VIRTUAL TOUR
Scene Four: Tidings from Afar
ACT TWO
It's now later in the day at Thebes Central. As the scene opens, the Chorus try to persuade themselves that Laius’s killer will be apprehended. If not, what is the reason for faith in divine justice? [It Had to be True ] Jocasta enters, making supplication to the statue and shrine of Lycian Apollo. Swaggering on stage, a Messenger from Corinth proclaims the news that Polybus, the king’s father in Corinth, has just died. [All The News That Fits]
Oedipus is summoned and Jocasta tells him this news proves the prophecies are false. [That’s a Relief] Nevertheless, our hero is adamant that he will not return to Corinth for fear of marrying his mother. [Mommy Dearest] “And I always thought,” observes Jocasta, “we didn’t visit because of your chronic carsickness.” The Messenger cannot believe it either: “fear of marrying your sixty-eight year-old mother?” [Marry Merry Mérope?] Yes, and killing pop, Oedipus adds. “Then cheer up!” says the Messenger, “Polybus was no more your father than I. In fact, I got you on Mt. Cithaeron from a Theban herdsman.” [History of a Founding]
Jocasta now realizes the horrible truth! Not so Oedipus.: “How can you be so sure?” he asks. “Your feet,” he replies, “those ankles, swollen by an iron pin.” [Know Thyself] Jocasta runs offstage. Oedipus thinks it’s because she’s embarrassed he’s been revealed as the son of a peasant. So be it, but by his abandonment, he’s also (mythically) Fortune’s son of a moon and a mountain.
