Excerpt

Excerpt from Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone, by Sophocles

CHORUS.
Alas, poor queen! how came she by her death?

SECOND MESSENGER.
By her own hand. And all the horror of it,
Not having seen, yet cannot comprehend.
Nathless, as far as my poor memory serves,
I will relate the unhappy lady’s woe.
When in her frenzy she had passed inside
The vestibule, she hurried straight to win
The bridal-chamber, clutching at her hair
With both her hands, and, once within the room,
She shut the doors behind her with a crash.
“Laius,” she cried, and called her husband dead
Long, long ago; her thought was of that child
By him begot, the son by whom the sire
Was murdered and the mother left to breed
With her own seed, a monstrous progeny.
Then she bewailed the marriage bed whereon
Poor wretch, she had conceived a double brood,
Husband by husband, children by her child.
What happened after that I cannot tell,
Nor how the end befell, for with a shriek
Burst on us Oedipus; all eyes were fixed
On Oedipus, as up and down he strode,
Nor could we mark her agony to the end.
For stalking to and fro “A sword!” he cried,
“Where is the wife, no wife, the teeming womb
That bore a double harvest, me and mine?”
And in his frenzy some supernal power
(No mortal, surely, none of us who watched him)
Guided his footsteps; with a terrible shriek,
As though one beckoned him, he crashed against
The folding doors, and from their staples forced
The wrenched bolts and hurled himself within.
Then we beheld the woman hanging there,
A running noose entwined about her neck.
But when he saw her, with a maddened roar
He loosed the cord; and when her wretched corpse
Lay stretched on earth, what followed—O ’twas dread!
He tore the golden brooches that upheld
Her queenly robes, upraised them high and smote
Full on his eye-balls, uttering words like these:
“No more shall ye behold such sights of woe,
Deeds I have suffered and myself have wrought;
Henceforward quenched in darkness shall ye see
Those ye should ne’er have seen; now blind to those
Whom, when I saw, I vainly yearned to know.”
Such was the burden of his moan, whereto,
Not once but oft, he struck with his hand uplift
His eyes, and at each stroke the ensanguined orbs
Bedewed his beard, not oozing drop by drop,
But one black gory downpour, thick as hail.
Such evils, issuing from the double source,
Have whelmed them both, confounding man and wife.
Till now the storied fortune of this house
Was fortunate indeed; but from this day
Woe, lamentation, ruin, death, disgrace,
All ills that can be named, all, all are theirs.

CHORUS.
But hath he still no respite from his pain?

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Explanation

Detailed Explanation of the Excerpt from Oedipus the King

This passage is from Sophocles’ Oedipus the King (also known as Oedipus Rex), a foundational tragedy of ancient Greek drama (5th century BCE). The play tells the story of Oedipus, the king of Thebes, who unknowingly fulfills a prophecy by killing his father (Laius) and marrying his mother (Jocasta). When the truth is revealed, the play reaches its catastrophic climax in this scene, where Jocasta commits suicide and Oedipus blinds himself.

This excerpt is the Second Messenger’s account of Jocasta’s death and Oedipus’ self-blinding, delivered to the Chorus (a group representing the elders of Thebes). The passage is rich in dramatic irony, tragic pathos, and visceral imagery, encapsulating the play’s central themes of fate, free will, self-discovery, and the limits of human knowledge.

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Key Themes in the Passage

1. The Horror of Self-Knowledge

   • The scene is the moment of anagnorisis (recognition), where Oedipus and Jocasta fully grasp the truth of their actions. The revelation is so unbearable that it drives Jocasta to suicide and Oedipus to self-mutilation.
   • Jocasta’s final words (as reported) focus on the "double brood"—she is both mother and wife to Oedipus, and he is both son and husband to her. This incestuous horror is framed as a violation of natural and divine law.

2. Fate vs. Free Will

   • The play explores whether Oedipus is a victim of fate (the prophecy was inevitable) or responsible for his choices (he sought the truth relentlessly).
   • The "supernal power" guiding Oedipus suggests divine intervention, reinforcing the idea that the gods have orchestrated his downfall.

3. Blindness and Sight

   • Oedipus blinds himself after seeing the truth, a brutal irony: he was metaphorically blind to his crimes but now literally blind to the world.
   • His speech—"No more shall ye behold such sights of woe"—implies that physical blindness is preferable to the horror of his reality.

