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Oedipus demands to learn his birth

c. 429 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus). Oedipus speaking, in Sophocles’ play.

Where and when

c. 429 BCEAthens (Theatre of Dionysus)

about 2,454 years ago

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Sophocles

, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)Oedipus speaking, in Sophocles’ play

In plain words, ours

Let whatever happens happen. Even if I come from nothing, I need to know where I come from.

Break forth what will! Be my race ever so lowly, I crave to learn it.

Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus line 1076Translated by Richard Jebb (1887)Read the full passage (Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus line 1076, opens scaife.perseus.org)

What was going on, our summary

In Sophocles' play, Oedipus is searching out the secret of his birth. Iocasta begs him to stop, then rushes into the palace in grief; Oedipus calls for the herdsman and guesses she is ashamed his origins may be lowly.

Checked claim by claim against: the passage around the quote.

Related moments

In time order, with this one in its place. Each says why it is here.

  1. 431 BCEabout 2 years earlier Thebans attack Plataea and the war begins Same years
  2. 431 BCEabout 1.8999999999999773 years earlier Spartan army invades Attica Same years
  3. 430 BCE1 year earlier Plague breaks out in Athens Same years
  4. 431/430 BCE1 year earlier Athens holds a public funeral for its first war dead Same years
  5. 430 BCE, written later1 year earlier Thucydides on the plague in Athens Also in Athens
  6. 429 BCEAbout the same year Pericles dies Also in Athens
  7. c. 429 BCEThis momentOedipus demands to learn his birth
  8. set in 429 BCEAbout the same year Pericles on his deathbed Also in Athens
  9. c. 429 BCEAbout the same year The Chorus on calling no mortal happy More from Sophocles
  10. c. 429 BCEAbout the same year Iocasta on living at random Same passageMore from Sophocles
  11. c. 429 BCEAbout the same year Oedipus on his city's sickness More from Sophocles
  12. 423 BCEabout 6 years later Strepsiades on the gnat's trumpet Also about knowing and not knowing
  13. c. 402 BCEabout 27 years later Socrates answers Meno on numbness Also about knowing and not knowing

Just before and after

The text around the quote, word for word from the same translation.

Show the passageHide the passage

Oedipus: It must not happen that, with such clues in my grasp, I fail to bring my birth to light.

Iocasta: For the gods’ sake, if you have any care for your own life, do not continue this search! My anguish is enough.

Oedipus: Be of good courage. Even if I should be found the son of a servile mother—a slave by three descents—you will not be proven baseborn.

Iocasta: Hear me, I implore you: do not do this.

Oedipus: I will not hear of not discovering the whole truth.

Iocasta: Yet I wish you well—I counsel you for the best.

Oedipus: These best counsels, then, vex my patience.

Iocasta: Oh ill-fated man, may you never know who you are!

Oedipus: Go, some one, fetch me the herdsman. Leave this woman to glory in her princely stock.

Iocasta: Alas, alas, miserable man—that word alone can I say to you—and no other word ever again. She rushes into the palace.

Chorus: Why has this woman gone, Oedipus, rushing off in wild grief? I fear a storm of sorrow will soon break forth from this silence.

The quote: Oedipus: Break forth what will! Be my race ever so lowly, I crave to learn it.

Oedipus: That woman perhaps—for she is proud with more than a woman’s pride—feels ashamed of my lowly origin. But I, who hold myself son of Fortune that gives good, will not be dishonored. She is the mother from whom I spring, and the months, my kinsmen, have marked me sometimes lowly, sometimes great. Such being my heritage, never more can I prove false to it, or keep from searching out the secret of my birth.

Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus lines 1058–1085Translated by Richard Jebb (1887)Read the full passage (opens scaife.perseus.org)

When, and whose words

Date
c. 429 BCE. The first staging of Oedipus Tyrannus is not recorded; it is estimated at about 429 BCE, often linked to the plague of Athens.
Whose words
Oedipus speaking, in Sophocles’ play.
How this post was checked
  • The plain-words line was read against the quote alone by a second, independent pass, which found it adds no claim the quote does not make (2026-10-03).
  • Each claim in the summary was checked by an independent pass against only the material it cites.
  • The quote itself is checked by the build: word for word, once, at the cited section of the stored translation.

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