24-26

//By Iris Chen// In the previous pages of these two, a boy leads in the blind prophet Tiresias to Oedipus. He begs him to reveal who Laius’s murderer is, but Tiresias doesn't want to tell him and says "All of you here know nothing. I will not bring to the light of day my troubles, mine-- rather than call them yours." (326)
 * __Summary__**

Oedipus is confused at first but then gradually becomes angry and start yelling at Tiresias and insists he tells him who the murderer is. After a while of argueing and persuading, Tiresias finally starts giving Oedipus hints about who the murderer is. Oedipus becomes even more angry and starts accusing Tiresias of the murder, and this is when Tiresias is fed up with Oedipus and tells him he himself is the curse and then Oedipus dares him to say it again. Tiresias then calls Oedipus the murderer and that really sets him off. He starts insulting Tiresias's blindness but all Tiresias's responds is: "You are a poor wretach to taunt me with the very insults which every one soon will heap upon yourself." (373) Oedipus's anger continues to grow higher so he accuses Tiresias and Creon of conspiring to overthrow him so one of them could be king but Tiresias tells him Creon isn't planning anything and neither is he.

In this scene, Oedipus continues to hassle Tiresias to find out who the murderer of his father Lauis is. Irony is introduced in line 331 where Oedipus says to Tiresias "Would you betray us and destroy the city?" (331). It is ironic because Oedipus turns out to be the one who killed Lauis and is betraying and destroying the city. However, he doesn't know this and Tiresias doesn't want to tell Oedipus for his own sake. More irony is bought out when Oedipus says to Tiresias "Tell us, you villian[...]" (335) for the same reason before, Oedipus is unknowningly the villian. Oedipus continues on calling Tiresias names and blaming him for keeping secrets from him but Tiresias had a good reason to do so.
 * __Analysis__**

The most interesting line the two pages is when Tiresias becomes aggrevated and says to Oedipus "you are the land's pollution." (353). The leader of a country is supposed to be healthy and pure wheras Oedipus on the other hand isn't. Thus if the leader is bad then the kingdom is bad aswell.

Oedipus continues on to mock and taunt Tiresias and Tiresias starts mocking him back. As he says "Did you not understand before or would you provoke me into speaking?" (360). This shows a scense of mockery and a scence of disagreement within the two. On page 26, Tiresias finally gives us and tells Oedipus he is the murderer of Lauis but Oedipus doesn't want to hear that and starts accusing him of lying. Here it is shown how ignorant Oedipus is of the truth and how he doesn't want to face reality. He also starts threatening Tiresias and says "Not twice you shall say calumnies like this and stay unpunished." (362) which shows the insecurity of Tiresias's answer. Oedipus knows Tiresias is a wise man and knows everything and thus is worried it might be true. He told Tiresias that the murdered will be banished from the city and thus doesn't want to be banished himself. This can also be seen when he tells Tiresias he won't be able to hurt him even if it was the truth in line 374.