Key Terms Glossary

In Aristotle’s Poetics, the whole part of a tragedy that comes before the first song of the chorus. In Oedipus the King it occupies lines 1–150. Oedipus, king of Thebes, addresses a group of suppliants, and the Priest of Zeus describes the plague and the blight on land, herds and women. Creon, whom Oedipus calls his wife’s brother, reports Apollo’s response from Delphi: a defiling thing must be driven out, and the murderers of Laïus, the former king, must be punished. Oedipus then pledges to seek them.

In Aristotle’s Poetics, the first whole utterance of the chorus; the Greek word is parodos, “entrance.” In Oedipus the King it is lines 151–215, sung by the Chorus. It is a lament for the plague and a prayer to the gods. The Chorus calls on Athena, Artemis and Phoebus Apollo, then on Zeus, Apollo again and Artemis, and finally on Bacchus.

In Aristotle’s Poetics, the whole part of a tragedy that lies between complete choral songs. It is the part in which the actors speak. The play has four episodes: 216–462, 513–862, 911–1085 and 1110–1185. In the first, Oedipus proclaims a curse on the unknown murderer of Laïus, and the seer Teiresias finally denounces Oedipus himself. In the second, Creon defends himself, Iocasta, the wife of Oedipus and widow of Laïus, ends the quarrel, and Oedipus learns of the place where Laïus died. In the third, a messenger from Corinth reports the death of Polybus, the Corinthian king who reared Oedipus, and discloses that Polybus and Merope were not the parents of Oedipus. In the fourth, the Theban herdsman is brought in and the truth is drawn from him.

A choral ode sung after the chorus has entered; the Greek word stasimon is literally “stationary (song).” The play has four: 463–512, 863–910, 1086–1109 and 1186–1222. The first forebodes the doom of the unknown murderer while refusing to credit the seer’s unproved charge. The second is a prayer against arrogance and impiety. The third foretells that Oedipus will prove a native of the land. The fourth laments the king’s fall.

In Aristotle’s Poetics, a lament shared by the chorus and the actors; the Greek word is kommos. The play has two. The first, at 649–697, lies within the Second Episode, in the quarrel between Oedipus and Creon in which the Chorus and Iocasta also take part. The second, at 1297–1368, lies within the Exodos. It follows the entrance of the self-blinded Oedipus, who laments in exchange with the Chorus.

In Aristotle’s Poetics, the whole part of a tragedy after which there is no further choral song; the Greek word is exodos, “exit.” In Oedipus the King it is lines 1223–1530. A second messenger reports that Iocasta has hanged herself and that Oedipus has struck his own eyes. Oedipus is led out and asks to be sent from the land, and Creon replies that the god must decide. His daughters Antigone and Ismene are brought to him. The Chorus speaks the closing lines, which say that no one of mortal race is to be called happy until he has crossed life’s border free from pain.

The Greek words are strophē, “turn,” and antistrophē, “counter-turn.” They name the paired stanzas of a choral ode, which correspond to each other in metrical pattern.

The choros was the group of singers and dancers who performed the odes. In Oedipus the King it is a Chorus of Theban elders. It sings the parodos and the four stasima. It also speaks within the episodes: in the first, it tells Oedipus that it is not the slayer and cannot name him, and says that both Oedipus and Teiresias have spoken in anger. In the exodos the Chorus announces the entrance of Creon. The Chorus speaks the closing words of the play.

The orchēstra, from a Greek verb for dancing, was the open area of an Athenian theater where the chorus sang and danced, in front of the stage building. The play alludes to choral dancing in the Second Stasimon, where the Chorus asks, if impious deeds are held in honour, “wherefore should we join in the sacred dance?”

The skēnē, literally “tent” or “hut,” was the stage building at the back of the acting area. In Oedipus the King it represents the palace of Oedipus; in the third episode the Chorus tells the Corinthian messenger, “This is his dwelling.” Oedipus goes into the palace at the end of the first episode, Iocasta rushes into it in the third, and Oedipus rushes into it at the end of the fourth. Oedipus comes out of it, blinded, in the exodos. Events inside the palace are reported by a messenger.

The prōtagōnistēs was the “first actor,” who took the principal role in a tragedy. Aristotle’s Poetics states that Sophocles introduced the third actor. The protagonist of Oedipus the King is Oedipus. The actor Polus of Aegina, of the fourth century BC, was celebrated in the part: Arrian, quoted in Stobaeus’ Florilegium, names him as playing both Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus.

