Exodus Flashcards
Messenger asks for sympathy for Oedipus
If you are true to your birth, if you still have some feeling for the royal house of Thebes
This place has been tainted
The waters of the Danube nor the Nile can watch this place clean.
None of what will come was prophesised
Everything done with a will now, those we inflict on ourselves hurt most of all
What does the messenger reveal
-the queen is dead
How did Jocasta mourn
Dashed passed us frantic
Flung herself across the bridal bed
Wailed for Laius, remembering bearing his child, and her children by Oedipus
Oedipus came in
Oedipus burst in screaming, crying for a sword.
Hurled at the twin doors, bending the bolts back out of their sockets.
Oedipus finds Jocasta
She was there hanging by her neck
Spinning, swinging back and forth (gruesome imagery)
He sobbed, he eased her down.
Oedipus blinds himself
Ripped of her brooches holding her robes
Raked them down on his eyes
Blood spurts, splashing.
the ancestral house
“all the griefs in the world…all are theirs forever”
a Kommos is
lyrical song of lamentation in an Athenian tragedy that the chorus and a dramatic character sing together.
A kommos occurs “when the tension of the play rises to a climax of grief or horror or joy”
The Messenger repeats Oedipus’s words
He’s shouting
Show me to all of Thebes
starts telling of his miseries…
No, I can’t repeat it, it’s unholy
The messenger prepares the audience
The great doors are opening
you are about to see a sight, a horror
The chorus address Oedipus
what God crushed your life
Cursed by the gods
I pity you, I’ve got so much to ask, so much to learn (the problem)
Oedipus’ agony speech
the agony! I am agony
Asks where he’s going
Oedipus’ destiny speech
my darkness, drowning, swirling around me
the misery
Oedipus is thankful to the chorus
“Dear friend, still here? standing by me, still with a care for me, such compassion, loyal to the last”
Chorus ask what superhuman power drove him on
“Apollo ordained my agonies”
“But the hand that struck my eyes was mine”
“I did it all myself”
What does Oedipus now want
Take me away far from Thebes, cast me away
What does the chorus wish for
the chorus wish that he had never known
Oedipus wishes these to die
- whoever cut him free, saved his life
- curse him, kill him!
- he would never have done these things if he’s died then
Oedipus knows himself
a list of his crimes
“mine alone, my destiny –I am Oedipus!”
The chorus say surely dying is better than being blind
What I did was best- don’t lecture me (so commanding, but he’s the man of error, should have taken advice)
No more advice (but he never took advice in the first place which brought about his downfall)
Why does he wish to be blind
Wishes to be blind when he dies so he doesn’t see his father or mother. Or his children, or his city
wishes he had never sought the truth
Oblivion-what a blessing (should never have sought the truth)
Blames Cithaeron
Blames Cithaeron, why did it not kill him (irrational, madness, still trying to blame others)
keeps mourning the past
Keeps mourning the past “the blackest things a man can do, I have done them all!”
Oedipus keeps some dignity
The chorus are clearly in wonder at him
His troubles, claims he is the only man alive who can sustain them
knows that he has wronged CReon
Admits he has wronged Creon, I was wrong, so wrong.
What does Oedipus ask of Creon,
Creon’s reply
Oedipus asks to be driven out of the land
Creon replies that he would have done it already but first he wants the God to clarify his duties.
Oedipus is still commanding towards CReon
“I command you- I beg you”
To bury Jocasta as he sees fit
Never allow the city of his fathers to to house his body
Let me die on Cithaeron
Take care of my daughters, they are helpless
Permit me just to touch them with my hands
“Please…my king”
Oedipus’ gruesome speech to his daughters
Gruesome image
“come to these hands of mine, your brother’s hands, your own father’s hands”
Seeing/knowing nothing i became your father
Weeps for his daughters days to come
Weeps for their days to come What public gatherings can you join Who will take you in marriage, risking all to shoulder the curse that weighs down your parents It wounds us all together You must bare it all Who will marry you then Your doom is clear: you'll wither away to nothing Single, without a child.
What does he ask of CReon for his daughters
You are their only father now Creon
Don’t let them go without a husband
Never bring them down to my level of pain (he does)
Promise me (but he never answers him)
What does he tell his children
To pray for life
Pray God you find a better life than mine
Creon: Enough, you’ve wept enough, into the palace one
Let go of the children
Oedipus’ response
No
Don’t take them away from me, not now
No, no, no! (Still controlling, a heartbreaking image)
Creon ends Oedipus’ power
Still the king, the master of all things?
here your power ends
Chorus’ exit speech about OEdipus
People of Thebes, look on Oedipus
Solved the famous riddle with his brilliance
He rose to power, a man beyond all power
Who couldn’t behold his greatness without envy
Now…
Count no man happy till he dies, free from pain at last
