Oedipus The King, 1

pg 159-170,

Summary of pages:

• 159: Priests have brought branches wraped in wool to Oedipus and he trys to figure out what they need from him. The ciry is supposedly in turmoil
• 160: Priest exclaims that Thebes, there home, is in trouble of destruction. Unfortuanet circumstances like sickness, death, and crop failer
• 161: The priest speaks for the country and asks for Oedipus' help in ending all the chanllenges as he had done before.
• 162: Oedipus reveals that he had sent a man, Creon, to see a profit for advise and as he says this Creon returns from the trip.
• 163: Creon declares that he has good news but insists on telling Oedipus in private
• 164: The news is that teh gods want the coruption in the city destroyed. The corruption was the source of a murder and the killers must be paid back
• 165: Creon and Oedipus discuss the murder and where to find the killers
• 166: Thiefs had killed the king and the Sphinx had kept Creon from seeking out the killers then and there
• 167: Oedipus exclaims that he will look for the killer and avenge he tells the priests to leave and the gaurds to assemble the city people, priests leave happy that Oedipus has agreed to help solve the problem.
• 168: The chorus calls on Zeus, Apollo, and Athena to help them defeat the evil in the city
• 169: The chorus describes the troubles that Thebes is expiriancing, asks the gods for help, to save them from the death and the problems.
• 170: Asks the gods for help, driving the death out of their city, asks specific gods to come and battle to save their country.

Literary Techniques and Effects:

• pg 160; "boys still too weak to fly from the nest, and the old, bowed down with the years," emphasizes that everyone has come for help.
• pg 160; "Thebes is dying," personification makes image of death and great trouble
• pg 161; "Raise up our city," save the city, describes the desperation the people have.
• pg 162; "shining like his eyes," designates him as what the people need at that moment, their hope
• pg 166; "singing riddling sphinx," gives the sphinx a mysitical persona, also glorious
• pg 168; "gold vaults of Delphini" makes them valuable
• pg 169; "sword of thought," they are defensless
• pg 170; "Drive him back-the fever, the god of death," by personifcation of death their problems suddenly become a person, something they can fight or kill