Oedipus reading 1

Summary-

1. Oedipus is introduced and is asking the people gathered round his alter why they have gathered there and what can he do to help.
2. A priest of Zeus states, for the crowd, that everyone has gathered, young, old, married, unmarried, to tell Oedipus that the city is falling apart and sick.
3. The priest then further states that since Oedipus has overcome challenges before, such as the Sphinx, and is then a men above the rest, so he has the power to help save the town of Thebes and rule over a fertile land.
4. Oedipus pities them, and knows the anguish felt by all since he is the king, so he figured out the one cure: to send a man, Creon, to Delphi to speak to the prophet to find out what has to be done to save the city, and states that Creon should be back, right as Creon comes back.
5. Creon says he knows what the oracle said good news, but is worried about how the people would react, so he offers Oedipus to go inside to speak, but Oedipus would rather have the people here the news.
6. Creon then explains that Apollo says to cleanse all the evil from the land, and says to start by banishing or killing the man you killed the former ruler, Laius.
7. After hearing this, Oedipus then desires to know where the person who killed Laius is, where Laius was killed, and if there were any witnesses, which Creon states that the killer is in Thebes, that Laius was lost on the way to the Oracle, and all but one person was killed who saw the crime, respectively.
8. Creon then states that the man who saw the crime said thieves struck him down, which Oedipus thought unlikely unless the thieves were payed, then Creon stated that when Laius died, no one else came to lead, and they didn't try to find the killer for the Sphinx persuaded the people not to look into it.
9. Oedipus then says that he will find the murderer and bring him to justice no matter what, town is then happy to hear him say that.
10. Townspeople are praying to the gods to let the curse on Thebes end, and asking the gods to strike the sickness down and protect them, and they'll do anything to make it happen.
11. People then lament how the city is dying, people are becoming sick and poor, that it is a great thing starting to waste away, and how so many women and children die, and how the gods should rescue them.
12. In one final plea, the townspeople pray to individual gods, Zeus, Apollo, Artemis, and Dionysus to beat back the death of the sickness.

Literary Techniques

• Imagery- the imagery of death helps to convey the tone of the city of Thebes. It tells of a city desperate for revitalization and salvation, how the people want to be saved from death by the various deities.
• Repetition of cry- the repetition of crying out shows the disparity of the situation. Also reveals how emotional Greek people are, for they don't speak out to different gods, they cry out, voices in panic and grief over all the death. They also actually cry over all the deaths that have occurred.
• Rhyme- the rhyme of price and sacrifice emphasize the ancient ways of the Greek. Most often then not, Greek people did not just give money or pray like in modern day church, most of the time, either an animal, or even sometimes a child was to be sacrificed to the deities of ancient Greece. Thus, the Greek paid a high price, for sometimes animals were very important, like to farmers and herders, and no one wanted to give up their son or daughter.
• Rhyme- the rhyme between rise, cries, and eyes (pg 169, ln 213-217) all have a kind of "I" sound to them. This helps to convey that each and every person in the city at that point is suffering in the city. Not just a group of people.
• Simile- "Thebes like a great army dying"(pg 169, ln 194) - this simile again hints at a few different things. In a more literal sense, Thebes could have been a powerful nation at one time, and now is just wasting away, and is now weaker then it used to be. It could also mean that the people, once disciplined and prosperous, are now weaker, and can't do as much as they used to.
• Metaphor- "there is no sword of thought to save us" (pg 169, ln 195). Once again it is kind of a war- like reference. It also shows that the people are without any kind of dictating action, they want the change to happen, but they are not passionate enough to take the issue into there own hands. It also means that the people do not think for themselves, that they rely on the gods to answer questions.
• Interesting to point out that a lot of the time it is the children and the women that are falling victim to the sickness. Also the ones doing the crying a lot of the time are seen as women, it does not specifically mention men, like it does women on (pg 169, ln 309). This could emphasize how the Greeks lived in a male dominated society.