"
Aristotle cites a good instance of a peripety--to Anglicize the
word--"where, in the _Lynceus_, the hero is led away to execution,
followed by Danaus as executioner; but, as the effect of the
antecedents, Danaus is executed and Lynceus escapes." But here, as in so
many other contexts, we must turn for the classic example to the
_Oedipus Rex_. Jocasta, hearing from the Corinthian stranger that
Polybus, King of Corinth, the reputed father of Oedipus, is dead, sends
for her husband to tell him that the oracle which doomed him to
parricide is defeated, since Polybus has died a natural death. Oedipus
exults in the news and triumphs over the oracles; but, as the scene
proceeds, the further revelations made by the same stranger lead Jocasta
to recognize in Oedipus her own child, who was exposed on Mount
Kithairon; and, in the subsequent scene, the evidence of the old
Shepherd brings Oedipus himself to the same crushing realization. No
completer case of _anagnorisis_ and _peripeteia_ could well be
conceived--whatever we may have to say of the means by which it is
led up to.
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