Sophocles
496-406 B.C.E - Wrote in Greek
Oedipus the King
Published: 5th century BC
Translated by F. Storr
Sophocles, Vol. I
Sophocles
William Heinemann
London
1912
The Loeb Classical Library
Translated by F. Storr
Commercial use prohibited.
Published: 5th century BC
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To Laius, King of Thebes, an
oracle foretold that the child born to him by his queen Jocasta would slay his father
and wed his mother. So when in time a son was born the infant's feet were riveted together
and he was left to die on Mount Cithaeron. But a shepherd found the babe and tended him,
and delivered him to another shepherd who took him to his master, the King or Corinth.
Polybus being childless adopted the boy, who grew up believing that he was indeed the
King's son. Afterwards doubting his parentage he inquired of the Delphic god and heard
himself the weird declared before to Laius. Wherefore he fled from what he deemed his
father's house and in his flight he encountered and unwillingly slew his father Laius.
Arriving at Thebes he answered the riddle of the Sphinx and the grateful Thebans made their
deliverer king. So he reigned in the room of Laius, and espoused the widowed queen.
Children were born to them and Thebes prospered under his rule, but again a grievous
plague fell upon the city. Again the oracle was consulted and it bade them purge themselves
of blood-guiltiness.
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Oedipus denounces the crime of which he is unaware, and undertakes to track out the criminal.
Step by step it is brought home to him that he is the man.
The closing scene reveals Jocasta slain by her own hand and Oedipus blinded by his own
act and praying for death or exile.
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Dramatis Personae
OEDIPUS
THE PRIEST OF ZEUS
CREON
CHORUS OF THEBAN ELDERS
TEIRESIAS
JOCASTA
MESSENGER
HERD OF LAIUS
SECOND MESSENGER
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[Scene: Thebes. Before the Palace of Oedipus.]
[Suppliants of all ages are seated round the altar at the palace doors, at their head a PRIEST OF ZEUS. To them enter OEDIPUS.]
Oedipus
1: My children, latest born to Cadmus old,
2: Why sit ye here as suppliants, in your hands
3: Branches of olive filleted with wool?
4: What means this reek of incense everywhere,
5: And everywhere laments and litanies?
6: Children, it were not meet that I should learn
7: From others, and am hither come, myself,
8: I Oedipus, your world-renowned king.
9: Ho! aged sire, whose venerable locks
10: Proclaim thee spokesman of this company,
11: Explain your mood and purport. Is it dread
12: Of ill that moves you or a boon ye crave?
13: My zeal in your behalf ye cannot doubt;
14: Ruthless indeed were I and obdurate
15: If such petitioners as you I spurned.
Priest
16: Yea, Oedipus, my sovereign lord and king,
17: Thou seest how both extremes of age besiege
18: Thy palace altars -- fledglings hardly winged,
19: and greybeards bowed with years; priests, as am I
20: of Zeus, and these the flower of our youth.
21: Meanwhile, the common folk, with wreathed boughs
22: Crowd our two market-places, or before
23: Both shrines of Pallas congregate, or where
24: Ismenus gives his oracles by fire.
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25: For, as thou seest thyself, our ship of State,
26: Sore buffeted, can no more lift her head,
27: Foundered beneath a weltering surge of blood.
28: A blight is on our harvest in the ear,
29: A blight upon the grazing flocks and herds,
30: A blight on wives in travail; and withal
31: Armed with his blazing torch the God of Plague
32: Hath swooped upon our city emptying
33: The house of Cadmus, and the murky realm
34: Of Pluto is full fed with groans and tears.
35: Therefore, O King, here at thy hearth we sit,
36: I and these children; not as deeming thee
37: A new divinity, but the first of men;
38: First in the common accidents of life,
39: And first in visitations of the Gods.
40: Art thou not he who coming to the town
41: of Cadmus freed us from the tax we paid
42: To the fell songstress? Nor hadst thou received
43: Prompting from us or been by others schooled;
44: No, by a god inspired (so all men deem,
45: And testify) didst thou renew our life.
46: And now, O Oedipus, our peerless king,
47: All we thy votaries beseech thee, find
48: Some succor, whether by a voice from heaven
49: Whispered, or haply known by human wit.
50: Tried counselors, methinks, are aptest found
51: To furnish for the future pregnant rede.
52: Upraise, O chief of men, upraise our State!
53: Look to thy laurels! for thy zeal of yore
54: Our country's savior thou art justly hailed:
55: O never may we thus record thy reign: --
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56: "He raised us up only to cast us down."
57: Uplift us, build our city on a rock.
58: Thy happy star ascendant brought us luck,
59: O let it not decline! If thou wouldst rule
60: This land, as now thou reignest, better sure
61: To rule a peopled than a desert realm.
62: Nor battlements nor galleys aught avail,
63: If men to man and guards to guard them tail.
Oedipus
64: Ah! my poor children, known, ah, known too well,
65: The quest that brings you hither and your need.
66: Ye sicken all, well wot I, yet my pain,
67: How great soever yours, outtops it all.
68: Your sorrow touches each man severally,
69: Him and none other, but I grieve at once
70: Both for the general and myself and you.
71: Therefore ye rouse no sluggard from day-dreams.
72: Many, my children, are the tears I've wept,
73: And threaded many a maze of weary thought.
74: Thus pondering one clue of hope I caught,
75: And tracked it up; I have sent Menoeceus' son,
76: Creon, my consort's brother, to inquire
77: Of Pythian Phoebus at his Delphic shrine,
78: How I might save the State by act or word.
79: And now I reckon up the tale of days
80: Since he set forth, and marvel how he fares.
81: 'Tis strange, this endless tarrying, passing strange.
82: But when he comes, then I were base indeed,
83: If I perform not all the god declares.
Priest
84: Thy words are well timed; even as thou speakest
85: That shouting tells me Creon is at hand.
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Oedipus
86: O King Apollo! may his joyous looks
87: Be presage of the joyous news he brings!
Priest
88: As I surmise, 'tis welcome; else his head
89: Had scarce been crowned with berry-laden bays.
Oedipus
90: We soon shall know; he's now in earshot range.
91: [Enter CREON]
92: My royal cousin, say, Menoeceus' child,
93: What message hast thou brought us from the god?
Creon
94: Good news, for e'en intolerable ills,
95: Finding right issue, tend to naught but good.
Oedipus
96: How runs the oracle? thus far thy words
97: Give me no ground for confidence or fear.
Creon
98: If thou wouldst hear my message publicly,
99: I'll tell thee straight, or with thee pass within.
Oedipus
100: Speak before all; the burden that I bear
101: Is more for these my subjects than myself.
Creon
102: Let me report then all the god declared.
103: King Phoebus bids us straitly extirpate
104: A fell pollution that infests the land,
105: And no more harbor an inveterate sore.
Oedipus
106: What expiation means he? What's amiss?
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Creon
107: Banishment, or the shedding blood for blood.
108: This stain of blood makes shipwreck of our state.
Oedipus
109: Whom can he mean, the miscreant thus denounced?
Creon
110: Before thou didst assume the helm of State,
111: The sovereign of this land was Laius.
Oedipus
112: I heard as much, but never saw the man.
Creon
113: He fell; and now the god's command is plain:
114: Punish his takers-off, whoe'er they be.
Oedipus
115: Where are they? Where in the wide world to find
116: The far, faint traces of a bygone crime?
Creon
117: In this land, said the god; "who seeks shall find;
118: Who sits with folded hands or sleeps is blind."
Oedipus
119: Was he within his palace, or afield,
120: Or traveling, when Laius met his fate?
Creon
121: Abroad; he started, so he told us, bound
122: For Delphi, but he never thence returned.
Oedipus
123: Came there no news, no fellow-traveler
124: To give some clue that might be followed up?
Creon
125: But one escape, who flying for dear life,
126: Could tell of all he saw but one thing sure.
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Oedipus
127: And what was that? One clue might lead us far,
128: With but a spark of hope to guide our quest.
Creon
129: Robbers, he told us, not one bandit but
130: A troop of knaves, attacked and murdered him.
Oedipus
131: Did any bandit dare so bold a stroke,
132: Unless indeed he were suborned from Thebes?
Creon
133: So 'twas surmised, but none was found to avenge
134: His murder mid the trouble that ensued.
Oedipus
135: What trouble can have hindered a full quest,
136: When royalty had fallen thus miserably?
Creon
137: The riddling Sphinx compelled us to let slide
138: The dim past and attend to instant needs.
Oedipus
139: Well, I will start afresh and once again
140: Make dark things clear. Right worthy the concern
141: Of Phoebus, worthy thine too, for the dead;
142: I also, as is meet, will lend my aid
143: To avenge this wrong to Thebes and to the god.
144: Not for some far-off kinsman, but myself,
145: Shall I expel this poison in the blood;
146: For whoso slew that king might have a mind
147: To strike me too with his assassin hand.
148: Therefore in righting him I serve myself.
149: Up, children, haste ye, quit these altar stairs,
150: Take hence your suppliant wands, go summon hither
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151: The Theban commons. With the god's good help
152: Success is sure; 'tis ruin if we fail.
153: [Exeunt OEDIPUS and CREON]
Priest
154: Come, children, let us hence; these gracious words
155: Forestall the very purpose of our suit.
156: And may the god who sent this oracle
157: Save us withal and rid us of this pest.
158: [Exeunt PRIEST and SUPPLIANTS]
Chorus
159: Sweet-voiced daughter of Zeus from thy gold-paved Pythian shrine
160: Wafted to Thebes divine,
161: What dost thou bring me? My soul is racked and shivers with fear.
162: (Healer of Delos, hear!)
