Sophocles “Oedipus the King” - summary - Russian Historical Library - Litera.site

Summary

Prologue

The inhabitants of Thebes, led by a priest, turn to their ruler, King Oedipus, for help. They are in terrible confusion, because “a deadly pestilence has struck and is tormenting the city”: crops are dying, livestock is wasting away, unborn babies are dying in their mothers’ wombs. The Thebans have no doubt that only Oedipus can save their city from a terrible disaster, and they pray to him for protection.

The king reassures his subjects and says that he has already sent his brother-in-law Creon to the oracle so that he can find out from the god Apollo about the cause of the epidemic.

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Creon returns and reports what the oracle told him: the god Apollo is angry with the inhabitants of Thebes because “the city is burdened with murder,” and they are hiding a criminal - the murderer of the former king Laius. Having learned about this, Oedipus decides to “take revenge for his homeland and God” and return his subjects to their former prosperity.

Episode one

Oedipus convenes all the citizens and makes a speech to them. He explains to them who “is the culprit of the corruption that has struck the city,” and calls on them to hand over the murderer or confess to him. Before his people, the king takes an oath that he will certainly find and punish Laius’ murderer to the fullest extent.

But how do you find out where the criminal is hiding? Oedipus turns for help to the elder Tiresias, a soothsayer who is “as perspicacious as the sovereign Apollo.” The blind old man refuses to help Oedipus and does not name the regicide. When the angry ruler accuses him of aiding a criminal, Tiresias, unable to bear the insult, throws it in the king’s face: “You are a godless desecrator of the country!”

Hearing these words, Oedipus threatens to punish the impudent scoffer, but, having calmed down, tries to find out from the soothsayer what he means, because the king has no direct connection to the murder of his predecessor. Tiresias makes it clear that the problem is hidden in the origin of Oedipus, but is silent about the details.

Episode two

Oedipus is sure that Creon is the criminal, and he intends to kill him or expel him from Thebes. After the murder of Laius, by law he was supposed to take his throne, but this was done by Oedipus, who solved the riddle of the Sphinx and freed the city from the monster. Is it possible that Creon harbored a grudge against his rival and made Tiresias the instrument of his actions?

Upon learning that Oedipus suspects him of a crime, Creon explains that he never aspired to become a king, and preferred “always only a share of power.” However, Oedipus does not believe him and is going to punish the traitor.

Oedipa’s wife and Creon’s sister, Queen Jocasta, intervene in their dispute. Having learned about the cause of the conflict between her husband and brother, she tries to calm Oedipus and urges him not to take the predictions on faith. Jocasta says that in her youth she herself became a victim of a prophecy, according to which her husband Laius was to die at the hand of their first-born. The king ordered the legs of their newborn son to be pierced and left on a high rock, and meanwhile he fell “from unknown robbers.”

However, instead of calming down, Jocasta's story worries Oedipus even more. He recalls his youth, when he learned from the oracle that he was destined to “get together with his mother,” give birth to children and “become a murderer of his father.” In fear, Oedipus left his parents and went to wander around the world. It so happened that, against his will, he had to kill the driver and the old man, who, according to the description, was very similar to King Laius. And if the old man he killed was really the king of Thebes, then Oedipus is forced to immediately leave the city.

Only the old slave, who “saved and fled” during the attack, can resolve the king’s doubts.

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Episode three

A messenger from Corinth comes to Jocasta and reports that the Corinthians want to see Oedipus as their king. However, he is afraid to ascend the throne, because he remembers the oracle’s predictions well. And if his father, the ruler of Corinth, did not fall by his hand, then the fate of the second part of the prediction, in which Oedipus is destined to share a bed with his own mother, has not yet been resolved.

The messenger tries to understand the reasons for Oedipus’s doubts and, when he learns about the prediction, he hurries to please the king. It turns out that the royal couple from Corinth many years ago adopted a baby who was found on a high rock by a shepherd. The sign of the boy was “pierced legs.”

Hearing this, Jocasta tries to stop Oedipus from investigating further. The woman is ready to bear the heavy burden of a terrible secret until the end of her days, but the king certainly wants to know all the details of his birth.

