Oedipus at Colonus: List 2

by Sophocles
Though written last, this play in Sophocles' Theban Cycle takes place between the events of Oedipus the King and Antigone and focuses on the blind king's philosophical understanding of his fate. Learn these words from the translation by Francis Storr. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the play: List 1, List 2, List 3
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. envoy
    someone on a mission to represent another's interests
    So say the envoys who returned to Thebes.
  2. filial
    relating to or characteristic of or befitting an offspring
    These two maids
    Their sisters, girls, gave all their sex could give,
    Food and safe harborage and filial care;
    While their two brethren sacrificed their sire
    For lust of power and sceptred sovereignty.
  3. bane
    something causing misery or death
    Come Creon then, come all the mightiest
    In Thebes to seek me; for if ye my friends,
    Championed by those dread Powers indigenous,
    Espouse my cause; then for the State ye gain
    A great deliverer, for my foemen bane.
  4. atonement
    the act of making amends for sin or wrongdoing
    First make atonement to the deities,
    Whose grove by trespass thou didst first profane.
  5. libation
    the act of pouring a liquid offering as a religious ceremony
    Make a libation first of water fetched
    With undefiled hands from living spring.
  6. deign
    do something that one considers to be below one's dignity
    That, as we call them Gracious, they would deign
    To grant the suppliant their saving grace.
  7. impious
    lacking piety or reverence for a god
    The State around
    An all unwitting bridegroom bound
    An impious marriage chain;
    That was my bane.
  8. conjecture
    a hypothesis that has been formed by speculating
    All that I lately gathered on the way
    Made my conjecture doubly sure; and now
    Thy garb and that marred visage prove to me
    That thou art he.
  9. succor
    assistance in time of difficulty
    Wherefore no alien in adversity
    Shall seek in vain my succor, nor shalt thou;
    I know myself a mortal, and my share
    In what the morrow brings no more than thine.
  10. proffer
    present for acceptance or rejection
    What profit dost thou proffer to have brought?
  11. amity
    a state of friendship and cordiality
    If now 'tis sunshine betwixt Thebes and thee
    And not a cloud, Time in his endless course
    Gives birth to endless days and nights, wherein
    The merest nothing shall suffice to cut
    With serried spears your bonds of amity.
  12. extol
    praise, glorify, or honor
    Oh land extolled above all lands, 'tis now
    For thee to make these glorious titles good.
  13. bewail
    express sorrow or regret about something
    It was by reason of my years that I
    Was chosen to persuade your guest and bring
    Him back to Thebes; not the delegate
    Of one man, but commissioned by the State,
    Since of all Thebans I have most bewailed,
    Being his kinsman, his most grievous woes.
  14. penury
    a state of extreme poverty or destitution
    Ah! who had e'er imagined she could fall
    To such a depth of misery as this,
    To tend in penury thy stricken frame,
    A virgin ripe for wedlock, but unwed,
    A prey for any wanton ravisher?
  15. wanton
    indulgent in immoral or improper behavior
    Ah! who had e'er imagined she could fall
    To such a depth of misery as this,
    To tend in penury thy stricken frame,
    A virgin ripe for wedlock, but unwed,
    A prey for any wanton ravisher?
  16. gall
    become or make sore by or as if by rubbing
    O front of brass, thy subtle tongue would twist
    To thy advantage every plea of right
    Why try thy arts on me, why spread again
    Toils where 'twould gall me sorest to be snared?
  17. importune
    beg persistently and urgently
    Suppose a man refused to grant some boon
    When you importuned him, and afterwards
    When you had got your heart's desire, consented,
    Granting a grace from which all grace had fled,
    Would not such favor seem an empty boon?
  18. suborn
    induce to commit perjury or give false testimony
    Thou art a messenger suborned, thy tongue
    Is sharper than a sword's edge, yet thy speech
    Will bring thee more defeats than victories.
  19. parley
    a negotiation between enemies
    Which loses in this parley, I o'erthrown
    By thee, or thou who overthrow'st thyself?
  20. glib
    artfully persuasive in speech
    Thou hast a glib tongue, but no honest man,
    Methinks, can argue well on any side.
  21. despoil
    destroy and strip of its possession
    Command my liegemen leave the sacrifice
    And hurry, foot and horse, with rein unchecked,
    To where the paths that packmen use diverge,
    Lest the two maidens slip away, and I
    Become a mockery to this my guest,
    As one despoiled by force.
  22. adjudicate
    hear a case and sit as the judge at the trial of
    But now the laws to which himself appealed,
    These and none others shall adjudicate.
  23. freebooter
    someone who takes spoils or plunder (as in war)
    Having come
    Unto a State that champions right and asks
    For every action warranty of law,
    Thou hast set aside the custom of the land,
    And like some freebooter art carrying off
    What plunder pleases thee, as if forsooth
    Thou thoughtest this a city without men,
    Or manned by slaves, and me a thing of naught.
  24. reprobate
    a person without moral scruples
    Nor would they harbor, so I stood assured,
    A godless parricide, a reprobate
    Convicted of incestuous marriage ties.
  25. quarry
    a person who is the aim of an attack by a hostile influence
    In that faith
    I hunted down my quarry; and e'en then
    I had refrained but for the curses dire
    Wherewith he banned my kinsfolk and myself:
    Such wrong, methought, had warrant for my act.
  26. begotten
    generated by procreation
    Answer me now, if by some oracle
    My sire was destined to a bloody end
    By a son's hand, can this reflect on me,
    Me then unborn, begotten by no sire,
    Conceived in no mother's womb?
  27. reticence
    the trait of being uncommunicative
    For I will speak; thy lewd and impious speech
    Has broken all the bonds of reticence.
  28. adjure
    ask for or request earnestly
    Therefore to yon goddesses,
    I turn, adjure them and invoke their aid
    To champion my cause, that thou mayest learn
    What is the breed of men who guard this State.
  29. fray
    a noisy fight
    O when the flying foe,
    Turning at last to bay,
    Soon will give blow for blow,
    Might I behold the fray
  30. acolyte
    a devoted follower or assistant
    Cherish the mystic rites,
    Rites they to none betray,
    Ere on his lips is laid
    Secrecy's golden key
    By their own acolytes,
    Priestly Eumolpidae.
Created on Wed Apr 08 11:18:54 EDT 2020 (updated Wed Apr 08 11:25:49 EDT 2020)

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