Episode 1

Question 1

Oedipus wants to take the place of god

Answer 1

“You pray to the gods? Let me grant your prayers” (seems to forget that they don’t think he’s a god, takes too much responsibility

Question 2

Oedipus thinks he played no part in the murder

Answer 2

I will speak as a stranger to the story, a stranger to the crime (ironic) if Id been present then there would have been no mystery, no long hunt

Question 3

OEdipus’ first preposition

Answer 3

If anyone knows reveal the whole truth. Nothing to fear
If the murderer denounces himself he will be totally unharmed, nothing worse than exile (a very reasonable punishment, this is all that was required)

If someone knows that the murderer is a stranger a man from alien soil I will give him a handsome reward

Question 4

Oedipus changes his first preposition

Answer 4

If you keep silent, if someone trying to protect friend or kin(like Antigone)
Banish this man, never shelter him, never speak to him, never let holy water touch his hands. drive him out. He is the plague, heart of our corruption. (Still thinks of the killer as one man)

Question 5

Oedipus’ curse

Answer 5

My curse on the murderer
Let him drag out his life in agony
I curse myself as well if he is an intimate of our house (Antigone, he has indeed cursed himself)

Question 6

Oedipus supports Laius

Full of irony

Answer 6

I command you
How could you leave the crime un-cleansed for so long, a man so noble-your king (only cares about status)
I am the king now, hold his throne, possess his bed, and a wife who shares our seed
Our seed might be the same. Children born of the same mother might have created blood-bonds between us.
I will fight for him as if he were my father (ironic)

“Their power and mine are one” He has won the throne but recites the full royal genealogy as if he were the legitimate successor, as if he were trying to include himself in the long procession of Theban kings. To hi sorrow he is in fact the true heir.

Question 7

Oedipus’ terrible curse

Answer 7

Dear gods, my curse on those who disobey the orders

Let no crops grow for them, shrivel their women, kill their sons, burn them to nothing in this plague

Question 8

Oedipus prays to the gods to fight with them

Answer 8

May all the gods, may our champion justice, be with us loyal men and fight with us till the end (cursing the Thebans, tyrannical)

Question 9

The Leader says Apollo pressed the search on us, he should name the killer, what does Oedipus reply

Answer 9

To force the gods to act against their will no man has the power (not hubristic)

Question 10

What does the leader say about Tiresias

Answer 10

Tiresias sees with the eyes of Apollo
Anyone searching for truth might learn it from him

Without him there are but rumours (Oedipus should listen to him then),

The truth lies in him, in him alone

Question 11

The LEader says
the man won’t stay silent for long with the fear of your curses

Oedipus’ reply

Answer 11

Oedipus replies he didn’t flinch at murder he’ll never flinch at words (he is terrified of the truth words bring later)

Question 12

Oedipus reveers Tiresias

Answer 12

“You, My lord, are the one shield, the on saviour we can find”
Rescue yourself, your city, rescue me
We are in your hands

Question 13

Tiresias says the truth is terrible

Answer 13

It is terrible to see the truth, truth is only pain to him who sees(highly prophetic), I had put it from my mind
Send me home, you bear your burdens I’ll bear mine. It’s better that way. Please believe me

Question 14

Oedipus sees it as withholding the truth

Answer 14

Unlawful response, unfriendly to the state that bred and reared you, you withhold the word of god. We beg you, all of us on our knees

Question 15

Tiresias is protecting him

Answer 15

I won’t reveal my dreadful secrets, or your own
I’d rather no cause pain for you or me
This is but useless interrogation

Question 16

Oedipus sees this as a betrayal and over reacts

Answer 16

Your bent on betraying us, destroying Thebes

Oedipus: scum of the earth you’d enrage a heart of stone!

