Line 426
● Blind, lost in the night, endless night that nursed you! You can’t hurt me or anyone who sees the light. Line 529
● “The horror too dark to tell, whose ruthless, bloody hands have done the work?” Line 561
● Zeus and Apollo know, they know the great masters of all the dark and depth of human life. But whether a mere man can know the truth, whether a seer can fathom more than
Ithere is no test, no certain proof though matching skill for skill. Line 554
● I’m lost, and the wings of dark foreboding beatingI cannot see what's come, what's still to come...and what could breed a blood feud between Laius house and the son of
Polybus
Line 44
● “Priest: “...You freed us from the
Sphinx…” (Show greater Irony of him being “insightful” when he was blind to the fact of who really killed Laius)
Line 423
● It does, but not for you, old man, You’ve lost your power, stoneblind, stonedeafsenses, eyes blind as stone!
Line 468
● “So, you mock my blindness? Let me tell you this. You with your precious eyes, you're blind to to the corruption of your life, to the house you live in, those you live with…..” Line 525
● And if you find I’ve lied from this day onward call the prophet blind. ● “You, you'll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused. Too long you looked on the ones you never should have seen, blind to
Line 4649
● We taught you nothing, no skill, no extra knowledge, still you triumphed. A god with you, so they say, and we believe you lifted up our lives
Line 520523
● Revealed at last, brother and father both to the children he embraces, to his mother son and husband bothhe sowed the loins his father sowed, he spilled his father’s blood! Line 263267
● But whether a mere man can know the truth, whether a seer can fathom more than Ithere is no test, no certain proof though matching skill for skill a man can outstrip a rival
Line 780783
● Listen to me and learn some peace of mind: no skill in the world, nothing human can penetrate the future. ● “He who sees nothing, understands nothing.. Line 473
the ones you longed to see to know!
● All unknowing you are the scourge of your own flesh and blood, the dead below the earth and the living here above, and the double lash of your mother and your father’s curse will whip you from this lad one day, their footfall treading you down in terror, darkness shrouding your eyes that can now see the light.
● “You were better dead than blind. No, sight is not what could have give me joy!” In Oedipus the King, the main themes are Light vs Darkness, Sight vs Blindness, and
Knowledge vs Lack of Knowledge. Throughout the story, there are many examples seen as
Oedipus finds out that he is the darkness of Thebes, and he was blind to his life and future before. The recurring theme of light versus darkness is constantly seen throughout Oedipus the
King. Many things are represented as the light or as the darkness. The gods, for example, are seen as the light in the story: “Zeus and Apollo know, they know the great masters of all the dark and depth of human life.” As seen in this quote, the gods Zeus and Apollo control the amount of darkness in life. Light also represents understanding while darkness represents ignorance. “The horror too dark to tell, whose ruthless, bloody hands have done the work?” (Line 529) This was
the response of Oedipus when he found out that he murdered his father. He sees his actions are
“too dark to tell”, meaning they are so evil, Oedipus doesn’t want anyone knowing about them.
Sight vs Blindness is also a recurring theme seen throughout Oedipus the King. When you think of seeing, you think of your eyes, and when you think of something blind, you think of something that is unable to see,