Stichomythia is dialogue in alternating single lines, from the Greek stichos, “line,” and mythos, “speech.” Examples in the play include the exchanges between Oedipus and Teiresias, between Oedipus and Creon, and between Oedipus and the Corinthian messenger. At 625–630 and 1173–1176 single verses are divided between the two speakers.

A chrēsmos is a response given by a god through an oracular shrine. The chief shrine in the play is that of Apollo at Delphi, called Pytho in poetry; the play also calls the god Phoebus and Loxias. The play refers to three oracles. The first is the response Creon brings, that the defilement in Thebes must be removed by dealing with the murderers of Laïus. The second is the oracle given to Laïus that he would die by the hand of his child, which Iocasta recounts. The third is the response Oedipus received at Delphi, that he would defile his mother’s bed and kill his father. Iocasta cites the oracle to Laïus to argue against seer-craft and again after the news of the death of Polybus. In the Second Stasimon the Chorus says it will no longer visit the shrines if the oracles do not fit the issue. Teiresias, the blind seer of Thebes, describes himself as servant of Loxias. At the end Creon says he wishes to learn from the god what should be done with Oedipus.

Miasma is ritual defilement, incurred especially through bloodshed and regarded as infecting the community around the person affected. Creon reports that Apollo commands the Thebans to drive out “a defiling thing” harboured in the land, and names the shedding of blood as the cause of the tempest on the city. In his proclamation Oedipus forbids anyone to shelter the murderer, to share prayer or sacrifice with him, or to serve him with the lustral rite. Teiresias calls Oedipus “the accursed defiler of this land” (350–353). Oedipus later says that he pollutes the bed of the slain man with the hands by which he perished. He asks the Chorus to approach him without fear, since his plague can rest on no mortal beside. Creon tells the attendants not to show “a pollution such as this” to the light, the rain or the earth.

Hiketeia is the act of a suppliant (hiketēs), who approaches an altar, a god or a person, often holding a wreathed branch, to ask for protection or help. The play opens with Theban suppliants at the altars of Oedipus, carrying wreathed branches, and Oedipus bids them rise and lift the suppliant boughs. At 326–327 Oedipus and the Chorus implore Teiresias on their knees. Iocasta reports that the surviving servant of Laïus supplicated her, with his hand laid on hers, to be sent to the pastures. She herself comes as a suppliant to Apollo with a wreathed branch and incense.

Katharmos is cleansing from ritual stain. Oedipus asks by what rite the city may cleanse itself. Creon answers that it is to be done by banishing a man or by bloodshed in quittance of bloodshed. In his proclamation Oedipus says the Thebans were bound not to leave the guilt “unpurged” (216–275), and he forbids anyone to serve the murderer with the lustral rite. Iocasta prays to Apollo for “some riddance, from uncleanness” (911–923). Oedipus finally asks to be hidden beyond the land, and says his plague can rest on no mortal beside him.

Phygē is flight or banishment from one’s country. Creon names banishing a man as one way of dealing with the defilement, and Oedipus in turn promises the person who denounces himself that he will only leave the land, unhurt. Oedipus repeats the alternatives of slaying the murderers or sending them into exile when he addresses Teiresias. In the quarrel Oedipus says he wants Creon’s death, not his banishment. After the discovery Oedipus asks Creon to cast him out to a place where no mortal will greet him. Creon replies that he first wishes to learn the duty from the god, and later that the god must give what Oedipus asks. Oedipus asks to live on the hills at Cithaeron. Seneca’s Oedipus ends with his voluntary exile; in other versions he is expelled by his sons or by Creon.

Ara is a prayer, and in particular a prayer for harm, a curse. In the First Episode Oedipus invokes a solemn curse on the unknown murderer of Laïus and on any who shelter him, and prays the same fate on himself if the murderer becomes an inmate of his house. Teiresias warns that the “double lash” of his mother’s and his father’s curse shall drive Oedipus from the land. Creon swears that he may perish accursed if he has plotted against Oedipus. When Iocasta describes the place of the death of Laïus, Oedipus says he may have laid himself under a dread curse without knowing it. Later he says the curse was laid on him by no mouth but his own. In the epic Thebaid and in Aeschylus’ Seven against Thebes, a curse pronounced by Oedipus on his sons is central. The play itself does not present a curse by Oedipus on his sons.

Daimōn is a Greek word for a divine power, and also for the lot or destiny that such a power assigns. In translation it appears in several ways: as “some cruel power above man” when Oedipus considers whether his doom was sent by such a power, as “a fate that warns me” in the Fourth Stasimon, as “a power above man” that guided Oedipus into the chamber of Iocasta, and as “Fate” in his cry after the blinding. Iocasta expresses another view, that the decrees of Fortune are supreme and that it is best to live at random.