Summary
Oedipus’s wife, Jocasta, enters and convinces Oedipus
that he should neither kill nor exile Creon, though the reluctant
king remains convinced that Creon is guilty. Creon leaves, and the
Chorus reassures Oedipus that it will always be loyal to him. Oedipus explains
to Jocasta how Tiresias condemned him, and Jocasta responds that
all prophets are false. As proof, she offers the fact that the Delphic
oracle told Laius he would be murdered by his son, while actually
his son was cast out of Thebes as a baby and Laius was murdered
by a band of thieves. Her narrative of his murder, however, sounds
familiar to Oedipus, and he asks to hear more.
Jocasta tells him that Laius was killed at a three-way
crossroads, just before Oedipus arrived in Thebes. Oedipus, stunned,
tells his wife that he may be the one who murdered Laius. He tells
Jocasta that, long ago, when he was the prince of Corinth, he heard
at a banquet that he was not really the son of the king and queen,
and so went to the oracle of Delphi, which did not answer him but
did tell him he would murder his father and sleep with his mother.
Hearing this, Oedipus fled from home, never to return. It was then,
on the journey that would take him to Thebes, that Oedipus was confronted
and harassed by a group of travelers, whom he killed in self-defense,
at the very crossroads where Laius was killed.
Hoping that he will not be identified as Laius’s
murderer, Oedipus sends for the shepherd who was the only man to
survive the attack. Oedipus and Jocasta leave the stage, and the
Chorus enters, announcing that the world is ruled by destiny and denouncing
prideful men who would defy the gods. At the same time, the Chorus
worries that if all the prophecies and oracles are wrong—if a proud
man can, in fact, triumph—then the gods may not rule the world after
all. Jocasta enters from the palace to offer a branch wrapped in
wool to Apollo.
Analysis
Whatever sympathy we might have lost for Oedipus amid
his ranting in the second section, we regain at least partially
in the third. After Jocasta intercedes in the fight between Oedipus
and Creon, Oedipus calms down and recalls that there is a riddle
before him that he, as the ruler of Thebes, has a responsibility
to solve. Consequently, his incessant questions become more purposeful
than they were in his conversations with Tiresias and Creon. We
see that Oedipus logically and earnestly pursues the truth when
he does not have a preconceived idea of what the truth is. When
Oedipus seizes upon the detail of the three-way crossroads (805–822),
he proves that he was not merely grandstanding in the first scene
of the play when he expressed his desire to be forthright with his
citizens and to subject himself to the same laws he imposes upon
others. In his speech at lines 848–923,
Oedipus shows that he truly believes he killed Laius and is willing
to accept not only the responsibility but the punishment for the
act. The speech is heartbreaking because we know that Oedipus has
arrived at only half the truth.
In this section, Jocasta is both careless and maternal.
She tells Oedipus that prophecies do not come true, and she uses
the fact that an oracle incorrectly prophesied that Laius would
be killed by his own son as evidence. Jocasta’s mistake is similar
to Oedipus’s in the previous section: she confuses conclusions and
evidence. As Oedipus assumed that Tiresias’s unpleasant claims could
only be treason, so Jocasta assumes that because one prophecy has
apparently not come to pass, prophecies can only be lies. While
Oedipus’s hasty and imperfect logic in the second section has much
to do with his pride, Jocasta’s in this section seem attached to
an unwitting desire to soothe and mother Oedipus. When Jocasta is
not answering Oedipus’s questions, she is calming him down, asking
him to go into the palace, telling him that he has nothing to worry
about—no need to ask more questions—for the rest of his life. Jocasta’s
casual attitude upsets the Chorus, which continues to be loyal to
Oedipus throughout this section (see 761–767).
The Chorus’s ode at lines 954–997 serves
as a reminder that neither Oedipus, Jocasta, nor the sympathetic
audience should feel calm, because oracles speak to a purpose and
are inspired by the gods who control the destiny of men. Throughout
the play, the Chorus has been miserable, desperate for the plague
to end and for stability to be restored to the city. Nevertheless,
the Chorus holds staunchly to the belief that the prophesies of
Tiresias will come true. For if they do not, there is no order on earth
or in the heavens.
