Oedipus Rex (Text With Easy Interpretation)

Aristotle’s Influence on Our Understanding of Tragedy

Aristotle was a great 4th century BCE philosopher who spent much of his life in Athens. He wrote one of the earliest and

most important pieces of literary criticism, the Poetics. It is important to note, however, that the ideas about tragedy

expressed in the Poetics were not necessarily held by the playwrights themselves, and most tragedies do not fit the strict

guidelines established by Aristotle. The Poetics is the origin of the “tragic hero” concept, but in many tragedies, it is hard to

figure out exactly who this tragic hero is. We should not hold a play to a philosopher’s standard, and just because Aristotle

says something about tragedy or a specific play does not make it true. In general, the influence of the Poetics on future

scholars has been somewhat excessive.

Aristotle can, nevertheless, help us understand how these plays were read and received about by the ancient Greeks

themselves. Oedipus Rex was the tragedy that most closely fit his guidelines. Oedipus is the model of the “tragic hero,”

because the concept is based on him. Because of his hamartia (mistake), he suffers a peripeteia (reversal), which, for

Aristotle, is the heart of tragedy. Although often translated as “tragic flaw,” hamartia does not indicate a deep or abiding

personality failure, such as “pride” or “lust,” but means a mistake of perception or recognition, although scholars debate the

precise meaning and scale of this mistake. The peripeteia we might call a “reversal of fortune,” and in most tragedies, we do

see the protagonists change from better to worse circumstances.

For Aristotle, this reversal was the key towards rousing fear and pity in the audience, which led to catharsis, another term

that has become widely used in the study of literature. A word from Greek religion,catharsis indicates ritual purification from

pollution, an important concept for Greek life. This pollution, or miasma , came about as the result of crime, especially

murder. Just as the physical blood spilled had to be cleaned up, so the more abstract miasma needed to be purified through

the proper rituals. This applied to the space where the crime occurred and to the person who committed it; if a murderer

went somewhere without being purified, he would bring pollution onto this new place. This is precisely the situation at the

beginning of Oedipus Rex, in which the gods have sent a plague against Thebes because of the presence of Laius’

murderer in the city and because of the incest of Oedipus and Jocasta.

Aristotle uses the term catharsis to refer to the purging of excessive emotions from a person. By watching the tragedy and

feeling the strong emotions of fear and pity on behalf of the characters on stage, the spectator experiences a kind of

cleansing of the soul. Just as ritualcatharsis allowed the formerly polluted person to return to the community and take part in

communal life without bringing miasma with him, so the metaphorical catharsis from watching tragedy gave the spectators a

shared experience that bound them closer together. In other works, Aristotle locates the essence of the self in perception; by

sharing perception or perceiving the same things, the spectators develop a sort of common identity. Thus, for Aristotle,

watching tragedies was a beneficial activity, both for the individual and the community.

Oedipus Rex

[Scene: outside, in front of the palace of Oedipus. There is also a shrine to Apollo at which are seated many suppliants.

Oedipus enters the stage from the palace.]

OEDIPUS:

My children, new-sprung race of old Cadmus,

why do you sit at my shrines, wearing garlands

of the suppliants’ olive? All around

the city is filled with the smell of incense,

all around filled with the sound of hymns and groans.(5)

These things I did not think it right to learn

from messengers, and so I have come here myself,

who am called Oedipus and known to all.

But you, old man, tell me, since it is fitting

for you to speak on their behalf, why you(10)

sit out here, afraid of something or wanting it?

So I would be willing to help you

in any way, for he would be hardhearted

who did not pity such an assembly.

PRIEST:

Oedipus, you who rule my land, you see(15)

how many of us sit here at your altars;

some do not yet have the strength to fly far;

others are heavy with age. I am the priest

of Zeus, and these were chosen from the young men.

There is another group wreathed as suppliants(20)

sitting in the marketplace and another

at the double-gated temple of Athena

and at the smoke-filled oracle of Ismenus.

For the city, as you yourself can see,

is badly shaken already and from the waves(25)

can no longer lift her head above this

bloody tossing; there is death in the fruitful buds

from the earth and in the pasturing herds,

and even in the childless births of women.

Falling upon us, the fire-bringing god,(30)

most hateful disease, drives the city,

and by him the house of Cadmus is drained,

and dark Hades grows rich with groans and wails.

Now, I do not hold you equal to the gods,

nor do these children who sit at your hearth,(35)

but we judge you the first of men both

in the ordinary chances of life

and in the contingencies of the divine.

It was you who came and released Cadmus’ town

from the tribute we paid to the cruel songstress,(40)

and these things you did knowing nothing from us,

nor instructed at all, but with help from god

you spoke and knew how to set our lives straight.

And now, Oedipus, greatest in the eyes of all,

we who are here as your suppliants beseech you(45)

to find some defense for us, as you may have heard

the voice of one of the gods or have learned

something from a man—for I think that the ideas

of experienced men most often succeed.

Come, o best of mortals, and save our city;(50)

come, but be careful, since now this land

calls you her savior for your former zeal,

and let us never recall of your reign

that we first stood straight, but stumbled later.

Rather, then, restore this city to safety.(55)

For at that time you gave us great fortune,

be now equal to what you were then.

Since, if indeed you would rule this land,

just as you do now, it is far better

to rule over men than a wasteland;(60)

nothing matters, neither tower nor ship,

if it is empty of men to dwell within it.

OEDIPUS:

My poor children, what you desire is

known and not unknown to me, for I see well

that everyone is sick, and being sick,(65)

still, not one of you is as sick as I am.

For your pain comes upon the individual,

one by one, to each man alone and no other,

but my soul groans for the city, for me and you

together. Hence, you do not wake me from sleep,(70)

but know that I have been weeping much

and wandering many roads of the mind.

And that which my inquiry found our only cure

I have done, for I have sent Creon,

son of Menoeceus, my own brother-in-law,(75)

to Apollo’s home at Pytho, so that he may

learn what I should do or say to save this city.

And already enough time has passed that

I wonder what he is doing, for he has stayed

beyond the proper time. But whenever he comes,(80)

I would surely be an evil man not to do

whatever the god reveals.

PRIEST:

Wonderful news! Both what you have said,

and what these have just pointed out to me:

Creon is approaching!(85)

OEDIPUS:

Lord Apollo, if only he might come as bright

with redeeming fortune as shine his eyes!

PRIEST:

It seems he brings good news, for otherwise(90)

he would not come crowned with berry-laden laurel.

OEDIPUS:

We shall know soon, for he is close enough to hear.(95)

Lord, kinsman of my wife, child of Menoeceus,

what reply do you bring us from the god?

[Enter Creon from offstage.]

CREON:

A good one, for I say that even misfortunes,

if somehow put right, bring only good luck.

OEDIPUS:

What sort of reply is this? For what you say(100)

gives me neither confidence nor fear.

CREON:

If you wish these people nearby to hear,

I am ready to speak, or should we go inside?

OEDIPUS:

Speak to everyone, for I consider their pain

more important even than that of my own soul.

CREON:

I shall say all I heard from the god.(105)

Phoebus clearly ordered us, my lord,

to drive out the pollution being fostered

in this very land, not to nurture it unhealed.

OEDIPUS:

With what cleansing and for what type of disaster?(110)

CREON:

By driving a man into exile,

or undoing murder with murder again,

since this blood shakes our city like a storm.

OEDIPUS:

And who is the man whose fate he decrees?

CREON:

My lord, once Laius was our leader in this land,

before you came to govern this city.(115)

OEDIPUS:

So I have heard, though I never saw him.

CREON:

He died, and the god now orders us clearly

to take violent vengeance on the murderers.

OEDIPUS:

Where on earth are they? Where will be found

this indistinct track of ancient guilt?(120)

CREON:

In this very land, he said. What is sought

can be captured, but what is ignored escapes.

OEDIPUS:

Did Laius meet his bloody fate in his home

or estate or in some other land?

CREON:

He left home to consult an oracle, he said,(125)

and never returned again, once he had set out.

OEDIPUS:

Did no messenger or fellow traveler see,

whom we might use to find something out?

CREON:

No, they died, except one, who, fleeing in fear

of those he saw had nothing to say but one thing.(130)

OEDIPUS:

What? For one thing could lead us to learn many,

if from hope might come a small beginning.

CREON:

He said that bandits fell upon them and killed him,

not with one man’s strength, but the hands of many.

OEDIPUS:

How did a bandit come to dare so much,(135)

unless he acted with money from here?

CREON:

This was suspected. But with Laius fallen,

we had no helper in our troubles.

OEDIPUS:

What kind of trouble, when your kingship had

fallen thus, made you see to this so poorly?(140)

CREON:

The riddle-singing Sphinx compelled us to look

at what lay at hand, forgetting things unseen.

OEDIPUS:

Then I shall reveal these things anew,

for justly did Phoebus, and justly did you

assign me this case on behalf of the dead,(145)

so that you will rightly see me as an ally,

avenging both this land and the god together.

For not on behalf of more distant friends,

but as if from myself I shall dispel the stain.

For whoever he was who killed that man(150)

would as soon kill me with that same violent hand.

Helping that one, therefore, I am helping myself.

But you, my children, as soon as you can, rise

from these seats, stopping these suppliant wails.

Someone, muster here the people of Cadmus,(155)

as I will leave nothing undone. For with God’s help

we shall see whether we are saved or lost.

PRIEST:

Let us stand up, my children; those things for which

we came here this man himself has promised.

But may Phoebus who sent these prophecies(160)

come at once as savior and stayer of disease!

