And as for this marriage with your mother—
have no fear. Many a man before you,
in his dreams, has shared his mother’s bed.
Take such things for shadows, nothing at all—
Live, Oedipus, as if there’s no tomorrow!
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Summary
A messenger enters, looking for Oedipus. He tells Jocasta
that he has come from Corinth to tell Oedipus that his father, Polybus,
is dead, and that Corinth wants Oedipus to come and rule there. Jocasta
rejoices, convinced that since Polybus is dead from natural causes,
the prophecy that Oedipus will murder his father is false. Oedipus
arrives, hears the messenger’s news, and rejoices with Jocasta;
king and queen concur that prophecies are worthless and the world
is ruled by chance. However, Oedipus still fears the part of the
prophecy that said he would sleep with his mother. The messenger
says he can rid himself of that worry, because Polybus and his wife,
Merope, are not really Oedipus’s natural parents.
The messenger explains that he used to be a shepherd years
ago. One day, he found a baby on Mount Cithaeron, near Thebes. The baby
had its ankles pinned together, and the former shepherd set them
free. That baby was Oedipus, who still walks with a limp because
of the injury to his ankles so long ago. When Oedipus inquires who
left him in the woods on the mountain, the messenger replies that
another shepherd, Laius’s servant, gave him baby Oedipus. At this,
Jocasta turns sharply, seeming to sense some horrible revelation
on the horizon.
Oedipus wants to find this shepherd, so he can find out
who his natural parents are. Jocasta begs him to abandon his search
immediately, but Oedipus is insistent. After screaming and pleading
some more to no avail, Jocasta finally flees back into the palace.
Oedipus dismisses her concerns as snobbish fears that he may be
born of poor parents, and Oedipus and the Chorus rejoice at the
possibility that they may soon know who his parents truly are.
The other shepherd, who turns out to be the same shepherd
who witnessed Laius’s murder, comes onto the stage. The messenger identifies
him as the man who gave him the young Oedipus. Oedipus interrogates
the new arrival, asking who gave him the baby, but the shepherd
refuses to talk. Finally, after Oedipus threatens him with torture,
the shepherd answers that the baby came from the house of Laius.
Questioned further, he answers that it was Laius’s child, and that
Jocasta gave it to him to destroy because of a prophecy that the child
would kill his parents. But instead, the shepherd gave him to the
other shepherd, so that he might be raised as a prince in Corinth. Realizing
who he is and who his parents are, Oedipus screams that he sees
the truth, and flees back into the palace. The shepherd and the
messenger slowly exit the stage.
Analysis
Sophocles makes the scene in which Oedipus and Jocasta
learn that Polybus is dead seem strangely comic. Oedipus digests
the news of Polybus’s death without showing the slightest sign of
grief. The moment becomes, in fact, an occasion for near triumph,
as Oedipus believes his doubts about prophecies have been confirmed.
He is now convinced that prophecies are useless. He even says, “Polybus /
packs [all the prophecies] off to sleep with him in hell!” (1062–1063). Oedipus’s
strange glee reveals the extent to which he has withdrawn into himself
after obtaining the knowledge that he killed his father. He and
Jocasta rejoice in the smallest and most bizarre details in order
to alleviate some of the guilt Oedipus feels (for another example,
see Oedipus and Jocasta’s discussion at lines 938–951).
Oedipus’s own tenacity, however, means that he will not
allow his understanding to remain incomplete. When he learns that
there is still a piece of the puzzle left unsolved—the identity
of the man from whom the messenger received the baby Oedipus—Oedipus seems
irresistibly driven to ask questions until the whole truth is out. Thus,
he gradually deprives himself of ambiguous details that could alleviate
his guilt. Jocasta, of course, solves the riddle before Oedipus—she
realizes she is his mother while he is still imagining himself to
be the child of slaves. Oedipus must realize that something is amiss
when Jocasta leaves the stage screaming, but his speech at lines 1183–1194 is
strangely joyful. Chance, he says in this speech, is his mother,
and the waxing and waning moon his brothers. Overwhelmed by an onslaught
of new information, Oedipus re-envisions his earthly relationships
as celestial ones as he announces his intent to uncover his true
identity. It seems that he is unable to face directly the reality
of his origins—reconceiving his identity allows him to feel a sense
of control over it, but it also keeps that identity ambiguous. He
basically identifies himself as someone who must search for his
identity. Oedipus, who is famous for his skill at solving riddles, thus
makes his own life into a riddle.