163: Hast thou some pain unknown before,
164: Or with the circling years renewest a penance of yore?
165: Offspring of golden Hope, thou voice immortal, O tell me.
166: First on Athene I call; O Zeus-born goddess, defend!
167: Goddess and sister, befriend,
168: Artemis, Lady of Thebes, high-throned in the midst of our mart!
169: Lord of the death-winged dart!
170: Your threefold aid I crave
171: From death and ruin our city to save.
172: If in the days of old when we nigh had perished, ye drave
173: From our land the fiery plague, be near us now and defend us!
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174: Ah me, what countless woes are mine!
175: All our host is in decline;
176: Weaponless my spirit lies.
177: Earth her gracious fruits denies;
178: Women wail in barren throes;
179: Life on life downstriken goes,
180: Swifter than the wind bird's flight,
181: Swifter than the Fire-God's might,
182: To the westering shores of Night.
183: Wasted thus by death on death
184: All our city perisheth.
185: Corpses spread infection round;
186: None to tend or mourn is found.
187: Wailing on the altar stair
188: Wives and grandams rend the air --
189: Long-drawn moans and piercing cries
190: Blent with prayers and litanies.
191: Golden child of Zeus, O hear
192: Let thine angel face appear!
193: And grant that Ares whose hot breath I feel,
194: Though without targe or steel
195: He stalks, whose voice is as the battle shout,
196: May turn in sudden rout,
197: To the unharbored Thracian waters sped,
198: Or Amphitrite's bed.
199: For what night leaves undone,
200: Smit by the morrow's sun
201: Perisheth. Father Zeus, whose hand
202: Doth wield the lightning brand,
203: Slay him beneath thy levin bold, we pray,
204: Slay him, O slay!
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205: O that thine arrows too, Lycean King,
206: From that taut bow's gold string,
207: Might fly abroad, the champions of our rights;
208: Yea, and the flashing lights
209: Of Artemis, wherewith the huntress sweeps
210: Across the Lycian steeps.
211: Thee too I call with golden-snooded hair,
212: Whose name our land doth bear,
213: Bacchus to whom thy Maenads Evoe shout;
214: Come with thy bright torch, rout,
215: Blithe god whom we adore,
216: The god whom gods abhor.
217: [enter OEDIPUS.]
Oedipus
218: Ye pray; 'tis well, but would ye hear my words
219: And heed them and apply the remedy,
220: Ye might perchance find comfort and relief.
221: Mind you, I speak as one who comes a stranger
222: To this report, no less than to the crime;
223: For how unaided could I track it far
224: Without a clue? Which lacking (for too late
225: Was I enrolled a citizen of Thebes)
226: This proclamation I address to all: --
227: Thebans, if any knows the man by whom
228: Laius, son of Labdacus, was slain,
229: I summon him to make clean shrift to me.
230: And if he shrinks, let him reflect that thus
231: Confessing he shall 'scape the capital charge;
232: For the worst penalty that shall befall him
233: Is banishment -- unscathed he shall depart.
234: But if an alien from a foreign land
235: Be known to any as the murderer,
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236: Let him who knows speak out, and he shall have
237: Due recompense from me and thanks to boot.
238: But if ye still keep silence, if through fear
239: For self or friends ye disregard my hest,
240: Hear what I then resolve; I lay my ban
241: On the assassin whosoe'er he be.
242: Let no man in this land, whereof I hold
243: The sovereign rule, harbor or speak to him;
244: Give him no part in prayer or sacrifice
245: Or lustral rites, but hound him from your homes.
246: For this is our defilement, so the god
247: Hath lately shown to me by oracles.
248: Thus as their champion I maintain the cause
249: Both of the god and of the murdered King.
250: And on the murderer this curse I lay
251: (On him and all the partners in his guilt): --
252: Wretch, may he pine in utter wretchedness!
253: And for myself, if with my privity
254: He gain admittance to my hearth, I pray
255: The curse I laid on others fall on me.
256: See that ye give effect to all my hest,
257: For my sake and the god's and for our land,
258: A desert blasted by the wrath of heaven.
259: For, let alone the god's express command,
260: It were a scandal ye should leave unpurged
261: The murder of a great man and your king,
262: Nor track it home. And now that I am lord,
263: Successor to his throne, his bed, his wife,
264: (And had he not been frustrate in the hope
265: Of issue, common children of one womb
266: Had forced a closer bond twixt him and me,
267: But Fate swooped down upon him), therefore I
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268: His blood-avenger will maintain his cause
269: As though he were my sire, and leave no stone
270: Unturned to track the assassin or avenge
271: The son of Labdacus, of Polydore,
272: Of Cadmus, and Agenor first of the race.
273: And for the disobedient thus I pray:
274: May the gods send them neither timely fruits
275: Of earth, nor teeming increase of the womb,
276: But may they waste and pine, as now they waste,
277: Aye and worse stricken; but to all of you,
278: My loyal subjects who approve my acts,
279: May Justice, our ally, and all the gods
280: Be gracious and attend you evermore.
Chorus
281: The oath thou profferest, sire, I take and swear.
282: I slew him not myself, nor can I name
283: The slayer. For the quest, 'twere well, methinks
284: That Phoebus, who proposed the riddle, himself
285: Should give the answer -- who the murderer was.
Oedipus
286: Well argued; but no living man can hope
287: To force the gods to speak against their will.
Chorus
288: May I then say what seems next best to me?
Oedipus
289: Aye, if there be a third best, tell it too.
Chorus
290: My liege, if any man sees eye to eye
291: With our lord Phoebus, 'tis our prophet, lord
292: Teiresias; he of all men best might guide
293: A searcher of this matter to the light.
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Oedipus
294: Here too my zeal has nothing lagged, for twice
295: At Creon's instance have I sent to fetch him,
296: And long I marvel why he is not here.
Chorus
297: I mind me too of rumors long ago --
Mere gossip.
Oedipus
Tell them, I would fain know all.
Chorus
'Twas said he fell by travelers.
Oedipus
So I heard,
300: But none has seen the man who saw him fall.
Chorus
301: Well, if he knows what fear is, he will quail
302: And flee before the terror of thy curse.
Oedipus
303: Words scare not him who blenches not at deeds.
Chorus
304: But here is one to arraign him. Lo, at length
305: They bring the god-inspired seer in whom
306: Above all other men is truth inborn.
307: [Enter TEIRESIAS, led by a boy.]
Oedipus
308: Teiresias, seer who comprehendest all,
309: Lore of the wise and hidden mysteries,
310: High things of heaven and low things of the earth,
311: Thou knowest, though thy blinded eyes see naught,
312: What plague infects our city; and we turn
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313: To thee, O seer, our one defense and shield.
314: The purport of the answer that the God
315: Returned to us who sought his oracle,
316: The messengers have doubtless told thee -- how
317: One course alone could rid us of the pest,
318: To find the murderers of Laius,
319: And slay them or expel them from the land.
320: Therefore begrudging neither augury
321: Nor other divination that is thine,
322: O save thyself, thy country, and thy king,
323: Save all from this defilement of blood shed.
324: On thee we rest. This is man's highest end,
325: To others' service all his powers to lend.
Teiresias
326: Alas, alas, what misery to be wise
327: When wisdom profits nothing! This old lore
328: I had forgotten; else I were not here.
Oedipus
329: What ails thee? Why this melancholy mood?
Teiresias
330: Let me go home; prevent me not; 'twere best
331: That thou shouldst bear thy burden and I mine.
Oedipus
332: For shame! no true-born Theban patriot
333: Would thus withhold the word of prophecy.
Teiresias
334: Thy words, O king, are wide of the mark, and I
For fear lest I too trip like thee...
Oedipus
Oh speak,
336: Withhold not, I adjure thee, if thou know'st,
337: Thy knowledge. We are all thy suppliants.
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Teiresias
338: Aye, for ye all are witless, but my voice
339: Will ne'er reveal my miseries -- or thine.
Oedipus
340: What then, thou knowest, and yet willst not speak!
341: Wouldst thou betray us and destroy the State?
Teiresias
342: I will not vex myself nor thee. Why ask
343: Thus idly what from me thou shalt not learn?
Oedipus
344: Monster! thy silence would incense a flint.
345: Will nothing loose thy tongue? Can nothing melt thee,
346: Or shake thy dogged taciturnity?
Teiresias
347: Thou blam'st my mood and seest not thine own
348: Wherewith thou art mated; no, thou taxest me.
Oedipus
349: And who could stay his choler when he heard
350: How insolently thou dost flout the State?
Teiresias
351: Well, it will come what will, though I be mute.
Oedipus
352: Since come it must, thy duty is to tell me.
Teiresias
353: I have no more to say; storm as thou willst,
354: And give the rein to all thy pent-up rage.
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Oedipus
355: Yea, I am wroth, and will not stint my words,
356: But speak my whole mind. Thou methinks thou art he,
357: Who planned the crime, aye, and performed it too,
358: All save the assassination; and if thou
359: Hadst not been blind, I had been sworn to boot
360: That thou alone didst do the bloody deed.
Teiresias
361: Is it so? Then I charge thee to abide
362: By thine own proclamation; from this day
363: Speak not to these or me. Thou art the man,
364: Thou the accursed polluter of this land.
Oedipus
365: Vile slanderer, thou blurtest forth these taunts,
366: And think'st forsooth as seer to go scot free.
Teiresias
367: Yea, I am free, strong in the strength of truth.
Oedipus
368: Who was thy teacher? not methinks thy art.
Teiresias
369: Thou, goading me against my will to speak.
Oedipus
370: What speech? repeat it and resolve my doubt.
Teiresias
371: Didst miss my sense wouldst thou goad me on?
