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The encounter at the crossroads in Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus

1995; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 115; Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/631650

2041-4099

Justina Gregory,

Byzantine Studies and History

Toward the midpoint of the OT Jocasta, in a bid to convince Oedipus of the unreliability of oracles, recalls the old prophecy that Laius was destined to die at the hands of his son. Jocasta points out that this prediction proved doubly mistaken, since Laius was killed by foreign robbers at a crossroads and his newborn child was exposed on the desolate mountainside (707–25). To Jocasta's surprise, Oedipus responds with agitation. He questions her closely about the circumstances of Laius' death and then embarks on an autobiographical narrative that touches on his early life in Corinth and his journey to Delphi, reaching its rhetorical climax with the description of his own fateful encounter at the very crossroads mentioned by Jocasta.