4. The Curse of the House of Laius

   • The Chorus’ lament ("Till now the storied fortune of this house / Was fortunate indeed") underscores the reversal of fortune (peripeteia)—what was once noble is now ruined.
   • The generational curse (Laius’ sin of abandoning Oedipus, Oedipus’ patricide and incest) suggests that some crimes are inescapable.

5. Violence and Self-Destruction

   • The graphic descriptions of Jocasta’s suicide (hanging) and Oedipus’ self-blinding (gouging his eyes with brooches) emphasize the physical and psychological brutality of the truth.
   • The blood imagery ("ensanguined orbs," "black gory downpour") reinforces the pollution of the royal line.

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Literary Devices & Stylistic Features

1. Dramatic Irony

   • The audience knows the full truth before Oedipus does, making his suffering more tragic.
   • Jocasta’s cry—"Laius… her thought was of that child / By him begot"—is ironic because the "child" is Oedipus himself.

2. Imagery & Sensory Language

   • Visual: The "running noose," "golden brooches," "ensanguined orbs" create a vivid, horrifying picture.
   • Auditory: The "terrible shriek," "crash," "maddened roar" heighten the chaos and despair.
   • Tactile: The tearing of robes, forcing of bolts, striking of eyes make the violence physically palpable.

3. Symbolism

   • The Bridal-Chamber: Represents both love and horror—it is where Jocasta and Oedipus consummated their incestuous marriage and where she dies.
   • The Noose & Brooches: Tools of domestic life (clothing, marriage) turned into instruments of destruction.
   • The Eyes: Symbolize knowledge and suffering—Oedipus cannot unsee the truth, so he destroys his ability to see at all.

4. Repetition & Parallelism

   • "Double brood," "husband by husband, children by her child"—emphasizes the unnatural duality of their relationship.
   • "All ills that can be named, all, all are theirs"—reinforces the totality of their ruin.

5. Tragic Diction & Elevated Language

   • Phrases like "supernal power," "monstrous progeny," "quenched in darkness" give the scene a mythic, fate-driven weight.
   • The Chorus’ question ("But hath he still no respite from his pain?") underscores the unrelenting nature of tragedy.

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Significance of the Passage

1. The Climax of the Tragedy

   • This is the moment of maximum suffering, where the prophecy is fulfilled and the hero is destroyed by his own pursuit of truth.
   • Unlike many tragedies where the hero dies, Oedipus lives in agony, making his fate even more harrowing.

2. The Limits of Human Understanding

   • Oedipus, the great solver of riddles, is undone by a truth he could not escape.
   • His self-blinding is both a punishment and a rejection of the world—he can no longer bear to see what he has done.

3. The Role of the Gods

   • The "supernal power" guiding Oedipus suggests that divine will is inescapable, reinforcing the Greek tragic worldview where humans are subject to fate.
   • The Chorus’ lament reflects the collective fear of the gods’ wrath—if a great king can fall so low, no one is safe.

4. Catharsis (Purgation of Emotions)

   • The extreme suffering of Oedipus and Jocasta is meant to elicit pity and terror in the audience, leading to a cathartic release.
   • The graphic violence serves to shock the audience into reflection on human fragility.

5. Legacy in Literature & Psychology

   • This scene is one of the most iconic in Western literature, influencing Freud’s Oedipus complex and countless retellings of tragic downfalls.
   • The theme of self-destruction upon learning the truth appears in works from Macbeth to The Sixth Sense.

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Line-by-Line Breakdown of Key Moments

1. "Alas, poor queen! how came she by her death?"

   • The Chorus’ question sets up the narrative of horror—they (and the audience) are about to hear the worst.

2. "By her own hand."

   • Suicide in Greek tragedy is often a response to unbearable shame—Jocasta cannot live with the truth.

3. "She shut the doors behind her with a crash."

   • The violent sound foreshadows the violence within—she is sealing her fate.

4. "Laius… the son by whom the sire / Was murdered and the mother left to breed / With her own seed."

   • The most taboo revelation: Oedipus is both son and killer of Laius, husband and son of Jocasta.
   • The language is clinical yet horrifying, emphasizing the unnaturalness of the acts.

5. "A sword!… Where is the wife, no wife, the teeming womb / That bore a double harvest, me and mine?"

   • Oedipus’ frantic speech shows his mind unraveling—he can no longer even name Jocasta properly.
   • "Double harvest" = incestuous children (his siblings/offspring).

6. "some supernal power… Guided his footsteps."