Episode four

Oedipus calls the old shepherd, whom King Laius once instructed to kill his own son. The shepherd is afraid to tell the truth to the ruler, because he “will have to express all the horror.”

The revealed secret of Oedipus's birth leads to Jocasta's insanity, who commits suicide. Blinded by grief, Oedipus plunges the point of a pin into the eye sockets of the mother who was destined to become his wife. It is impossible to convey the suffering of the king: “such a spectacle is capable of pitying even an enemy.” Drenched in blood, the blind Oedipus says goodbye to the children, whom he entrusts to the care of Creon, and he himself leaves Thebes.

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Who is the author of the ancient Greek tragedy "Oedipus the King"?
- Sophocles
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Prologue

Thebes is gripped by plague and famine. King Oedipus sent Creon, the brother of his wife Jocasta (she is the widow of the former king), to the Delphic oracle, a servant of Apollo, to find out how to end the disaster. The priest of Zeus with a delegation of young men also begs the king to save the city.

From the returning Creon, the king learns that punishment fell on the city due to the fact that the death of the previous ruler of Thebes, Laius, was not avenged. That king died at the hands of an unknown passerby, and his killer was not punished. Oedipus is ready to “revenge his homeland and God” and restore justice.

Episode one

Oedipus curses the murderer Laius and begs everyone who knows the name of the criminal to reveal it. The killer's accomplices were promised exile, not death - as long as they named who was guilty. The killer is an outcast, cursed, hated by gods and people. For Oedipus, the deceased is like his own father.

The only hope of finding out something is the blind prophet Tiresias. But the old man refuses to answer. Oedipus shames him. Finally, Tiresias answers: “The murderer of Laius is you!” To Oedipus such an accusation seems absurd, and to Tiresias he seems out of his mind. He recalls that he received power without intrigue, only by solving the riddle of the insidious destroyer of the Sphinx.

Tiresias prophesies: Oedipus is sighted, but no better than the blind. He doesn’t know his parents or live with anyone. His reign is not good, and he, the brother of his own children, will be cursed for his mother. Leaving, Tiresias foreshadows the death of Oedipus - as the murderer of his father and the husband of his mother.

Episode two

Oedipus is sure that Creon is aiming for his place, and is in cahoots with Tiresias. He threatens his relative with death, then replies that he already has enough power, he will not exchange it for the throne. Jocasta comes to calm her husband and brother.

It turns out that there is an unfulfilled prophecy in her destiny. In the same Delphi, the late king Laius was told that he would die by the hand of his son. Then the king threw his little son into the mountain desert. And what? He was killed at a crossroads, by the hand of some stranger! It turns out that not every prophecy should be trusted.

Oedipus listens to her with increasing anxiety. According to all signs, it agrees that in his youth he was on that road and saw Laius with five accompanying people. They roughly drove Oedipus, the king's son, off the road. The driver struck him - Oedipus responded in kind. Then the gentleman himself from the cart hit him with a “double goad.” Unable to bear it, Oedipus “hit him in the forehead with his staff.” And then he dealt with the rest.

Oedipus asks: are there any witnesses to the death of Laius? It turns out that yes, some slave is alive. Seeing Oedipus as king, he asked to live away from the city. Excited Oedipus cherishes one hope: that slave reported that Laius was killed by robbers. And he walked alone that day.

In his youth, at some feast, a drunken guest told Oedipus, the son of the Corinthian king Polybus, that he was a foundling. But the young man did not believe it. And he went to Delphi for a prediction. And there he learned that he would become the killer of his own father and the husband of his own mother. Frightened by the monstrous prediction, Oedipus decided to leave the family so that the prophecy would not come true.

Episode three

An elderly messenger from Corinth arrives in Thebes. He has two news: bad and good. Firstly, Oedipus's father died of old age and illness. Secondly, the Corinthian people want Oedipus as their king. But Oedipus doesn’t care: as long as Merope’s mother is alive, he won’t set foot there. After all, the gods predicted that he would become her husband!

