To my one time subjects, the citizens of Thebes.
I, Oedipus, once your king and now no more than the lowest page, send my greetings. I have received news of the confusion and chaos that my sudden departure has left you in. Furthermore, it appears that not one of you knows the full truth of what has happened. Therefore, I have decided to take it upon myself to write to you and tell my tale of woe and offer what little defense of my actions that can be made.
Not long ago you came to me in supplication, wishing that I would try my best to end the evil plague that spread across the fair city of Thebes. At that time, it was revealed by the Oracle of Delphi that the gods had sent the plague as punishment because we had not brought to justice …show more content…
At this I was angered and went secretly to Delphi, to ask the oracle the true nature of my birth. From her I received no response but only that I would one day kill my father and marry my own mother. Hearing these terrible things, I resolved to leave Corinth and never return there, so as to preserve myself from doing what was so darkly prophesied. But fate does not allow one to escape its grasp so easily.
Leaving Delphi, I made my way from Corinth. Coming to a crossroads a carriage attempted to drive me off the road. In anger I struck out, killing the traveler and all his companions, or so I thought at the time. In doing so I fulfilled the oracles prophesy that I would kill my own father, for the traveler was Laius. The man who, it has been revealed to me, was my own flesh. So you see that I would have never have come upon this sacred man, my father, if the unjust hand of fate had never told me of the foretelling. Moreover, though acting in rage and undue anger, I killed him only because Delphi had thus directed my feet away from Corinth. So, how can any but the hard hearted blame me for this deed which, though I full admit that I did, I am not directly responsible for. This deed was predestined to happen by the unfeeling gods, and try as I might I could not have escaped …show more content…
I then married fair Jocasta, my mother. This second heinous act that was thrust upon me by the unrelenting fates. Nothing I could have done would have prevented this and I know now that my life from the start was cursed. I fully admit my guilt in this as well, for when I saw Jocasta, I wished for her to be mine, as any man who laid eyes upon her would. But know she is dead, killed by me, her son and by cruel fate which drove me to her. Never was a reunion of mother and son so lamentable as ours, for we meet not as child and parent but as
I, Oedipus, once your king and now no more than the lowest page, send my greetings. I have received news of the confusion and chaos that my sudden departure has left you in. Furthermore, it appears that not one of you knows the full truth of what has happened. Therefore, I have decided to take it upon myself to write to you and tell my tale of woe and offer what little defense of my actions that can be made.
Not long ago you came to me in supplication, wishing that I would try my best to end the evil plague that spread across the fair city of Thebes. At that time, it was revealed by the Oracle of Delphi that the gods had sent the plague as punishment because we had not brought to justice …show more content…
At this I was angered and went secretly to Delphi, to ask the oracle the true nature of my birth. From her I received no response but only that I would one day kill my father and marry my own mother. Hearing these terrible things, I resolved to leave Corinth and never return there, so as to preserve myself from doing what was so darkly prophesied. But fate does not allow one to escape its grasp so easily.
Leaving Delphi, I made my way from Corinth. Coming to a crossroads a carriage attempted to drive me off the road. In anger I struck out, killing the traveler and all his companions, or so I thought at the time. In doing so I fulfilled the oracles prophesy that I would kill my own father, for the traveler was Laius. The man who, it has been revealed to me, was my own flesh. So you see that I would have never have come upon this sacred man, my father, if the unjust hand of fate had never told me of the foretelling. Moreover, though acting in rage and undue anger, I killed him only because Delphi had thus directed my feet away from Corinth. So, how can any but the hard hearted blame me for this deed which, though I full admit that I did, I am not directly responsible for. This deed was predestined to happen by the unfeeling gods, and try as I might I could not have escaped …show more content…
I then married fair Jocasta, my mother. This second heinous act that was thrust upon me by the unrelenting fates. Nothing I could have done would have prevented this and I know now that my life from the start was cursed. I fully admit my guilt in this as well, for when I saw Jocasta, I wished for her to be mine, as any man who laid eyes upon her would. But know she is dead, killed by me, her son and by cruel fate which drove me to her. Never was a reunion of mother and son so lamentable as ours, for we meet not as child and parent but as