Oedipus
372: I but half caught thy meaning; say it again.
Teiresias
373: I say thou art the murderer of the man
Whose murderer thou pursuest.
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Oedipus
Thou shalt rue it
375: Twice to repeat so gross a calumny.
Teiresias
376: Must I say more to aggravate thy rage?
Oedipus
377: Say all thou wilt; it will be but waste of breath.
Teiresias
378: I say thou livest with thy nearest kin
379: In infamy, unwitting in thy shame.
Oedipus
380: Think'st thou for aye unscathed to wag thy tongue?
Teiresias
381: Yea, if the might of truth can aught prevail.
382: OEDIPUS
383: With other men, but not with thee, for thou
384: In ear, wit, eye, in everything art blind.
Teiresias
385: Poor fool to utter gibes at me which all
386: Here present will cast back on thee ere long.
Oedipus
387: Offspring of endless Night, thou hast no power
388: O'er me or any man who sees the sun.
Teiresias
389: No, for thy weird is not to fall by me.
390: I leave to Apollo what concerns the god.
Oedipus
391: Is this a plot of Creon, or thine own?
Teiresias
392: Not Creon, thou thyself art thine own bane.
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Oedipus
393: O wealth and empiry and skill by skill
394: Outwitted in the battlefield of life,
395: What spite and envy follow in your train!
396: See, for this crown the State conferred on me.
397: A gift, a thing I sought not, for this crown
398: The trusty Creon, my familiar friend,
399: Hath lain in wait to oust me and suborned
400: This mountebank, this juggling charlatan,
401: This tricksy beggar-priest, for gain alone
402: Keen-eyed, but in his proper art stone-blind.
403: Say, sirrah, hast thou ever proved thyself
404: A prophet? When the riddling Sphinx was here
405: Why hadst thou no deliverance for this folk?
406: And yet the riddle was not to be solved
407: By guess-work but required the prophet's art;
408: Wherein thou wast found lacking; neither birds
409: Nor sign from heaven helped thee, but I came,
410: The simple Oedipus; I stopped her mouth
411: By mother wit, untaught of auguries.
412: This is the man whom thou wouldst undermine,
413: In hope to reign with Creon in my stead.
414: Methinks that thou and thine abettor soon
415: Will rue your plot to drive the scapegoat out.
416: Thank thy grey hairs that thou hast still to learn
417: What chastisement such arrogance deserves.
Chorus
418: To us it seems that both the seer and thou,
419: O Oedipus, have spoken angry words.
420: This is no time to wrangle but consult
421: How best we may fulfill the oracle.
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Teiresias
422: King as thou art, free speech at least is mine
423: To make reply; in this I am thy peer.
424: I own no lord but Loxias; him I serve
425: And ne'er can stand enrolled as Creon's man.
426: Thus then I answer: since thou hast not spared
427: To twit me with my blindness -- thou hast eyes,
428: Yet see'st not in what misery thou art fallen,
429: Nor where thou dwellest nor with whom for mate.
430: Dost know thy lineage? Nay, thou know'st it not,
431: And all unwitting art a double foe
432: To thine own kin, the living and the dead;
433: Aye and the dogging curse of mother and sire
434: One day shall drive thee, like a two-edged sword,
435: Beyond our borders, and the eyes that now
436: See clear shall henceforward endless night.
437: Ah whither shall thy bitter cry not reach,
438: What crag in all Cithaeron but shall then
439: Reverberate thy wail, when thou hast found
440: With what a hymeneal thou wast borne
441: Home, but to no fair haven, on the gale!
442: Aye, and a flood of ills thou guessest not
443: Shall set thyself and children in one line.
444: Flout then both Creon and my words, for none
445: Of mortals shall be striken worse than thou.
Oedipus
446: Must I endure this fellow's insolence?
447: A murrain on thee! Get thee hence! Begone
448: Avaunt! and never cross my threshold more.
Teiresias
449: I ne'er had come hadst thou not bidden me.
Oedipus
450: I know not thou wouldst utter folly, else
451: Long hadst thou waited to be summoned here.
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Teiresias
452: Such am I -- as it seems to thee a fool,
453: But to the parents who begat thee, wise.
Oedipus
454: What sayest thou -- "parents"? Who begat me, speak?
Teiresias
455: This day shall be thy birth-day, and thy grave.
Oedipus
456: Thou lov'st to speak in riddles and dark words.
Teiresias
457: In reading riddles who so skilled as thou?
Oedipus
458: Twit me with that wherein my greatness lies.
Teiresias
459: And yet this very greatness proved thy bane.
Oedipus
460: No matter if I saved the commonwealth.
Teiresias
461: 'Tis time I left thee. Come, boy, take me home.
Oedipus
462: Aye, take him quickly, for his presence irks
463: And lets me; gone, thou canst not plague me more.
Teiresias
464: I go, but first will tell thee why I came.
465: Thy frown I dread not, for thou canst not harm me.
466: Hear then: this man whom thou hast sought to arrest
467: With threats and warrants this long while, the wretch
468: Who murdered Laius -- that man is here.
469: He passes for an alien in the land
470: But soon shall prove a Theban, native born.
471: And yet his fortune brings him little joy;
472: For blind of seeing, clad in beggar's weeds,
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473: For purple robes, and leaning on his staff,
474: To a strange land he soon shall grope his way.
475: And of the children, inmates of his home,
476: He shall be proved the brother and the sire,
477: Of her who bare him son and husband both,
478: Co-partner, and assassin of his sire.
479: Go in and ponder this, and if thou find
480: That I have missed the mark, henceforth declare
481: I have no wit nor skill in prophecy.
482: [Exeunt TEIRESIAS and OEDIPUS]
Chorus
483: Who is he by voice immortal named from Pythia's rocky cell,
484: Doer of foul deeds of bloodshed, horrors that no tongue can tell?
485: A foot for flight he needs
486: Fleeter than storm-swift steeds,
487: For on his heels doth follow,
488: Armed with the lightnings of his Sire, Apollo.
489: Like sleuth-hounds too
490: The Fates pursue.
491: Yea, but now flashed forth the summons from Parnassus' snowy peak,
492: "Near and far the undiscovered doer of this murder seek!"
493: Now like a sullen bull he roves
494: Through forest brakes and upland groves,
495: And vainly seeks to fly
496: The doom that ever nigh
497: Flits o'er his head,
498: Still by the avenging Phoebus sped,
499: The voice divine,
500: From Earth's mid shrine.
-47-
501: Sore perplexed am I by the words of the master seer.
502: Are they true, are they false? I know not and bridle my tongue for fear,
503: Fluttered with vague surmise; nor present nor future is clear.
504: Quarrel of ancient date or in days still near know I none
505: Twixt the Labdacidan house and our ruler, Polybus' son.
506: Proof is there none: how then can I challenge our King's good name,
507: How in a blood-feud join for an untracked deed of shame?
508: All wise are Zeus and Apollo, and nothing is hid from their ken;
509: They are gods; and in wits a man may surpass his fellow men;
510: But that a mortal seer knows more than I know -- where
511: Hath this been proven? Or how without sign assured, can I blame
512: Him who saved our State when the winged songstress came,
513: Tested and tried in the light of us all, like gold assayed?
514: How can I now assent when a crime is on Oedipus laid?
Creon
515: Friends, countrymen, I learn King Oedipus
516: Hath laid against me a most grievous charge,
-49-
517: And come to you protesting. If he deems
518: That I have harmed or injured him in aught
519: By word or deed in this our present trouble,
520: I care not to prolong the span of life,
521: Thus ill-reputed; for the calumny
522: Hits not a single blot, but blasts my name,
523: If by the general voice I am denounced
524: False to the State and false by you my friends.
Chorus
525: This taunt, it well may be, was blurted out
526: In petulance, not spoken advisedly.
Creon
527: Did any dare pretend that it was I
528: Prompted the seer to utter a forged charge?
Chorus
529: Such things were said; with what intent I know not.
Creon
530: Were not his wits and vision all astray
531: When upon me he fixed this monstrous charge?
Chorus
532: I know not; to my sovereign's acts I am blind.
533: But lo, he comes to answer for himself.
534: [Enter OEDIPUS.]
Oedipus
535: Sirrah, what mak'st thou here? Dost thou presume
536: To approach my doors, thou brazen-faced rogue,
537: My murderer and the filcher of my crown?
538: Come, answer this, didst thou detect in me
539: Some touch of cowardice or witlessness,
540: That made thee undertake this enterprise?
541: I seemed forsooth too simple to perceive
542: The serpent stealing on me in the dark,
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543: Or else too weak to scotch it when I saw.
544: This thou art witless seeking to possess
545: Without a following or friends the crown,
546: A prize that followers and wealth must win.
Creon
547: Attend me. Thou hast spoken, 'tis my turn
548: To make reply. Then having heard me, judge.
Oedipus
549: Thou art glib of tongue, but I am slow to learn
550: Of thee; I know too well thy venomous hate.
Creon
551: First I would argue out this very point.
Oedipus
552: O argue not that thou art not a rogue.
Creon
553: If thou dost count a virtue stubbornness,
554: Unschooled by reason, thou art much astray.
Oedipus
555: If thou dost hold a kinsman may be wronged,
556: And no pains follow, thou art much to seek.
Creon
557: Therein thou judgest rightly, but this wrong
558: That thou allegest -- tell me what it is.
Oedipus
559: Didst thou or didst thou not advise that I
Should call the priest?
Creon
Yes, and I stand to it.
Oedipus
561: Tell me how long is it since Laius...
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Creon
562: Since Laius...? I follow not thy drift.
Oedipus
563: By violent hands was spirited away.
Creon
564: In the dim past, a many years agone.