[Exeunt omnes.]

[The Chorus marches into the orchestra.]

CHORUS:

Str 1O sweetly worded voice of Zeus, who are you

who come from all-gold Pytho to glorious Thebes?

My frightened mind shakes in fear, quivering,(165)

o healing Delian Paean,

in awe before you. What is it you will achieve for me,

something new or something known and coming back again?

Tell me, o child of golden Hope,

immortal Utterance.(170)

Ant 1First I call on you, daughter of Zeus, immortal Athena,

and your earth-protecting sister, Artemis,

who sit, famous, on your throne in the marketplace;

and Phoebus the farshooter

I call: my threefold protection from death, shine forth on me.(175)

If ever when madness was set upon the city,

you sent away our burning scourge,

come also now.

Str 2Alas! for I bear countless woes;

disease falls upon my entire crew,(180)

and no mind’s weapon can protect me,

for the fruit of our famous land does not grow,

nor do our women emerge from their

mournful labors with offspring.

One upon another you might see each soul,(185)

like a well-winged bird, surer than irresistible fire,

setting out for the promontory of the western god.

Ant 2Unable to count their number,

the city is destroyed, and unpitied,

their generations lie upon the ground,(190)

spreading death, finding no mourners.

While brides and white-haired mothers come together

and groan as suppliants over their mournful labors,

the hymn for healing and the lament ring loud together.

Because of these, o golden daughter of Zeus,(195)

send bright-eyed Strength.

Str 3Furious Ares, now without bronze shields,

yet still surrounded by cries, confronts me and burns me;

let him, in hurried running, turn his back

on our fatherland, either borne by a wind(200)

into the great chamber of Amphitrite

or rushing to the inhospitable Thracian wave.

For, if night ever leaves something undone,

day comes along to complete it.

This one, o reverend lightning-bearer,(205)

father Zeus, make him perish with your thunderbolt.

Ant 3And you, lord of light, from your golden bow

I would have your unconquered arrows fly

as a guard set in front of me before my enemy,

and those of shining, fire-bringing Artemis,(210)

with which she darts across the hills of Lycia.

And I call upon the one with the golden headband,

eponym of this land, wine-faced Bacchus,

hailed companion of the Maenads’ throng,

to approach with a torch of shining pine,(215)

against this god dishonored by the gods.

[Enter Oedipus from the palace.]

OEDIPUS:

You seek, and what you seek, if you are willing

to listen to my words and help in this sickness,

you may take as help and relief from your troubles.

Although a stranger to both report and victim,(220)

I shall announce these things, for I would not be far

in tracking it, if I did not have some clue.

But now, since only later did I become

a citizen among citizens, I decree

the following to the people of Cadmus:(225)

whoever among you knows at whose hands

Laius son of Labdacus was destroyed,

I order this man to tell it all to me.

And if the culprit fears this accusation,

he should lose his fear and come forward,(230)

for he will suffer nothing worse than safe exile

from this land. But if someone knows that another

or one from some other land is the murderer,

let him not be silent! For I myself

shall complete his reward, and he will have(235)

my favor. But if you are silent again,

and someone out of fear pushes away

responsibility from himself or a friend,

then you must hear from me what I intend to do.

I ban this man, whoever he is, from all land(240)

over which I hold power and the throne.

I decree that no one shall receive him

or speak to him, nor make him partner

in prayers to the gods or sacrifices,

nor allow to him holy water;(245)

but instead that everyone must expel him

from their homes, as this man is the source

of our pollution, as the oracle

of Pytho has just revealed to me.

And so I myself am become an ally(250)

both to the god and the man who died.

And I curse the doer, whether he worked alone

or evaded us with accomplices,

that he wear out his unlucky life

as badly as he himself is bad.(255)

And I pray, if he should be known to me

and share in my hearth among my family,

that I suffer all that I called upon these.

All these things I charge you to complete,

on my behalf and on the god’s, and for this land,(260)

wasted away, fruitless and godless.

But even if this problem were not put

before us by god, you should not suffer

this unclean thing, since the man lost was

both very noble and your king, so see this through.(265)

Now, since I am ruler and hold this kingdom

that he held before—holding also the bed

and wife we have both sown; and children

of the same mother would have been born to us,

had his line not been ill-fated—since chance(270)

has driven me into that one’s powers,

therefore I shall fight for him in this matter,

as if for my own father, and I shall try

everything, seeking to find the one who

committed the murder, for Labdacus’ son,(275)

son of Polydorus, and before him

Cadmus and Agenor, kings of old.

I pray god that to those who do not do these things

no crop may spring up from the ground, nor children

from their wives, but they be destroyed in suffering(280)

more hateful than that which holds us now.

But to you other people of Cadmus,

to however many approve what I say,

may Justice and all the gods stay with you

always as your ally.(285)

CHORUS:

Just as you adjured me under a curse, my lord,

so shall I speak. For neither did I kill

nor am I able to show the killer.

But it is the task of the one who sent it,

Phoebus, to say whoever has done this thing.(290)

OEDIPUS:

You have spoken justly, but no man can

compel the gods when they are unwilling.

CHORUS:

I would say things secondary to this,

but things which, I think, ought to be said.

OEDIPUS:

And if there are matters tertiary to it,(295)

do not fail to say them also.

CHORUS:

I know that my lord Tiresias most always

sees the same as my lord Apollo; from him one

investigating this might learn the wisest things.

OEDIPUS:

But this has not been neglected! No,(300)

even this I have done, for I sent two guides

after Creon mentioned him, and it is only

surprising that he is not already here.

CHORUS:

There are still other reports, though mute and old…

OEDIPUS:

What’s this? I will investigate any story.(305)

CHORUS:

It is said he died at the hands of bandits.

OEDIPUS:

So I have heard, but no one sees the one who saw.

CHORUS:

But if he has any fear at all, hearing

such curses as yours he will not remain here.

OEDIPUS:

But to a man who does not shrink from doing(310)

the thing, a word will not be frightening.

CHORUS:

But the one to accuse him is here, for

already those men lead hither the godlike

seer, in whom alone of men lives the truth.

[Enter Tiresias, led by guides.]

OEDIPUS:

O Tiresias, who grasp all things,(315)

both what can be learned and what is unspeakable,

both of heaven and treading the earth,

even if you cannot see, you still understand

what sickness plagues our city, and we find, lord,

you alone are our savior and defender.(320)

For Phoebus, if you have not heard this also

from the messengers, in response to our question

said relief from this sickness would only come

if we should discover and punish well

the murderers of Laius or send them forth(325)

as fugitives from this land. Therefore,

grudging nothing from the speech of birds

or something known from another sort

of divination, save yourself and the city,

and save me, and ward off all the pollution(330)

from the dead man. We are in your hands,

and to help a man from troubles when you have

the power is the sweetest of labors.

TIRESIAS:

Alas, alas! How terrible to know

when it does not help the knower; for knowing this(335)

well I let it slip—I should not have come here.

OEDIPUS:

What’s this? How dispiritedly you have come!

TIRESIAS:

Send me home, for you will bear your lot easily

and I mine, if you will yield to me.

OEDIPUS:

You speak neither clearly nor helpfully(340)

to this city, which raised you, if you guard your thoughts.

TIRESIAS:

For I see that your words come at the wrong time,

and since I would not suffer the same thing…

OEDIPUS:

No, by the gods, don’t hold back what you know, when

all of us as suppliants bow down before you.(345)

TIRESIAS:

None of you understand, but I shall never

reveal my own troubles, and so I shall not say yours.

OEDIPUS:

What are you saying? You will not explain

what you understand, but rather intend

to betray us and destroy the city.(350)

TIRESIAS:

I cause no pain for you or myself. Why do you

vainly seek this? For you can learn nothing from me.

OEDIPUS:

You worst of wicked men! You would anger

a stone! Will you reveal nothing, but instead

show yourself unmovable and impractical?(355)

TIRESIAS:

You have found fault with my anger, but your own,

living within you, you did not see, but blamed me.

OEDIPUS:

Who could hear such words and not grow angry,

words with which you dishonor the city?

TIRESIAS:

It will end the same, though I hide it in silence.(360)

OEDIPUS:

Why not, then, tell me what will come anyway?

TIRESIAS:

I should explain no further. At these things,

if you wish, rage as much as your heart is able.

OEDIPUS:

Indeed, since I am so angry, I’ll pass over none

of what I understand. Know that I think(365)

you, too, had your hand in this deed and did it,

even though you did not kill with your own hands.

But if you could see, I would think the deed yours alone.

TIRESIAS:

Really? I say to you: Abide by that decree

you made earlier, and from this day address(370)

neither these men here nor me, since you

are the unholy polluter of this land.

OEDIPUS:

Did you throw out this word so boldly?

And where do you think you will escape it?

TIRESIAS:

I have escaped it, for I hold the potent truth.(375)

OEDIPUS:

Who told you to say this? It is no prophecy!

TIRESIAS:

You did! For you forced me to speak unwillingly!

OEDIPUS:

What do you mean? Speak again, that I may learn more.

TIRESIAS:

Didn’t understand before? Or do you test me?

OEDIPUS:

No, I don’t know what you mean. Explain again.(380)

TIRESIAS:

I say that you slew the man whose slayer you seek.

OEDIPUS:

You’ll not rejoice to have said these evils twice.

TIRESIAS:

Should I now say more, too, to anger you further?

OEDIPUS:

Whatever you deem best; it will be said in vain.

