μαντεῖα πάντα implies several oracles, given to the Thebans about Oedipus after he had left Thebes. There is no clue to their purport, and we need not ask: they are invented merely to create a pious office for Ismene. It would not have seemed well that she should have stayed at Thebes all these years without showing any active interest in his fate: on the other hand, the poetic legend required that Antigone should be the sole guide of his wanderings. The oracle about final rest had been given to Oed. in his youth (see on 87); the oracle about his grave has only just been received at Thebes (389). Between these two, the only oracle suggested by the Sophoclean version of the story is a response to the question which Creon had proposed to ask at Delphi (O. T. 1438), as to whether Oed. should remain at Thebes. But the story of the expulsion (768 ff.) implies that no such response had then been obtained.
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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