Classical Mythology

(^386) THE GREEK SAGAS: GREEK LOCAL LEGENDS
The horror of Oedipus' predicament is powerfully expressed in the stark di-
alogue, and it is no wonder that Sophocles' version of the myth has swept aside
all other versions.^3 While Oedipus was questioning the servant, Jocasta, who al-
ready knew the truth, had gone into the palace and hanged herself. Oedipus
rushed into the palace and, when he saw her corpse, blinded himself with the
brooches from her robe. Creon became regent again, and Oedipus was banished,
in accordance with a curse he himself earlier pronounced on the (as yet un-
known) killer of Laius and in obedience to an oracle of Apollo.
THE END OF THE OEDIPUS TYRANNUS
Modern readers and viewers of Sophocles' tragedy are likely to find the 234 lines
(15 percent of the whole) that are spoken after the entry of the blind Oedipus
an anti-climax after the discovery of his identity. This would be a mistake. Oedi-
pus establishes the true measure of his heroic stature in his lament and dialogue
with the Chorus and with Creon. The central themes of the tragedy are the re-
lationship of the human to the divine and, as a consequence, the way in which
human beings react to or control events brought about by the divine will. The
audience knows the end result of Oedipus' search for the killer before he begins
the process of discovery. Part of the suspense lies in our not knowing how he
will react to the discovery. His self-blinding cannot be the end of the story:
Sophocles shows how this act begins the next part of the hero's life, in which he
proves his worth as a human being, accepting the will of the gods while still as-
serting his own dignity and independence. Thus he cries out to the Chorus
(1329-1335):
f
Apollo it was, Apollo, who brought to fruition these my evil sufferings. No one
struck [my eyes] but I in my misery. Why should I need to see, when there is
nothing sweet for me to see?
Oedipus recognizes the power of the god and the impossibility of avoid-
ing the divine will. Yet he also recognizes his own responsibility—he is the
one who committed the crimes against the divine law, and he is the one who
blinded himself. He is also the one who now, even in his miserable state,
gives instructions to Creon (1446: "These are my orders to you.. .") for the
burial of Jocasta, for his own exile from Thebes (where, he commands, he is
not to be buried), and for the reunion with his daughters, Antigone and Is-
mene, who in the last lines of the play are taken from him as he is led back
into the palace.
How noble the interpretation of Sophocles is can be seen if we look back to
the lines in the tragedy where Jocasta dismisses the prophecies of Apollo, think-
ing that the details of the killing of Laius, as told by Oedipus, have proved that
the oracle was false (857-858):
S I would not in the future look for prophecies on this side or on that.