TIRESIAS:

I say that you secretly have lived most foully(385)

with those who should be most dear, nor do you see

to what extent of evil you have come.

OEDIPUS:

Do you really think you can say this unpunished?

TIRESIAS:

If there is any strength in the truth.

OEDIPUS:

There is, but not for you. You don’t have this,(390)

since you are blind in your ears and mind and eyes.

TIRESIAS:

You are truly pathetic, hurling these insults,

which soon every man here will hurl at you.

OEDIPUS:

You live in one single night, so that you can never

harm me or any other who sees the light.(395)

TIRESIAS:

No, for fate will not befall you at my doing;

Apollo is enough, who works to see this done.

OEDIPUS:

Did Creon invent all this, or someone else?

TIRESIAS:

Creon is no burden on you, but you on yourself.

OEDIPUS:

O wealth and power and skill reaching(400)

beyond skill, in a much-envied life

how much resentment gathers up inside you,

if for the sake of this realm, which the city put

into my hands as a gift, not something sought,

the trusted Creon, my friend from the beginning,(405)

beguiles me and secretly desires to oust me,

engaging this craftily-working wizard,

this tricky beggar, who sees clearly only

for profit, but is blind when it comes to skill.

So tell me, when are you the wise seer?(410)

How is it that, when the singing hound was here,

you never said how the citizens might be freed?

Even though the riddle could not be solved by

the first man who met it, but required prophecy.

But you did not come forth with this, knowing some clue(415)

from birds or gods; instead I came along,

the idiot Oedipus! I stopped her,

working from intellect, not learning from birds.

The very man you’re trying to overthrow,

thinking to stand beside Creon’s throne.(420)

I think you both—you and the one who framed these things—

will regret your urge to cleanse the land, but if you

were not so old, you’d learn now what such words earn.

CHORUS:

To us it seems that both this man’s words

and your own, Oedipus, were said in anger.(425)

But we must not dwell on such things. Only this:

how best we may fulfill the god’s instructions.

TIRESIAS:

Even though you are a tyrant, I must at least

be granted an equal reply, for I, too,

have the right to speech. For I am no slave to you,(430)

at all, but to Loxias, so I will not be

written off as Creon’s client. I will reply,

since you reproach me as blind: You, even though you

see clearly, do not see the scope of your evil,

nor where you live, nor with whom you dwell.(435)

Do you know your true descent? And secretly

you are an enemy to your own kin,

both under the earth and on it. Striking you

from both sides the terrible hounds of your mother’s

and father’s curse will drive you from this land;(440)

though you see well enough now, then you will be blind.

What place will not be harbor to your shouting?

What Cithaeron will not echo back your cries,

when you truly understand that wedding?

You sailed home into it, no proper harbor(445)

after such good sailing before! Nor do you

perceive the multitude of other evils,

which will make you the equal of your children.

Go ahead—insult Creon and this mouth of mine,

for of all mortals who will be destroyed(450)

root and branch, there is not one sadder than you.

OEDIPUS:

Am I to tolerate hearing this from this man?

No, to hell with him! No! Turn around quickly

and head back home, far away from here.

TIRESIAS:

I would not have come here, if you had not called me.(455)

OEDIPUS:

I did not know what nonsense you would speak,

or I would hardly have sent for you.

TIRESIAS:

Men like myself are born, to your eyes, fools,

but to the parents who bore you we seem wise.

OEDIPUS:

To whom? Wait! Who on earth are my parents?(460)

TIRESIAS:

This very day will sire you and destroy you.

OEDIPUS:

How riddling and foolish is all you say!

TIRESIAS:

Then you of all people should understand it.

OEDIPUS:

With these same taunts you now hurl, you will find me great.

TIRESIAS:

This same stroke, however, has destroyed you.(465)

OEDIPUS:

But if I saved this city, that doesn’t matter.

TIRESIAS:

Then I will leave. You, boy, lead me home.

OEDIPUS:

Yes, go! When you are here, you are in the way,

but rushing off you cannot pain us further.

TIRESIAS:

I will leave after I have said what I came to say,(470)

not fearing your face, for you cannot destroy me.

I say to you: That man, whom you have long sought,

threatening him and naming as the murderer

of Laius, that man is here.

An immigrant in theory, soon he will be(475)

revealed a native Theban, though he will not be

happy to learn it; for blind instead of seeing,

a beggar instead of rich he will travel

foreign earth, tapping it with his staff.

He will be revealed to live with his children(480)

as brother and father both; and to his parents

he is both his wife’s son and lord and his father’s

fellow-sower and slayer. Go inside and

consider this. Should you find that I am lying,

you will prove I have no skill at prophecy.(485)

[Exeunt omnes except Chorus]

CHORUS:

Str. 1Who was it the oracle-speaking

rock of Delphi saw

committing the most unspeakable acts

with red hands?(490)

Now, stronger than swift-footed horses,

he must deftly move his foot in flight.

For in arms against him leaps

the son of Zeus with fire and lightning

and, following after him,(495)

the terrible, unerring Furies.

Ant. 1For, recently from snowy Parnassus

shone clearly the call

to track by every possible method

the unknown man.(500)

For he wanders through the wild wood

and up to caves like a bull upon the rocks,

miserable, with miserable foot, living alone,

seeking to escape the prophecies

of the prophetic navel of the world,(505)

yet they forever hover, living, around him.

Str. 2Therefore, terribly, terribly does

the wise bird-interpreter shake

me; I can neither approve nor deny,

but I am confused.(510)

My heart hovers with expectation,

seeing neither here not in the future.

For never have I learned

that any quarrel lay between

the Labdacids and the son of Polybus,(515)

neither before nor now,

which I could use as proof

or trust as touchstone

to go against the public fame of Oedipus

as I seek to help the Labdacids(520)

in the undiscovered murder.

Ant. 2But, though Zeus and Apollo know

the ways of mortals, among men,

there is no sure rule that a seer’s opinion(525)

counts more than mine,

though a man may surpass wisdom

with his own wisdom.

But, no, until I see an account

confirmed, never would I(530)

agree when men are speaking slanders.

For once the winged maiden

came openly against him,

and he was seen wise

and found friendly to the city; therefore(535)

by the judgment of my mind

never will he merit suspicion.

[Enter Creon from offstage.]

CREON:

Gentlemen of the city, I have learned that

the tyrant Oedipus has spoken terrible

words against me, so I am here, unable(540)

to bear it. If in our present distress

he thinks he has suffered at my hands,

then I have no desire for long life

if I must bear this reputation, for

its damage affects no single part of my life,(545)

rather the greatest part of it, if I am called

base in my city, base even by my friends.

CHORUS:

But, while this censure did come, it came quickly

and pushed out in anger, not from rational thoughts.

CREON:

Was it said that won over by advice(550)

of mine the seer uttered false words?

CHORUS:

He said these things, but I do not know why.

CREON:

Did he make this accusation of me

with eyes set straight and from his right mind?

CHORUS:

I don’t know, for what rulers do I do not see.(555)

[Enter Oedipus from the palace.]

OEDIPUS:

You there, how did you come here? Or do you have

so much daring that you approach my roof,

although the patent murderer of this man

and the manifest thief of my kingdom?

Come then, say, by the gods, did you think me a fool(560)

or coward that you would weave these schemes?

That I would not discover this deed of yours

creeping forth in treachery or, when I learned,

I would not defend myself? Isn’t this venture

of yours foolish, to hunt tyranny(565)

without wealth or friends, a thing only captured

with a mob and cash?

CREON:

Do you know what you should do? Hear an answer in

response to your speech, then learn and judge for yourself.

OEDIPUS:

You’re a clever speaker, but I’m a bad student,(570)

for I have found you hostile and troubling to me.

CREON:

Hear now this one thing that I came to say.

OEDIPUS:

‘This one thing’ should not be that you are not false.

CREON:

If you think that stubbornness is of value

apart from reason, you are a madman!(575)

OEDIPUS:

If you think a man who does his kinsman ill

will not pay the price, you are a fool.

CREON:

I understand you think these things legitimate,

but tell me what suffering you had at my hands.

OEDIPUS:

Did you or did you not persuade me that I must(580)

send a man for the reverend seer?

CREON:

Even now I hold the same opinion.

OEDIPUS:

How long a time has passed since Laius…

CREON:

Did what deed? I do not understand.

OEDIPUS:

… wanders invisible, conquered by death?(585)

CREON:

Many long years have been measured out since then.

OEDIPUS:

Next, was this seer in business at that time?

CREON:

Just as wise and revered as he is today.

OEDIPUS:

Did he say anything about me at the time?

CREON:

Never when I stood near and listened.(590)

OEDIPUS:

Did you not hold an inquiry for the killer?

CREON:

We held one; how could we not? Yet we heard nothing.

OEDIPUS:

How, then, did this wise man not tell you anything?

CREON:

I don’t know; I prefer to keep quiet

in matters when I don’t comprehend them.(595)

OEDIPUS:

There is one thing you could say with comprehension…

CREON:

What is it? If I know, I will not deny it.

OEDIPUS:

For whom, if he did not meet with you, did he say

that the death of Laius was my work?

CREON:

If he says that, then he himself knows, but I(600)

would learn from you, as you now ask from me.

OEDIPUS:

Learn away! For I will not be caught as slayer.

CREON:

Well, then—are you still married to my sister?

OEDIPUS:

There is no denial of your question.

CREON:

Do you grant equal rule of this land to her?(605)

OEDIPUS:

All that she desires she has from me.

CREON:

Am I not, then, the third, equal with you both?

