Task: Find three extracts where Oedipus is warned against the pursuit of knowledge.
EXTRACT 1
Teiresias: How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be
When there's no help in truth! I knew this well,
But made myself forget. I should not have come.
Oedipus: What is troubling you? Why are your eyes so cold?*
*A metaphor is used here. Teiresias' eyes aren't actually cold, but cold instead refers to lifelessness.
Teiresias: Let me go home. Bear your own fate, and I'll
Bear mine. It is better so: trust what I say.
Oedipus: What you say is ungracious and unhelpful
To your native country. Do not refuse to speak.
Teiresias: When it comes to speech, your own is neither
temperate
*Nor opportune. I wish to be more prudent.
*Caesura is used here with lines skipping onto the next row indicating a short pause. This helps the dialogue flow better and more naturally.
In this extract Teiresias warns Oedipus against pursuing this knowledge, and states that fate will sort things out itself. Teiresias even outright states that there is no reason in pursuing the truth. Oedipus refutes by questioning why Teiresias won't help him solve the problem that is plaguing Thebes.
EXTRACT 2
Oedipus: In God's name, we all beg you-*
*A hyphen is used here to show that Oedipus' speech is interrupted by Teiresias.
Teiresias: You are all ignorant.
No; I will never tell you what I know.
Now it is my misery, then, it would be yours.*
*Enjambment is used in this sentence to improve its coherence. Had the sentence been separated into "Now it is my misery. Then, it would be yours" the flow would have been interrupted and the emphasis of how the pain caused by Teiresias' knowledge would be passed on to Oedipus as well, would be lost.
Oediupus: What! You do know something, and will not tell
us?
You would betray us all and wreck the State?*
*Oedipus uses a rhetorical question in tyring to convince Teiresias to tell him what he knows. Rhetorical questions are effective in speech as they make the audience pause and think the question through, hooking them into the argument.
Teiresias: I do not intend to torture myself, or you.
Why persist in asking? You will not persuade me.
Oedipus: what a wicked old man you are! You'd try a stone's
Patience!* Out with it!** Have you no feeling at all?
*The metaphor of "testing a stone's patienece" is used by Oedipus to show that he is getting quite exasperated.
**Exclamation and an order to Teiresias further shows how unyielding Oedipus is in trying to get Teiresias to tell what he knows; while also showing his irritation.
Teiresias: You call me unfeeling. If you could only see
The nature of your own feelings...*
*An ellipsis is used here to put an ominous emphasis on what Teiresias says.
Oedipus: Why,
Who would not feel as I do?* Who could endure
Your arrogance towards the city?
*A rhetorical question is used by Oedipus to state that he is the one that cares the most about Thebes, and therefore is upset by the difficult situation it is in.
Teiresias: What does it matter!
Whether I speak or not, it is bound to come.
As Oedipus continues to interrogate Teiresias he remains persistent in refusing to tell Oedipus what he knows. Oedipus becomes increasingly irritated by Teiresias lack of cooperation. Instead of trying to persuade him or accepting that it is better to not know, Oedipus' persistence and anger leads to rash judgements and accusations.
EXTRACT 3
Iocaste: For God's love, let us have no more questioning!
Is your life nothing to you?*
My own is pain enough for me to bear.**
*Iocaste uses a rhetorical question to warn Oedipus how he will ruin his own life by continuing the pursuit of knowledge.
**The line refers to how Iocaste's own life pains her. She says this likely as she has understood the truth before Oedipus.
Oedipus: You need not worry;. Suppose my mother a slave,
And born of slaves: no baseness can touch you.
Iocaste: Listen to me, I beg you: do not do this thing!
Oedipus: I will not listen; the truth must be made known.
Iocaste: Everything that I say is for your own good!
Oedipus: My own good
Snaps my patience, then; I want none of it.
Iocaste: You are fatally wrong! May you never learn who
you are!
Oedipus: Go, one of you, and bring the shepherd here.
Let us leave this woman to brag of her royal name.
Iocaste: Ah, miserable!
That is the only word I have for you now.
That is the only word I can ever have.*
*Iocaste uses repetition to further emphasize the word misrable, which is soon to accurately describe Oedipus' situation.
Throughout the entire dialogue there is stichomythia. While most of Oedipus uses this, it is most predominant here as Iocaste's exclamations make the dialogue seem all the more frantic.
Iocaste warns Oedipus as he gets ever closer to the truth, likely as she herself understands what has happened. She pleads desperately, however, Oedipus won't listen and continues his investigation. In the end Iocaste commits suicide, finding out the truth of what Oedipus had done. In guilt Oedipus gouges his eyes out and exiles himself from Thebes.