Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus 185

ed. Lewis Campbell

Table of Contents

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

View: By Card By Card
← Previous Next →
λυγρῶν πόνων ἱκτῆρες ἐπιστενάχουσιν.
185

Oedipus Tyrannus. Sophocles. ed. Lewis Campbell. Oxford. 1879.

Current edition Experimental

Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Greek) (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879))

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)
Greek (F. Storr, 1912) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. Storr, 1912)) — 216-462 focus
Translations (5)
English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906)) — 185 focus
CH. 5
My prince, I say it again:
Assure thee, I were lost to sense,
Infatuate, void of wholesome thought,
690
Could I be tempted now
To loose my faith from thee,
Who, when the land I love
Laboured beneath a wildering load,
695
Didst speed her forth anew with favouring gale.
695
Now, too, if but thou may’st, be her good guide.
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 190 focus
Den Zermalmer Ares auch, 1
Der jezt, vom Schilde nicht gedeckt,
Von Lärm umtönt, mit Fieberglut mich anfällt,
Ihn treib' in rückgewandtem Lauf zur Vaterstadt
Hinaus, in's weitoffene 2
195
Lager Amphitrite's
Dort, oder in Thrakia's öde
Bucht, die meerumbrauste.
Denn er vollbringt es; was die Nacht 3
Uebrig läßt, verschlingt der Tag.
200
Zeus, Allvater, du,
Rother Blize Kraft
Beherrschend, unter deinem Donner tilg' ihn!
Dritte Gegenstrophe.
English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759)) — 185 focus
Shepherd
Son, I see thou knowst not
What thou art doing.
By heaven I beg thee then do thou instruct me.
English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Robert Potter, 1788)) — 185 focus
Oedipus
771
My expectation to such height is raised,
That I will tell thee: for in whom more dear
Can I, thus struggling with my fate, confide?
My father was the royal Polybus
Of Corinth; Merope, who boasts her birth
From Dorian Chiefs, my mother; in that state
775
I was esteem'd the greatest, till there chanced
A circumstance, which might my wonder claim,
But nought of anxious care: amidst a feast
One fill'd with wine reviled me as not born
The son of Corinth's king; ill brook'd I this,
780
And scarce that day restrain'd myself; the next
780
My father and my mother I address'd,
Earnest to trace the truth; the insult raised
Their high resentment, though from heat of wine
It sprung; with their affection I was pleased;
Yet still this stung my heart, so deeply there
785
It rankled. Anxious to the Pythian shrine,
My purpose not disclosed, I take my way;
To this inquiry no reply was deign'd,
And me unhonour'd Phœbus sent away;
But show'd, the fates foretelling, other ills
With woe, with horror pregnant: he declared
790
That with my mother I was doom'd to mix
Embraces, and to light produce a race
By men to be abhorr'd; nay, doom'd to be
The murderer of my father. When these words
Reach'd my affrighted ear, from Corinth wide,
795
My course thenceforth directing by the stars,
I fled, where I might ne'er behold the shame,
The infamy of these dire oracles
Fulfill'd. My way pursuing, to the place
I came, where thou hast said this monarch fell.
800
Yes, I will tell thee all the truth: as near
800
This place, where three ways meet, I held my course,
An herald, and exalted on a car
One of such form as thy description mark'd,
Met me: with force the leader of the way,
And the old Chief himself against me rush'd,
805
And drove me back; the leader, who aside
Had turn'd me, in my rage I strike: the Chief,
Soon as he saw me passing near the car,
Smote me, against my head he aim'd the blow,
He smote me twice; but from this hand received
Unequal recompense; beneath my staff
810
At once he sunk, and from his chariot roll'd.
I slew them all. Now should these kindred deeds
Prove like relation 'twixt this stranger slain
And Laius, lives there such a wretch as I?
Lives there a man so hateful to the gods?
815
Nor citizen nor stranger may henceforth
Beneath their roof receive me, none with me
Hold converse, from their houses all constrain'd
To thrust me; yet none other, but myself,
Denounced these curses on me. I pollute
The bed of him, who perish'd by these hands,
820
These blood-stain'd hands? And am I not most vile?
Am I not all defiled? If I must fly,
And exiled never, never see those friends
That are most dear to me, and never tread
My country's soil again; if I must mount
825
My mother's bed, in fated nuptials join'd;
825
If I must kill my father Polybus,
From whom my life, my nurture I received ;
Who would not judge, who would not say with truth
That some remorseless Demon wrought these woes ?
But never, never, O ye holy pow'rs
830
Of the just gods, may I behold that day!
No: from the sight of mortals let me sink,
Ere see a stain like this pollute my life.
English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904)) — 216-460 focus