OEDIPUS:

Indeed, for it’s here you are proved a bad friend.

CREON:

Not if you would reckon with yourself as I do!

Consider this first: Would anyone choose(610)

to rule with fear rather than to sleep untrembling,

if he could have the same power? And so I

myself was not born preferring to be tyrant

rather than do a tyrant’s acts, nor was

any other who has good sense. For now I have(615)

everything from you without fear; but if I

myself were ruler, I’d do much against my will.

How then could tyranny be sweeter to me

than trouble-free rule and sovereignty?

In no way will you find me so deceived(620)

that I require fair things that hold no profit.

Now I can be with anyone; all salute me.

Now those wanting something from you call on me;

I am their whole path to success. How could I

exchange this life for the other? An evil mind(625)

could not reason fairly. But I am no lover

of such schemes, anyway, nor would I ever

support it even if another did the deed.

And this will be the proof of it: go to Pytho

and learn the oracles, if I have(630)

reported them correctly. Then, if you catch me

plotting something with the seer, don’t kill me

with one vote, but with two, mine and yours.

But, don’t blame me just like that, with mere suspicion.

For it is not just either to randomly(635)

consider wicked men good or the good wicked.

I think that casting off a good friend is equal

even to throwing out one’s own dear life.

In time, though, you will surely know these things, since

time alone shows that a man is just,(640)

but you might learn he is bad in a single day.

CHORUS:

He spoke as one should to a man worried he will

fall, my lord, for quick thinkers are not safe ones.

OEDIPUS:

Whenever someone swiftly moves secret plots

against me, I must also counter-plot swiftly.(645)

But if I wait in silence, these things will be

accomplished, not as his deeds, but my mistakes.

CREON:

What do you want? To cast me from this land?

OEDIPUS:

Hardly—I want you to die, not flee.

CREON:

You are the form of jealousy.(650)

OEDIPUS:

You speak neither to concede nor to persuade?

CREON:

For I see well that you do not understand.

OEDIPUS:

I understand my own affairs well enough.

CREON:

You must know mine equally well.

OEDIPUS:

Not when they are false!(655)

CREON:

Do you understand nothing?

OEDIPUS:

Yet, there must be rule.

CREON:

Not if ruled badly!

OEDIPUS:

O city, city!

CREON:

The city is mine, too, not yours alone!(660)

CHORUS:

Stop, my lords! I see, at just the right moment,

Jocasta, coming from the house to you, with whom

you ought to settle this present quarrel.

[Enter Jocasta from the palace.]

JOCASTA:

Why, unhappy men, do you stir up this

unwelcome revolution of the tongue? Aren’t you(665)

ashamed to stir private evils when the land is

so sick? Come inside, and you, Creon, return home;

don’t make this foolish grief into something big.

CREON:

Sister, this husband of yours, Oedipus, judges

terrible things for me, choosing two evils:(670)

to forsake my fatherland or to die.

OEDIPUS:

I concede this, for, my lady, I caught him

basely conspiring against me with evil craft.

CREON:

May I live no more, but die accursed, if I have done

against you any of what you accuse me.(675)

JOCASTA:

By the gods, Oedipus, believe this,

respecting this oath to the gods most of all,

then me and these who are here with you.

Str.

CHORUS:

Yield to these wishes and thoughts,

my lord, I pray.(680)

OEDIPUS:

What would you have me yield?

CHORUS:

Respect a man who never before was foolish

and now is powerful from his oath.

OEDIPUS:

Do you know what you seek?

CHORUS:

I do.(685)

OEDIPUS:

Then tell me why.

CHORUS:

Never should you cast out a friend who is bound with an oath,

dishonored, with only the charge of obscure words.

OEDIPUS:

Know well that when you seek this, you seek either(690)

my destruction or exile from this land.

CHORUS:

No, by the foremost of all the gods,

the Sun! May I perish godless and friendless,

the worst fate, if I have this in mind!

But for me, the dying land eats away(695)

at my ill-starred heart, if this fight between you two

will join itself to our old problems.

OEDIPUS:

Then let him go, since I must either die

or be driven by force from this land, dishonored.

For I pity your speech, since it is piteous,(700)

not his. He will be hated wherever he goes.

CREON:

You are clearly hateful in yielding, and severe

when you pass from anger. But personalities

like yours are justly painful to themselves.

OEDIPUS:

Will you not let me be and go away?(705)

CREON:

I’ll go,

finding you ignorant, but just in their eyes.

[Exit Creon offstage.]

Ant.

CHORUS:

Lady, why do you hesitate

to take this man inside the house?

JOCASTA:

I would learn what has befallen.(710)

CHORUS:

Suspicion through unknown words

came, and even an unjust word can bite.

JOCASTA:

From both of them?

CHORUS:

Yes.

JOCASTA:

But, what was the cause?(715)

CHORUS:

It has done enough to me, enough when the land

already suffers so, that it should stay departed.

OEDIPUS:

Do you see where you’ve gotten, despite your good

intentions, trying to ease and blunt my anger?

CHORUS:

My lord, I’ve said it not only once,(720)

but know that I am mad, helpless in rational thought,

if I forsake you,

who, when my dear country was lost in troubles,

set her upright again.

But now, become once more our guide to better things!(725)

JOCASTA:

By the gods, tell me also, my lord,

what problem puts you in so much anger!

OEDIPUS:

Since I respect you, my wife, more than them, I shall

speak of Creon and what he plots against me.

JOCASTA:

Speak, if you will explain the quarrel clearly.(730)

OEDIPUS:

He said I was the murderer of Laius.

JOCASTA:

Knowing this for himself, or learning from hearsay?

OEDIPUS:

He sent that criminal seer, since regarding

his own affairs, he keeps his tongue unstained.

JOCASTA:

You now, free yourself from these matters;(735)

listen to me and learn why nothing mortal

can show you anything of prophecy.

I shall tell a quick tale to prove my words.

A prophecy came to Laius once—I won’t say

from Apollo himself, but from his servants —(740)

that death would come to him from his child,

whoever was born to him from me. But then,

just as the report is, some foreign brigands

slew him where the three wagon-roads meet.

Yet three days had not passed from the birth of my child,(745)

when that man, binding his ankles together,

sent him in another’s hands into the wild

of the mountain. And so Apollo brought about

neither that he slay his father nor that Laius

suffer the terrible thing he feared from his child.(750)

Such things the speeches of seers predict,

you should ignore; for whatever the god

requires, he himself will easily reveal.

OEDIPUS:

Hearing you just now, my lady, how

my soul wanders, how my mind shakes me!(755)

JOCASTA:

What care compels you to say such a thing?

OEDIPUS:

I thought I heard you say this: that Laius

was cut down where the three wagon-roads meet.

JOCASTA:

So it was announced, nor has it changed at all.

OEDIPUS:

And where is the place where he suffered this?(760)

JOCASTA:

The land is called Phocis, and a split road

leads to it both from Delphi and from Daulia.

OEDIPUS:

And how long has passed since these things happened?

JOCASTA:

It was announced in the city just

before you took the rule of this land.(765)

OEDIPUS:

O Zeus, why have you willed me to do this?

JOCASTA:

What is it, Oedipus, that grips your heart?

OEDIPUS:

Do not question me further, but tell me:

What did Laius look like, how old was he?

JOCASTA:

Tall, his hair just sprinkled with white like snow,(770)

though his figure was not far from yours.

OEDIPUS:

Alas, alas! It seems that I have just cast

myself unknowing under terrible curses!

JOCASTA:

Why say that? I tremble to look at you, my lord!

OEDIPUS:

I am terribly afraid the prophet can see.(775)

You will prove it, if you tell me one thing further.

JOCASTA:

Though I still tremble, I shall speak what you ask me.

OEDIPUS:

Did he go with a small escort, or having

a large bodyguard, as befits a prince?

JOCASTA:

There were five men in all, among them a herald,(780)

and a single chariot that carried Laius.

OEDIPUS:

Alas! Already matters are clear! Who was it

who announced these matters to you, my lady?

JOCASTA:

A servant, who returned the sole survivor.

OEDIPUS:

And does he chance to still be at the palace?(785)

JOCASTA:

No, indeed. For when he returned from there

and saw you holding power and Laius lost,

he grasped my hand and beseeched me to send

him to the country to tend the flocks, so that

he would be far from the sight of this city.(790)

This I did, for he was worthy, although a slave,

to take even greater grace than this.

OEDIPUS:

How quickly could he return to us here?

JOCASTA:

He could be here now! But why do you order this?

OEDIPUS:

I fear myself, lady, lest I have(795)

said too much, and so I wish to see him.

JOCASTA:

But he will come! Now, however, I deserve

to learn what holds so badly for you, my lord.

OEDIPUS:

Nor will you be deprived, when I am gone so far

into expectations. For how could I speak to one(800)

more important than you as I meet such fortune?

My father is Polybus of Corinth,

my mother Merope of the line of Dorus.

I was thought the greatest of the citizens there,

before chance befell me, worthy of marvel,(805)

but not worthy, at least, of my energy.

At a banquet a man overwhelmed by drink

called me a fraud in whom I claimed for my father.

That day I tried to hold in my anger,

but the next day I went home and asked(810)

my mother and father, and they angrily

treated the insult as the speech of a drunkard.

I rejoiced with them both at this, but still

it chafed me always, for the rumor spread far.