Oedipus
565: Did the same prophet then pursue his craft?
Creon
566: Yes, skilled as now and in no less repute.
Oedipus
567: Did he at that time ever glance at me?
Creon
568: Not to my knowledge, not when I was by.
Oedipus
569: But was no search and inquisition made?
Creon
570: Surely full quest was made, but nothing learnt.
Oedipus
571: Why failed the seer to tell his story then?
Creon
572: I know not, and not knowing hold my tongue.
Oedipus
573: This much thou knowest and canst surely tell.
Creon
574: What's mean'st thou? All I know I will declare.
Oedipus
575: But for thy prompting never had the seer
576: Ascribed to me the death of Laius.
Creon
577: If so he thou knowest best; but I
578: Would put thee to the question in my turn.
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Oedipus
579: Question and prove me murderer if thou canst.
Creon
580: Then let me ask thee, didst thou wed my sister?
Oedipus
581: A fact so plain I cannot well deny.
Creon
582: And as thy consort queen she shares the throne?
Oedipus
583: I grant her freely all her heart desires.
Creon
584: And with you twain I share the triple rule?
Oedipus
585: Yea, and it is that proves thee a false friend.
Creon
586: Not so, if thou wouldst reason with thyself,
587: As I with myself. First, I bid thee think,
588: Would any mortal choose a troubled reign
589: Of terrors rather than secure repose,
590: If the same power were given him? As for me,
591: I have no natural craving for the name
592: Of king, preferring to do kingly deeds,
593: And so thinks every sober-minded man.
594: Now all my needs are satisfied through thee,
595: And I have naught to fear; but were I king,
596: My acts would oft run counter to my will.
597: How could a title then have charms for me
598: Above the sweets of boundless influence?
599: I am not so infatuate as to grasp
600: The shadow when I hold the substance fast.
601: Now all men cry me Godspeed! wish me well,
602: And every suitor seeks to gain my ear,
603: If he would hope to win a grace from thee.
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604: Why should I leave the better, choose the worse?
605: That were sheer madness, and I am not mad.
606: No such ambition ever tempted me,
607: Nor would I have a share in such intrigue.
608: And if thou doubt me, first to Delphi go,
609: There ascertain if my report was true
610: Of the god's answer; next investigate
611: If with the seer I plotted or conspired,
612: And if it prove so, sentence me to death,
613: Not by thy voice alone, but mine and thine.
614: But O condemn me not, without appeal,
615: On bare suspicion. 'Tis not right to adjudge
616: Bad men at random good, or good men bad.
617: I would as lief a man should cast away
618: The thing he counts most precious, his own life,
619: As spurn a true friend. Thou wilt learn in time
620: The truth, for time alone reveals the just;
621: A villain is detected in a day.
Chorus
622: To one who walketh warily his words
623: Commend themselves; swift counsels are not sure.
Oedipus
624: When with swift strides the stealthy plotter stalks
625: I must be quick too with my counterplot.
626: To wait his onset passively, for him
627: Is sure success, for me assured defeat.
Creon
628: What then's thy will? To banish me the land?
Oedipus
629: I would not have thee banished, no, but dead,
630: That men may mark the wages envy reaps.
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Creon
631: I see thou wilt not yield, nor credit me.
Oedipus
632: None but a fool would credit such as thou.
Creon
Thou art not wise.
Oedipus
Wise for myself at least.
Creon
Why not for me too?
Oedipus
Why for such a knave?
Creon
Suppose thou lackest sense.
Oedipus
Yet kings must rule.
Creon
Not if they rule ill.
Oedipus
Oh my Thebans, hear him!
Creon
637: Thy Thebans? am not I a Theban too?
Chorus
638: Cease, princes; lo there comes, and none too soon,
639: Jocasta from the palace. Who so fit
640: As peacemaker to reconcile your feud?
641: [Enter JOCASTA.]
Jocasta
642: Misguided princes, why have ye upraised
643: This wordy wrangle? Are ye not ashamed,
644: While the whole land lies striken, thus to voice
645: Your private injuries? Go in, my lord;
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646: Go home, my brother, and forebear to make
647: A public scandal of a petty grief.
Creon
648: My royal sister, Oedipus, thy lord,
649: Hath bid me choose (O dread alternative!)
650: An outlaw's exile or a felon's death.
Oedipus
651: Yes, lady; I have caught him practicing
652: Against my royal person his vile arts.
Creon
653: May I ne'er speed but die accursed, if I
654: In any way am guilty of this charge.
Jocasta
655: Believe him, I adjure thee, Oedipus,
656: First for his solemn oath's sake, then for mine,
657: And for thine elders' sake who wait on thee.
Chorus
658: Hearken, King, reflect, we pray thee, but not stubborn but relent.
Oedipus
659: Say to what should I consent?
Chorus
660: Respect a man whose probity and troth
661: Are known to all and now confirmed by oath.
Oedipus
Dost know what grace thou cravest?
Chorus
Yea, I know.
Oedipus
663: Declare it then and make thy meaning plain.
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Chorus
664: Brand not a friend whom babbling tongues assail;
665: Let not suspicion 'gainst his oath prevail.
Oedipus
666: Bethink you that in seeking this ye seek
667: In very sooth my death or banishment?
Chorus
668: No, by the leader of the host divine!
669: Witness, thou Sun, such thought was never mine,
670: Unblest, unfriended may I perish,
671: If ever I such wish did cherish!
672: But O my heart is desolate
673: Musing on our striken State,
674: Doubly fall'n should discord grow
675: Twixt you twain, to crown our woe.
Oedipus
676: Well, let him go, no matter what it cost me,
677: Or certain death or shameful banishment,
678: For your sake I relent, not his; and him,
679: Where'er he be, my heart shall still abhor.
Creon
680: Thou art as sullen in thy yielding mood
681: As in thine anger thou wast truculent.
682: Such tempers justly plague themselves the most.
Oedipus
Leave me in peace and get thee gone.
Creon
I go,
684: By thee misjudged, but justified by these.
685: [Exeunt CREON]
Chorus
686: Lady, lead indoors thy consort; wherefore longer here delay?
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Jocasta
687: Tell me first how rose the fray.
Chorus
688: Rumors bred unjust suspicious and injustice rankles sore.
Jocasta
Were both at fault?
Chorus
Both.
Jocasta
What was the tale?
Chorus
690: Ask me no more. The land is sore distressed;
691: 'Twere better sleeping ills to leave at rest.
Oedipus
692: Strange counsel, friend! I know thou mean'st me well,
693: And yet would'st mitigate and blunt my zeal.
Chorus
694: King, I say it once again,
695: Witless were I proved, insane,
696: If I lightly put away
697: Thee my country's prop and stay,
698: Pilot who, in danger sought,
699: To a quiet haven brought
700: Our distracted State; and now
701: Who can guide us right but thou?
Jocasta
702: Let me too, I adjure thee, know, O king,
703: What cause has stirred this unrelenting wrath.
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Oedipus
704: I will, for thou art more to me than these.
705: Lady, the cause is Creon and his plots.
Jocasta
706: But what provoked the quarrel? make this clear.
Oedipus
707: He points me out as Laius' murderer.
Jocasta
708: Of his own knowledge or upon report?
Oedipus
709: He is too cunning to commit himself,
710: And makes a mouthpiece of a knavish seer.
Jocasta
711: Then thou mayest ease thy conscience on that score.
712: Listen and I'll convince thee that no man
713: Hath scot or lot in the prophetic art.
714: Here is the proof in brief. An oracle
715: Once came to Laius (I will not say
716: 'Twas from the Delphic god himself, but from
717: His ministers) declaring he was doomed
718: To perish by the hand of his own son,
719: A child that should be born to him by me.
720: Now Laius -- so at least report affirmed --
721: Was murdered on a day by highwaymen,
722: No natives, at a spot where three roads meet.
723: As for the child, it was but three days old,
724: When Laius, its ankles pierced and pinned
725: Together, gave it to be cast away
726: By others on the trackless mountain side.
727: So then Apollo brought it not to pass
728: The child should be his father's murderer,
729: Or the dread terror find accomplishment,
730: And Laius be slain by his own son.
-69-
731: Such was the prophet's horoscope. O king,
732: Regard it not. Whate'er the god deems fit
733: To search, himself unaided will reveal.
Oedipus
734: What memories, what wild tumult of the soul
735: Came o'er me, lady, as I heard thee speak!
Jocasta
736: What mean'st thou? What has shocked and startled thee?
Oedipus
737: Methought I heard thee say that Laius
738: Was murdered at the meeting of three roads.
Jocasta
739: So ran the story that is current still.
Oedipus
740: Where did this happen? Dost thou know the place?
Jocasta
741: Phocis the land is called; the spot is where
742: Branch roads from Delphi and from Daulis meet.
Oedipus
743: And how long is it since these things befell?
Jocasta
744: 'Twas but a brief while were thou wast proclaimed
745: Our country's ruler that the news was brought.
Oedipus
746: O Zeus, what hast thou willed to do with me!
Jocasta
747: What is it, Oedipus, that moves thee so?
Oedipus
748: Ask me not yet; tell me the build and height
749: Of Laius? Was he still in manhood's prime?
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Jocasta
750: Tall was he, and his hair was lightly strewn
751: With silver; and not unlike thee in form.
Oedipus
752: O woe is me! Mehtinks unwittingly
753: I laid but now a dread curse on myself.
Jocasta
754: What say'st thou? When I look upon thee, my king,
I tremble.
Oedipus
'Tis a dread presentiment
756: That in the end the seer will prove not blind.
757: One further question to resolve my doubt.
Jocasta
758: I quail; but ask, and I will answer all.