   • Suggests divine intervention—the gods are forcing him to see the truth before he blinds himself.

7. "the woman hanging there, / A running noose entwined about her neck."

   • The image of Jocasta’s suicide is stark and pitiful, contrasting with her earlier regal dignity.

8. "He tore the golden brooches… and smote / Full on his eye-balls."

   • The act of self-blinding is both punishment and purification—he cannot escape what he has seen, so he destroys his sight.

9. "No more shall ye behold such sights of woe… / Henceforward quenched in darkness shall ye see / Those ye should ne’er have seen."

   • Oedipus’ final speech before blinding himself is tragic irony—he wanted to see the truth, but now wishes he never had.

10. "one black gory downpour, thick as hail."

    • The blood from his eyes is described in almost supernatural terms, reinforcing the horror of his act.

11. "All ills that can be named, all, all are theirs."

    • The Chorus’ conclusion—this is total ruin, with no hope left.

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Conclusion: Why This Passage Matters

This excerpt is the emotional and thematic core of Oedipus the King. It encapsulates:

• The horror of self-discovery,
• The inevitability of fate,
• The limits of human control,
• The destructive power of truth.

Sophocles does not spare the audience—the graphic, visceral language ensures that the tragedy is felt deeply. The scene forces us to confront how far a person will go to escape an unbearable reality, and whether knowledge is always worth the pain it brings.

In the end, Oedipus’ blindness is both literal and symbolic—he sees the truth too late, and now must live in darkness, a broken man haunted by what he has done. The Chorus’ final question—"But hath he still no respite from his pain?"—hints that his suffering is eternal, a warning about the dangers of hubris and the cruelty of fate.

This moment redefines tragedy, setting a standard for all future explorations of human suffering in literature.

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Questions

Question 1

The Second Messenger’s description of Oedipus’ self-blinding—"He tore the golden brooches... and smote / Full on his eye-balls"—can be read as an act that is fundamentally:

A. an assertion of agency in a world otherwise governed by divine decree.
B. a ritualistic purification to atone for his unintentional sins.
C. the physical manifestation of an irreconcilable cognitive rupture.
D. a performative gesture to elicit pity from the Theban elders.
E. a rejection of the visual world as inherently deceptive.

Question 2

The Chorus’ final line—"But hath he still no respite from his pain?"—serves primarily to:

A. underscore the cyclical nature of suffering in the House of Laius.
B. invite the audience to question whether Oedipus’ punishment exceeds his culpability.
C. contrast the fleeting nature of human fortune with the permanence of divine justice.
D. foreshadow the eventual redemption of Oedipus in Oedipus at Colonus.
E. highlight the inadequacy of language to encapsulate the magnitude of his torment.

Question 3

The "supernal power" guiding Oedipus’ footsteps toward Jocasta’s corpse most plausibly functions in the passage as:

A. a narrative device to absolve Oedipus of moral responsibility for his actions.
B. an allusion to the Furies, who demand retribution for patricide and incest.
C. a metaphor for the irresistible pull of paternal guilt.
D. a dramatic reinforcement of the inescapability of fate’s design.
E. a psychological projection of Oedipus’ subconscious desire for self-destruction.

Question 4

Jocasta’s suicide—"the woman hanging there, / A running noose entwined about her neck"—is framed in a manner that emphasizes its role as:

A. a silent rebuke to Oedipus’ relentless pursuit of truth.
B. the inevitable consequence of a life structured by prophetic doom.
C. an act of defiance against the gods’ cruel amusement.
D. the only logical resolution to an existentially untenable paradox.
E. a moment of tragic irony, as she dies by the same bed where she conceived her sin.

Question 5

The Messenger’s repeated insistence that "all eyes were fixed / On Oedipus" during the climax serves to:

A. implicate the Chorus as complicit spectators in his downfall.
B. suggest that Oedipus’ suffering is a public spectacle, stripping him of dignity.
C. create a tension between collective voyeurism and the privacy of his agony.
D. imply that the gods themselves are observing the fulfillment of their decree.
E. contrast the physical act of seeing with the metaphysical blindness of the truth.

Solutions and Explanations

1) Correct answer: C

Why C is most correct: The act of self-blinding is not merely symbolic or performative but a violent embodiment of the collapse between Oedipus’ self-perception and reality. His eyes, which once sought truth (e.g., solving the Sphinx’s riddle, pursuing Laius’ killer), now reject the world entirely because the truth they’ve uncovered is unassimilable. The physical mutilation mirrors the shattering of his cognitive framework—he can no longer reconcile his identity as king, husband, son, and murderer. This aligns with Sophocles’ exploration of tragic irony, where knowledge destroys the knower.

