Oedipus Quotes

Prologue - Hubris, plague, leadership AND creon (5)

“The world knows my fame: I am Oedipus”

“Rate you first of men”

“Raw wailing misery of Thebes”

“I am ready to help, I’ll do anything.’

“Creon … my kinsman”

Prologue and Chorus - fate and gods (3)

“Apollo commands us, he was quite clear” “Banish the man, or pay back blood with blood”

“Singing riddling sphinx - she persuaded us to let the mystery go”

“I worship you in dread .. what is your price?”

Ep2 - Hubris, curse (3)

“You pray to the Gods? Let me answer your prayers”

“Banish this man..he is the plague”

‘Let the man drag out his life in agony”

Ep1 - TIRESIAS CONVO (4)

“You, my lord, are the one saviour we can find”

“How terrible to see the truth when the truth is only pain to him who sees!”

“You’ll get nothing from me”

“You are the murderer you hunt!”

Ep1 - Anger from convo, accusations (4)

“I have such fury in me”

“You scum of the earth”

“Seer blind in his craft!”

“The marauding thief himself, scheming to steal my crown and power!”

Ep2 + Chorus - and Creons moderation (5)

“Whether a seer can fathom more than I - there is no test”

“Never will I convict my king” “He was the joy of thebes!”

“See things calmly and rationally”

“When I don’t know I keep quite”

"Those who jump to conclusions may go wrong”

Ep2 - Jocasta, Oedipus flashback road rage (4)

A prophet? Free yourself of every charge!

“Flashed before my eyes a future great with pain, terror disaster"

“I struck him in anger”

“I killed them all - every mother’s son!”

Ep 3 - convo with messanger

“All those prophecies I feared, Polybus packs them off to sleep with him in hell’

‘They’re noting, worthless"

“The fear is always with me”

Ep3 - Insistence to continue and Jocasta’s suffering

Fail to solve the mystery of my birth? Not for the world!

You're doomed. May you never fathom who you are.

Man of agony that is the only name I  have for you.

“Im at the edge pf hearing the horrors but I must hear!”

Ep3/4 - Relisation, blinding, speaking to chorus (5)

“All come true! All burst to light!”

“Youll see no more the pain I've suffered”

“I pity you. I shudder at your sight”

“The hand that struck my eyes was mine”

“What grief can crown this grief. Its mine alone - I am Oedipus”

Ep 5 - Final

“Drive me out of Thebes in exile”

“I haven’t come to mock you”

“Count no man happy till he dies”

“My poor helpless girl..Take care of them”

No more: Here your power ends.

STAGE DIRECTIONS: (5)

• “Enter Oedipus, blinded, led by a boy. He stands at the palace steps, as if surveying his people once again.”

• “Enter Tiresias, the blinded prophet, led by a boy with escorts in attendance”

• “Oedipus Comes forward, majestic but from a telltale limp, and slowly views the condition of his people.

• “Motioning to his men for torture"

• “Jocasta turns sharply”