 | matched to fit its other half to establish the identity of a messenger or long-lost parent or relative.
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| 272
came later
Oedipus arrived in Thebes after the report of Laius' death had reached the city.
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| 277
Labdacus
An earlier king of Thebes.
|
| 290
93
roof . . . speak . . . pray . . . sacrifice . . . pour
The interdiction Oedipus decrees reveals extreme sensitivity, which would be felt by a Greek of Sophocles' time, to contact with a person whose own hand had committed a defiling act.
|
| 320
21
Laius had no luck . . . children
An example of words that carry a second meaning to be grasped when the true facts of Oedipus' life are known. Oedipus means to say that Laius was childless, but the words also suggest that any child Laius fathered was the
source
of his ill fortune.
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| 322
struck a blow
This idiom through which Oedipus pictures Laius' death is uncannily appropriate to the manner in which he actually met death: a blow to the head, struck by Oedipus himself.
|
| 328
line of kings
My gloss added to explain Oedipus' list.
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| 340
None of us . . . killer
The blunt denial is understandable, because Oedipus has addressed the Chorus as if it potentially harbored Laius' killer.
|
| 348
Tiresias
The blind Theban prophet who figures in many of the most famous myths of his native city. His association with the god Apollo, and his access to the god's knowledge, are crucial here, because Apollo is the source of the oracles that have predicted Oedipus' incest and patricide.
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| 353
Kreon's urging
An important point. Later, when Tiresias accuses Oedipus of causing the pollution, Oedipus remembers that it was Kreon who advised consulting the seer. Kreon's involvement thus lends plausibility to Oedipus' countercharges.
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| 357
travelers
The Leader substitutes a word that is nearer the truth than Kreon's ''bandits." Oedipus does not react to the difference.
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| 359
who did it
Here I accept an anonymous conjecture. The manuscripts actually say "the one who saw it no one sees." The conjecture fits the context of the next three speeches, which concern not the eyewitness, but the killer, the one who did it.
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