Sophocles Quotes From Oedipus The King

Once the shepherd had delivered his account of my birth origin, I felt as though I could’ve been ill. “Oh, Oh, Oh, they will all come, all come out clearly! Light of the sun, let me look upon you no more after today! I who first saw the light bred of a match accursed and accursed in my living with them I lived with, cursed in my killing.” (Sophocles 19) I raced into my palace, no, the palace of Laius. “Give me a sword, a sword I say! To find this wife no wife, this mother’s womb, this field of double sowing whence I sprang and where I sowed my children!” (Sophocles 20) None of the servants of the house responded to my pleas. Despite the sudden halt of activity, I had found my way to the chamber in which I had conceived my four siblings.
Revolting. I cry out, and with the sword I earlier acquired, cut down the woman who birthed me. It was truly a hideous sight to see. This city’s benevolent ruler, had then lay still in front of me. The movement of my hands was not my own, when I ripped the gold brooches fastening her robe away from her and lifted them up high. With the true horror of my existence setting in, they are driven into my eyes. Over, and over, and over, I yelled of what an injustice I have caused. “They will never see the crime I have committed or had done upon me! Dark eyes, now in the days to come look on forbidden faces, do not recognize those whom you long for—with such imprecations!” (Sophocles 20) I stopped short of one last blow, and drop the pins. I saw, and still see nothing but the darkness which I so truly deserve. My own body, parts of myself, dripped down my face, staining my
“Someone! Unbar the doors and show my true nature to all the men of Thebes, my father’s killer, and I who bred with my mother!” My commands are now acknowledged, and I was guided by a hand on my back to the front doors of the palace. I heard the all too familiar sound of door bolts opening, followed by the terrible cries of the townspeople. “This is a terrible sight for men to see! I never found a worse! Poor wretch, what madness came upon you! What evil spirit leaped upon your life to your ill-luck—a leap beyond man’s strength! Indeed I pity you, but I cannot look at you, though there’s much I want to ask and much to learn and much to see. I shudder at the sight of you.” (Sophocles 20) Their words were cold. I gave a proclamation to the people of Thebes once again, now not as their king, but as a foreigner. “Darkness! Horror of darkness enfolding, resistless unspeakable visitant sped by an ill wind in haste! madness and stabbing pain and memory of evil deeds I have done!” I could only imagine the looks of disgust which painted their expressions. “In such misfortunes it’s no wonder if double weighs the burden of your grief.” (Sophocles 20). They were right, of course. With the shocking turn of events that occurred within the last recent time frame, my guilt was far worsened. However, the understanding of the my former