40 Oedipus Quotes From The Mythical Greek King

Oedipus the king was a great mythological tragic hero of the play 'Oedipus Rex'.

The genre of the play is an Athenian tragedy written by Sophocles in 429 B.C. Oedipus, the king of Thebes sat on the throne after unwillingly killing king Laius, his own father.

Sophocles used appropriate words to portray the sorrow and the sadness of all characters of 'Oedipus Rex' beautifully. It is considered the best work of Sophocles.

Oedipus's lines capture each and every emotion of the characters in the play till the end. Though it is ancient Greek mythology, the story of 'Oedipus Rex' is very much appreciated still now due to its modern approach. This article contains the best Sophocles quotes from Oedipus that include 'Oedipus Rex' quotes and Oedipus's prophecy quotes.

Check out the articles on Sophocles quotes and Medusa quotes as well.

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Oedipus The King Quotes

Here are some of the greatest 'Oedipus Rex' quotes addressed to its characters like Oedipus blindness quotes and lines, Oedipus fate quotes and words, Oedipus at Colonus quotes, and many more.

1. "I thought it wrong, my children, to hear the truth from others, messengers. Here I am myself—you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus."

- Oedipus.

2. "Now my curse on the murderer. Whoever he is, a long man unknown in his crime or one among many, let that man drag out his life in agony, step by painful step."

- Oedipus.

3. "Blind, though now he sees - and poor, though now he's rich - he'll use a stick to guide his steps into another land."

- Oedipus.

4. "What man who listened to these words of yours would not be enraged—you insult the city!"

- Oedipus.

5. "Polybos of Corinth is my father. My mother is a Dorian: Merope."

- Oedipus.

6. "With all these indications of the truth here in my grasp, I cannot end this now. I must reveal the details of my birth."

- Oedipus.

7. "Or do you think my children born as they were born, would be sweet to my eyes."

- Oedipus.

8. "You must wither, barren and unmarried. Son of Menoeceus, with both parents gone, you alone remain these children’s father. Do not let them live as vagrant paupers, wandering around unmarried."

- Oedipus.

'Oedipus Rex' Important Quotes

Below is a list of quotes like Oedipus the king quotes and lines, Oedipus irony quotes, and Oedipus hubris quotes that none of the readers can forget.

9. "Alas, the pains I bear are numberless—my people now all sick with plague, our minds can find no weapons to serve as our defence."

- Oedipus.

10. "Someone must call a fiery plague to keep away disaster from the city and have banished then come to us this time as well!"

- Oedipus.

11. "When a man has no fear of doing the act, he’s not afraid of words."

- Oedipus.

12. "What is the oracle? So far your words inspire in me no confidence or fear."

- Oedipus.

13. "The next day I visited my father and mother, and questioned them. They stormed calling it all the slanderous rant of a fool."

- Oedipus.

14. "So now I will fight on his behalf, as if this matter concerned my father, and I will strive to do everything I can to find him, the man who spilled his blood, and thus avenge the son of Labdacus and Polydorus, of Cadmus and Agenor from old times."

- Oedipus.

15. "Time alone can make it clear a man is just while you can know a traitor in a day."

- Oedipus.

Oedipus Famous Quotes

This category of quotes contains some of the highlights of popular Oedipus pride quotes, Oedipus anger quotes and lines, and Oedipus free will quotes that will help you learn about his true personality.

16. "His destiny moves us only because it might have been ours—because the oracle laid the same curse upon us before our birth as upon him."

- Oedipus.

17. "Here’s what I shall do—so listen to my words.

For I decree that no one in this land, in which I rule as your own king, shall give that killer shelter or talk to him, whoever he may be, or act in concert with him during prayers, or sacrifice, or sharing lustral water Laius and myself. But as it turned out, fate swooped down onto his head."

- Oedipus.

18. "May the god who sent this oracle save us withal and rid us of this pest."

- Oedipus.

19. "Ah, Jocasta, my dearest wife, why have you summoned me to leave our home and come out here?"

- Oedipus.

20. "I have his bed and wife—she would have borne his children, if his hopes to have a son had not been disappointed."

- Oedipus.

21. "Come on, tell me how you have ever given evidence of your wise prophecy."

- Oedipus.

22. "God! Was it my father or mother who did it? Tell me! It is not you that found me but another? Who was he? Can you tell me who he was?"

- Oedipus.

23. "But when he spoke he uttered monstrous things strange terrors and horrific miseries- it was my fate to defile my mother’s bed, to bring forth to men a human family that people could not bear to look upon, to murder the father who engendered me."

- Oedipus.

Oedipus Tragic Hero Quotes

Here are some of the all-time best tragedy quotes and lines, Oedipus light and dark quotes, and Oedipus guilt quotes and lines that will touch your heart.

24. "Take me away, far, far from Thebes, quickly, cast me away, my friends— this great murderous ruin, this man cursed to heaven, the man the deathless gods hate most of all!"

- Oedipus.

25. "Then let him go. And let me die, I must or driven by him in shame from the land of Thebes. It is your unhappiness and not his talk, that touches me."

- Oedipus.

26. "I went to other lands, so I would never see that prophecy fulfilled, the abomination of my evil fate."

- Oedipus.

27. "Now my curse on the murderer. Whoever he is, a long man unknown in his crime or one among many, let that man drag out his life in agony, step by pain-full step."

- Oedipus.

28. "If I had eyes, I do not know how I could bear the sight of my father when I came to the House of Death or my mother: for I have sinned against them both so vilely that I could not make peace by strangling my own life."

- Oedipus.

29. "I’ll tell you: the man I murdered—he’d have murdered me! I am innocent! Pure in the eyes of the law, blind, unknowing, I, I came to this!"

- Oedipus.

30. "O light, let me look at you one final time, a man who stands revealed as cursed by birth."

- Oedipus.

31. "If ever, once in the past, you stopped some ruin launched against our walls you hurled the flame of pain far, far from Thebes—you gods, come now, come down once more!"

- Oedipus.

32. "O Light, may I look on you for the last time! damned, Damned in the blood he shed with his own hand!"

- Oedipus.

'Oedipus Rex' Quotes From Other Characters

Check out the quotes from other characters of 'Oedipus Rex' like Oedipus and Tiresias argument quotes, lines from the chorus, quotes from Oedipus's wife, and others.

33. "Did you rise to the crisis? Not a word, you and your birds, your gods—nothing. No, but I came by, Oedipus the ignorant, I stopped the Sphinx! With no help from the birds, the flight of my own intelligence hit the mark."

- Chorus.

34. "Man of agony— that is the only name I have for you, that, no other—ever, ever, ever!"

- Jocasta.

35. "But first I shall tell you why I came. I do not fear the face of your displeasure—there is no way you can destroy me."

- Tiresias.

36. "For me the injury produced by this report is no single isolated matter—no, it has the greatest scope of all, if I end up being called a wicked man here in the city, a bad citizen, by you and by my friends."

- Creon.

37. "This is what prophets and prophecies are worth! Have no dread of them. It is God himself Who can show us what he wills, in his own way."

- Jocasta.

38. "So while we wait to see that final day, we cannot call a mortal being happy before he’s passed beyond life free from pain."

- Chorus.

39. "Blind who now has eyes, beggar who now is rich, he will grope his way toward a foreign soil, a stick tapping before him step by step."

- Tiresias.

40. "How dreadful knowledge of the truth can he When there’s no help in truth! I knew this well, But made myself forget. I should not have come."

- Tiresias

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Oedipus quotes then why not take a look at ancient quotes, or Greek quotes.