Jocasta is glad: Oedipus’s father died a natural death. This means the prophecy was false. But the messenger objects: Oedipus was afraid in vain. After all, he is a foundling, not his own son. The messenger himself took him, with crippled, pierced legs, from a shepherd “in the valley of Kiferon” and gave him to a childless royal couple.

It turns out that the witness to Laia’s death is that shepherd. Now Jocasta is not at ease either. Oedipus believes that it is shameful for his wife that she became related to someone unknown. He himself intends to find out the truth about his origin.

Episode four

From an old shepherd, Oedipus learns the terrible truth: he is the son of Laius. According to the prophecy, he was supposed to kill his father. Then Laius ordered his wife Jocasta to give the child to death, into the hands of a slave. He took pity on the baby and gave it to the shepherd. The boy grew up, accidentally killed his father on the road, and now he is married to his mother, the father of her children.

Jocasta hangs herself in horror, Oedipus blinds himself. Creon is proclaimed king. Until recently, Oedipus threatened him with death, and now he begs him to take care of his daughters, Antigone and Ismene. In the end, sons, men, will make their own way in life, which cannot be said about girls. Nobody will want to marry them. Creon treats Oedipus, destroyed by grief and shame, with compassion. The former king asks to go to the ill-fated “valley of Kiferon” - to the place where his life was supposed to end in infancy.

In the finale, the result of the tragedy is heard: until recently, Oedipus was known as the luckiest and wisest man in Thebes. In the blink of an eye everything changed. And every mortal person must remember: while he is alive, let him not rush to rejoice in luck. “Do not consider your husband happy under the smile of a deity.”

Oedipus at Colonus

Colon is a town north of Athens. There was a sacred grove of the Eumenide goddesses, the terrible guardians of truth - those about whom Aeschylus wrote in the Oresteia. Among this grove stood an altar in honor of the hero Oedipus: it was believed that this Theban hero was buried here and guarded this land. How the ashes of the Theban hero ended up in Athenian soil - this was told in different ways. Sophocles wrote a tragedy based on one of these stories. He himself was from Colon, and this tragedy was the last in his life.

From an incestuous marriage with his mother, Oedipus had two sons and two daughters: Eteocles and Polyneices, Antigone and Ismene. When Oedipus blinded himself for his sins and left power, both sons recoiled from him. Then he left Thebes and went to wander unknown where. His faithful daughter Antigone went with him as a guide to the decrepit blind man. Having gone blind, he regained his sight in his soul: he realized that through voluntary self-punishment he had atoned for his involuntary guilt, that the gods had forgiven him and that he would die not a sinner, but a saint. This means that sacrifices and libations will be made at his grave, and his ashes will be the protection of the land where he will be buried.

Blind Oedipus and tired Antigone go on stage and sit down to rest. "Where are we?" - asks Oedipus. “This is a grove of laurels and olives, here grapes climb and nightingales sing, and in the distance is Athens,” Antigone answers. A watchman comes out to meet them:

“Get away from here, this place is forbidden for mortals, here live the Eumenides, daughters of Night and Earth.” “Oh happiness! Here, under the shadow of the Eumenides, the gods promised me a blessed death. Go, tell the Athenian king: let him come here, let him give me little and receive a lot,” Oedipus asks. “From you, blind beggar?” - the watchman is surprised. “I am blind, but I see with my mind.” The watchman leaves, and Oedipus offers prayers to the Eumenides and all the gods: “Fulfill your promise, send me the long-awaited death.”

A chorus of Colon residents appears: they, too, are at first angry, seeing a stranger on the holy land, but his pitiful appearance begins to inspire them with sympathy. "Who are you?" “Oedipus,” he pronounces. “Parricide, incestuous, be gone!” - “My sin is terrible, but involuntary; do not persecute me - the gods are fair and they will not punish you for my guilt. Let me wait for your king."

But instead of the king, another tired woman appears from the far side - Ismene, the second daughter of Oedipus. She has bad news. There is strife in Thebes, Eteocles expelled Polyneices, who gathers the Seven on a campaign against Thebes; the gods predicted: “If Oedipus is not buried in a foreign land, Thebes will stand.” And now an embassy has already been sent for Oedipus. "No! - Oedipus shouts. “They renounced me, they expelled me, now let them destroy each other!” And I want to die here, in the land of Athens, for her benefit, for her enemies’ fear.” The choir is touched. “Then perform purification, make a libation of water and honey, appease the Eumenides - only they can forgive or not forgive the murder of a relative.” Ismene prepares the ceremony, Oedipus, in roll call with the choir, mourns his sin.

