2nd half of memory Oedipus

21

The Shepherd's 'pitied the little baby' sets compassion against fate, a contrast sharpened by the repeated 'this, this fate' within the pressure of stichomythic interrogation

22

Anagnorisis is realised through exclamation and cumulative repetition in 'all burst to light', 'look my last' and 'cursed', bringing the light motif to its culmination.

23

The Chorus personifies Time through the epithet 'all-seeing' and the violent verb 'dragged', sustaining the light motif.

24

The Messenger's speech is built on the antithesis of 'done blindly' and 'with a will', before closing on the sententia 'the pains we inflict upon ourselves hurt most of all'.

25

Visceral imagery and the repetition of 'pain' in 'see no more' and 'pain I caused' carry the eyes/blindness motif through the economy of the messenger speech.

26

Antithesis, possessive repetition and emphatic punctuation set 'ordained my agonies' against 'mine alone' and the culminating 'I did it all myself'.

27

Oedipus's monologue is anchored in the possessive 'troubles are mine' and the emphatic self-assertion of 'the only man alive'.

28

Creon's rhetorical question 'Still the king?' and the abrupt parallelism of 'No more' echo the Prologue's regal diction to enact the peripeteia.

29

The Chorus's final address couples the imperative 'count no man happy' with the moral aphorism 'till he dies'.