Read through the 2nd Ode (lines 1–997) of Oedipus the King by Sophocles and write/post a journal: Choose an important quote from the reading and explain why it is important.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

Answers

I used lines 280-287, where Oedipus is cursing the murderer. This quote proves that he truly believes he has done no wrong. If he had intentionally killed Laius, he would not have imposed such a curse upon himself. It verifies his innocence.

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2005

Lines 932-937 are important because they determine Oedipus's future. According to the slave witness, a band of thieves killed King Lauis, but Oedipus thinks he was the only one. If Oedipus's theory is correct, he is doomed. This also shows how afraid the witness was of accusing a high figure of a great crime. Oedipus had just become the king after solving the riddle of the Sphynx, and he was afraid that if he accused Oedipus of being the murderer, he would be killed.

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2005

The quote I chose from the story is from lines 359-362, when Tiresias is talking. He says "How terrible--to see the truth when the truth is only pain to him who sees! I knew it well, but I put it from my mind, Else I would have never come." This is a very important quote because it forshadows events to follow. Once Oedipus ascertains the knowledge that the prophesies are true, and that he killed his father, slept with his mother, and brought the plague upon the city, he blinds himself. As Edith Hamilton says, "he changed his light to darkness. He put out his eyes. The black world of blindness was a refuge; better to be there than to see with strange shamed eyes the old world that had been so bright." (Pg. 273)

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2005

I would quote the entire play. It all sounds pretty important. But that would take too long.

"Creon: My sister, it's dreadful ... Oedipus, your husband, he's bent on a choice of punishments for me, banishment from the fatherland or death. Oedipus: Precisely. I caught him in the act, Jocasta, plotting, about to stab me in the back."

Eww, quel liar. This bit shows how Oedipus likes to blindly make things up out of anger or confusion (or both).

"Creon: Never-curse me, let me die and be damned if I've done you any wrong you charge me with."

Unlike Oedipus, Creon is all religious-like and more mature. Good for him. =o)

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2005

I liked the quote on page 403-404 (lines 469-486) which goes, "Let me tell you this. You with your precious eyes, you're blind to the corruption of your life, to the house you live in, those you live with-who are your parents? Do you know? All unknowing you are the scourge of your own flesh and blood, the dead below the earth and the living here above, and the double lash of your mother and your father's curse will whip you from this land one day, their footfall treading you down in terror, darkness shrouding your eyes that now can see the light! Soon, soon you'll scream aloud-what haven won't reverberate? What rock of Cithaeron won't scream back in echo? That day you learn the truth about your marriage, the wedding-march that sang you into your halls, the lusty voyage home to the fatal harbor! And a crowd of other horrors you'd never dream will level you with yourself and all your children." This quote by Tiresias sets up the whole finale of the play in which Oedipus learns the truth about himself and all of the pieces of the puzzle come together. This statement seems to leave a lasting impact on the reader and serves as just another riddle for Oedipus to solve. This is a major point in the plot because Tireseas stops speaking in tongues and makes a statement that we can get some meaning and sense out of. It also serves as a warning to Oedipus as a sort of message like, "This is going to happen whether you like it or not and I know I am right." This is where Oedipus can't take any more.

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2005

A quote that struck me was: "Now my curse on the murderer. Whoever he is…let that man drag out his life in agony, step by painful step. I curse myself as well if by any chance he proves to be an intimate of our house."-Oedipus

The sheer irony of this quote is hilarious. Oedipus is cursing himself twice in this qoute. Once because he is cursing the murderer, and a second time because he is an intimate of the royal house. Sophocles has a great sense of humor.

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2005

Lines 295-299 really jumped out at mr when I was reading the story. Oedipus is addressing the people about the murder of Laius. He says, "... I hold the throne that he held then, posses his bed and a wife who shares our seed ... why, our seed might be the same, children born of the same mother might have created blood-bonds between us if his hope of offspring hadn't met disaster - but fate swooped at his head and cut him short. So I will fight for him as if he were my father..." This really foreshadows the fact that Oedipus murderer Laius and shows that you can't mess with fate.

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2005

“So much for prophecy. It’s neither here no there. From this day on, I wouldn’t look right or left.” ~ Jocasta (lines 958+959) I believe this quote is very metaphorical in the way that you can only know the true meaning of it if you also know its context. Here she shows how frustrated and confused she is about all the prophecies she has heard concerning the innocence of her “husband”. So in a more literal sense she saying she doesn’t know what to believe anymore, such as which way to go or where to be. Since Jocasta plays such as small part up until the 2nd Ode, then I believe this quote is important to tell the reader how she feels about the accusations against and within her family.

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2005

I think the Lines, 280-287 are important due to their bitter irony. Oedipus is cursing himself, setting himself up for what the audience knows is going to be a horrible surprise when he finds out. But whatev.

-Dex

P.S. Ln 296-297 "...why, our seed might be the sme, children born of the same mother..." hahahahaha GROSS! :-(

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2005

I chose lines 398-401. These lines are when Tiresias tells Oedipus that HE is the murderer. This fact is the single most important in the play. This is the first time Oedipus actually hears what he's done, even though he doesn't believe it. It's also the first time the audience hears it.

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2005

I agree with Mr. Kaine when it comes to striking quotes that pose significance to the story. "Now my curse on the murderer. Whoever he is…let that man drag out his life in agony, step by painful step. I curse myself as well if by any chance he proves to be an intimate of our house." When Oedipus said this he was 'blind' to his own involvement in the murder and therefore condemned himself to a life in agony, step by painful step. This quotation does not only serve as irony but as foreshadowing for the mystery soon to be unraveled by the reader. Since the reader probably knows well the history of Oedipus, Sophocles makes the shadowing not at all subtle.

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2005

Lines 397-414

Oedipus can not accept the fact that, indeed, he is the killer of Laius. He immediatley supposes that the prophet is lying in order to make Oedipus lose his power, and threatens to kill him. This is just denial by Oedipus the King.

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2005

I believe that lines 831-846 are important to the story because it seems to be the turning point in the story. When he starts to think that what the profit had said was in fact true and if so then he had done a terrible thi

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2005

Lines 301-303: "So I will fight for him as if he were my father, stop at nothing, search the world to lay my hands on the man who shed his blood"

This quote is an example of some amazing twisted Sophoclean double-irony. Oedipus promises to treat Laius as if he were his father, not knowing that Laius actually was his father.

Then, Oedipus vows to stop at nothing to find and avenge Laius' killer, again unaware that he is the killer. Oedipus' stubbornness and often plain stupidity seem cause him quite a lot of grief later on in the story...

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2005

Have you no sense? Poor misguided men, / such shouting - why this public outburst? / Aren't you ashamed, with the land so sick, / to stir up private quarrels? (Ln. 709-712)

This shows how far the plot and action has deviated from the emergency at hand, the plague. In an effort to escape such public blame, he allowed himself to be caught up in non-important politics while leaving his people to die.

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2005

"So much for prophecy. It's neither here nor there. From this day on, I wouldn't look right or left."(948-949)

This quote shows Jocasta's quick opinion on Apollo's prophecies. She means that what he predicted did not come true and was too late, so it doesn't matter what Oedipus did, he wouldn't kill his father and marry his mother. Of course, this is the irony in the story, because it turns out he has already married his mother and killed his father.

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2005