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The Line of Cadmus

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The Line of Cadmus Amphion and Zethus Cadmus Harmonia Autonoe Aristaios Semele Zeus Ino Athamas Polydoros Nycteis Agave Echion Actaeon Dionysos Labdacus Pentheus Amphion and Zethus Laius abducts Pelops’ son Chrysippos Menoeceus! Laius Jocasta Creon Oedipus Adrastos Argelia Polyneices Eteokles Antigone Ismene Menoeceus! Thersandros Laodamas Odyssey 11. 271-80! The Place where the Three Roads meet (or somewhere like it)! http://aclassicaday.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/oedipus-king.html! Oedipus and the Sphinx, Kylix, 470 BCE! It goes two-footed and four- footed and three-footed upon the earth, it has a single voice! and alone of all those on land, in the air, or the sea it changes form. ! ! And when it goes supported on three (or most) feet, then! the speed of its limbs is weakest.! ! Asklepiades ca 260 BCE http://www.flickr.com/photos/ ©All rights reserved by Myth Image 23227570@N07/2225109696/sizes/z/in/photostream/ Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus ! Odeon Herodes Atticus, 2004! directed by Yukio Ninagawa! ! ! All images of this play have been removed for copyright reasons! ! PROLOGUE: Thebes is dying, blighted in the land’s fruitful crops, blighted in the grazing herds of cattle and the barren birth pangs of women. The fiery god of fever harries the city with dreadful plague, emptying the house of Cadmus while black Death becomes rich with cries and groans. (25-30)! I see that his head is crowned with a wreath of laurel leaves, so he may be bringing comfort. We’ll find out soon enough. He is within hailing distance.! CREON: Apollo orders us to drive out from the land the source of its pollution, one that the land has nourished. The murdered of Laius who goes unpunished.! Parodos: Lamentation and prayer to Zeus Apollo and Athene for deliverance, ! from the “numberless deaths on deaths”; burn the god of death. ! Most wicked of men, you would enrage a rock! What kind of prophet knows but will not say, silent, proud and utterly useless?! …the man you’ve sought, the murderer of Laius lives among you and soon will be revealed a native Theban ! First stasimon. Dark foreboding assails me. Who did that unspeakable thing? ! I cannot think Oedipus is guilty! Act 2: Creon and Jocasta! Creon: I’m here to defend myself against the outrageous accusations Oedipus has made against me! You dare to show your face. ... a man who plots to kill me? ! You did investigate Laius’ murder? But the great seer never accused me then--why not?! If the two of you had never put your heads together, there would never have been a word about me killing Laius. ! Who in their right mind would rather rule in anxiety than sleep in peace? Particularly if he enjoys the same authority and priviledge.! Go to Delphi yourself, examine the oracle and see whether I have reported the message truely and accurately. ! Jocasta: Deplorable for two grown men to quarrel when the city is so sick! A prophet. Who believes in prophets? No mortal can see into the future. I can prove this. An oracle came to Laius... that he was fated to die at the hands of a son born to him and me. But as you know, Laius was killed by robbers at the place where three roads meet. It could not be the child we had. When he was three days old Laius had his ankles pierced and bound and set him out on a mountain to perish... ! What? My mind wandered and I had an uneasy feeling, I thought I heard you say that Laius was murdered at a place where three roads meet...! ! And where is the place?! In Phocis, where the road diverges. One goes to Delphi, the other off towards Daulis.! ! That I would lie with my mother and bring forth children the world would hate to see, and that I would be murderer! of the father who sired me. ! I heard all that! and ran. ...! And , reached the very spot where the great king, you say, met his death! You said he used the plural “robbers”, so if he holds to the same number, I cannot be the killer. One can’t equal many. ! Second stasimon: I pray that the world makes sense, that there are gods and eternal truths. They pray that chance does not rule our lives ! ACT 3. Jocasta and the Corinthian messenger. ! .! Polybus is