Prologos Flashcards
Setting at beginning of play
Thebes
Double doors
Stone altar at centre
Many years since Oedipus solved the riddle
Oedipus addresses the people (first words)
“Oh my children” (calls them my children twice, good king but too much power”
Why are you “huddling at my altar” “praying before me” “your branches wound in wool”
(wool sticks, suppliant’s who believed the only hope is divine intervention…but come to Oedipus for help) (as if divine)
Oedipus sets the scene
City reeks with smoke of burning incense, cries for the Healer (Apollo), wailing for the dead
oedipus is assure of himself, presents himself as the saviour
Here I am myself “the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus” (ironic, he becomes famous for his fall not solving the riddle, he doesn’t know he who he is or who is parentage is)
Oedipus to the priest, he is ready to help
“I am ready to help, I’ll do anything”
Oedipus is caring
“I would be blind to misery not to pity my people kneeling at my feet” (blind to his own imminent misery, but kind sympathetic view)
The priest praises him
“King of the land” “our greatest power”
You see men of all ages clinging to your altars
“Your great family gathers”
Priest sets the scene
Thebes is dying
Blight on fresh crops and rich pastures
Cattle sicken and die
Women die in lAbour
The Plague hurled down by the fiery God slashes through us (violent imagery)
Black Death luxuriates in the miseries of THebes
Why the priest has come to Oedipus
“we pray to you”
You cannot equal the gods, but we do rate you first of men
Introduces us to him saving us from the Sphinx, you lifted up our lives
So we bend to you, your power
Wonder if he’s heard something from the gods “Oedipus…what do you know?” (Oistha Pou, sounds like Oedipus, a pun on the man who does not even know himself)
What does the priest ask of Oedipus, puts a lot of responsibility on him
best of men raise up our city, defend your former glory! (Given to much power) (repeats the raise up city later on in this passage)
Be the same man as you were that day today
Rule, rule a land of the living though (too much pressure and responsibility)
Oedipus’ response to the priest
my children, I pity you (talks as if he’s distant from a place of superiority, he’s talking to a priest)
Oedipus shows he has to worry about the whole city
While you are pained individually, my spirit grieves for the city, for myself and all of you (good king)
Oedipus’ search for a cure
I have wept through the nights, labouring over many paths of though
After a painful search I found one cure )Oedipus the physician is actually the sickness/disease)
I acted at once and Sent Creon (“my wife’s own brother” and thus his uncle too) to Delphi to find what I might do to save the city
When he returns I’ll be a traitor if I do not do all the God makes clear (Apollo will make clear his demands, in the end he will make the truth clear too)
Oedipus’ address to CReon
Oedipus: “Creon, my prince, my kinsman” (doesn’t realise to what an extent he is his kinsman)
Creon doesn’t want to speak in front of everybody
“I tell you even the hardest things to bear” (similar to Oedipus’ later words) he’s ambiguous and vague, wants to talk to Oedipus alone, asks if he wants to report in front of all the people.
Why is OEdipus fine with CReon talking in front of everybody
Oedipus: speak to all of us, I grieve for my people more than I fear for my own life.
(overconfident)
What has Apollo commanded
Creon: Apollo clearly commands that the corruption must be driven from the land. Banish the man, the murder of our previous leader Laius “before you came and put us straight on course”
What does Oedipus say about Laius
Oedipus says he never saw the man himself.
Creon gives information about Laius
he was killed as he set out to an oracle.
information on the killer
Creon says that Apollo said the killer is here in Thebes. Creon also says The only person who survived and saw the killing said that a whole band of thieves attacked them
Oedipus’s opinion on it being a thief being the killer
thinks it impossible that a thief killed the king unless he was paid by someone in Thebes. Talks about thief in the singular, thinks of the leader (ironic that later he will later wish it was many rather than singular
Oedipus gives importance to the role of king
Shocked that “your king was murdered- royal blood” what stopped you from tracking down the killer there and then. The riddling Sphinx persuaded us to let it go (its a riddle itself)
Oedipus gets personally involved, almost hubristic
Oedipus (seems to have a personal motive)
“I’ll bring it all to light myself!” (He will go blind)
Now you have me to fight for you
I am the lands avenger and Apollos champion (almost hubristic)
Oedipus does it for LAius
Will do it to assist some distant kinsman (closer than that, importance of family to him)
Whoever killed the king might decide to kill me too, by avenging him I defend myself.
How does the priest describe Oedipus’ action in giving in
“the kindness we came for”
“Oedipus volunteers himself” (like a sacrifice)
“come down, Apollo, save us, stop the plague” (Oedipus stops the plague- but with terrible consequences)
