Exodus Flashcards
(37 cards)
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)
