English 2201/2 “Oedipus the King” important quotes for test
Quotes:
1. “If we come to you now, sir… it is not as holding you / The equal of gods, but as the first of men”
(Priest – p.26)
2. “There is an unclean thing, / Born and nursed on our soil, polluting our soil, / Which must be
driven away, not kept to destroy us” (Creon – p.28)
3. “to compel a god to speak / Against his will, is not in mortal power” (Oedipus – p.33)
4. “Then hear this… You are the cursed polluter of this land… I say that the killer you are seeking is
yourself” (Teiresias – p.35-36)
5. Must Creon, so long my friend, my most trusted friend, / Stalk me by stealth, and study to
dispossess me / Of the power this city has given me” (Oedipus – p.36)
6. “O lost and damned! / This is my last and only word to you / For ever!” (Jocasta – p.55)
7. “Born thus, I ask to be no other man / Than that I am, and will know who I am” (Oedipus – p.55)
8. “Alas! All out! All known, no more concealment! / O Light! May I never look on you again, /
Revealed as I am, sinful in my begetting, / Sinful in marriage, sinful in shedding of blood!”
(Oedipus – p.58)
9. “I wish I had never seen you, offspring of Laius, / Yesterday my morning of light, now my night of
endless darkness!” (Chorus – p.59)
10. “A father that killed his father; / Despoiled his birth-bed; begetting where he was begot; / Thus
they will brand you. Where will you then find husbands? / There will be none, my children, for
you; your days / Can only end in fruitless maidenhood” (Oedipus – p.67)