Unknown to my mother and father I set out(815)

to Delphi, and Phoebus sent me away

as unworthy of the answers I had sought,

but telling me other terrible, awful things—

that I must sleep with my mother, and

that I would bring to light a brood unbearable(820)

for men to see, and that I must be the slayer

of the father who sired me. I heard and fled,

henceforth to share with Corinth only the stars,

where I would never see completed

the disgrace of those evil oracles of mine.(825)

In my travels I came to that place

in which you say that your king was lost.

And to you, lady, I shall speak the truth.

When traveling near that very triple road,

a herald and a man riding there(830)

in a chariot, like the man you described,

encountered me. Both the one in front

and the old man himself drove me from the road

with force. In my anger I struck the driver,

turning me off the road, and the old man,(835)

when he saw, watched me as I passed the chariot

and struck me on the head with the two-pronged goad.

But he more than paid for it and soon was struck

by the scepter from this very hand, lying

on his back, at once thrown out of the car.(840)

I killed them all. But if that stranger

had some connection with Laius,

who would be more wretched than this man you see?

What man would be more hateful to God,

the man whom no man, foreign or citizen,(845)

may receive at home, nor anyone address,

but all must cast from their house? And no other

called down such curses on me than myself!

I even stain the dead man’s bed with the hands

at which he perished. Am I so evil?(850)

Not entirely unholy? If I must flee,

then in my flight I may neither see my own kin

nor step inside my fatherland, or I must

take my mother in marriage and kill my father

Polybus, who raised and sired me. Who would not,(855)

judging these things, say truly in my case

that they come from a cruel divinity?

Never, o holy reverence of the gods,

never may I see this day, but I would rather

be blotted out from humanity before(860)

I saw this stain of my doom arrive upon me.

CHORUS:

Although these things trouble us, my lord, until

you learn from the one who was present, have hope.

OEDIPUS:

Indeed, this much of hope is left to me:

only to await that man, the herdsman.(865)

JOCASTA:

And what do you want of him, when he appears?

OEDIPUS:

I shall tell you; for if he is found saying

the same tale as you, I shall have escaped this woe.

JOCASTA:

What special tale did you hear from me?(870)

OEDIPUS:

You said he reported that brigands

killed Laius. If, then, he still says the same

number, I did not kill him, for surely one man

could not be equal to many. But if he

clearly names a single man, a lone traveler,(875)

then already this deed comes down upon me.

JOCASTA:

Yet, know that his account stood thus, and he cannot

take it back now, for the city heard these things,

not I alone. But even if he does alter

something from his previous story,

not even thus, my lord, will he bring to(880)

light Laius’ killer truly accomplished,

who, indeed, Loxias said must die at the hands

of my child. Yet my poor boy never slew

him, but rather perished himself long before.

And so I would not look to prophecies,(885)

not here or anywhere else.

OEDIPUS:

You reason well, but, nevertheless, send someone

to fetch the servant, and don’t neglect it.

JOCASTA:

And soon I shall, but let us go inside the house,

for I would do nothing but that it is your wish.(890)

[Exeunt omnes.]

CHORUS:

Str. 1If only fate may find me still acting

with reverent holiness in words

and all my deeds, for which lofty laws

are ordained, born(895)

in heaven above, their only

father Olympus,

no mortal form of men

bore them, nor does

forgetfulness ever lull them to sleep.(900)

In them is a great god, who does not grow old.

Ant. 1Audacity sires the tyrant—audacity, if

filled up rashly with all excess,

neither timely nor useful,

scaling the highest eaves(905)

rushes into precipitous necessity

where it suffers from its ill-placed foot.

I pray that God

will never end the struggle

that is good for the city.(910)

I will never cease clinging to God as my protector.

Str. 2But if someone goes

disdainful in hands or speech,

nor fearing Justice,

nor revering the seats of the holy gods,(915)

let a bad fate take him,

the wages of unlucky insolence,

unless he reaps his profit justly

and retreats from impious acts,

or if he touches untouchable things in his folly.(920)

What man can protect himself, warding

away the shafts of anger when such things happen?

For if deeds like this are honored,

why must I dance?

Ant. 2No longer will I worship(925)

at the inviolate navel of the world,

nor at Abae,

nor ever in the Olympian shrine,

unless these events are made

manifestly clear to all mortals.(930)

But, o powerful one, if you are correctly called that,

Zeus, who rule all things, may they not elude

you and your eternal, deathless empire!

For already the old prophecies of Laius

are waning and being set aside.(935)

Apollo does not seem to be honored;

faith wanders, lost.

[Enter Jocasta from the palace.]

JOCASTA:

Lords of this land, the thought came to me

to supplicate the shrines of the gods, taking

in my hands these wreaths and offerings of incense.(940)

For Oedipus unduly twists his spirit

with every sort of grief, not like a man

of reason, judging new matters by the old,

but whoever talks has him, if he speaks his fears.

And so, since my assurances achieve nothing,(945)

I have come as a suppliant with these tokens,

to you, Lycean Apollo, for you are nearest,

so that you will render us unpolluted,

since now we are all afraid, seeing him

so shaken, who is pilot of our ship.(950)

[Enter Messenger from offstage.]

MESSENGER:

Could I learn from you, strangers, where lies

the house of King Oedipus? Or, indeed,

tell me where he himself is, if you know.

CHORUS:

This is his roof; he himself is within, stranger.

Here is his wife and mother of his children.(955)

MESSENGER:

Then may there be happiness to you, now

and always, since you are his wedded wife.

JOCASTA:

And likewise to you also, stranger, which you earn

through your welcome words; but explain what

you have come needing and what you wish to tell him.(960)

MESSENGER:

Good tidings for your house and your lord, my lady.

JOCASTA:

What tidings are these, and whence have you come?

MESSENGER:

From Corinth. The word I shall speak—at first you might

rejoice; how could you not? But you may also mourn.

JOCASTA:

What’s this? What twofold power do you hold?(965)

MESSENGER:

The people of the land of the Isthmus

make him their king, as it is announced there.

JOCASTA:

But why? Does old Polybus no longer rule there?

MESSENGER:

No, indeed, for death holds him in the tomb.

JOCASTA:

What did you say? Polybus is dead, old man?(970)

MESSENGER:

If I do not speak the truth, I should die here.

JOCASTA:

Maid, won’t you go inside as quick as you can,

and tell the master of these things? O prophecies

of the gods, where are you? This man Oedipus

has long feared and fled lest he kill him, and now(975)

this very man has died by chance and not by him.

[Enter Oedipus from the palace.]

OEDIPUS:

My dearest Jocasta, my wife, why did you

send for me to come here from the house?

JOCASTA:

Listen to this man, and discover in his words

where the august prophecies of God have come.(980)

OEDIPUS:

But who is he, and why would he speak to me?

JOCASTA:

He is from Corinth, announcing that your father

Polybus is no more, but has perished.

OEDIPUS:

What’s this, stranger? You yourself tell me.

MESSENGER:

If I must state this exactly to you first,(985)

know well that the man is gone, deceased.

OEDIPUS:

By treachery, or meeting some disease?

MESSENGER:

A small turn of the scale lays old bodies to rest.

OEDIPUS:

Destroyed by disease, it seems, the poor man.

MESSENGER:

Yes, and by the long measuring of his years.(990)

OEDIPUS:

Well, well! Why, my wife, would anyone look

to the prophesying hearth of Pytho or to

the shrieking birds above, under whose guidance

I was to kill my own father? But, he died

and sleeps below the earth; and I am here,(995)

without touching a spear—unless somehow he

perished from longing for me, and thus died by me.

But still, Polybus has taken those prophecies

as they are—worthless—with him and lies in Hades.

JOCASTA:

Did I not predict it thus earlier?(1000)

OEDIPUS:

You did, but I was led by my fear.

JOCASTA:

Now, then, toss none of these matters in your heart.

OEDIPUS:

And how can I not dread my mother’s bed?

JOCASTA:

Why should a person fear when the ways of fortune

are supreme, when there is no clear foresight?(1005)

It’s best to live at random, however one can.

Do not worry you will wed your mother,

for many mortals already have lain with

their mothers in dreams. Rather, the one for whom

these things are nothing bears life easiest.(1010)

OEDIPUS:

All these matters you would explain well,

if my mother were dead; but since she lives,

I must fear, however prettily you speak.

JOCASTA:

Surely your father’s tomb is also a bright sign?

OEDIPUS:

Bright, I agree, but my fear is of her who lives.(1015)

MESSENGER:

And who is this woman who so frightens you?

OEDIPUS:

Merope, old man, with whom Polybus lived.

MESSENGER:

But what in her moves you to such fear?

OEDIPUS:

A terrible prophecy sent by God, stranger.

MESSENGER:

Tell me—or is it lawful that another know?(1020)

OEDIPUS:

Certainly: Loxias once told me

that I must sleep with my own mother and

shed paternal blood with my own hands.

Thus for a long time I have kept Corinth

far from me—and prosperously, but still(1025)

your parents’ eyes are the sweetest thing to see.

MESSENGER:

Dreading those things, then, you are exiled from that place?

OEDIPUS:

And wishing not to murder my father, old man!

MESSENGER:

Why, then, have I not freed you from this fear,

my lord, since indeed I come in good will?(1030)

OEDIPUS:

Indeed, you would take deserved grace from me.

MESSENGER:

I came for this very purpose, so that when you

returned home I would have done well by you!

OEDIPUS:

But I will never go where my parents are!

MESSENGER:

O child, you clearly do not know what you do.(1035)

OEDIPUS:

How’s that, old man? By the gods, teach me!

MESSENGER:

If it is because of this you flee your home…

OEDIPUS:

I dread that Phoebus accomplish these things for me.

