Beyond the Boundaries of Fantasia: An ancient imagining of the future of leadership

Learn some Greek from Athenian tragedy through English derivatives and Latin cognates

Learn some Greek from Attic tragedy through English derivatives and Latin cognates

Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus, Lines 1-13

ὦ τέκνα, Κάδμου τοῦ πάλαι [paleolithic, paleography] νέα [neolithic] τροφή [atrophy],
τίνας ποθ᾽ ἕδρας [exedra, duodecahedron; compare the Latin origin of "sedentary"] τάσδε μοι [cf. "me"] θοάζετε
ἱκτηρίοις κλάδοισιν ἐξεστεμμένοι [Stephen (Etienne, Esteban, Stephanie)];
πόλις [policy] δ᾽ ὁμοῦ μὲν θυμιαμάτων [thymus] γέμει,
ὁμοῦ [homogeneous] δὲ παιάνων [paean] τε καὶ στεναγμάτων:
ἁγὼ δικαιῶν [theodicy] μὴ παρ᾽ ἀγγέλων [angel], τέκνα,
ἄλλων [allegory] ἀκούειν [acoustic] αὐτὸς [automatic] ὧδ᾽ ἐλήλυθα,
πᾶσι [pangaea] κλεινὸς [Clio, Pericles] Οἰδίπους καλούμενος.
ἀλλ᾽ ὦ γεραιέ [progeria], φράζ᾽ [phrase], ἐπεὶ πρέπων ἔφυς [physic]
πρὸ τῶνδε φωνεῖν [phonology], τίνι τρόπῳ [tropic, trope, trophy] καθέστατε,
δείσαντες ἢ στέρξαντες; ὡς θέλοντος ἂν
ἐμοῦ προσαρκεῖν [cf. arcane from Latin] πᾶν: δυσάλγητος [dystrophy, analgesic] γὰρ ἂν
εἴην τοιάνδε μὴ οὐ κατοικτίρων ἕδραν.

My children, latest-born wards of old Cadmus, why do you sit before me like this with wreathed branches of suppliants, while the city reeks with incense, [5] rings with prayers for health and cries of woe? I thought it unbefitting, my children, to hear these things from the mouths of others, and have come here myself, I, Oedipus renowned by all. Tell me, then, venerable old man—since it is proper that you [10] speak for these—in what mood you sit here, one of fear or of desire? Be sure that I will gladly give you all my help. I would be hard-hearted indeed if I did not pity such suppliants as these.

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