Why the distractors are less supported:

• A: While Oedipus exercises agency in blinding himself, the act is not a defiant claim of autonomy but a response to cognitive collapse. The "supernal power" guiding him undermines the idea of free will here.
• B: Ritualistic purification would imply a structured, redemptive act, but Oedipus’ self-blinding is frantic and irreversible, lacking the cathartic order of atonement.
• D: The act is too visceral and private to be performative. The Chorus’ focus on him is incidental, not the purpose of his action.
• E: While the visual world is rejected, the primary motive isn’t a philosophical dismissal of sight but the impossibility of integrating what he has seen.

2) Correct answer: E

Why E is most correct: The Chorus’ question is rhetorical and despairing, underscoring that Oedipus’ pain transcends articulation. The line doesn’t seek an answer but highlights the failure of language to contain such suffering. This aligns with the Greek tragic tradition, where extreme emotion defies rational expression (e.g., Philoctetes’ cries, Cassandra’s prophecies). The question lingers in silence, emphasizing the void where meaning should be.

Why the distractors are less supported:

• A: While cyclical suffering is a theme, the line doesn’t explicitly invoke the House of Laius’ history—it’s focused on Oedipus’ immediate, inexpressible torment.
• B: The question doesn’t invite moral judgment but acknowledges the limits of human comprehension.
• C: The contrast between fortune and justice is too abstract for this visceral moment. The line is raw and present, not philosophical.
• D: Oedipus at Colonus is not foreshadowed here; the question suggests no hope of respite, only endless pain.

3) Correct answer: D

Why D is most correct: The "supernal power" is not a psychological or moral entity but a dramatic reinforcement of fate’s inevitability. It ensures Oedipus enacts the final step of his doom, just as the prophecy demanded. This aligns with Sophocles’ deterministic view: human actions, even self-destructive ones, are preordained. The power’s guidance is mechanical, not moral—it completes the pattern of the curse.

Why the distractors are less supported:

• A: The passage doesn’t absolve Oedipus; his guilt is central to the tragedy. The power enforces fate, not exculpation.
• B: The Furies are not mentioned, and their role is retributive, not guiding. The power here is impersonal, not vengeful.
• C: Paternal guilt is too specific; the power is broader, tied to the prophecy’s fulfillment, not Oedipus’ psychology.
• E: While Oedipus’ self-destruction is plausible, the "supernal power" is externalized as divine, not a projection of his subconscious.

4) Correct answer: B

Why B is most correct: Jocasta’s suicide is not a choice but the inevitable endpoint of a life scripted by prophecy. Her death is structurally necessary—it fulfills the curse on the House of Laius (incest, patricide, and self-destruction). The brutal efficiency of her hanging (no hesitation, no alternative) reinforces that she, like Oedipus, is trapped in a predestined narrative. The noose is the physical manifestation of fate’s noose around the family.

Why the distractors are less supported:

• A: While her suicide could be read as a rebuke, the text doesn’t frame it as a conscious critique of Oedipus’ pursuit of truth—it’s impulsive and final.
• C: Defiance implies agency against the gods, but Jocasta’s act is passive and resigned, not rebellious.
• D: "Logical resolution" suggests rational deliberation, but her suicide is visceral and instinctual, driven by overwhelming horror.
• E: The irony of the marital bed is present but secondary; the focus is on fate’s culmination, not poetic justice.

5) Correct answer: C

Why C is most correct: The Messenger’s emphasis on the Chorus’ collective gaze creates a tension between public spectacle and private suffering. Oedipus’ agony is both exposed and isolated—the audience (Chorus) watches but cannot intervene, mirroring the tragic audience’s own voyeuristic helplessness. This duality heightens the tragedy’s emotional impact: his pain is intimate yet observed, making it both personal and universal.

Why the distractors are less supported:

• A: The Chorus is not complicit—they are witnesses, not participants. Their role is to reflect the audience’s horror, not to share blame.
• B: While the spectacle strips Oedipus of dignity, the primary effect is the tension between visibility and isolation, not just humiliation.
• D: The gods’ observation is not implied; the focus is on the human Chorus, not divine spectators.
• E: The contrast between seeing and blindness is thematic but not the focus here. The line emphasizes collective witnessing, not metaphysical irony.