People
of Thebes, my countrymen, look on Oedipus. He solved the famous
riddle with his brilliance, he rose to power, a man beyond all power.
Who could behold his greatness without envy? Now what a black sea
of terror has overwhelmed him. Now as we keep our watch and wait
the final day, count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at
last.
(Oedipus
the King, 1678–1684)
These words, spoken by the Chorus, form
the conclusion of Oedipus the King. That Oedipus
“solved the famous riddle [of the Sphinx] with his brilliance” is
an indisputable fact, as is the claim that he “rose to power,” to
an enviable greatness. In underscoring these facts, the Chorus seems
to suggest a causal link between Oedipus’s rise and his fall—that
is, Oedipus fell because he rose too high, because
in his pride he inspired others to “envy.” But the causal relationship
is never actually established, and ultimately all the Chorus demonstrates
is a progression of time: “he rose to power, a man beyond all power.
/ . . . / Now what a black sea of terror has overwhelmed him.” These
lines have a ring of hollow and terrifying truth to them, because
the comfort an audience expects in a moral is absent (in essence,
they say “Oedipus fell for this reason; now you know how not to
fall”).