Commentary

Commentary (R. C. Jebb) (OCR draft) (Commentary (R. C. Jebb))

mvp-comment-134-1 ἱκτῆρες 1 λυγρῶν πόνων 2

Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) focus

151-215. mvp-comment-104-1 Outstretched in fear we listen awfully for thy propitious voice, oh sweet-tongued utterance of Heaven. Paean, be our speed! What thing new or old in season due dost thou disclose? Tell us, thou voice, child of bright Hope divine. Athena, Goddess, daughter of the Highest, first hear our cry; thou, Artemis, on thine encircled throne, and archer Phoebus, come in threefold might to save! if ever heretofore ye banished sorrow from our state, now too appear! For, oh! I am overwhelmed; all my host is in disarray; and there is no thought to save; Earth's buds are nipped, and human births prevented by the pains of death: soul after soul takes flight with fearful speed, and poor uncared-for corpses choke with pestilence our unpeopled clime. Wives, mothers, sadly suppliant, at various altars groan; the voice of lamentation mingles with the thrilling hymn. Athena, send us help. and cause yon flaming author of destruction, who with dire noise advances, quickly to reverse his speed and fly our land, whether to Ocean or the restless Pontic sea. Day ruins what night spares. O Father, blast the plague-god with thy lightning. Let thine arrows, O Apollo, be showered to protect us, and Artemis' bright torches from the Lycian hills; and thou, O ruddy crowned Bacchus of the joyous rout, with trooping Maenads, patron of Thebes, draw near. and flash thy brand against the god whom gods disown.' The opening of this parodos is of the nature of a paean (1. 186), or hymn to Apollo as the god of victory or salvation. The stately dactylic measures, corresponding in strophe and antistrophe even to the division of the words (cp. 153, 162, 158, 166), are only once interrupted, as the chorus march towards the altar, by the more meditative iambic rhythm (11. 152, 160), and by the anacrusis in ll. 154, 163. The increasing excitement of the chorus is shown in the second strophe and antistrophe, by iambic and trochaic rhythms with resolution of the arsis, by the union of dactyls and trochees in logaoedic lines, and by the more frequent anacruses. The bright Paean notes give way to tones of sadness, echoing the στονόεσσα γήρυς (11. 186-187). The scheme of στρ. and ἀντ. β'. is the following (ll. 167-178=11. 179-189) :- LÚC CCC CICI lúc Ca CICICCICCICCIK ICC ICC ICC ICC 기 ​100 100 100 CUCCICCIC CICCICCIC LUCCICCICC ICICII In the concluding strophe and antistrophe (γ'.) there is only one dactylic line, just as there was one iambic in the first. The other rhythms are iambic and trochaic, with occasional syncope of the thesis (or change to the cretic rhythm). The movement, though still full of excitement, becomes more energetic and determined towards the close. The scansion is as follows:- C CCICICICIC- 기 つ つ 기 00 ト KCICICI トー 1くらい​CICICII The rhythm of the whole ode, which is unusually wild and full of transitions, shows a progress from flowing dactylic numbers to iambics and trochaics, which are interrupted here and there by syncope of the thesis, or in other words, by an antispastic effect, corresponding to the distraction of the thought.

185. mvp-comment-127-1 πόνων ἱκτῆρες Gen. of cause. Τr. 287-288, θύματα .. τῆς ἁλώσεως.

185. mvp-comment-127-2 ἐπιστενάχουσιν Sc. ἐπὶ τῇ ἱκετείᾳ.