"STRANGER Inviolable, untrod; goddesses, Dread brood of Earth and Darkness, here abide. OEDIPUS Tell me the awful name I should invoke?
STRANGER The Gracious Ones, All-seeing, so our folk Call them, but elsewhere other names are rife."
We would know The Gracious Ones as the Furies- spirits of vengeance, who hunt down the wicked at destroy them. The immediate presence of the gods shows that Sophocles is certainly not going to veer from his favorite conflict of man versus divine, but the Furies bring a different spin to this. Previously, the gods have simply given laws or decrees and the conflict has come from mortals trying to ignore or subvert them. The Furies are not a decree to be followed- they are punishment for breaking one. So then, Oedipus has stumbled upon an interesting place. He has apparently also committed a grievous error in treading there, according to the Chorus. Once again, he goes against the divine. However, he immediately moves to try and mitigate the damage. Has Oedipus learned to fully submit to the gods in his old age? Do the Furies symbolize Oedipus' punishment, or something else?
