θωπεύοντες, the word used by Creon in taunting Oed. (1003), is unpleasant, but Polyneices means it to be so; his aim is to move Oedipus to loathing of his present lot. Quintil. 6. 2. 24 “Haec est illa quae δείνωσις vocatur, rebus indignis asperis invidiosis addens vim oratio” (cp. Ar. Rhet. 2. 21 § 10 “ἐν σχετλιασμῷ καὶ δεινώσει”). To the Athenian “ἐλεύθερος” the very essence of a free man's dignity was “αὐτάρκεια”: hence it is a trait of the “μεγαλόψυχος” (Ar. Eth. N. 4. 8), “πρὸς ἄλλον μὴ δύνασθαι ζῆν ἀλλ᾽ ἢ πρὸς φέλον: δουλικὸν γάρ”: where the saving clause would apply to Oedipus.
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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