Oedipus
759: Had he but few attendants or a train
760: Of armed retainers with him, like a prince?
Jocasta
761: They were but five in all, and one of them
762: A herald; Laius in a mule-car rode.
Oedipus
763: Alas! 'tis clear as noonday now. But say,
764: Lady, who carried this report to Thebes?
Jocasta
765: A serf, the sole survivor who returned.
Oedipus
766: Haply he is at hand or in the house?
Jocasta
767: No, for as soon as he returned and found
768: Thee reigning in the stead of Laius slain,
769: He clasped my hand and supplicated me
-73-
770: To send him to the alps and pastures, where
771: He might be farthest from the sight of Thebes.
772: And so I sent him. 'Twas an honest slave
773: And well deserved some better recompense.
Oedipus
774: Fetch him at once. I fain would see the man.
Jocasta
775: He shall be brought; but wherefore summon him?
Oedipus
776: Lady, I fear my tongue has overrun
777: Discretion; therefore I would question him.
Jocasta
778: Well, he shall come, but may not I too claim
779: To share the burden of thy heart, my king?
Oedipus
780: And thou shalt not be frustrate of thy wish.
781: Now my imaginings have gone so far.
782: Who has a higher claim that thou to hear
783: My tale of dire adventures? Listen then.
784: My sire was Polybus of Corinth, and
785: My mother Merope, a Dorian;
786: And I was held the foremost citizen,
787: Till a strange thing befell me, strange indeed,
788: Yet scarce deserving all the heat it stirred.
789: A roisterer at some banquet, flown with wine,
790: Shouted "Thou art not true son of thy sire."
791: It irked me, but I stomached for the nonce
792: The insult; on the morrow I sought out
793: My mother and my sire and questioned them.
794: They were indignant at the random slur
795: Cast on my parentage and did their best
796: To comfort me, but still the venomed barb
797: Rankled, for still the scandal spread and grew.
-75-
798: So privily without their leave I went
799: To Delphi, and Apollo sent me back
800: Baulked of the knowledge that I came to seek.
801: But other grievous things he prophesied,
802: Woes, lamentations, mourning, portents dire;
803: To wit I should defile my mother's bed
804: And raise up seed too loathsome to behold,
805: And slay the father from whose loins I sprang.
806: Then, lady, -- thou shalt hear the very truth --
807: As I drew near the triple-branching roads,
808: A herald met me and a man who sat
809: In a car drawn by colts -- as in thy tale --
810: The man in front and the old man himself
811: Threatened to thrust me rudely from the path,
812: Then jostled by the charioteer in wrath
813: I struck him, and the old man, seeing this,
814: Watched till I passed and from his car brought down
815: Full on my head the double-pointed goad.
816: Yet was I quits with him and more; one stroke
817: Of my good staff sufficed to fling him clean
818: Out of the chariot seat and laid him prone.
819: And so I slew them every one. But if
820: Betwixt this stranger there was aught in common
821: With Laius, who more miserable than I,
822: What mortal could you find more god-abhorred?
823: Wretch whom no sojourner, no citizen
-77-
824: May harbor or address, whom all are bound
825: To harry from their homes. And this same curse
826: Was laid on me, and laid by none but me.
827: Yea with these hands all gory I pollute
828: The bed of him I slew. Say, am I vile?
829: Am I not utterly unclean, a wretch
830: Doomed to be banished, and in banishment
831: Forgo the sight of all my dearest ones,
832: And never tread again my native earth;
833: Or else to wed my mother and slay my sire,
834: Polybus, who begat me and upreared?
835: If one should say, this is the handiwork
836: Of some inhuman power, who could blame
837: His judgment? But, ye pure and awful gods,
838: Forbid, forbid that I should see that day!
839: May I be blotted out from living men
840: Ere such a plague spot set on me its brand!
Chorus
841: We too, O king, are troubled; but till thou
842: Hast questioned the survivor, still hope on.
Oedipus
843: My hope is faint, but still enough survives
844: To bid me bide the coming of this herd.
Jocasta
845: Suppose him here, what wouldst thou learn of him?
Oedipus
846: I'll tell thee, lady; if his tale agrees
847: With thine, I shall have 'scaped calamity.
Jocasta
848: And what of special import did I say?
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Oedipus
849: In thy report of what the herdsman said
850: Laius was slain by robbers; now if he
851: Still speaks of robbers, not a robber, I
852: Slew him not; "one" with "many" cannot square.
853: But if he says one lonely wayfarer,
854: The last link wanting to my guilt is forged.
Jocasta
855: Well, rest assured, his tale ran thus at first,
856: Nor can he now retract what then he said;
857: Not I alone but all our townsfolk heard it.
858: E'en should he vary somewhat in his story,
859: He cannot make the death of Laius
860: In any wise jump with the oracle.
861: For Loxias said expressly he was doomed
862: To die by my child's hand, but he, poor babe,
863: He shed no blood, but perished first himself.
864: So much for divination. Henceforth I
865: Will look for signs neither to right nor left.
Oedipus
866: Thou reasonest well. Still I would have thee send
867: And fetch the bondsman hither. See to it.
Jocasta
868: That will I straightway. Come, let us within.
869: I would do nothing that my lord mislikes.
870: [Exeunt OEDIPUS and JOCASTA]
Chorus
871: My lot be still to lead
872: The life of innocence and fly
873: Irreverence in word or deed,
874: To follow still those laws ordained on high
875: Whose birthplace is the bright ethereal sky
876: No mortal birth they own,
877: Olympus their progenitor alone:
-81-
878: Ne'er shall they slumber in oblivion cold,
879: The god in them is strong and grows not old.
880: Of insolence is bred
881: The tyrant; insolence full blown,
882: With empty riches surfeited,
883: Scales the precipitous height and grasps the throne.
884: Then topples o'er and lies in ruin prone;
885: No foothold on that dizzy steep.
886: But O may Heaven the true patriot keep
887: Who burns with emulous zeal to serve the State.
888: God is my help and hope, on him I wait.
889: But the proud sinner, or in word or deed,
890: That will not Justice heed,
891: Nor reverence the shrine
892: Of images divine,
893: Perdition seize his vain imaginings,
894: If, urged by greed profane,
895: He grasps at ill-got gain,
896: And lays an impious hand on holiest things.
897: Who when such deeds are done
898: Can hope heaven's bolts to shun?
899: If sin like this to honor can aspire,
900: Why dance I still and lead the sacred choir?
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901: No more I'll seek earth's central oracle,
902: Or Abae's hallowed cell,
903: Nor to Olympia bring
904: My votive offering.
905: If before all God's truth be not bade plain.
906: O Zeus, reveal thy might,
907: King, if thou'rt named aright
908: Omnipotent, all-seeing, as of old;
909: For Laius is forgot;
910: His weird, men heed it not;
911: Apollo is forsook and faith grows cold.
912: [Enter JOCASTA.]
Jocasta
913: My lords, ye look amazed to see your queen
914: With wreaths and gifts of incense in her hands.
915: I had a mind to visit the high shrines,
916: For Oedipus is overwrought, alarmed
917: With terrors manifold. He will not use
918: His past experience, like a man of sense,
919: To judge the present need, but lends an ear
920: To any croaker if he augurs ill.
921: Since then my counsels naught avail, I turn
922: To thee, our present help in time of trouble,
923: Apollo, Lord Lycean, and to thee
924: My prayers and supplications here I bring.
925: Lighten us, lord, and cleanse us from this curse!
926: For now we all are cowed like mariners
927: Who see their helmsman dumbstruck in the storm.
928: [Enter Corinthian MESSENGER.]
Messenger
929: My masters, tell me where the palace is
930: Of Oedipus; or better, where's the king.
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Chorus
931: Here is the palace and he bides within;
932: This is his queen the mother of his children.
Messenger
933: All happiness attend her and the house,
934: Blessed is her husband and her marriage-bed.
Jocasta
935: My greetings to thee, stranger; thy fair words
936: Deserve a like response. But tell me why
937: Thou comest -- what thy need or what thy news.
Messenger
938: Good for thy consort and the royal house.
Jocasta
939: What may it be? Whose messenger art thou?
Messenger
940: The Isthmian commons have resolved to make
941: Thy husband king -- so 'twas reported there.
Jocasta
942: What! is not aged Polybus still king?
Messenger
943: No, verily; he's dead and in his grave.
Jocasta
944: What! is he dead, the sire of Oedipus?
Messenger
945: If I speak falsely, may I die myself.
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Jocasta
946: Quick, maiden, bear these tidings to my lord.
947: Ye god-sent oracles, where stand ye now!
948: This is the man whom Oedipus long shunned,
949: In dread to prove his murderer; and now
950: He dies in nature's course, not by his hand.
951: [Enter OEDIPUS.]
Oedipus
952: My wife, my queen, Jocasta, why hast thou
Summoned me from my palace?
Jocasta
Hear this man,
954: And as thou hearest judge what has become
955: Of all those awe-inspiring oracles.
Oedipus
956: Who is this man, and what his news for me?
Jocasta
957: He comes from Corinth and his message this:
958: Thy father Polybus hath passed away.
Oedipus
959: What? let me have it, stranger, from thy mouth.
Messenger
960: If I must first make plain beyond a doubt
961: My message, know that Polybus is dead.
Oedipus
962: By treachery, or by sickness visited?
Messenger
963: One touch will send an old man to his rest.
Oedipus
964: So of some malady he died, poor man.
Messenger
965: Yes, having measured the full span of years.
-89-
Oedipus
966: Out on it, lady! why should one regard
967: The Pythian hearth or birds that scream i' the air?