But here is the Athenian king: this is Theseus, the famous hero and wise ruler. “What are you asking, old man? I am ready to help you - we are all equal under the gaze of the gods, today you are in trouble, and tomorrow I am.” - “Bury me here, don’t let the Thebans take me away, and my ashes will be your country’s protection.” - “Here’s my word for you.” Theseus leaves to give orders, and the choir sings praise to Athens, Colonus and the gods, their patrons:

Athena the mistress, Poseidon the horseman, Demeter the farmer, Dionysus the vinedresser.

“Don't be deceived! - Antigone prays. “The Theban ambassador with his soldiers is already coming.” This is Creon, a relative of Oedipus, the second man in Thebes under Oedipus, and now under Eteocles. “Forgive our guilt and have pity on our country: it is dear to you, but this one, although good, is not yours.” But Oedipus is firm: “You came not out of friendship, but out of need, but I don’t need to go with you.” “There will be a need! - Creon threatens. - Hey, grab his daughters: they are our Theban subjects! And you, old man, decide: will you come with me or stay here, without help, without a guide! The chorus grumbles, the girls cry, Oedipus curses Creon: “Just as you leave me alone, so you will be left alone in your declining years!” This curse will come true in the tragedy Antigone.

Theseus rushes to the rescue. “An insult to my guest is an insult to me too! Don’t disgrace your city—let the girls go and go away.” - “Who are you standing up for? - Creon argues. “For a sinner, for a criminal?” “My sin is involuntary,” Oedipus answers with tears, “and you, Creon, sin of your own free will, attacking the weak and weak!” Theseus is firm, the girls are saved, the choir praises Athenian valor.

But Oedipus' trials are not over. Just as the Theban Creon asked him for help, now the exiled son Polyneices came to him to ask for help. This one was impudent, this one was touching. He cries about his misfortune and about Oedipus's misfortune - let the unfortunate understand the unfortunate! He asks for forgiveness, promises Oedipus, if not a throne, then a palace, but Oedipus does not listen to him. “You and your brother destroyed me, but your sisters saved me! Be honor to them, and death to you: you will not take Thebes, you will kill brother brother, and may the curse of Eumenides-Erinnius be upon you.” Antigone loves her brother, she begs him to disband the army and not destroy her homeland. “Neither I nor my brother will give in,” Polyneices replies. “I see death and I am going to die, and may the gods protect you, sisters.” The choir sings: “Life is short; death is inevitable; There are more sorrows in life than joys. The best fate is not to be born at all; the second part is to die sooner. Labor oppresses, unrest destroys; and old age amidst torment is like an island among the waves.”

The end is approaching. Thunder rumbles, lightning flashes, the chorus calls on Zeus, Oedipus calls on Theseus. “My last hour has come: now I, alone with you, will enter the sacred grove, find the treasured place, and my ashes will rest there. Neither my daughters nor your citizens will know him; only you and your heirs will keep this secret, and as long as it is kept, Oedipus’s tomb will protect Athens from Thebes. Behind me! and Hermes leads me, bringing souls down to the underworld.” The chorus, falling to its knees, prays to the underground gods: “Let Oedipus peacefully descend into your kingdom: he deserved it through torment.”

And the gods heard: the messenger reported about the miraculous end of Oedipus. He walked as if he could see, he reached the appointed place, washed himself, dressed in white, said goodbye to Antigone and Ismene, and then an unknown voice was heard:

“Go, Oedipus, don’t hesitate!” The companions' hair began to move, they turned and walked away. When they turned, Oedipus and Theseus stood nearby; when they looked back, Theseus was standing there alone, shielding his eyes as if from an unbearable light. Whether lightning lifted Oedipus, whether a whirlwind whisked him away, or whether the earth took him into its bosom - no one knows. The sisters return for the messenger, mourning their father, and Theseus for the sisters; the sisters go to their native Thebes, and Theseus and the choir repeat the covenant of Oedipus and his blessing: “May it be indestructible!”

