OEDIPUS THE KING - EPISODE ONE AND STASIMON ONE

WHAT HAPPENS

- Characters involved = Oedipus, Chorus Leader, Tiresias.

- Asks his people to give up the murderer of Laius and drive him up = talks of his intense motivation to find him. 

- Asks Tiresias to explain what he has understood from the signs from the gods .

- Tiresias at first does not want to tell him as he knows it will cause suffering but after Oedipus' insulting words tells him to question his parents and his marriage and the truth of the prophecy. 

- Oedipus belives Creon is working with Tiresias to set up a false conspiracy against him. 

- Use of STICHOMYTHIA between Tiresias and Creon adds tension. 

OEDIPUS' ANGER AND ARROGANCE

- When people are praying to the gods, he tells them he will "answer their prayers" and that he is fighting on behalf of the gods and the murdered man = seems almost ignorant of the god's power vs his. 

- Tells the people of how he would have sought out Laius' murderer a long time ago. 

- When Tiresias doesn't want to tell him what he knows Oedipus becomes angered = calls him "scum of the earth," "stone-blind" (slight dramatic irony here) and "senile" when he tells him the truth.

- Contrast with his treatment of Tiresias when he first addresses him = replicates the people's description of him as a savior and applys it to Tiresias (we know this is a high level of honor then) and that he is being extremely noble in his work. 

- HOWEVER Tiresias does talk quite boldly towards Oedipus by saying it is his right to reply and that he is Oedipus' equal in this…