—1555 A more splendid dramatic effect than Sophocles has created here could hardly be conceived. Hitherto, throughout the play, Oedipus has been strongly characterised by that timidity in movement, and that sense of physical dependence, which are normal accompaniments of blindness. (Cp. 21, 173 ff., 495 ff., 1206, etc.) Now, suddenly inspired by the Unseen Power which calls him, he becomes the guide of his guides. Now it is they who shrink. Eager and unfaltering, the blind man beckons them on. And so he finally passes from the eyes of the spectators. ὧδ̓: see 182. καινός, of a novel kind, “"in strange wise"”: cp. Plat. Euthyd. 271 B “καινοί τινες...σοφισταί... καὶ τίς ἡ σοφία;”
This text is part of:
Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part II: The Oedipus Coloneus. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1899.
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