968: Did they not point at me as doomed to slay
969: My father? but he's dead and in his grave
970: And here am I who ne'er unsheathed a sword;
971: Unless the longing for his absent son
972: Killed him and so I slew him in a sense.
973: But, as they stand, the oracles are dead --
974: Dust, ashes, nothing, dead as Polybus.
Jocasta
975: Say, did not I foretell this long ago?
Oedipus
976: Thou didst: but I was misled by my fear.
Jocasta
977: Then let I no more weigh upon thy soul.
Oedipus
978: Must I not fear my mother's marriage bed.
Jocasta
979: Why should a mortal man, the sport of chance,
980: With no assured foreknowledge, be afraid?
981: Best live a careless life from hand to mouth.
982: This wedlock with thy mother fear not thou.
983: How oft it chances that in dreams a man
984: Has wed his mother! He who least regards
985: Such brainsick phantasies lives most at ease.
Oedipus
986: I should have shared in full thy confidence,
987: Were not my mother living; since she lives
988: Though half convinced I still must live in dread.
Jocasta
989: And yet thy sire's death lights out darkness much.
-91-
Oedipus
990: Much, but my fear is touching her who lives.
Messenger
991: Who may this woman be whom thus you fear?
Oedipus
992: Merope, stranger, wife of Polybus.
Messenger
993: And what of her can cause you any fear?
Oedipus
994: A heaven-sent oracle of dread import.
Messenger
995: A mystery, or may a stranger hear it?
Oedipus
996: Aye, 'tis no secret. Loxias once foretold
997: That I should mate with mine own mother, and shed
998: With my own hands the blood of my own sire.
999: Hence Corinth was for many a year to me
1000: A home distant; and I trove abroad,
1001: But missed the sweetest sight, my parents' face.
Messenger
1002: Was this the fear that exiled thee from home?
Oedipus
1003: Yea, and the dread of slaying my own sire.
Messenger
1004: Why, since I came to give thee pleasure, King,
1005: Have I not rid thee of this second fear?
Oedipus
1006: Well, thou shalt have due guerdon for thy pains.
Messenger
1007: Well, I confess what chiefly made me come
1008: Was hope to profit by thy coming home.
-93-
Oedipus
1009: Nay, I will ne'er go near my parents more.
Messenger
1010: My son, 'tis plain, thou know'st not what thou doest.
Oedipus
1011: How so, old man? For heaven's sake tell me all.
Messenger
1012: If this is why thou dreadest to return.
Oedipus
1013: Yea, lest the god's word be fulfilled in me.
Messenger
1014: Lest through thy parents thou shouldst be accursed?
Oedipus
1015: This and none other is my constant dread.
Messenger
1016: Dost thou not know thy fears are baseless all?
Oedipus
1017: How baseless, if I am their very son?
Messenger
1018: Since Polybus was naught to thee in blood.
Oedipus
1019: What say'st thou? was not Polybus my sire?
Messenger
1020: As much thy sire as I am, and no more.
Oedipus
1021: My sire no more to me than one who is naught?
Messenger
1022: Since I begat thee not, no more did he.
Oedipus
1023: What reason had he then to call me son?
-95-
Messenger
1024: Know that he took thee from my hands, a gift.
Oedipus
1025: Yet, if no child of his, he loved me well.
Messenger
1026: A childless man till then, he warmed to thee.
Oedipus
1027: A foundling or a purchased slave, this child?
Messenger
1028: I found thee in Cithaeron's wooded glens.
Oedipus
1029: What led thee to explore those upland glades?
Messenger
1030: My business was to tend the mountain flocks.
Oedipus
1031: A vagrant shepherd journeying for hire?
Messenger
1032: True, but thy savior in that hour, my son.
Oedipus
1033: My savior? from what harm? what ailed me then?
Messenger
1034: Those ankle joints are evidence enow.
Oedipus
1035: Ah, why remind me of that ancient sore?
Messenger
1036: I loosed the pin that riveted thy feet.
Oedipus
1037: Yes, from my cradle that dread brand I bore.
Messenger
1038: Whence thou deriv'st the name that still is thine.
-97-
Oedipus
1039: Who did it? I adjure thee, tell me who
Say, was it father, mother?
Messenger
I know not.
1041: The man from whom I had thee may know more.
Oedipus
1042: What, did another find me, not thyself?
Messenger
1043: Not I; another shepherd gave thee me.
Oedipus
1044: Who was he? Would'st thou know again the man?
Messenger
1045: He passed indeed for one of Laius' house.
Oedipus
1046: The king who ruled the country long ago?
Messenger
1047: The same: he was a herdsman of the king.
Oedipus
1048: And is he living still for me to see him?
Messenger
1049: His fellow-countrymen should best know that.
Oedipus
1050: Doth any bystander among you know
1051: The herd he speaks of, or by seeing him
1052: Afield or in the city? answer straight!
1053: The hour hath come to clear this business up.
Chorus
1054: Methinks he means none other than the hind
1055: Whom thou anon wert fain to see; but that
1056: Our queen Jocasta best of all could tell.
-99-
Oedipus
1057: Madam, dost know the man we sent to fetch?
1058: Is the same of whom the stranger speaks?
Jocasta
1059: Who is the man? What matter? Let it be.
1060: 'Twere waste of thought to weigh such idle words.
Oedipus
1061: No, with such guiding clues I cannot fail
1062: To bring to light the secret of my birth.
Jocasta
1063: Oh, as thou carest for thy life, give o'er
1064: This quest. Enough the anguish I endure.
Oedipus
1065: Be of good cheer; though I be proved the son
1066: Of a bondwoman, aye, through three descents
1067: Triply a slave, thy honor is unsmirched.
Jocasta
1068: Yet humor me, I pray thee; do not this.
Oedipus
1069: I cannot; I must probe this matter home.
Jocasta
1070: 'Tis for thy sake I advise thee for the best.
Oedipus
1071: I grow impatient of this best advice.
Jocasta
1072: Ah mayst thou ne'er discover who thou art!
Oedipus
1073: Go, fetch me here the herd, and leave yon woman
1074: To glory in her pride of ancestry.
-101-
Jocasta
1075: O woe is thee, poor wretch! With that last word
1076: I leave thee, henceforth silent evermore.
1077: [Exit JOCASTA]
Chorus
1078: Why, Oedipus, why stung with passionate grief
1079: Hath the queen thus departed? Much I fear
1080: From this dead calm will burst a storm of woes.
Oedipus
1081: Let the storm burst, my fixed resolve still holds,
1082: To learn my lineage, be it ne'er so low.
1083: It may be she with all a woman's pride
1084: Thinks scorn of my base parentage. But I
1085: Who rank myself as Fortune's favorite child,
1086: The giver of good gifts, shall not be shamed.
1087: She is my mother and the changing moons
1088: My brethren, and with them I wax and wane.
1089: Thus sprung why should I fear to trace my birth?
1090: Nothing can make me other than I am.
Chorus
1091: If my soul prophetic err not, if my wisdom aught avail,
1092: Thee, Cithaeron, I shall hail,
1093: As the nurse and foster-mother of our Oedipus shall greet
1094: Ere tomorrow's full moon rises, and exalt thee as is meet.
1095: Dance and song shall hymn thy praises, lover of our royal race.
1096: Phoebus, may my words find grace!
-103-
1097: Child, who bare thee, nymph or goddess? sure thy sure was more than man,
1098: Haply the hill-roamer Pan.
1099: Of did Loxias beget thee, for he haunts the upland wold;
1100: Or Cyllene's lord, or Bacchus, dweller on the hilltops cold?
1101: Did some Heliconian Oread give him thee, a new-born joy?
1102: Nymphs with whom he love to toy?
Oedipus
1103: Elders, if I, who never yet before
1104: Have met the man, may make a guess, methinks
1105: I see the herdsman who we long have sought;
1106: His time-worn aspect matches with the years
1107: Of yonder aged messenger; besides
1108: I seem to recognize the men who bring him
1109: As servants of my own. But you, perchance,
1110: Having in past days known or seen the herd,
1111: May better by sure knowledge my surmise.
Chorus
1112: I recognize him; one of Laius' house;
1113: A simple hind, but true as any man.
1114: [Enter HERDSMAN.]
Oedipus
1115: Corinthian, stranger, I address thee first,
Is this the man thou meanest!
Messenger
This is he.
-105-
Oedipus
1117: And now old man, look up and answer all
1118: I ask thee. Wast thou once of Laius' house?
Herdsman
1119: I was, a thrall, not purchased but home-bred.
Oedipus
1120: What was thy business? how wast thou employed?
Herdsman
1121: The best part of my life I tended sheep.
Oedipus
1122: What were the pastures thou didst most frequent?
Herdsman
Cithaeron and the neighboring alps.
Oedipus
Then there
1124: Thou must have known yon man, at least by fame?
Herdsman
1125: Yon man? in what way? what man dost thou mean?
Oedipus
1126: The man here, having met him in past times...
Herdsman
1127: Off-hand I cannot call him well to mind.
Messenger
1128: No wonder, master. But I will revive
1129: His blunted memories. Sure he can recall
1130: What time together both we drove our flocks,
1131: He two, I one, on the Cithaeron range,
1132: For three long summers; I his mate from spring
1133: Till rose Arcturus; then in winter time
1134: I led mine home, he his to Laius' folds.
1135: Did these things happen as I say, or no?
-107-
Herdsman
1136: 'Tis long ago, but all thou say'st is true.
Messenger
1137: Well, thou mast then remember giving me
1138: A child to rear as my own foster-son?
Herdsman
1139: Why dost thou ask this question? What of that?
Messenger
1140: Friend, he that stands before thee was that child.
Herdsman
1141: A plague upon thee! Hold thy wanton tongue!
