STATIUS, THEB. 1 .72: IS JOCASTA DEAD OR ALIVE? 221
this development is, however, limited. Hesiod knows the Sphinx and
the plague (Th. 326). Pausanias (9.5.11) reports that in the (lost) epic
Oedipodeia the mother of Oedipus’ four children was not Jocasta but
his second wife Eurygeneia; consequently, the incestuous marriage
did not produce offspring. According to Proclus, “the story of Oedi-
pus” was told by Nestor in the lost epic called Kupria (Homer OCT,
vol. 5, p. 103). In the twenty lines remaining from the epic entitled
Cyclic Thebaid (Homer OCT, vol. 5, p. 113) to be distinguished from
the Thebaid by Antimachus of Colophon, a curse is pronounced by
Oedipus on his sons. Pindar mentions the riddle of the Sphinx (frg.
inc. 177d), the murder of Laius and the duel between the brothers (O.
2.42ff.). The historian Pherecydes of Athens (ca. 450 BC) reports
(FGrH 3 F 95) that Jocasta gave birth to two sons, Phrastor and
Laonutos, but these were killed; later, his second wife Euryganeia
bore him Eteocles and Polynices, Antigone and Ismene (cf. Pausanias
above). In this report, for the first time two sons are born from Jo-
casta’s incestuous marriage, but Oedipus—just as in Homer—
continues to rule Thebes after the anagnorisis.
These and other versions “differing in detail, and allowing scope
for selection” (Jebb 1914, xv) existed in the first part of the fifth cen-
tury and provided Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides with the mate-
rial they handled freely to create their own versions. Their versions, in
spite of differences, have a very important element in common: Jo-
casta is the mother of Oedipus’ four children, which is a very effective
combination of the motifs of incest and motherhood in the earlier ver-
sions.
Since little is known of the two first parts of Aeschylus’ trilogy,
Laios and Oidipous, it is impossible to draw conclusions about their
influence on later tradition. Of Euripides’ Oidipous only a few lines
survive (frg. 539–557 Kannicht + Pap.Ox. 27, 1962, nr. 2455 frg. 4
and nr. 2459), but surely frg. 541 (= schol. Eur. Phoin. 61) suggests a
remarkable difference from Sophocles’ OT: Oedipus’ blinding here is
not self-inflicted, but executed by his servants, and probably before
the anagnorisis.^12 This change from earlier tradition would be as as-
tonishing as the scene of soldiers blinding Oedipus as depicted on the
11 Jebb 1914, xxii–xviii is very helpful here. For a full survey see also Robert
19 15, Töchterle 1994, Hutchinson 2001, 120ff. Edmunds 2006, 3ff. considers it im-
possible to determine the authentic, original version.
12 See Töchterle 1994, 12.