life account as gain
Ere the full tale be finished and the darkness find him without pain.

[OEDIPUS _is led into the house and the doors
close on him._

NOTES TO

OEDIPUS, KING OF THEBES

P. 4, l. 21: Dry Ash of Ismenus.]--Divination by burnt offerings was
practised at an altar of Apollo by the river Ismenus in Thebes.

Observe how many traits Oedipus retains of the primitive king, who was
at once chief and medicine-man and god. The Priest thinks it necessary
to state explicitly that he does not regard Oedipus as a god, but he is
clearly not quite like other men. And it seems as if Oedipus himself
realised in this scene that the oracle from Delphi might well demand the
king's life. Cf. p. 6, "what deed of mine, what bitter task, May save my
city"; p. 7, "any fear for mine own death." This thought, present
probably in more minds than his, greatly increases the tension of the
scene. Cf. _Anthropology and the Classics_, pp. 74-79.]

P. 7, l. 87, Message of joy.]--Creon says this for the sake of the omen.
The first words uttered at such a crisis would be ominous and tend to
fulfil themselves.]

Pp. 13-16, ll. 216-275. The long cursing speech of Oedipus.]--Observe
that this speech is broken into several divisions, Oedipus at each point
expecting an answer and receiving none. Thus it is not mere declamation;
it involves action and reaction between a speaker and a crowd.--Every
reader will notice how full it is of "tragic irony." Almost every
paragraph carries with it some sinister meaning of which the speaker is
unconscious. Cf. such phrases as "if he tread my hearth," "had but his
issue been more fortunate," "as I would for mine own father," and of
course the whole situation.

P. 25, l. 437, Who were they?]--This momentary doubt of Oedipus, who of
course regarded himself as the son of Polybus, King of Corinth, is
explained later (p. 46, l. 780).

Pp. 29 ff. The Creon scene.]--The only part of the play which could
possibly be said to flag. Creon's defence, p. 34, "from probabilities,"
as the rhetoricians would have called it, seems less interesting to us
than it probably did to the poet's contemporaries. It is remarkably like
Hippolytus's defence (pp. 52 f. of my translation), and probably one was
suggested by the other. We cannot be sure which was the earlier play.

The scene serves at least to quicken the pace of the drama, to bring out