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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2019
Reacting to the death of his supposed father, Polybus, Oedipus’ dismisses the power of Apollo's shrine in Delphi at the very point when that god is inexorably bringing him to his destruction. The immense relief which Oedipus feels on learning that after all he will not kill his father is strikingly marked by the metre. An iambic trimeter usually scans ×—⏑—×—⏑—×—⏑— (where — represents a long syllable, ⏑ a short, and × an anceps which can be long or short); but line 967 scans ⏑—⏑— —⏑⏑⏑⏑⏑⏑⏑⏑⏑—, with three successive resolutions, or substitutions of a long syllable by a double short (⏑⏑). With the intervening short ancipites, this gives fully nine consecutive short syllables, something unparalleled among the few tragic instances of threefold resolution, and indicative of the impact of the news: Oedipus is giddy with relief. The vivid metrical effect coincides with the phrase ‘my father’ and the reference to his death: this is what has triggered the outburst of joy from this previously frantic man.
1 Namely, that tragic trimeters do not end in the metrical form — — | —⏑—, where | marks a word break; the phenomenon is known as ‘Porson's Law’ or ‘Porson's Bridge’.
2 L. Parker 1958, 1966, 1968, 1976, 1997; Stinton 1965 = 1990: 11–16, 1975 = 1990: 113–42, 1977 = 1990: 310–61; Schein 1979; Diggle 1981, 1984: 66–71 = 1994: 313–19, 1994; Itsumi 1982, 1984, 1991–3; M. L. West 1982; Willink 2001 = 2010: 347–81, 2002 = 2010: 382–423, 2003 = 2010: 424–71.
3 For actors’ song see Nooter 2012.
4 Denniston 1954: 164.