Reader's diary based on the play “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles

Plot

Oedipus, son of the Corinthian king, reigns in Thebes, married to Jocasta, father of sons and daughters. Oedipus was predicted that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Therefore, he left his native Corinth. He received Thebes for solving the riddle of the evil Sphinx.

Now the pestilence is decimating the inhabitants of Thebes. Oedipus learns from a relative of Creon that the gods have cursed the city for the unpunished murder of the previous king, Laius. Oedipus asks the soothsayer Tiresias to name the murderer. He replies that Oedipus killed. Then the king, in horror, remembers that many years ago on the same road he killed some noble man and his servants. They beat the traveler, demanding to move aside. Only one eyewitness survived - an old slave.

The slave reveals the secret of Oedipus's birth. It turns out that he is the son of Laius and Jocasta. His destiny was to kill his father and marry his mother. Laius ordered the child to be abandoned in the mountains. But the slave took pity on him and left him to the shepherd. So the boy ended up in Corinth. It turns out that the prophecy came true. The disgraced Jocasta takes her own life, Oedipus blinds himself and leaves the palace. In an instant, happy and powerful, he became insignificant and unhappy.

Review

At the heart of tragedy is the power of blind fate, fate, a person’s responsibility for his actions - voluntary and involuntary, and even for the actions of other people. The theme of retribution for crime, the evil irony of fate, the price of error, ignorance and truth. In the play, man is unable to overcome the will of the gods. A generally positive, worthy hero suddenly turns out to be the worst of criminals. He “executes” himself. Happiness is changeable, like life: today it is, but tomorrow it is not.

In the city of Thebes, where King Oedipus was the ruler, a terrible disease appears, from which people and livestock die. To find out the cause of the pestilence, the ruler turns to the oracle, who explains that this is the punishment of the gods for the murder of their former king, Laius, and in order for the disease to disappear, the killer must be found. Oedipus wonders why they didn’t look for the killer earlier, to which they explain to him that people used to worry about the Sphinx, who terrorized the inhabitants. Actually, thanks to the victory over the Sphinx, Oedipus became the ruler of Thebes and married Laius’s wife, Jocasta. Having learned the prediction, the king issues a decree to find the killer, but this turns out to be not so simple. After all, Laias died at the hands of a stranger outside Thebes. Then Oedipus turns to the blind soothsayer Teresius for help. He does not want to answer the king’s question. Oedipus becomes angry and begins to suspect the old man, but he eventually confesses that the murderer is the king himself. The ruler begins to suspect that all this is the machinations of Creon, Jocasta’s brother, who wants to take the throne. But Teresius denies all this and says only that Oedipus himself does not know in what sin he lives and who his father and mother are.

Oedipus summons Creon and accuses him of treason. Creon swears that the king is mistaken. Jocasta stands up for her brother, claiming that all the prophecies are false, because she predicted death for her husband at the hands of her son, and Laia was killed by an unknown traveler. Oedipus clarifies where and how this happened and realizes that when he was walking to Thebes, he actually unintentionally killed the man who hit him to get him off the road. They tell him that there is only one witness left to the incident and the king is sending for him.

Oedipus is in despair. When he is informed of the suicide of Jocasta, his mother and wife, he embraces her corpse and, tearing off the fibula, plunges the needle into his eyes. After this, he says goodbye to his children and goes into exile. The last lines of the tragedy contain its main lesson: it is impossible to escape from fate, and one should not envy someone who is better in some way, because it is unknown what awaits him ahead.

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Read summary Sophocles - Oedipus the King. Brief retelling. For a reader's diary, take 5-6 sentences

The Tale of Oedipus

Laius, the son of Labdacus from the family of Cadmus, was king in Thebes. He was married to Jocasta, daughter of the Theban Menokeus, but had no children from this marriage. Passionately wanting to have an heir, he turned to the Delphic oracle and received from him the following prediction: “Lai, you are not blessed in children!” The gods will send you a son, but you will die by his hand. Woe to you and your descendants!