MESSENGER:

Or that you might take pollution from your parents?

OEDIPUS:

This very thing, old sir, has ever been my fear.(1040)

MESSENGER:

Don’t you know you may justly fear nothing?

OEDIPUS:

How so, if I am the child of those parents?

MESSENGER:

Because Polybus is nothing to you by birth!

OEDIPUS:

How can you say this? Did Polybus not sire me?

MESSENGER:

You have nothing from him, no more than from me.(1045)

OEDIPUS:

How can my father be equal to nothing?

MESSENGER:

That man did not beget you, no more than I!

OEDIPUS:

But then…why did he call me his child?

MESSENGER:

Know that he took you as a gift from my own arms.

OEDIPUS:

And still he loved me greatly, though not his own?(1050)

MESSENGER:

His former childlessness persuaded him.

OEDIPUS:

But you—had you purchased me or found me by chance?

MESSENGER:

I found you in the woody glens of Cithaeron.

OEDIPUS:

Why were you traveling in that place?

MESSENGER:

At that time I had the care of mountain flocks.(1055)

OEDIPUS:

Why, you were a shepherd, a nomad for hire?

MESSENGER:

And also at that time, my child, your savior.

OEDIPUS:

What misfortune was mine when you found me?

MESSENGER:

Your ankles should testify to that.

OEDIPUS:

Oh, why must you mention that old affliction?(1060)

MESSENGER:

I freed you when your feet were pierced at the ankles.

OEDIPUS:

Such terrible disgrace I took from my cradle.

MESSENGER:

Such that you were named from this misfortune.

OEDIPUS:

Tell me, by god, from my mother or father?

MESSENGER:

I don’t know; he who gave you to me would know this.(1065)

OEDIPUS:

You took me from someone, didn’t find me yourself?

MESSENGER:

No, another shepherd gave you to me.

OEDIPUS:

Who was he? Could you describe him clearly?

MESSENGER:

I believe he was called one of Laius’ people.

OEDIPUS:

The former king of this very land?(1070)

MESSENGER:

Exactly—he was a herdsman of that man.

OEDIPUS:

And is this man still alive, so I could see him?

MESSENGER:

You who live here would know that better than I.

OEDIPUS:

Does anyone standing here now know

the herdsman of whom he speaks? You might(1075)

have seen him in the fields or even here! Tell me,

for now it is time for this to be learned at last!

CHORUS:

I know of none other than the one from the fields

whom you wanted to see earlier, but

Jocasta here could say these things best of all.(1080)

OEDIPUS:

Lady, do you know that man, whom just now

we summoned? Is he the one this man speaks of?

JOCASTA:

What does it matter whom he means? Ignore it.

Don’t think about it—it will all end in vain.

OEDIPUS:

It is impossible that when I have found(1085)

such signs, I will not discover my birth.

JOCASTA:

No, by the gods! If indeed you care for your

own life, do not go after this! I grieve enough.

OEDIPUS:

Cheer up, for even if I am revealed a slave

three generations back, you will not be proved base.(1090)

JOCASTA:

All the same, obey me, I pray. Do not do this.

OEDIPUS:

I cannot be persuaded not to learn this clearly.

JOCASTA:

Yet I understand it well—what I say is best.

OEDIPUS:

What you say is best has long annoyed me.

JOCASTA:

Unlucky man, may you never know who you are!(1095)

OEDIPUS:

Will someone go and bring the shepherd to me?

Let this one rejoice in her own rich birth.

JOCASTA:

Alas, alas—unhappy man! This alone can

I say to you, and nothing else ever after.

[Exit Jocasta into the palace.]

CHORUS:

Why ever did your wife go away,(1100)

Oedipus, stirred by wild grief? I fear that

something evil will burst out from that silence.

OEDIPUS:

Let it all burst out, if it must! As for me,

though it be small, I wish to know my stock.

But she, since a woman is proud of such things,(1105)

she is troubled by this low birth of mine.

But I deem myself the child of Chance,

who gives good things, and I will not be dishonored.

She is my mother, and my brothers,

the Months, have seen me both small and great.(1110)

Being born what I am, I could never be

another, so I should seek out my descent.

CHORUS:

Str.If I am a prophet

and wise with intelligence,(1115)

by heaven, o Cithaeron, you will surely know

at tomorrow’s full moon

that you are the fellow countryman of Oedipus

and, as nurse and mother, made him grow.

We will sing and dance for you, for you(1120)

have served our kings!

Hail, Phoebus, to you also

may these things be pleasing.

Ant.Who bore you, child,

which of the long-lived maids(1125)

was the mountain-ranging bride of Pan?

for to him all the beast-pasturing highlands are dear.

Perhaps the lord of Cyllene

or the Bacchic god

who dwells on mountain tops,(1130)

will accept you, foundling,

from one of the glancing-eyed nymphs,

with whom he plays most of all.

OEDIPUS:

If I must surmise the identity of one

I’ve never met, aged sirs, I think I see(1135)

the shepherd we have long been seeking. For measured

by his great old age he could be this man,

and moreover those leading him I know as

my own servants; but you should have surer

knowledge than I, as you’ve seen the man before.(1140)

[Enter Shepherd.]

CHORUS:

Yes, I recognize him. Know it clearly, for if

any man were Laius’ trusted shepherd, it’s him.

OEDIPUS:

First I will ask you, the Corinthian stranger,

is this the man you meant?

MESSENGER:

That very man you see.(1145)

OEDIPUS:

You there, old man, look at me and say

whatever I ask you: Were you once Laius’ man?

SHEPHERD:

Yes, his slave, not purchased, but born to his house.

OEDIPUS:

What work and what livelihood was your care?

SHEPHERD:

For most of my life I have followed flocks.(1150)

OEDIPUS:

In what regions did you live most of the time?

SHEPHERD:

Sometimes Cithaeron, sometimes places near it.

OEDIPUS:

Did you see this man at some point and know him?

SHEPHERD:

See him doing what? Who are you talking about?

OEDIPUS:

This one who’s here! Have you ever met him?(1155)

SHEPHERD:

Not such that my memory quickly answers yes.

MESSENGER:

This, at least, is nothing strange, master, but I

clearly remember him; and I know well that

he remembers when that same spot on Cithaeron

he grazed with two flocks and I with one.(1160)

I was his neighbor there three whole times,

six months apiece, from spring to autumn.

Then in winter I drove my flocks to the

fold and he to the stables of Laius.

Didn’t it happen just like I said?(1165)

SHEPHERD:

You speak the truth, although a long time has passed.

MESSENGER:

Then say now, do you remember giving me then

a child to raise for myself as my foster-son?

SHEPHERD:

What does it matter? Why do you ask this question?

MESSENGER:

Here is that man, my friend, who was so little then!(1170)

SHEPHERD:

Go to hell! Will you not be silent?

OEDIPUS:

Ah! Do not reproach him, old man, when

your words deserve more reproach than him.

SHEPHERD:

But what, o best of masters, have I done wrong?

OEDIPUS:

You do not discuss the child whom he researches.(1175)

SHEPHERD:

Because he speaks without knowing, but acts in vain.

OEDIPUS:

If you’ll not speak for my favor, you’ll speak in pain!

SHEPHERD:

By the gods, surely you will not hurt an old man!

OEDIPUS:

Quickly—someone twist back this man’s arms!

SHEPHERD:

Unhappy me! Why? What do you desire to learn?(1180)

OEDIPUS:

Did you give him the child he mentioned?

SHEPHERD:

I did, but I should have died that day!

OEDIPUS:

If you don’t talk, you’ll come to that today!

SHEPHERD:

I will be destroyed even more if I do talk.

OEDIPUS:

This man, it seems, is trying to stall.(1185)

SHEPHERD:

No, no! I said long ago that I did give it.

OEDIPUS:

Where did you get it? From your house or another’s?

SHEPHERD:

It was not mine, but I took it from another.

OEDIPUS:

From one of the citizens here, and from what house?

SHEPHERD:

By the gods, master, do not inquire further!(1190)

OEDIPUS:

You are dead if I have to ask it again!

SHEPHERD:

Then…he was from the house of Laius.

OEDIPUS:

A slave, or one born to his family?

SHEPHERD:

Oh, I am about to say something terrible.

OEDIPUS:

And I to hear it, but still it must be heard!(1195)

SHEPHERD:

He was said to be the child of that man himself,

but your wife could explain the situation best.

OEDIPUS:

Because she gave it to you?

SHEPHERD:

Yes, my lord.

OEDIPUS:

To what end?(1200)

SHEPHERD:

So that I would kill it.

OEDIPUS:

Its mother dared this?

SHEPHERD:

Fearing evil prophecies.

OEDIPUS:

What were they?

SHEPHERD:

That he would kill his parents.(1205)

OEDIPUS:

Why, then, did you entrust him to this old man?

SHEPHERD:

Out of pity, master. It seemed he would bear him

away to another land, his home. But he

rescued him into the greatest evils. For if

you are who he says, know that you were born cursed.(1210)

OEDIPUS:

Alas, alas. It’s all come out so clearly.

Light, let me see the last of you now,

surrounded by those I ought to avoid—

born from them, living with them, killing them.

[Exit Oedipus into the palace.]

CHORUS:

Str.1Oh, the generations of man—

while you live, I count you

as worthless, equal to nothing.

For who, what man

wins more happiness than(1220)

just its shape

and the ruin when that shape collapses?

