Oedipus+the+King+pg+60-62


 * lines 1127-1171

Summary** This is the scene of revelations, so to speak, as Oedipus is finally about to find out his true heritage. The audience either already knows the myth of the man who killed his father and slept with his mother, or can at this point guess that that is the case to be revealed soon. At this point, however, Oedipus still does not know he is Laius' son, and that he fulfilled Apollo's prophecy when he killed the man at the crossroads. What he has come to realize is that the man that had not only insulted but had also assaulted him was maybe none other than Laius himself.

The herdsman is on stage, subject to an audience with the tyrannos, Oedipus; he is the sole survivor of Laius' men, as well as the man the messenger from Corinth has identified as the one who gave him the infant Oedipus many years ago. At first the herdsman tries to deny any aquaintance with the messenger, but the messenger in turn relates their past relations in such detail that the herdsman can do nothing but concur. The herdsman grows more and more agitated as the messenger reveals that Oedipus is in fact the child that the herdsman had given him to take care of. He does not want to give away the last clues to the mystery, but does so under a barrage of threats from Oedipus. He reluctantly confesses that he took the child from someone else. At the end of pg 62, we are left with the herdsman trying to shift the attention and potential rath of Oedipus away from himself, beseeching him to question his wife, simultaneously his mother, to further clarify the events.

This scene could be described as the “moment of truth” shortly before the climax, the point when the audience (if they didn’t already know the story) cannot but draw the conclusions that Oedipus must face shortly afterwards: the prophecy has indeed been fulfilled.
 * Analysis**

The power of the spoken word, or of those that are kept silent, becomes clear in this scene, as the herdsman tries to evade the dangerous subject of what happened on the slopes of Cithaeron the time of Oedipus’ infancy. Oedipus puts it plainly, stating that "your words are more at fault than his" (1147), "your words" being his refusal "to speak ab out the child" (1149). The herdsman feigns ignorance, and tries his utmost to keep Oedipus from delving deeper into his own history. For all these years the words kept silent enabled everyone to live in relative peace with themselves.

Now, however, they are released, and so too the havoc. The herdsman realizes this, but he won’t lie when pressed by Oedipus, who forces the story out of him through repeated threats of torture and death. And death is the one thing they react to most; it is the one place they wish to run away to when they’ve done something immoral, something they wish they didn’t have to take the responsibility for. And in the ancient Greek times, lying was among the utmost of crimes, among that which deserves severe judgement. Jocasta lied about having gotten rid of the baby, and that came back to haunt her, just as the lie the king and queen of Corinth told Oedipus about his real heritage lead to a greater tragedy as well. The herdsman, too, lied about the murder of King Laius, and must now pay the dues.

It is ironic how the herdsman took pity on the child who was to die in order to stop a prophecy, when in fact it is exactly pity which made it possible for the prophecy to be fulfilled.

Ironic, too, how the messenger believes his news to be joyful. He is an ignorant player in the story, who took the baby from the herdsman, asking no questions, and gave it to Polybus, king of Corinth. And again, decades later, he comes to Thebes, to relay the message of Polybus’ death, tells Oedipus further that Polybus wasn’t his real father, and finally that he was a child from the hills of Cithaeron, a child the herdsman gave him. He does not know of the prophecy, and so cannot fathom the tragedy he is in the midst of uncovering. "Look old man, here he is-- here's the man who was that child" (1145)