Oedipus
1142: Softly, old man, rebuke him not; thy words
1143: Are more deserving chastisement than his.
Herdsman
1144: O best of masters, what is my offense?
Oedipus
1145: Not answering what he asks about the child.
Herdsman
1146: He speaks at random, babbles like a fool.
Oedipus
1147: If thou lack'st grace to speak, I'll loose thy tongue.
Herdsman
1148: For mercy's sake abuse not an old man.
Oedipus
1149: Arrest the villain, seize and pinion him!
Herdsman
1150: Alack, alack!
1151: What have I done? what wouldst thou further learn?
Oedipus
1152: Didst give this man the child of whom he asks?
-109-
Herdsman
1153: I did; and would that I had died that day!
Oedipus
1154: And die thou shalt unless thou tell the truth.
Herdsman
1155: But, if I tell it, I am doubly lost.
Oedipus
1156: The knave methinks will still prevaricate.
Herdsman
1157: Nay, I confessed I gave it long ago.
Oedipus
1158: Whence came it? was it thine, or given to thee?
Herdsman
1159: I had it from another, 'twas not mine.
Oedipus
1160: From whom of these our townsmen, and what house?
Herdsman
1161: Forbear for God's sake, master, ask no more.
Oedipus
1162: If I must question thee again, thou'rt lost.
Herdsman
1163: Well then -- it was a child of Laius' house.
Oedipus
1164: Slave-born or one of Laius' own race?
Herdsman
1165: Ah me!
1166: I stand upon the perilous edge of speech.
Oedipus
1167: And I of hearing, but I still must hear.
Herdsman
1168: Know then the child was by repute his own,
1169: But she within, thy consort best could tell.
-111-
Oedipus
What! she, she gave it thee?
Herdsman
'Tis so, my king.
Oedipus
With what intent?
Herdsman
To make away with it.
Oedipus
What, she its mother.
Herdsman
Fearing a dread weird.
Oedipus
What weird?
Herdsman
'Twas told that he should slay his sire.
Oedipus
1174: What didst thou give it then to this old man?
Herdsman
1175: Through pity, master, for the babe. I thought
1176: He'd take it to the country whence he came;
1177: But he preserved it for the worst of woes.
1178: For if thou art in sooth what this man saith,
1179: God pity thee! thou wast to misery born.
Oedipus
1180: Ah me! ah me! all brought to pass, all true!
1181: O light, may I behold thee nevermore!
1182: I stand a wretch, in birth, in wedlock cursed,
1183: A parricide, incestuously, triply cursed!
1184: [Exit OEDIPUS]
-113-
Chorus
1185: Races of mortal man
1186: Whose life is but a span,
1187: I count ye but the shadow of a shade!
1188: For he who most doth know
1189: Of bliss, hath but the show;
1190: A moment, and the visions pale and fade.
1191: Thy fall, O Oedipus, thy piteous fall
1192: Warns me none born of women blest to call.
1193: For he of marksmen best,
1194: O Zeus, outshot the rest,
1195: And won the prize supreme of wealth and power.
1196: By him the vulture maid
1197: Was quelled, her witchery laid;
1198: He rose our savior and the land's strong tower.
1199: We hailed thee king and from that day adored
1200: Of mighty Thebes the universal lord.
1201: O heavy hand of fate!
1202: Who now more desolate,
1203: Whose tale more sad than thine, whose lot more dire?
1204: O Oedipus, discrowned head,
1205: Thy cradle was thy marriage bed;
1206: One harborage sufficed for son and sire.
1207: How could the soil thy father eared so long
1208: Endure to bear in silence such a wrong?
-115-
1209: All-seeing Time hath caught
1210: Guilt, and to justice brought
1211: The son and sire commingled in one bed.
1212: O child of Laius' ill-starred race
1213: Would I had ne'er beheld thy face;
1214: I raise for thee a dirge as o'er the dead.
1215: Yet, sooth to say, through thee I drew new breath,
1216: And now through thee I feel a second death.
1217: [Enter SECOND MESSENGER.]
Second Messenger
1218: Most grave and reverend senators of Thebes,
1219: What Deeds ye soon must hear, what sights behold
1220: How will ye mourn, if, true-born patriots,
1221: Ye reverence still the race of Labdacus!
1222: Not Ister nor all Phasis' flood, I ween,
1223: Could wash away the blood-stains from this house,
1224: The ills it shrouds or soon will bring to light,
1225: Ills wrought of malice, not unwittingly.
1226: The worst to bear are self-inflicted wounds.
Chorus
1227: Grievous enough for all our tears and groans
1228: Our past calamities; what canst thou add?
Second Messenger
1229: My tale is quickly told and quickly heard.
1230: Our sovereign lady queen Jocasta's dead.
Chorus
1231: Alas, poor queen! how came she by her death?
-117-
Second Messenger
1232: By her own hand. And all the horror of it,
1233: Not having seen, yet cannot comprehend.
1234: Nathless, as far as my poor memory serves,
1235: I will relate the unhappy lady's woe.
1236: When in her frenzy she had passed inside
1237: The vestibule, she hurried straight to win
1238: The bridal-chamber, clutching at her hair
1239: With both her hands, and, once within the room,
1240: She shut the doors behind her with a crash.
1241: "Laius," she cried, and called her husband dead
1242: Long, long ago; her thought was of that child
1243: By him begot, the son by whom the sire
1244: Was murdered and the mother left to breed
1245: With her own seed, a monstrous progeny.
1246: Then she bewailed the marriage bed whereon
1247: Poor wretch, she had conceived a double brood,
1248: Husband by husband, children by her child.
1249: What happened after that I cannot tell,
1250: Nor how the end befell, for with a shriek
1251: Burst on us Oedipus; all eyes were fixed
1252: On Oedipus, as up and down he strode,
1253: Nor could we mark her agony to the end.
1254: For stalking to and fro "A sword!" he cried,
1255: "Where is the wife, no wife, the teeming womb
1256: That bore a double harvest, me and mine?"
1257: And in his frenzy some supernal power
1258: (No mortal, surely, none of us who watched him)
1259: Guided his footsteps; with a terrible shriek,
1260: As though one beckoned him, he crashed against
1261: The folding doors, and from their staples forced
1262: The wrenched bolts and hurled himself within.
1263: Then we beheld the woman hanging there,
1264: A running noose entwined about her neck.
-119-
1265: But when he saw her, with a maddened roar
1266: He loosed the cord; and when her wretched corpse
1267: Lay stretched on earth, what followed -- O 'twas dread!
1268: He tore the golden brooches that upheld
1269: Her queenly robes, upraised them high and smote
1270: Full on his eye-balls, uttering words like these:
1271: "No more shall ye behold such sights of woe,
1272: Deeds I have suffered and myself have wrought;
1273: Henceforward quenched in darkness shall ye see
1274: Those ye should ne'er have seen; now blind to those
1275: Whom, when I saw, I vainly yearned to know."
1276: Such was the burden of his moan, whereto,
1277: Not once but oft, he struck with his hand uplift
1278: His eyes, and at each stroke the ensanguined orbs
1279: Bedewed his beard, not oozing drop by drop,
1280: But one black gory downpour, thick as hail.
1281: Such evils, issuing from the double source,
1282: Have whelmed them both, confounding man and wife.
1283: Till now the storied fortune of this house
1284: Was fortunate indeed; but from this day
1285: Woe, lamentation, ruin, death, disgrace,
1286: All ills that can be named, all, all are theirs.
Chorus
1287: But hath he still no respite from his pain?
Second Messenger
1288: He cries, "Unbar the doors and let all Thebes
1289: Behold the slayer of his sire, his mother's -- "
1290: That shameful word my lips may not repeat.
1291: He vows to fly self-banished from the land,
1292: Nor stay to bring upon his house the curse
1293: Himself had uttered; but he has no strength
-121-
1294: Nor one to guide him, and his torture's more
1295: Than man can suffer, as yourselves will see.
1296: For lo, the palace portals are unbarred,
1297: And soon ye shall behold a sight so sad
1298: That he who must abhorred would pity it.
1299: [Enter OEDIPUS blinded.]
Chorus
1300: Woeful sight! more woeful none
1301: These sad eyes have looked upon.
1302: Whence this madness? None can tell
1303: Who did cast on thee his spell,
1304: prowling all thy life around,
1305: Leaping with a demon bound.
1306: Hapless wretch! how can I brook
1307: On thy misery to look?
1308: Though to gaze on thee I yearn,
1309: Much to question, much to learn,
1310: Horror-struck away I turn.
Oedipus
1311: Ah me! ah woe is me!
1312: Ah whither am I borne!
1313: How like a ghost forlorn
1314: My voice flits from me on the air!
1315: On, on the demon goads. The end, ah where?
Chorus
1316: An end too dread to tell, too dark to see.
Oedipus
1317: Dark, dark! The horror of darkness, like a shroud,
1318: Wraps me and bears me on through mist and cloud.
-123-
1319: Ah me, ah me! What spasms athwart me shoot,
1320: What pangs of agonizing memory?
Chorus
1321: No marvel if in such a plight thou feel'st
1322: The double weight of past and present woes.
Oedipus
1323: Ah friend, still loyal, constant still and kind,
1324: Thou carest for the blind.
1325: I know thee near, and though bereft of eyes,
1326: Thy voice I recognize.
Chorus
1327: O doer of dread deeds, how couldst thou mar
1328: Thy vision thus? What demon goaded thee?
Oedipus
1329: Apollo, friend, Apollo, he it was
1330: That brought these ills to pass;
1331: But the right hand that dealt the blow
1332: Was mine, none other. How,
1333: How, could I longer see when sight
1334: Brought no delight?
