VCCS Litonline Introduction to Literature English 112 (English Composition II)

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Oedipus the Wreck

Objective for this Page: To summarize episode 4 and stasimon 4.

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Summary of Oedipus the King

Episode 4: The messenger confronts the herdsman. (Lines 1211-1310)

The Corinthian confirms the identity of the man who had handed Oedipus over to him as a baby. (Notice that this is the same guy who had survived Oedipus' attack on Laius' entourage--that's a big coincidence isn't it?) Under threat of torture, the servant of Laius tells that he had received the baby from Jocasta (not Laius, as she had said) with an order to kill the baby so he wouldn't grow up to kill his parents (Jocasta apparently didn't mention the incest threat--or the old man doesn't want to mention it here). But he pitied the baby. (Isn't this how Snow White got into the forest where the seven dwarfs lived?)

Oedipus realizes the truth.

Stasimon 4: The people of Thebes react to the revelation that their king, hero, and savior is the murderer of the previous king. (Lines 1311-1350)

Talking (singing) as if directly to Oedipus (who has fled into the palace) the people of Thebes state these sentiments: Don't trust your apparent well being, judging from the example of Oedipus. He defeated the Sphinx and ruled Thebes, "but now" he's ruined. After he plowed in his own mother's fields, it's a wonder he wasn't ruined sooner. They didn't see the incest, but they wail his fate: son & husband to the same woman.

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