Lai, in horror, told his wife about the terrible prediction. Both of them were so embarrassed and confused by him that when Jocasta actually gave birth to a son, Laius did not even want to look at him. Three days later, he ordered the child to be abandoned in the wild mountains of Cithaeron, and at the same time pierced his feet with his own hand so that he could not escape. But the shepherd, who was tasked with abandoning him in the mountains, took pity on the innocent child and handed him over to another shepherd, who tended the flocks of the Corinthian king Polybus. He himself returned to the palace and reported to Lai that his order had been carried out.

After this, the royal couple, thinking that the child had died in the harsh mountains, forgot to think about the gloomy prediction. Meanwhile, the shepherd Polybus carefully bandaged the child’s wounded legs and named him Oedipus (Swollen Legs) from his wounds. At first he looked after him himself, and then handed him over to his king, who became very attached to the boy and began to raise him as his son.

Oedipus, growing up, was also quite convinced that he was the true son and heir of Polybus. Therefore, he was greatly embarrassed when one day some drunken old Corinthian, angry with him, said that he was not the real son of Polybus. Oedipus immediately hurried to the king and queen and demanded from them an explanation of the words he did not understand; In vain they dissuaded him and scolded the old talker - doubt took possession of the young man’s soul. Unable to find peace, he finally decided to go to the Delphic oracle and ask him questions. But this journey did not give him peace; on the contrary, Apollo predicted that a new terrible misfortune awaits him in the future.

“Run away from your father,” he said to the young man, “for if you meet him, you will kill him and marry your mother.”

Overwhelmed by horror, Oedipus did not dare to return back to Corinth, fearing that the evil fate predicted for him would happen to him there, and headed his way to Boeotia. He was walking along a deserted, narrow path between Delphi and Daulia, when suddenly, at one turn, he met a chariot in which an old man was sitting with a driver and a herald. The driver roughly pushed him off the road, for which the hot-tempered Oedipus knocked him off the chariot with a strong blow. Then the elder dealt Oedipus a strong blow to the head with a pointed stick that was in his hand, so that he began to bleed. This blow completely drove Oedipus mad; swinging his road club, he brought it down with terrible force on the head of the old man, and he, bleeding, fell dead from his seat. The young man was fully confident that he had simply killed a stubborn Boeotian and his servant, since the old man did not have any signs that would indicate his higher position. In fact, it was Laius, the king of Thebes, who was on his way to the oracle at Delphi; Thus the terrible prediction made by the oracle twice was fulfilled.

Not long before this, a terrible winged monster called the Sphinx appeared near Thebes; From the front it looked like a girl, but the back part was like a lion. This monster, the sister of the infernal Cerberus, placed itself on a rock and from there offered the Thebans all sorts of riddles. If the person being asked could not resolve them, then the Sphinx tore him into pieces; Thus, Jocasta’s own nephew, the son of her brother Creon, who seized power into his own hands after the death of Laius, had already died. This disaster finally prompted the Theban princes to announce that whoever freed the city from the monster would receive the Theban kingdom and the hand of the queen as a reward.

Just on the day when this was announced, Oedipus, tired from his wanderings, approached the gates of Thebes. The dangerous adventure seduced him, and, in addition, due to the terrible prediction of the oracle, he did not particularly value his life. He boldly climbed the rock and allowed the Sphinx to propose a riddle to himself; it read as follows: “Name me an animal that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening!” The strength and speed of its movements are least when it has more legs.

The riddle did not bother the smart young man; he smiled and immediately gave an answer. “An animal is a man,” he said, “who in the morning of his life walks on two arms and two legs; at noon of his life, when he becomes strongest, he walks on two legs, and towards the evening of his life, when he weakens and becomes an old man, he walks with the help of a stick, which becomes his third leg.

The riddle was solved, and the Sphinx, full of frustration and fear, threw himself off the cliff and hurt himself to death. Oedipus received Thebes and the hand of Queen Jocasta as a reward. This latter bore him four children - two twins, Etsocles and Polyneices, and then two daughters, Antigone and Yemena. Thus the second part of the terrible prediction came true.

