Notes on the current edition
Library
1.
Compare
Hom. Od. 11.277ff.
;
Soph. OT 1235ff.
According to Seneca, in one passage (
Sen. Oedipus, 1034ff.
), Jocasta stabbed herself to death on the discovery of her incest. But Euripides makes Jocasta survive her two sons and stab herself to death on their dead bodies. See
Eur. Ph. 1455-1459
. Herein he was perhaps followed by Seneca in his tragedy, for in the fragments of that play (
Seneca, Oedipus 443ff.
) Seneca represents Jocasta attempting to make peace between Eteocles and Polynices on the battlefield; but the conclusion of the play is lost. Similarly Statius describes how Jocasta vainly essayed to reconcile her warring sons, and how she stabbed herself to death on learning that they had fallen by each other's hands. See
Statius, Theb. vii.474ff., xi.634ff.
2.
A curious and probably very ancient legend assigned a different motive for the curses of Oedipus. It is said that his sons used to send him as his portion the shoulder of every sacrificial victim, but that one day by mistake they sent him the haunch (
ἰσχίον) instead of the shoulder, which so enraged him that he cursed them, praying to the gods that his sons might die by each other's hands. This story was told by the author of the epic
Thebaid . See
Scholiast on Soph. OC 1375
;
Zenobius, Cent. v.43
. A different cause of his anger is assigned by
Athenaeus xi.14, pp. 465ff.
, also on the authority of the author of the
Thebaid .
3.
The coming of Oedipus and Antigone to Colonus Hippius in
Attica, together with the mysterious death of Oedipus, are the subject of Sophocles's noble tragedy,
Oedipus Coloneus. As to the sanctuary of the Eumenides, see that play,
Soph. OC 36ff.
The knoll of
Colonus is situated over a mile from
Athens, and it is doubtful whether the poet intended to place the death and burial of Oedipus at
Colonus or at
Athens itself, where in later times the grave of Oedipus was shown in a precinct of the Eumenides, between the Acropolis and the Areopagus (
Paus. 1.28.7
). See
Frazer, notes on Paus. i.28.7, i.30.2, vol. ii. pp. 366ff., 393ff.
;
R. C Jebb on Soph. OC pp. xxx.ff.
