The Poetry of Statius

226 JOHANNES J.L. SMOLENAARS

μητέρα τ’ Οἰδιπόδαο ἴδον, καλὴν ̓Επικάστην,

ἣ μέγα ἔργον ἔρεξεν ἀϊδρείῃσι νόοιο

γημαμένη ᾧ υἷϊ· ὁ δ’ ὃν πατέρ’ ἐξεναρίξας

γῆμεν· ἄφαρ δ’ ἀνάπυστα θεοὶ θέσαν ἀνθρώποισιν.

ἀλλ’ ὁ μὲν ἐν Θήβῃ πολυηράτῳ ἄλγεα πάσχων

Καδμείων ἤνασσε θεῶν ὀλοὰς διὰ βουλάς·

ἡ δ’ ἔβη εἰς ̓Αΐδαο πυλάρταο κρατεροῖο,

ἁψαμένη βρόχον αἰπὺν ἀφ’ ὑψηλοῖο μελάθρου

ᾧ ἄχεϊ σχομένη· τῷ δ’ ἄλγεα κάλλιπ’ ὀπίσσω

πολλὰ μάλ’, ὅσσα τε μητρὸς ἐρινύες ἐκτελέουσι.

(Od. 11.271–80)

And I saw the mother of Oedipus, beautiful Epicaste, who did a mon-

strous thing in the ignorance of her mind, wedding her own son; and he,

when he had slain his own father, wedded her; and soon the gods made

these things known among men. Nevertheless, in lovely Thebes, suffer-

ing woes, he ruled over the Cadmeans by the dire designs of the gods;

but she went down to the house of Hades, the strong warder, making

fast a deadly noose from the high ceiling, caught by her own grief; but

for him she left behind countless woes, all that a mother’s Furies bring

to pass. (tr. Murray-Dimock 1995)

In Soph. OT (version A) the messenger reports that when Oedipus saw
that his mother had hanged herself in the bedroom, he untied the knot,
laid her on the ground and pierced his eyes “with the golden pins”
(1268f. χρυσηλάτους περόνας) from her garment:

οὗ δὴ κρεμαστὴν τὴν γυναῖκ’ ἐσείδομεν,

πλεκταῖς ἐώραις ἐμπεπλεγμένην· ὁ δὲ

ὅπως ὁρᾷ νιν, δεινὰ βρυχηθεὶς τάλας,

χαλᾷ κρεμαστὴν ἀρτάνην· ἐπεὶ δὲ γῇ

ἔκειτo τλήμων, δεινὰ δ’ ἦν τἀνθένδ’ ὁρᾶν.

̓Αποσπάσας γὰρ εἱμάτων χρυσηλάτους

περόνας ἀπ’ αὐτῆς, αἷσιν ἐξεστέλλετο,

ἄρας ἔπαισεν ἄρθρα τῶν αὑτοῦ κύκλων

(OT 1263–70)

There we saw the woman hanging, her neck tied in a twisted noose.

And when he saw her, with a fearful roar, poor man, he untied the knot

from which she hung; and when the unhappy woman lay upon the

ground, what we saw next was terrible. For he broke off the golden pins

from her raiment, with which she was adorned, and lifting up his eyes

struck them (tr. Lloyd-Jones 1994)

In Euripides Phoin. (version B) the messenger reports that Jocasta has
committed suicide on the battlefield, after her sons had killed each