dead But surely I must fear my mother’s bed...! Polybus was nothing to you, not in blood.! You were a gift, years ago--know for a fact he took you from my hands! A shepherd gave you to me with your ankles pinned. ! The shepherd is the one you have already sent for. ! He was the only survivor of the death of Laius. ! Third stasimon: Oedipus, child of Mount Cithaeron, who bore you, which of the gods begot you? Who is Oedipus?! ACT 4. Laius’ shepherd! Did you give this man that child?! I did and I wish I’d died on that same day! Where did you get it?! From the house of Laius. Your wife could tell you better than I.! She gave it to you? ! Yes. So I could kill it ! Poor woman! She was its mother? ! ! There had been frightening prophecies. It was said that the child would one day kill its parents ! ! In a play that has been full of questions, Oedipus asks one last question. ! Why did you give him away? ! I pitied him. ! Oh light, let me look my last on you! I stand revealed at last, cursed in birth, cursed in marriage and cursed in the lives I cut down with these hands. ! Fourth Stasimon: What man, after chasing all his life for the shadow of happiness, can claim more than a moment's illusion? ! Who has ever fallen further or faster? ! How could you plough that same furrow where you were ploughed?! Exodos: Messenger: Now in this one day, wailing, madness and doom, death, disgrace, all the griefs in the world that you can name, all are theirs forever! The great doors are opening--you are about to see a sight, a horror even his mortal enemy would pity.! Apollo ordained my agonies. But the hand that struck my eyes was mine, mine alone, no one else....! Drive me out of this land at once, far from human sight, where I can never hear a human voice.! Enough, you’ve wept enough. Into the palace now. ! People of Thebes, my countrymen, look on Oedipus. He solved the famous riddle with his brilliance, he rose to power, a man beyond all power. ! Who could behold his greatness and not envy?! Now what a black sea of terror has overwhelmed him.! Now as we keep watch and wait the final day,! count no man happy until he dies, free of pain at last.! Capaneus attempts to scale the walls of Thebes Campanian red- figure neck-amphora, ca. 340 BCE! Wikimedia Commons. ! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ File:Seven_against_Thebes_Getty_Villa_92.AE. 86.jpg! Prologue: Supplicants: the earth, animals and women are barren Creon: Apollo commands us to drive out the pollution, the murderer of Laius who goes unpunished! song Parodos: The city reeks with death. Prayer for deliverance Epilogue: t Messenger Jocasta’s suicide, Oedipus’ self blinding.! ACT 1 Oedipus with children.! Tiresias Oedipus requests exile! Oedipus’ curse on the murderer.Tiresias names Oedipus as guilty.! departure! Sophocles Oedipus ! structure song stasimon song stasimon: Who has ever fallen further or faster? How could you Dark foreboding assails me. But I cannot think plough that same furrow where you were ploughed?! Oedipus is guilty! ACT 2 CREON—OEDIPUS--JOCASTA. Creon defends himself against Oedipus’ accusations. Jocasta mediates. Creon ACT 4 exits. ! ACT 4. LAIUS’ HERDSMAN! When harshly threatened by Oedipus the Jocasta argues that Laius was killed by robbers at a place where 3 roads herdsman admits giving the Corinthian a child meet. Summon the survivor.! that he had received from Jocasta.! ! Oedipus reveals the taunt that he was not his father’s son. Consulted ! Apollo at Delphi and given a prophecy that, “I would lie with my mother and bring forth children the world would hate to see, and that I would be murderer of my father. ! He fled from Corinth and killed an old man and his retinue at the place where three roads meet.! song stasimon: I cannot revere the gods unless prophecies prove song stasimon true. ! Oedipus, child of Cithaeron, who bore you, which ACT 3 of the gods begot you?! JOCASTA—CORINTHIAN MESSENGER OEDIPUS! ! Messenger from Corinth, Polybus is dead. Oedipus is not Polybus’ child but was given to the Corinthian by Laius’ herdsman with his ankles pinned. The herdsman may be the very one who survived the massacre at the place where the three roads meet. Jocasta urges Oedipus to forget about it. She exits. !.
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