Creon returns with the Oracle’s prophecy, “My lord: long ago Laios was our king,/ Before you came to govern us… He was murdered and Apollo commands us now/ To take revenge upon whoever killed him.” (Sophocles 8) Thus, Creon tells Oedipus that the rain will not resume and the deadly drought will not cease to exist until Laios’s murderer is brought to justice. When Oedipus receives word of this misfortune, he sends a messenger to see the Oracle of Delphi. Crops and cattle have died and many people are starving. The city of Thebes has no happiness due to the long lasting drought. Both protagonists ultimately get what they deserve and gain new insight into their own tragic flaws. In the last line of Sophocles’s Antigone, Choragos says, “There is no happiness where there is no wisdom / No wisdom but in submission to the gods./ Big words are always punished,/ And proud men in old age learn to be wise.” Choragos’s adage powerfully captures his perception of Oedipus and Creon.
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