Sophocles, Oedipus the King 1204-1212 ≈ 1213-1222: a metrical ritornello
Abstract
The second strophic pair of Oedipus the King’s Fourth Stasimon presents a metrical scheme that functions as a ritornello all through the songs, closing every κῶλον. It has five elements (- ⏑ - ⏑ -) and appears as a part of iambic κῶλα in the first three lines, closes a dochmius plus a iambic metron in the fourth, and stays by itself in the three next lines as a hypodochmius, where the stanzas reach their climax at their centre. In the next lines the scheme gets increased its elements at the beginning, showing a kaibelian dochmius and then iambo-choriambic κῶλα. The poet has assessed in a pentasyllable scheme the horror of the Chorus before Oedipus, a ritornello that reappears in all the κῶλα, and that synthesizes the message in the center of each song: the incest / the rejection.
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