Meanwhile, the common folk, with wreathed boughsīoth shrines of Pallas congregate, or whereįor, as thou seest thyself, our ship of State, Of Zeus, and these the flower of our youth. Thy palace altars-fledglings hardly winged,Īnd greybeards bowed with years priests, as am I Thou seest how both extremes of age besiege Yea, Oedipus, my sovereign lord and king, Of ill that moves you or a boon ye crave? What means this reek of incense everywhere,Ĭhildren, it were not meet that I should learnĮxplain your mood and purport. Why sit ye here as suppliants, in your hands

Suppliants of all ages are seated round the altar at the palace doors, at their head a PRIEST OF ZEUS. The closing scene reveals Jocasta slain by her own hand and Oedipus blinded by his own act and praying for death or exile. Step by step it is brought home to him that he is the man. Oedipus denounces the crime of which he is unaware, and undertakes to track out the criminal. Again the oracle was consulted and it bade them purge themselves of blood-guiltiness. Children were born to them and Thebes prospered under his rule, but again a grievous plague fell upon the city. So he reigned in the room of Laius, and espoused the widowed queen. Arriving at Thebes he answered the riddle of the Sphinx and the grateful Thebans made their deliverer king. Wherefore he fled from what he deemed his father’s house and in his flight he encountered and unwillingly slew his father Laius. Afterwards doubting his parentage he inquired of the Delphic god and heard himself the word declared before to Laius.

Polybus being childless adopted the boy, who grew up believing that he was indeed the King’s son. 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. So when in time a son was born the infant’s feet were riveted together and he was left to die on Mount Cithaeron. 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.

Antigone trilogy