Chorus
1335: Alas! 'tis as thou sayest.
Oedipus
1336: Say, friends, can any look or voice
1337: Or touch of love henceforth my heart rejoice?
1338: Haste, friends, no fond delay,
1339: Take the twice cursed away
1340: Far from all ken,
1341: The man abhorred of gods, accursed of men.
-125-
Chorus
1342: O thy despair well suits thy desperate case.
1343: Would I had never looked upon thy face!
Oedipus
1344: My curse on him whoe'er unrived
1345: The waif's fell fetters and my life revived!
1346: He meant me well, yet had he left me there,
1347: He had saved my friends and me a world of care.
Chorus
1348: I too had wished it so.
Oedipus
1349: Then had I never come to shed
1350: My father's blood nor climbed my mother's bed;
1351: The monstrous offspring of a womb defiled,
1352: Co-mate of him who gendered me, and child.
1353: Was ever man before afflicted thus,
1354: Like Oedipus.
Chorus
1355: I cannot say that thou hast counseled well,
1356: For thou wert better dead than living blind.
Oedipus
1357: What's done was well done. Thou canst never shake
1358: My firm belief. A truce to argument.
1359: For, had I sight, I know not with what eyes
1360: I could have met my father in the shades,
1361: Or my poor mother, since against the twain
1362: I sinned, a sin no gallows could atone.
1363: Aye, but, ye say, the sight of children joys
-127-
1364: A parent's eyes. What, born as mine were born?
1365: No, such a sight could never bring me joy;
1366: Nor this fair city with its battlements,
1367: Its temples and the statues of its gods,
1368: Sights from which I, now wretchedst of all,
1369: Once ranked the foremost Theban in all Thebes,
1370: By my own sentence am cut off, condemned
1371: By my own proclamation 'gainst the wretch,
1372: The miscreant by heaven itself declared
1373: Unclean -- and of the race of Laius.
1374: Thus branded as a felon by myself,
1375: How had I dared to look you in the face?
1376: Nay, had I known a way to choke the springs
1377: Of hearing, I had never shrunk to make
1378: A dungeon of this miserable frame,
1379: Cut off from sight and hearing; for 'tis bliss
1380: to bide in regions sorrow cannot reach.
1381: Why didst thou harbor me, Cithaeron, why
1382: Didst thou not take and slay me? Then I never
1383: Had shown to men the secret of my birth.
1384: O Polybus, O Corinth, O my home,
1385: Home of my ancestors (so wast thou called)
1386: How fair a nursling then I seemed, how foul
1387: The canker that lay festering in the bud!
1388: Now is the blight revealed of root and fruit.
1389: Ye triple high-roads, and thou hidden glen,
1390: Coppice, and pass where meet the three-branched ways,
1391: Ye drank my blood, the life-blood these hands spilt,
1392: My father's; do ye call to mind perchance
1393: Those deeds of mine ye witnessed and the work
1394: I wrought thereafter when I came to Thebes?
1395: O fatal wedlock, thou didst give me birth,
-129-
1396: And, having borne me, sowed again my seed,
1397: Mingling the blood of fathers, brothers, children,
1398: Brides, wives and mothers, an incestuous brood,
1399: All horrors that are wrought beneath the sun,
1400: Horrors so foul to name them were unmeet.
1401: O, I adjure you, hide me anywhere
1402: Far from this land, or slay me straight, or cast me
1403: Down to the depths of ocean out of sight.
1404: Come hither, deign to touch an abject wretch;
1405: Draw near and fear not; I myself must bear
1406: The load of guilt that none but I can share.
1407: [Enter CREON.]
Creon
1408: Lo, here is Creon, the one man to grant
1409: Thy prayer by action or advice, for he
1410: Is left the State's sole guardian in thy stead.
Oedipus
1411: Ah me! what words to accost him can I find?
1412: What cause has he to trust me? In the past
1413: I have bee proved his rancorous enemy.
Creon
1414: Not in derision, Oedipus, I come
1415: Nor to upbraid thee with thy past misdeeds.
1416: (To BYSTANDERS)
1417: But shame upon you! if ye feel no sense
1418: Of human decencies, at least revere
1419: The Sun whose light beholds and nurtures all.
1420: Leave not thus nakedly for all to gaze at
1421: A horror neither earth nor rain from heaven
1422: Nor light will suffer. Lead him straight within,
1423: For it is seemly that a kinsman's woes
1424: Be heard by kin and seen by kin alone.
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Oedipus
1425: O listen, since thy presence comes to me
1426: A shock of glad surprise -- so noble thou,
1427: And I so vile -- O grant me one small boon.
1428: I ask it not on my behalf, but thine.
Creon
1429: And what the favor thou wouldst crave of me?
Oedipus
1430: Forth from thy borders thrust me with all speed;
1431: Set me within some vasty desert where
1432: No mortal voice shall greet me any more.
Creon
1433: This had I done already, but I deemed
1434: It first behooved me to consult the god.
Oedipus
1435: His will was set forth fully -- to destroy
1436: The parricide, the scoundrel; and I am he.
Creon
1437: Yea, so he spake, but in our present plight
1438: 'Twere better to consult the god anew.
Oedipus
1439: Dare ye inquire concerning such a wretch?
Creon
1440: Yea, for thyself wouldst credit now his word.
Oedipus
1441: Aye, and on thee in all humility
1442: I lay this charge: let her who lies within
1443: Receive such burial as thou shalt ordain;
1444: Such rites 'tis thine, as brother, to perform.
1445: But for myself, O never let my Thebes,
1446: The city of my sires, be doomed to bear
1447: The burden of my presence while I live.
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1448: No, let me be a dweller on the hills,
1449: On yonder mount Cithaeron, famed as mine,
1450: My tomb predestined for me by my sire
1451: And mother, while they lived, that I may die
1452: Slain as they sought to slay me, when alive.
1453: This much I know full surely, nor disease
1454: Shall end my days, nor any common chance;
1455: For I had ne'er been snatched from death, unless
1456: I was predestined to some awful doom.
1457: So be it. I reck not how Fate deals with me
1458: But my unhappy children -- for my sons
1459: Be not concerned, O Creon, they are men,
1460: And for themselves, where'er they be, can fend.
1461: But for my daughters twain, poor innocent maids,
1462: Who ever sat beside me at the board
1463: Sharing my viands, drinking of my cup,
1464: For them, I pray thee, care, and, if thou willst,
1465: O might I feel their touch and make my moan.
1466: Hear me, O prince, my noble-hearted prince!
1467: Could I but blindly touch them with my hands
1468: I'd think they still were mine, as when I saw.
1469: [ANTIGONE and ISMENE are led in.]
1470: What say I? can it be my pretty ones
1471: Whose sobs I hear? Has Creon pitied me
1472: And sent me my two darlings? Can this be?
Creon
1473: 'Tis true; 'twas I procured thee this delight,
1474: Knowing the joy they were to thee of old.
Oedipus
1475: God speed thee! and as meed for bringing them
1476: May Providence deal with thee kindlier
1477: Than it has dealt with me! O children mine,
1478: Where are ye? Let me clasp you with these hands,
1479: A brother's hands, a father's; hands that made
-135-
1480: Lack-luster sockets of his once bright eyes;
1481: Hands of a man who blindly, recklessly,
1482: Became your sire by her from whom he sprang.
1483: Though I cannot behold you, I must weep
1484: In thinking of the evil days to come,
1485: The slights and wrongs that men will put upon you.
1486: Where'er ye go to feast or festival,
1487: No merrymaking will it prove for you,
1488: But oft abashed in tears ye will return.
1489: And when ye come to marriageable years,
1490: Where's the bold wooers who will jeopardize
1491: To take unto himself such disrepute
1492: As to my children's children still must cling,
1493: For what of infamy is lacking here?
1494: "Their father slew his father, sowed the seed
1495: Where he himself was gendered, and begat
1496: These maidens at the source wherefrom he sprang."
1497: Such are the gibes that men will cast at you.
1498: Who then will wed you? None, I ween, but ye
1499: Must pine, poor maids, in single barrenness.
1500: O Prince, Menoeceus' son, to thee, I turn,
1501: With the it rests to father them, for we
1502: Their natural parents, both of us, are lost.
1503: O leave them not to wander poor, unwed,
1504: Thy kin, nor let them share my low estate.
1505: O pity them so young, and but for thee
1506: All destitute. Thy hand upon it, Prince.
1507: To you, my children I had much to say,
-137-
1508: Were ye but ripe to hear. Let this suffice:
1509: Pray ye may find some home and live content,
1510: And may your lot prove happier than your sire's.
Creon
Thou hast had enough of weeping; pass within.
Oedipus
I must obey,
Though 'tis grievous.
Creon
Weep not, everything must have its day.
Oedipus
Well I go, but on conditions.
Creon
What thy terms for going, say.
Oedipus
Send me from the land an exile.
Creon
Ask this of the gods, not me.
Oedipus
But I am the gods' abhorrence.
Creon
Then they soon will grant thy plea.
Oedipus
Lead me hence, then, I am willing.
Creon
Come, but let thy children go.
-139-
Oedipus
Rob me not of these my children!
Creon
Crave not mastery in all,
1518: For the mastery that raised thee was thy bane and wrought thy fall.
Chorus
1519: Look ye, countrymen and Thebans, this is Oedipus the great,
1520: He who knew the Sphinx's riddle and was mightiest in our state.
1521: Who of all our townsmen gazed not on his fame with envious eyes?
1522: Now, in what a sea of troubles sunk and overwhelmed he lies!
1523: Therefore wait to see life's ending ere thou count one mortal blest;
1524: Wait till free from pain and sorrow he has gained his final rest.
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