Oedipus Quotes
Oedipus
Prologos
‘The world knows my fame: I am Oedipus’
‘Oh, my children’
‘But as sick as you are, not one is as sick as I’
‘speak out, speak to all of us’
‘trouble? Your king was murdered- royal blood!’
‘I’ll bring it all to light myself (….) I am the land’s avenger by all rights’
Episode One
‘I curse myself as well… if by any chance he proves to be an intimate of our house’
‘as if he were my father’
‘to force the gods to act against their will- no man has the power’
‘Which rumours? I’ll search out every word’
‘We beg you, all of us on our knees’
‘You, you scum of the earth, you’d enrage a heart of stone’
‘given eyes I’d say you did the killing single-handed’
‘Creon! Is this conspiracy his or yours?’
‘eyes peeled for his own profit’
Episode Two
‘When my enemy moves against me quickly, plots in secret, I move quickly too, I must’
‘No, I want you dead’
‘No matter-I must rule’ (accepting he might be wrong but still wants to act as punisher)
‘I respect you, Jocasta, much more than these men here…’
‘I simply didn’t know’
‘I have said too much already’ (relates to letting Jocasta know and cursing himself)
‘I heard all that day and ran’ (natural reaction, but the gods are all powerful)
‘I paid him back with interest’
, ‘let me slip from the world of men, vanish with out a trace before I see myself stained with
such corruption, stained to the heart.’
Episode Three
‘How- murder? Sickness? – what? What killed him?’
‘Jocasta, why, why look to the Prophet’s hearth, the fires of the future?’
‘I live in fear, I must’
‘a herdsman, were you? A vagabond, scraping for wages?’ (‘your saviour too’)
‘fail to solve the mystery of my birth? Not for all the world!’
‘leave her to glory in her royal birth’
‘I count myself the son of Chance!’
‘I’ll never see myself disgraced’
Episode Four
‘so you won’t talk willingly- then you’ll talk with pain’
‘I’m at the edge of hearing horrors, yes, but I must hear!’
‘cursed in my birth, cursed in marriage, cursed in the lives I cut down with these hands’
Exodus
‘when he saw her, giving a low, wrenching sob that broke our hearts’
‘slow embrace he laid her down’
‘you’ll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused!’
‘Apollo- he ordained my agonies (…) but the hand that struck my eyes was mine, mine
alone’
‘It’s mine alone, my destiny- I am Oedipus!’
‘what I did was best- don’t lecture me’
‘I have done such things to the two of them’
‘the blackest things a man can do, I have done them all’
‘hurl me into the sea where you can never look on me again’
‘I was so wrong, so wrong’
‘my poor helpless girls’
‘you’ll wither away to nothing, single, without a child’
Oedipus
Prologos
‘The world knows my fame: I am Oedipus’
‘Oh, my children’
‘But as sick as you are, not one is as sick as I’
‘speak out, speak to all of us’
‘trouble? Your king was murdered- royal blood!’
‘I’ll bring it all to light myself (….) I am the land’s avenger by all rights’
Episode One
‘I curse myself as well… if by any chance he proves to be an intimate of our house’
‘as if he were my father’
‘to force the gods to act against their will- no man has the power’
‘Which rumours? I’ll search out every word’
‘We beg you, all of us on our knees’
‘You, you scum of the earth, you’d enrage a heart of stone’
‘given eyes I’d say you did the killing single-handed’
‘Creon! Is this conspiracy his or yours?’
‘eyes peeled for his own profit’
Episode Two
‘When my enemy moves against me quickly, plots in secret, I move quickly too, I must’
‘No, I want you dead’
‘No matter-I must rule’ (accepting he might be wrong but still wants to act as punisher)
‘I respect you, Jocasta, much more than these men here…’
‘I simply didn’t know’
‘I have said too much already’ (relates to letting Jocasta know and cursing himself)
‘I heard all that day and ran’ (natural reaction, but the gods are all powerful)
‘I paid him back with interest’
, ‘let me slip from the world of men, vanish with out a trace before I see myself stained with
such corruption, stained to the heart.’
Episode Three
‘How- murder? Sickness? – what? What killed him?’
‘Jocasta, why, why look to the Prophet’s hearth, the fires of the future?’
‘I live in fear, I must’
‘a herdsman, were you? A vagabond, scraping for wages?’ (‘your saviour too’)
‘fail to solve the mystery of my birth? Not for all the world!’
‘leave her to glory in her royal birth’
‘I count myself the son of Chance!’
‘I’ll never see myself disgraced’
Episode Four
‘so you won’t talk willingly- then you’ll talk with pain’
‘I’m at the edge of hearing horrors, yes, but I must hear!’
‘cursed in my birth, cursed in marriage, cursed in the lives I cut down with these hands’
Exodus
‘when he saw her, giving a low, wrenching sob that broke our hearts’
‘slow embrace he laid her down’
‘you’ll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused!’
‘Apollo- he ordained my agonies (…) but the hand that struck my eyes was mine, mine
alone’
‘It’s mine alone, my destiny- I am Oedipus!’
‘what I did was best- don’t lecture me’
‘I have done such things to the two of them’
‘the blackest things a man can do, I have done them all’
‘hurl me into the sea where you can never look on me again’
‘I was so wrong, so wrong’
‘my poor helpless girls’
‘you’ll wither away to nothing, single, without a child’
