Oedipus The King, 2

The prophet Tiresias enters, but refuses to speak, for what he knows hurts him too much to make public.  Oedipus tries to flatter it out of him, to no avail.  Angry now, Oedipus accuses Tiresias himself of being the murderer, or at least plotting it years ago.  That pisses him off something fierce.  Tiresias now directly fingers Oedipus as the murderer, which just makes the confrontation more contentious than before.

Not understaning the accusation at all, Oedipus thinks he has stumbled on the real plot.  He claims that Creon has put the prophet up to it, in a power play to usurp the throne.  (And he thinks himself enormously clever for figuring it out.)  Tiresias is more insulted than ever, and curses out Oedipus.  He starts to hint at the truth, at Oedipus's origins, but Oedipus simply mocks him for speaking in riddles-- solving such riddles is his strength, after all.  So in a final speech before exiting, Tiresias tells it to him straight (though without actually mentioning his name): the murderer was no stranger, but a native of Thebes, is his children's brother, his mother's husband, and will die in disgrace.

The Chorus is greatly upset from the argument.  And they don't want to think of the implications of Tiresias's accusation.

Creon enters and gets an earful from Oedipus, being accused of attempting to usurp the throne.  Oedipus knows he's in cahoots with the prophet-- otherwise the prophet would have fingered Oedipus for the murder when it actually happened instead of waiting until now.  Creon pleads his case: in the current arrangement, as brother-in-law to the king, he has an equal say in the affairs of the state without the hassle of actually being the monarch.  Why would he want to give that up?  Oedipus is not settled, and the conflict escalates.

Jocasta the queen enters: "Everybody, cool out.  COOL OUT!"  The chorus pleads with Oedipus to simmer down.  Paranoia now seems to be catching up with him, as he lashes out at everyone around him.  Jocasta just wants to know what all the fuss was about, and Oedipus explains that the prophet had accused him of the murder.  I mean, it's preposterous!

Jocasta chuckles about it.  "Silly, long ago Apollo foretold that Laius would be killed by his firstborn.  And yeah, he was killed at a three-way crossroads.  But that was in a faraway land, by a band of marauders!  And we had abandoned our firstborn on a hillside as soon as he was born!  So, no worries!"

Oedipus: "Yeah, I mean.... wait, what?"




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Heh.

One very cool bit of irony in this part is Creon pleading his innocence and claiming to be free from the temptations of power.  One, because the audience already knows the rest of his story, and two, because Sophocles already wrote that play himself.  You're not fooling anyone, you know.