Third Stasimon
This short ode holds the place of the third στάσιμον. But it has the character of a ‘dance-song’ or ὑπόρχημα, a melody of livelier movement, expressing joyous excitement. The process of discovery now approaches its final phase. The substitution of a hyporcheme for a regular stasimon has here a twofold dramatic convenience. It shortens the interval of suspense; and it prepares a more forcible contrast. For the sake of thus heightening the contrast, Sophocles has made a slight sacrifice of probability. The sudden exit of Iocasta has just affected the Chorus with a dark presentiment of evil (1075). We are now required to suppose that the spirited words of Oedipus (1076—1085) have completely effaced this impression, leaving only delight in the prospect that he will prove to be a native of the land. A hyporcheme is substituted for a stasimon with similar effect in the Ajax, where the short and joyous invocation of Pan immediately precedes the catastrophe (693—717): and in the Antigone, 1115—1154. The stasimon in the Trachiniae 633—662 may also be compared, in so far as its glad anticipations usher in the beginning of the end.
Strophe (1086—1097). Our joyous songs will soon be celebrating Cithaeron as native to Oedipus.
Antistrophe (1098—1109). Is he a son of some god,—of Pan or Apollo, of Hermes or Dionysus?
Chorus.If I am a seer or wise of heart, O Cithaeron, thou shalt not fail — by yon heaven, thou shalt not! — to know at tomorrow’s full moon that Oedipus honours thee as native to him, as his nurse, and his mother, and that thou art celebrated in our dance and song, because thou art well-pleasing to our prince. O Phoebus to whom we cry, may these things find favour in thy sight! Who was it, my son, who of the race whose years are many that bore thee in wedlock with Pan, the mountain-roaming father? Or was it a bride of Loxias that bore thee? For dear to him are all the upland pastures. Or perchance ’twas Cyllene’s lord, or the Bacchants’ god, dweller on the hill-tops, that received thee, a new-born joy, from one of the Nymphs of Helicon, with whom he most doth sport.