With your example, your fate, your self,

suffering Oedipus,

I call nothing of mortals blessed.(1225)

Ant. 1He shot with unsurpassed aim

and gained every kind of

happiness, o Zeus; destroying

the riddle-singer,

the maiden with twisted talons,(1230)

like a tower

he stood and defended my land from death.

Since that time he has been called my king

and beyond all men

was honored, ruling in glorious Thebes.(1235)

Str. 2But now, who could be called

more wretched, more bound to toil and wild madness,

more the paradigm of life’s reversals?

Oh, famous Oedipus,

you alone sufficed to lie(1240)

as son, father, and bridegroom;

how was it, how, poor man,

could your paternal furrows

bear you in such long silence?

Ant. 2All-seeing time discovered you unwilling,(1245)

it judged long ago your marriage that is no marriage,

you, both the siring and sired.

Alas, o child of Laius,

if only, if only we had never

set eyes on you!(1250)

My grief is like a libation poured from my mouth.

But to speak the truth, because of you I could breath again

and because of you I sink my eyes into sleep.

[Enter Servant from the palace.]

SERVANT:

Gentlemen, of this land always the most honored,

what deeds you shall hear, what deeds you shall see, and what(1255)

grief you will take upon yourselves, if you still care

as kin for the house of the Labdacids.

For I think that neither the Danube nor Volga

could wash through this house to purify all

it conceals, but soon will come into the light(1260)

evils both willing and unwilling, but even

the self-chosen of these pains will grieve you greatly.

CHORUS:

What we knew before did not fail to be

grievous, but what will you say in addition?

SERVANT:

It is the fastest of words both to say and(1265)

to learn: Our divine queen, Jocasta, is dead.

CHORUS:

O poor woman! By whatever cause?

SERVANT:

By herself! But, of what has been done the worst pain

you will avoid, for you cannot see it.

Still, as much as I can remember(1270)

of that poor woman’s woes you shall learn.

After she had gone into her chamber, frenzied,

she threw herself onto her bridal couch,

snatching at her hair with both hands. Bolting the doors

from the inside, she called on Laius, so long(1275)

a corpse, remembering that ancient creation,

by which he himself died and left her, as mother,

to his offspring for their own evil brood.

She groaned over her bed, where twice doomed she had

born husband from husband, children from her child.(1280)

When she died, I do not know; for Oedipus

burst in shouting, and so we did not note her doom,

but were looking at him, ranging about.

He paced back and forth, asking us to bring a sword,

asking where she had gone, his wife who was no wife,(1285)

but a doubly-ploughed field, mother of him

and his children. Some god led him on,

for it was none of us men who were nearby;

shouting terribly, as if led there by some guide,

he was driven to the doors, and from their sockets(1290)

he forced the groaning bolts and fell into the room.

Then inside we saw the woman hanging,

all twisted up in a twisted noose.

When he saw her, the wretch shouted awfully

and cut her down from the noose. When she lay(1295)

on the ground, poor thing, it was terrible to see.

For he removed from her garment the golden

brooches which she was wearing; he lifted them

and struck the sockets of his own eyes,

shouting that they would not see either the evils(1300)

he had suffered or the evils he had done,

now only in darkness could they see those whom

they must not see, in darkness could they mistake

those whom they wanted to recognize.

Repeating these things, many times and not once(1305)

only he raised his hands and struck his eyes. At once

his bloody eyeballs moistened his cheeks.

In torrent together flowed the drops of blood;

all at once a dark storm of blood like hail rained down.

From two, not one alone, these evils burst forth,(1310)

evils wedded together for husband and wife.

Their old happiness that was before was justly

called happiness, but now on this one day

mourning, madness, death, disgrace, every way

to name all evils—none have been absent.(1315)

CHORUS:

Does the poor wretch now have some rest from evil?

SERVANT:

He shouts at us to open the doors and reveal

to all the people of Cadmus the parricide,

and his mother’s…what he said I will not repeat.

He wants to cast himself from the land and not(1320)

stay at home accursed with his own curses.

He lacks, however, strength and a guide,

for the pain is greater than he can bear.

But he will show you also, for the doors

are opening. Soon you will see a sight(1325)

that even his enemy would pity.

[Enter Oedipus from the palace with attendants.]

CHORUS:

O suffering terrible for men to see,

o most terrible of all I have

encountered! What mania, poor wretch,

stood by you? What spirit(1330)

leapt from beyond the highest places

onto your unhappy fate?

Alas, alas, unfortunate man,

I cannot look at you,

though I wish to ask many things,(1335)

to learn and ponder them;

how you make me shudder and fear!

OEDIPUS:

Ah! Ah! How miserable is my life!

Where does my pain take me?

How does my voice rush about me?(1340)

O doom, how you’ve pounced!

CHORUS:

Onto horror that can neither be heard nor viewed.

Str. 1

OEDIPUS:

Oh, darkness!

This cloud of mine, abominable, approaching ineffable,

unconquered, driven on by a fatally favorable wind.(1345)

Sorrow!

And still more sorrow—Upon me fall together

so many stinging goads and the memory of evils.

CHORUS:

And it is no wonder that in such woes

you suffer doubly and doubly cry aloud.(1350)

Ant. 1

OEDIPUS:

Oh, my friend!

You are still my only companion, for

still you remain by me, tending the blind man.

Sorrow!(1355)

For I have not missed your presence, but, although

in darkness, I recognize your voice clearly.

CHORUS:

O agent of terrors, how could you dare to

put out your eyes like that? What god set you to it?

Str. 2

OEDIPUS:

Apollo, my friends—these things are Apollo,(1360)

who brought to pass these evil, evil sufferings of mine.

But no man struck me with his hand,

but I myself dared it.

For why must I see,

I for whom no sight is sweet?(1365)

CHORUS:

Indeed, it is as you say.

OEDIPUS:

What, then, could be worth seeing to me,

or lovable, what word addressed to me

could I hear gladly, friends?

Lead me into exile quickly,(1370)

lead me away, friends, completely destroyed,

the most accursed, and to the gods

the most hated of men!

CHORUS:

Equally wretched in your mind and your

misfortune, how I wish I had never known you.(1375)

Ant. 2

OEDIPUS:

Let him die who took off the fierce fetters,

feeding off my feet, and rescued and saved

me from my death, no good deed for me!

For if I had died then,

I would not have brought(1380)

so much pain to my friends or me!

CHORUS:

It is my wish, too, that it have been thus.

OEDIPUS:

I’d not then be my father’s slayer,

nor called the groom of her whence I was born.

Abandoned by the gods, child of sacrilege,(1385)

sharing the source of those I myself sired.

Were some evil greater still than evil,

this, too, would be Oedipus’ lot.

CHORUS:

I do not know how to agree with your judgment,

for you are better not living than living blind.(1390)

OEDIPUS:

Do not tell me that these things were not

done well, nor offer me further counsel.

For I don’t know with what eyes I could look

and see my father when I go down to Hell,

nor again my poor mother; to those two(1395)

my deeds are beyond what hanging could punish.

Or is the sight of my children desirable

for me to see, sprouting as they sprouted?

Surely never to those eyes of mine!

Nor the city nor citadel, nor the holy(1400)

shrines of the gods, from which I, the worst of men,

removed myself, myself decreeing

that all expel the impious one, revealed

unholy by the gods and, now, of Laius’ race.

Exposing such defilement as this,(1405)

did I intend to see them with my own eyes?

Not at all. Rather if I could somehow block

my hearing from the ears, I would not hold back

from fully shutting off this wretched frame of mine,

so that I’d be blind and hear nothing, for to live(1410)

outside comprehension of these woes would be sweet.

Oh, Cithaeron! Why did you accept me? Why did

you not kill me at once, so that I would never

reveal to men my origins? O Polybus

and Corinth and my old ancestral home—(1415)

so-called—in what a pretty festering

of evils you brought me up! For now I

find myself evil and born from evil people.

O three paths and hidden groves and the

narrow oak coppice at the triple crossroads,(1420)

which drank my own blood from my father

from my own hands, do you still remember me?

What deeds I performed in your presence,

what deeds I was still to do! O marriage, marriage,

you brought me forth, and afterwards again(1425)

you harvested that same seed and revealed

father-brothers, children of kin blood,

brides who were wives and mothers, and all else

counted the most shameful acts by men.

But, since these matters are as foully said as done,(1430)

by the gods, quickly hide me from the sight of men

somehow, or kill me or cast me into the sea,

where you will never see me again.

Go, deem it worthy to touch a poor man!

Yield, do not fear; for my evils are(1435)

such that no one of men can bear but me.

CHORUS:

No, Creon is here, the right one to decide

whether to act or advise on what you ask; since

he alone remains to guard our land in your stead.

[Enter Creon from offstage.]

OEDIPUS:

Alas! What can I say to this man?(1440)

What real faith can he have in me? For in all

that went before I am found false to him.

CREON:

I have not come to mock you, Oedipus,

nor to scold you for some previous wrong.

[He addresses the attendants.](1445)

But you, if you feel no shame before the races

of men, then revere at least the nourishing

light of lord Helios, and do not thus

show this blight unconcealed, which neither

earth nor holy rain nor light accept.(1450)

Take him into the house as quick as you can,

for it is right for only blood relatives

to see and hear familial evils.

OEDIPUS:

By the gods, since you’ve cheated my expectations

and come as the best of men to me, the worst,(1455)

grant me this; I ask for you and not for me.

CREON:

What is this thing you need so greatly?

OEDIPUS:

Cast me immediately from this land,

somewhere I can avoid all mortal speech.

CREON:

Know well that I would do this, but first I(1460)

must learn from the god what must be done.

