Oedipus that he was “not the true son of thy sire.” He questioned his parents who were

“indignant at the random slur.”

He went to Delphi without telling his parents, and Apollo told him that he would “defile [his]

mother’s bed and kill his father.

Oedipus exiled himself after hearing that he would kill his father and marry his mother.

This picture is of Polybus of Corinth and Merope, who were

without a child and adopted young Oedipus.

This painting by Rubik Kocharian and depicts Oedi-

pus the King in the temple of Apollo. This was made in

2002.

Oedipus killed Laius and th e other men he was with where three roads met in Phocis.

Oedipus solves the Sphinx’s riddle, becomes king, and married Jocasta.

The messenger, a shepherd, gave the king, Polybus, a childless man, Oedipus after another shep-

herd found him in Cithaeron’s wooded glens with his feet bound.

https://www.pinterest.com/

pin/575053446140565307/

This photo , painted by Francois-

Xavier Fabre in the 18th century, depicts

Oedipus and the Sphinx. His solving of

the riddle made him respected and re-

vered in Thebes.

In this photo, Oedi- pus is killing Laius

and his men. The painting is by French

painter Paul Joesph Blanc.

Works Cited

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2015.

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