Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xfwgj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-14T11:59:58.064Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Final Lines of Sophocles, King Oedipus (1524–30)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Brian Arkins
Affiliation:
University College, Galway

Extract

ῶ φάτρασ θῄβησ ἔνοικοι, λεσσετ', οíδíπονσ ὄδε

ὄσ τά κλεíν' αíνíγματ' ἤδει και κράτιστοσ ἦν άνἠρ,

οὕ τíσ οὕ ζἠλῴ πολιτῶν ταῖσ τύχαισ ἐπἐβλεπεν,

εíσ ὄντ' ἑκεíνην τἠν τελενταíαν íσεíν

ἠμἐραν ἐπισκοποῦντα μνδἐν' ὄλβíζεη, πρíν άν

τἑρμα τού βíον περάσῃ μηδἑν ὰλγεινóν παθὡν.

Type
Shorter Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Ritter, F., Phitologus 17 (1861), 422–36, esp. 424–Google Scholar.

2 Teuffel, W., RhM 29 (1874), 505–9Google Scholar.

3 Dawe, R. D., Studies on the Text of Sophocles, i (Leiden, 1974), 266–73Google Scholar; id., Sophocles, Oedipus Rex (Cambridge, 1982), 247.

4 Also argued for by Calder, W. M. III, CPh 57 (1962), 224–7Google Scholar; Dodds, E. R., The Ancient Concept of Progress (Oxford, 1973), 77Google Scholar; Hester, D. A., Antichthon 7 (1973), 1112CrossRefGoogle Scholar (who reverses his view at Antichthon 18 (1984), 1223)Google Scholar.

5 Roberts, pp. 57, 58.

6 Roberts, pp. 59–60.

7 Roberts, p. 62.

8 Davies, M., Hermes 110 (1982), 268–77Google Scholar; Gellie, G., Ramus 15 (1986), 3542CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Dawe's translation at p. 247 of his edition (n. 3)- ‘an excellent fellow’ – obscures this point.

10 For the detail see Jebb, R. C., Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus (Cambridge, 1883), ad he. and pp. 309–10Google Scholar.

11 For this duality see Vernant, J. P., New Literary History 3 (1978), 475501CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 For the interpretation of this see Jebb (n. 10), ad he.

13 Dawe at p. 247 of his edition.

14 Yeats, W. B., Collected Plays (London, 1982), 517Google Scholar.

15 Production opened August 12, 1987. Director: Frank Conway. Chorus: Michael Ford. For an assessment of this production see Arkins, B., Theatre Ireland 14 (1988), 22–3Google Scholar.

16 For the exodus of the Phoenissae see Conacher, D. J., Phoenix 21 (1967), 92101CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mueller-Goldingen, C., Untersuchungen zu den Phoenissen des Euripides (Stuttgart, 1985), 226–66Google Scholar. In questioning the authenticity of lines 1737-end of that play Conacher notes (95; 100–1) that lines 1758–63 constitute either a direct interpolation or an imitation of King Oedipus 1524–30; Mueller-Goldingen (262–6) regards Phoenissae 1758–63 as an interpolation, asserting (262) ‘Dass auch die Trochaeen 1758–63 zu athetieren sind, duerfte sicher sein’.