Oedipus Rex Quotes

Quote #1: My children, scions of the ancient Cadmean line, what is the meaning of this thronging out of olive boughs all wreathed in woe…Yes, I am whom men call Oedipus the Great.”

Quote #2: “The oracle openly enjoins on us to sever from the body politic a monstrous growth that battens there…the city frets with someone’s blood.”

Quote #3: “Whose scepter I hold in my hands asking; his marriage bed my bed of seed, our children even shared with her had been blessed with progeny…Such ties swear me to his side as if he were my father.”

Quote #4: So don’t ever mark me as Creon’s myrmidon. I’m blind you say; you mock at that! I say you see and still are blind! Blind to your origins and to a union in your house.”

Quote #5: “Look at this way first; who in his right mind would rather rule and live in anxiety than sleep in peace? Particularly if he enjoys the same authority. Not I, I’m not the man to yearn for kingship, now with a king’s power in my hands.”

Quote #6: “Do you want proof? Go to Delphi yourself, examine the oracle and see if I’ve reported the message word for word. This too: if you detect that I and the clairvoyant have plotted anything in common, arrest me, execute me.”

Quote #7: “Have you no sense? Poor misguided men, such shouting—why this public outburst? Aren’t you ashamed with the land so sick to stir up private quarrels?”

Quote #8: “A prophet? Well then, free yourself of every charge! Listen to me and learn some peace of mind: no skill in the world, nothing human can penetrate the future.”

Quote #9: “Stop—in the name of god, if you love your own life, call of this search! My suffering is enough! No, please—for your own sake—I want the best for you!”

Quote #10: “O god! All come true, all burst to light! O light—now let me look my last on you! I stand revealed at last—cursed in my birth, cursed in marriage, cursed in the lives I cut down with these hands!”