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| Now my curse on the murderer. Whoever he is, A lone man unknown in his crime Or one among many, 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, Here at my hearth, with my full knowledge, May the curse i just called down on him strike me! |
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Definition
Speaker: Oedipus
Spoken To: Chorus/People |
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| I charge you, then, submit to that decree you just laid down: from this day onward Speak to no one, not these citizens, not myself. You are the curse, the corruption of the land!...I say you are the murderer you hunt. |
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Definition
Speaker:Tiresias
Spoken To: Oedipus |
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| Who in his right mind would rather rule And live in anxiety than sleep in peace? Particularly if he enjoys the same authority. Not I, I'm not the man to yearn for kingship, Not with a king's power in my hands. Who would? No one with any sense of self-control. |
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Definition
Speaker: Creon
Spoken To: Oedipus |
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| Trust me, I told you precisely what he said, and he can't retract it now; the whole city heard it, not just I. And even if he should vary his first report By one man more or less, still, my lord, He could never make the murder of Laius Truly fit the prophecy. Apollo was explicit: My son was doomed to kill my husband...my son, Poor defenseless thing, he never had a chance to kill his father. They destroyed him first. |
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Definition
Speaker: Jocasta
Spoken To: Oedipus |
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| Let it burst! Whatever will, whatever must! I must know my birth, no matter how common it may be- I must see my origins face-to-face. She perhaps, she with her woman's pride May well be mortified by my birth, But I, I count myself the son of Chance, The great Goddess, giver of all good things- I'll never see myself disgraced. |
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Definition
Speaker: Oedipus
Spoken To: Leader/Chorus |
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| He was raging- one of the dark powers pointing the way, none of us mortals crowding roudn him, no, With a great shattering cry- someone, something leading him on- He hurled at the twin doors and bending the bolts back Out of their sockets, crashed through the chamber. And there we saw the woman hanging by the neck, Cradled high in a woven noose, spinning, Swinging back and forth. |
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Definition
Speaker: Messenger
Spoken To: Leader/Chorus |
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| Apollo, friends, Apollo- He ordained my agonies-these, my pains on pains! But the hand that struck my eyes was mine, mine alone- no one else- I did it all myself! |
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Definition
Speaker: Oedipus
Spoken To: Chorus |
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| You are the only father they have now... We who brought them into the world Are gone, both gone at a stroke- Don't let them go begging, abandoned, Men without men, Your own flesh and blood! Never bring them down to the level of my pains. Pity them. Look at them, so young, so vulnerable, Shorn of everything- you're their only hope. |
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Definition
Speaker:Oedipus
Spoken To: Creon |
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