But the true meaning of everything that happened was hidden from everyone for a long time, and Oedipus happily ruled Thebes for several more years. Finally, the gods sent a plague to the country, against which no means helped. The frightened Thebans sought help and protection against a terrible disaster from their king, whom they considered the favorite of the gods. Oedipus, unable to do anything, sent Creon to Delphi to ask God how to get rid of the terrible disease.

The oracle's answer was disappointing. God said that the country was under a heavy curse from the unavenged villainous murder of Laius; he ordered to find the criminal and expel him from the country. Oedipus, who had the responsibility of reconciling the gods with the country, called on everyone to report everything they knew about the murder of Laius, promising for this a great reward and gratitude from the entire country. He also called the blind Tiresias, who was greatly respected and loved for his gift of clairvoyance. The blind old man appeared, accompanied by a boy, to a public meeting, where Oedipus asked him to lead them on the trail of the criminal.

Tiresias let out a cry of despair. “Terrible is knowledge,” he exclaimed, “which reveals only crime to the knower.” Let me be silent, and do not try to discover the meaning of the oracle's saying!

In vain did the king ask the elder to reveal the secret, in vain did he pray to the people for the same thing, on his knees - the clairvoyant did not utter another word. Then Oedipus was overcome with anger, and he dared to insult the elder, calling him an accomplice to the murderer. This accusation forced Tiresias to break his silence, and he cried out: “If you want to know this, then listen!” You yourself are the monster because of whom this city is dying! You are the king's killer! You disgraced your family by marrying your own mother!

Oedipus, in his blindness, began to scold the soothsayer as a liar and a charlatan, bribed by Creon, but the more severe the denunciations of Tiresias became; he predicted the curse of the gods for him and his entire family and, finally, angry, ordered his boy to lead him away. Meanwhile, Creon arrived, and a quarrel ensued between him and Oedipus, which Jocasta tried in vain to stop. She, for her part, just as blinded as Oedipus, loudly cursed Tiresias.

“How little this soothsayer knows,” she exclaimed, “is best seen in this example!” My first husband Lai once received a prophecy that he would die at the hands of his son. But our only son died in the desert mountains three days from birth, and my husband was killed at a crossroads by a robber!

These words deeply struck Oedipus. — Was Lai killed at the crossroads? – he asked anxiously. – Describe his appearance to me, how old was he then?

“He was very tall,” answered Jocasta. “The first senile white curls adorned his head, and with his posture and face he resembled you.

- Tiresias is right! - said Oedipus embarrassedly, who for the first time began to have a presentiment of the truth. With fear, he began to question further, but all the signs converged, and the terrible feeling began to turn into confidence.

Just at this time, an ambassador from Corinth appeared and reported that Oedipus’s father, Polybus, had died and the vacated throne was waiting for him. Jocasta once again began to triumph.

- So this is the veracity of divine predictions! - she exclaimed. “It was predicted for you that you would kill your father, and, meanwhile, he quietly died of senile weakness in his bed.

But this news had a completely different effect on Oedipus, who immediately remembered the tipsy Corinthian who first raised suspicions about his origin in him. The ambassador dispelled the last vestiges of doubt in him. This was the same man to whom the shepherd Laius gave the child instead of abandoning him in the desert mountains. He was easily able to prove to Jocasta and Oedipus that the latter, although he was the heir of Polybus, was not his own, but only his adopted son.

Now all doubts were dispelled, and all the horror of his actions appeared before the eyes of Oedipus. Filling the air with cries of despair, Oedipus rushed through the streets of the city, asking everyone who came across his path to give him a sword to kill himself and his mother. But everyone shunned him in horror, and he, exhausted, returned to the palace. And there a new terrible misfortune awaited him; Jocasta, depressed by the consciousness of her terrible, albeit involuntary crime, hanged herself, and Oedipus found only her cold corpse. With groans, he freed the body from the noose and, laying it on the ground, removed the gold clasps that were on Jocasta’s chest. Raising them high with his right hand, he cursed himself and his vision in madness and forcefully thrust the golden points of the clasps into his eyes until a stream of blood spurted out of them. Then he ordered himself to be taken out of the palace and taken to the square to repent before the people of his crimes, which made him a curse for the entire country. The servants fulfilled his wish, but the people met their beloved king with compassion, and no one showed him the slightest contempt. Creon himself hurried to him to express his sympathy.

