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    King Œdipus: "Not all things are to be discovered; many are better concealed"
    King Œdipus: "Not all things are to be discovered; many are better concealed"
    King Œdipus: "Not all things are to be discovered; many are better concealed"
    Ebook97 pages59 minutes

    King Œdipus: "Not all things are to be discovered; many are better concealed"

    By Sophocles .

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    The village of Colonus, near Athens, was, in the year 495 BC, the birthplace of Sophocles. Sophocles place in Greek Tragedy is assured. His birth places him between the two other giants of Greek tragedy; Æschylus and Euripides. He was 30 years younger than Æschylus, the reigning master of drama and was fifteen years older than Euripides, who would, in turn, usurp Sophocles. Sophocles was a handsome and agile youth and selected, at the age of sixteen, to lead with dance and lyre the chorus which celebrated the triumph of Athens and its Allies over Persia at the battle at Salamis. Sophocles career as a dramatist was marked by a victory in competition with Æschylus, under exceptional circumstances. At the time the remains of the hero Theseus were being removed by Cimon from the isle of Scyros to Athens and, at the same time, a contest involving the two dramatists was being held. Æschylus was lauded at the time as the supreme dramatist but Sophocles was popular if inexperienced. The first prize was awarded to Sophocles, greatly to the disgust of the veteran Æschylus, who taking umbrage, soon afterward departed for Sicily. By all accounts Sophocles would now write and exhibit tragedies and satyric dramas for the next sixty years. The canon of his work varies to between 120 and 180 plays, naturally a number were fillers and not of his highest standard but the prodigious output is extraordinary. In the annual Dionysia, the number of first prizes he won is put at between eighteen and twenty-four, with many more second prizes. On this basis alone Æschylus and Euripides were left a long way behind. So far from being dulled with age and toil, his powers seem only to have assumed a mellower tone, a more touching pathos, a sweeter and gentler mode of thought and expression. Sophocles was spared the misery of witnessing the final overthrow of his country, dying, at the age or around 90 after a long life full of triumphs and honours, a few months before the defeat of Aegospotami brought the downfall of his beloved Athens. This naval Battle of Aegospotami took place in 405 BC and decisively determined the outcome of the Peloponnesian War. In the battle, a Spartan fleet under Lysander destroyed the Athenian navy. This effectively ended the war, since Athens could not import grain or communicate with its empire without control of the sea. There are only seven dramas of Sophocles that have survived. It can be argued that Sophocles and his works were the high-water mark of Athenian excellence. He is rightly lauded and we can only wonder at the splendours he wrote that are now lost to us.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherScribe Publishing
    Release dateMar 10, 2017
    ISBN9781787371705
    King Œdipus: "Not all things are to be discovered; many are better concealed"

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      Book preview

      King Œdipus - Sophocles .

      King Œdipus by Sophocles

      The village of Colonus, near Athens, was, in the year 495 BC, the birthplace of Sophocles.

      Sophocles place in Greek Tragedy is assured. His birth places him between the two other giants of Greek tragedy; Æschylus and Euripides. He was 30 years younger than Æschylus, the reigning master of drama and was fifteen years older than Euripides, who would, in turn, usurp Sophocles. 

      Sophocles was a handsome and agile youth and selected, at the age of sixteen, to lead with dance and lyre the chorus which celebrated the triumph of Athens and its Allies over Persia at the battle at Salamis.

      Sophocles career as a dramatist was marked by a victory in competition with Æschylus, under exceptional circumstances. At the time the remains of the hero Theseus were being removed by Cimon from the isle of Scyros to Athens and, at the same time, a contest involving the two dramatists was being held.  Æschylus was lauded at the time as the supreme dramatist but Sophocles was popular if inexperienced. 

      The first prize was awarded to Sophocles, greatly to the disgust of the veteran Æschylus, who taking umbrage, soon afterward departed for Sicily.

      By all accounts Sophocles would now write and exhibit tragedies and satyric dramas for the next sixty years.

      The canon of his work varies to between 120 and 180 plays, naturally a number were fillers and not of his highest standard but the prodigious output is extraordinary.  In the annual Dionysia, the number of first prizes he won is put at between eighteen and twenty-four, with many more second prizes. On this basis alone Æschylus and Euripides were left a long way behind. So far from being dulled with age and toil, his powers seem only to have assumed a mellower tone, a more touching pathos, a sweeter and gentler mode of thought and expression.

      Sophocles was spared the misery of witnessing the final overthrow of his country, dying, at the age or around 90 after a long life full of triumphs and honours, a few months before the defeat of Aegospotami brought the downfall of his beloved Athens. This naval Battle of Aegospotami took place in 405 BC and decisively determined the outcome of the Peloponnesian War. In the battle, a Spartan fleet under Lysander destroyed the Athenian navy. This effectively ended the war, since Athens could not import grain or communicate with its empire without control of the sea.

      There are only seven dramas of Sophocles that have survived. 

      It can be argued that Sophocles and his works were the high-water mark of Athenian excellence.  He is rightly lauded and we can only wonder at the splendours he wrote that are now lost to us.

      Index of Contents

      The Persons

      Scene

      Introduction

      KIND ŒDIPUS

      Sophocles – A Short Biography

      Sophocles – A Concise Bibliography

      THE PERSONS

      ŒDIPUS, King of Thebes.

      Priest of Zeus.

      CREON, brother of Jocasta.

      CHORUS of Theban Elders.

      TIRESIAS, the Blind Prophet.

      JOCASTA, the Queen, sister to Creon.

      A Corinthian Shepherd.

      A Theban Shepherd.

      Messenger

      The following also appear, but do not speak:

      A Train of Suppliants.

      The children ANTIGONE and ISMENE.

      SCENE

      Before the Royal Palace in the Cadmean citadel of Thebes.

      INTRODUCTION

      Laius, the descendant of Cadmus, and king of Thebes (or Thebè), had been told by an oracle that if a son were born to him by his wife Jocasta the boy would be his father's death.

      Under such auspices, Oedipus was born, and to elude the prophecy was exposed by his parents on Mount Cithaeron. But he was saved by a compassionate shepherd, and became the adopted son of Polybus, king of Corinth. When he grew up he was troubled by a rumour that he was not his father's son. He went to consult the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, and was told―not of his origin but of his destiny―that he should be guilty of parricide and incest.

      He was too horror-stricken to return to Corinth, and as he travelled the other way, he met Laius going from Thebes to Delphi. The travellers quarrelled and the son killed his father, but knew not whom he had slain. He went onward till he came near Thebes, where the Sphinx was making havoc of the noblest citizens, devouring all who failed to solve her riddle. But Oedipus succeeded and overcame her, and, as Laius did not return, was rewarded with the regal sceptre,―and with the hand of the queen.

      He reigned nobly and prosperously, and lived happily with Jocasta, by whom he had four children.

      But after some years a plague descended on the people, and Apollo, on being inquired of, answered that it was for Laius' death. The act of regicide must be avenged. Oedipus undertakes the task of discovering the murderer,―and in the same

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