Question 17

Oedipus now thinks completely irrationaly

Answer 17

“I have such fury in me”
“Now I see it all”
You helped hatch the plot, short of killing him with your own hands, would have done it single ha deadly if you’d had eyes (ridiculous, ironic how wrong he is)

Question 18

Tiresias reveals

Answer 18

You are the curse, the corruption of the land

Question 19

What’s used to emphasise the feud

Answer 19

Stichomythia. Intense as they lash out at each other, Oedipus tempts him to repeat what he said.

Question 20

Oedipus insults Tiresias, Tiresias’ response

Answer 20

You’ve lost your power of truth
Stone-blind, stone-deaf, eyes blind as stone (he is the ignorant one, and he will be blind)
Tiresias says these are the insults that will be flung at him very soon

Question 21

Oedipus thinks Tiresias is threatening him

Answer 21

You can’t hurt me, can never touch me (his paranoia, shows how wild his assumptions are)

Question 22

Tiresias
It is not your fate to fall at my hands, says its Apollo but Oedipus assumes he means a man

OEdipus jumps to conclusions

Answer 22

Creon! Is this conspiracy his or yours? (Shown by the Creon! On its own, jumping to ridiculous ends)

Question 23

Tiresias
Creon is not your downfall, no, you are your own
Oedipus ignores

Answer 23

What envy lurks inside you
Just for this, the crown the city gave me
For this Creon, my soul of trust, my loyal friend, steals against me (it can’t be from the start then, why would he be fine to hand over the crown then)
So hungry to overthrow me (no proof)
He set this fortune teller peddling lies on me (in what way? What for, Tiresias didn’t want for reveal his secret so why would he want to use it against him)

Question 24

Why does Oedipus think that Tiresias is useless,

he is the truth finder

Answer 24

“Come here”
When did you prove yourself a prophet
You were silent with the Sphinx and her riddle
You, your birds, your gods nothing (thinks he’s superior)
I came by and stopped the Sphinx with the flight of my own intelligence (no gods)

Question 25

Leader is wise

Answer 25

Says both groups words were spoken in anger, that’s what’s needed. We should, only try to answer the riddle posed by God.

Question 26

Tiresias’ speech about how blind OEdipus is

Answer 26

With your precious eyes your blind to the corruption of your life
To those you live with in your house
Who are your parents?

Question 27

Tiresias fully insults Oedipus and predicts his end

Answer 27

You are the scourge of your own flesh and blood
Double lash of your mothers and fathers curse will remove you from this land
Darkness will shroud your eyes

You will scream aloud, what haven won’t reverberate?
When you learn the truth of your marriage

No man will ever be rooted from the earth as brutally as you

Question 28

Stichomythia

Answer 28

there is no understanding whatsoever
Tiresias hints that he delivered prophecies to his parents, Oedipus questions, Tiresias continues to be cryptic, Oedipus says all you can say are riddles Tiresias says aren’t you the best man at solving riddles.

Question 29

Greatness

Answer 29

Oedipus: mock me at that and you’ll reveal my greatness( arrogance, truly thinks he’s incredible)

Tiresias said that great fortune was his ruin, Oedipus says that if he saved the city why should he care (a caring king?)

Question 30

Oedipus talks as OEdipus walks away

Answer 30

I will go once I have said what I came here to say (but he’s been withholding this till now)
Listen to me closely (but he’s already gone)
The murderer of Laius is here, he will be revealed native Theban (but will take no pleasure in this revelation)

Question 31

Tiresias predicts Oedipus’ future

Answer 31

He will grope his way toward foreign soil a stick tapping before him step by step (the Sphinx’s riddle, was actually about Oedipus)

Question 32

Tiresias reveals the critical information, Oedipus’ prophecy

Answer 32

Father and brother to his children.
Son and husband to his mother.
“Sowed the loins his father sowed, he spilled his father’s blood!” (Oedipus’ prophecy)

Tells him to solve that but Oedious makes no reply and dismissed The seer with contempt and he doesn’t connect with his own prophecy made at Delphi which he later mentions to Jocasta. A recognised convention of the Greek stage where mocking or menacing remarks were flung at the back of an actor who doesn’t hear them- Suggests Oedipus has already left and misses the crucial information)