Oedipus, overwhelmed by grief, was touched by this kindness; he handed over his throne to Creon, who was to reign until the sons of Oedipus grew up, and asked him for protection and patronage for his daughters. He asked to bury his unfortunate wife and give him guides who would take him to Mount Kiferon, where he wanted to end his life according to the will of the gods.

Creon fulfilled his request, and the very next morning Oedipus set off on his journey, wanting to end all settlements with life, which had become one continuous disgrace for him, as soon as possible. Both daughters, Antigone and Yemena, accompanied him to the very gates of the city and with tears begged him to return back. But he was inexorable, and then, at the moment of parting, Antigone declared that she would continue to accompany him; she persuaded her younger sister Yemena to stay with her brothers and replace their deceased mother with her worries.

And so Antigone went with her father to a foreign land, sharing with him the need and hunger during long wanderings through waterless deserts and wild forests. Instead of enjoying a carefree life with her brothers, the gentle girl now had to suffer under the scorching rays of the sun and torrential rains, giving the last piece of bread to her unfortunate father. Dear Oedipus changed his mind and decided first of all to visit the oracle of Apollo; there he was predicted that he would not receive peace until he came to the country assigned to him, where the stern goddesses of the Eumenides would stop their persecution and leave him.

Fulfilling the predictions of God, Oedipus wandered around the Greek countries, eating alms that compassionate people gave him and his daughter. After a long wandering, they came to the Athenian region of Colon. There, as they learned from the inhabitants, there was a grove of the Eumenides, under whose name the Athenians honored Erinny. The glorious Theseus reigned in Athens at this time; Having learned about the arrival of Oedipus, he immediately hurried to Colon and greeted the unfortunate wanderer in a friendly manner.

“I am not ignorant of your fate, poor Oedipus,” he said, “and it deeply touches my soul.” Tell me what you want in Colon. “Give me shelter, O king, and a grave - that’s all I need now,” answered Oedipus.

Theseus suggested that he either go with him to Athens or stay in Colonus; Oedipus chose the second, because a premonition told him that here he was destined to find his final peace. The king willingly fulfilled his wish, and Oedipus, full of gratitude, pronounced a solemn blessing over Athens; then he asked to be escorted to the place where he was to die.

Accompanied by his daughter and the chosen citizens of Colon, he went deeper into the gloomy darkness of the Eumenides grove. There was no need to lead Oedipus; moved by some miraculous force, the blind man walked alone ahead of everyone and showed the others the way to the place destined by fate. In the middle of this grove there was a passage underground, to the covered opening of which many paths converged from all sides; this passage, as the legend said, led to the underworld. Oedipus stopped here; he took off his dusty dress, washed off all the dirt and sweat that had accumulated during his long wanderings and put on beautiful clothes given to him by Theseus.

When he finished washing and changing clothes, a thunderclap suddenly sounded from underground and a commanding voice sounded in the air: “Delay no more, Oedipus!”

It was impossible to decide where these words came from, from the sky or from underground.

Oedipus, hearing them, called Theseus to him and placed the hand of his daughter in his hand, asking him to take her under his protection and protection. Then he said goodbye to those around him and ordered them, without turning around, to move away from him. Only Theseus alone could approach the very opening of the underworld with him. Antigone and the Colonian citizens silently carried out his order and moved away from him, not daring to turn their gaze back. And then a great miracle happened. The dark opening of the underworld quietly and silently swallowed Oedipus, and he smoothly, as if on wings, began to descend into the depths. Theseus stood near the edge of the hole, covering his eyes with his hand, as if trying to protect them from a bright vision. After saying a short prayer, the king approached Antigone and assured her of his protection. After this, he returned with her to Athens, from where after some time he sent her, at her request, to Thebes.

This is how the sufferer Oedipus ended his life full of trials quietly and peacefully.