OEDIPUS TYRANNUS Essay Thesis Example For Students

OEDIPUS TYRANNUS Essay Thesis A monologue from the play by Sophocles NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from Greek Dramas. Ed. Bernadotte Perrin. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1904. PRIEST: O king! thou seest what numbers throng thy altars;Here, bending sad beneath the weight of years,The hoary priests, here crowd the chosen youthOf Thebes, with these a weak and suppliant trainOf helpless infants, last in me beholdThe minister of Jove: far off thou seestAssembled multitudes, with laurel crowned,To where Minervas hallowed temples riseFrequent repair, or where Ismenus lavesApollos sacred shrine: too well thou knowstThy wretched Thebes, with dreadful storms oppressed,Scarce lifts her head above the whelming flood;The teeming earth her blasted harvest mourns,And on the barren plain the flocks and herdsUnnumbered perish; dire abortion thwartsThe mothers hopes, and painful she brings forthThe half-formed infant; baleful pestilenceHath laid our city waste, the fiery godStalks oer deserted Thebes; while with our groansEnriched, the gloomy god of ErebusTriumphant smiles. O Oedipus! to theeWe bend; behold these youths, with me they kneel,And suppliant at they altars sue f or aid,To thee the first of men, and only lessThan them whose favour thou alone canst gain,The gods above; thy wisdom yet may healThe deep-felt wounds, and make the powers divinePropitous to us. Thebes long since to theeHer safety owed, when from the Sphinx deliveredThy grateful people saw thee, not by manBut by the gods instructed, save the land:Now then, thou best of kings, assist us now.Oh! by some mortal or immortal aidNow succour the distress! On wisdom oft,And prudent counsels in the hour of ill,Success awaits. O dearest prince! support,Relieve thy Thebes; on thee, its saviour once,Again it calls. Now, if thou wouldst not seeThe memry perish of thy former deeds,Let it not call in vain, but rise and save!With happiest omens once and fair successWe saw thee crowned: oh, be thyself again,And may thy will and fortune be the same!If thou art yet to reign, O king! rememberA sovereigns riches is a peopled realm;For what will ships or lofty towers availUnarmed with men to guard and to defend them?