OEDIPUS:

But his entire prophecy was made clear;

destroy the patricide, the accursed, me!

CREON:

It was said thus, but still, where we stand

it is better to learn what must be done.(1465)

OEDIPUS:

You would ask on behalf of one so wretched?

CREON:

Yes, for now even you should bear faith to the god.

OEDIPUS:

Then I enjoin you and make this request:

to her…who is inside…bury her as you will,

rightly will you act on behalf of your own—(1470)

but as for me, may this, my native city,

suffer me to dwell here while I live,

but let me to dwell in the mountains, with my own

famous Cithaeron, which my mother and

father while they lived appointed as my tomb,(1475)

so that I may die as those two wished.

Although this much at least I know: No disease

nor anything else can kill me, for I would not

have been saved from death, but for some dire fate.

This destiny of mine, let it go where it may,(1480)

but for my children, Creon—don’t worry

over my sons; they are men, so that

they will never lack a livelihood, wherever

they may be. But, for my poor little girls,

they’ve not so much as eaten a meal(1485)

apart from me; but whatever I touched,

those two always had a share in all of it.

Worry over them, and most of all I beg you,

let me touch them with my hands and mourn our woes.

Please, my lord!(1490)

Please, o truly noble man, could my hands touch them,

I’d think I held them as I did when I could see.

[Servants lead onstage the two girls.]

What’s this now?

By the gods, do I somehow hear my two dear girls

crying? Has Creon pitied me and(1495)

sent to me the dearest of my offspring?

Is it true?

CREON:

You are, for I am the one who prepared these things,

knowing the joy they have long brought you.

OEDIPUS:

Then may you be blessed, and for this meeting(1500)

may fate guard you better than it did me!

My children, where are you? Come here, come

to these hands of mine that are siblings to yours,

hands that brought to this sad state the once

bright eyes of your begetting father,(1505)

who, children, neither seeing nor knowing was

proved your father from the same place he himself sprang.

And I weep for you, although I cannot see you;

contemplating the bitterness of your lives,

the sort of life men will force you to live.(1510)

What sort of company will you keep in town?

What festivals will you attend that will not

send you home in tears, instead of joy?

When you come to the age ripe for marriage,

who will he be who will run the risk, children,(1515)

to take for himself the reproaches that will

be banes for my parents and offspring alike?

What evil is absent? Your father

slew his father; he ploughed his mother,

where he himself was sown, and he sired(1520)

you in the same fount where he himself was sired.

Such taunts you will hear, and then who will marry you?

There is no one, my children, but surely

you must die untilled and unmarried.

Son of Menoeceus, since you alone are left(1525)

as father to them, for we who created them

have both been destroyed, do not allow them,

your kin, to die unwed and beggars,

nor make them party to my evils;

but pity them, seeing how young they are(1530)

and bereft of everything, except for you.

Consent, noble one, and touch me with your hand.

Oh, children, if you could understand, I would

give you so much advice; as it is, just pray

with me that you obtain a better life(1535)

than did the father who sired you.

CREON:

You have gone far enough in weeping; go inside.

OEDIPUS:

I will, though sadly.

CREON:

All things are fair in time.

OEDIPUS:

Do you know my conditions?(1540)

CREON:

Speak; I shall learn them.

OEDIPUS:

Send me from this land.

CREON:

You ask me what is God’s to give.

OEDIPUS:

The gods hate me.

CREON:

Then they will grant your wish.(1545)

OEDIPUS:

Then you will do it?

CREON:

I’ll say only what I think.

OEDIPUS:

Then lead me away.

CREON:

Come, let go of the children.

OEDIPUS:

Do not take them from me!(1550)

CREON:

It is not your place to decide;

the power you had has not remained with you.

[Exeunt Creon and Oedipus with the attendants and children into the palace.]

CHORUS:

People of our country Thebes, behold this Oedipus,

who knew the famous riddle and was a most powerful man,

whose fortunes all the citizens watched with emulation,(1555)

how deep the sea of dire misfortune that has taken him!

Therefore, it is necessary to call no man blessed

as we await the final day, until he has reached

the limit of life and suffered nothing grievous.

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OEDIPUS THE KINGBy SophoclesTranslated by F. Storr----------------------------------------------------------------------Dramatis PersonaeOEDIPUSTHE PRIEST OF ZEUSCREONCHORUS OF THEBAN ELDERSTEIRESIASJOCASTAMESSENGERHERD OF LAIUS----------------------------------------------------------------------Thebes. Before the Palace of Oedipus. Suppliants of all ages are seatedround the altar at the palace doors, at their head a PRIEST OF ZEUS.To them enter OEDIPUS.----------------------------------------------------------------------OEDIPUS My children, latest born to Cadmus old,Why sit ye here as suppliants, in your handsBranches of olive filleted with wool?What means this reek of incense everywhere,And everywhere laments and litanies?Children, it were not meet that I should learnFrom others, and am hither come, myself,I Oedipus, your world-renowned king.Ho! aged sire, whose venerable locksProclaim thee spokesman of this company,Explain your mood and purport. Is it dreadOf ill that moves you or a boon ye crave?My zeal in your behalf ye cannot doubt;Ruthless indeed were I and obdurateIf such petitioners as you I spurned.PRIEST Yea, Oedipus, my sovereign lord and king,Thou seest how both extremes of age besiegeThy palace altars--fledglings hardly winged,And greybeards bowed with years, priests, as am IOf Zeus, and these the flower of our youth.Meanwhile, the common folk, with wreathed boughsCrowd our two market-places, or beforeBoth shrines of Pallas congregate, or whereIsmenus gives his oracles by fire.For, as thou seest thyself, our ship of State,

Sore buffeted, can no more lift her head,Foundered beneath a weltering surge of blood.A blight is on our harvest in the ear,A blight upon the grazing flocks and herds,A blight on wives in travail; and withalArmed with his blazing torch the God of PlagueHath swooped upon our city emptyingThe house of Cadmus, and the murky realmOf Pluto is full fed with groans and tears.Therefore, O King, here at thy hearth we sit,I and these children; not as deeming theeA new divinity, but the first of men;First in the common accidents of life,And first in visitations of the Gods.Art thou not he who coming to the townOf Cadmus freed us from the tax we paidTo the fell songstress? Nor hadst thou receivedPrompting from us or been by others schooled;No, by a god inspired (so all men deem,And testify) didst thou renew our life.And now, O Oedipus, our peerless king,All we thy votaries beseech thee, findSome succor, whether by a voice from heavenWhispered, or haply known by human wit.Tried counselors, methinks, are aptest foundTo furnish for the future pregnant rede.Upraise, O chief of men, upraise our State!Look to thy laurels! for thy zeal of yoreOur country's savior thou art justly hailed:O never may we thus record thy reign:--"He raised us up only to cast us down."Uplift us, build our city on a rock.Thy happy star ascendant brought us luck,O let it not decline! If thou wouldst ruleThis land, as now thou reignest, better sureTo rule a peopled than a desert realm.Nor battlements nor galleys aught avail,If men to man and guards to guard them tail.OEDIPUS Ah! my poor children, known, ah, known too well,The quest that brings you hither and your need.Ye sicken all, well wot I, yet my pain,How great soever yours, outtops it all.Your sorrow touches each man severally,Him and none other, but I grieve at onceBoth for the general and myself and you.Therefore ye rouse no sluggard from day-dreams.

Many, my children, are the tears I've wept,And threaded many a maze of weary thought.Thus pondering one clue of hope I caught,And tracked it up; I have sent Menoeceus' son,Creon, my consort's brother, to inquireOf Pythian Phoebus at his Delphic shrine,How I might save the State by act or word.And now I reckon up the tale of daysSince he set forth, and marvel how he fares.'Tis strange, this endless tarrying, passing strange.But when he comes, then I were base indeed,If I perform not all the god declares.PRIEST Thy words are well timed; even as thou speakestThat shouting tells me Creon is at hand.OEDIPUS O King Apollo! may his joyous looksBe presage of the joyous news he brings!PRIEST As I surmise, 'tis welcome; else his headHad scarce been crowned with berry-laden bays.OEDIPUS We soon shall know; he's now in earshot range. (Enter CREON.)My royal cousin, say, Menoeceus' child,What message hast thou brought us from the god?CREON Good news, for e'en intolerable ills,Finding right issue, tend to naught but good.OEDIPUS How runs the oracle? thus far thy wordsGive me no ground for confidence or fear.CREON If thou wouldst hear my message publicly,I'll tell thee straight, or with thee pass within.OEDIPUS Speak before all; the burden that I bearIs more for these my subjects than myself.CREON Let me report then all the god declared.King Phoebus bids us straitly extirpateA fell pollution that infests the land,And no more harbor an inveterate sore.OEDIPUS What expiation means he? What's amiss?CREON Banishment, or the shedding blood for blood.This stain of blood makes shipwreck of our state.OEDIPUS Whom can he mean, the miscreant thus denounced?CREON Before thou didst assume the helm of State,The sovereign of this land was Laius.OEDIPUS I heard as much, but never saw the man.CREON He fell; and now the god's command is plain:Punish his takers-off, whoe'er they be.OEDIPUS Where are they? Where in the wide world to findThe far, faint traces of a bygone crime?CREON In this land, said the god; "who seeks shall find;Who sits with folded hands or sleeps is blind."

OEDIPUS Was he within his palace, or afield,Or traveling, when Laius met his fate?CREON Abroad; he started, so he told us, boundFor Delphi, but he never thence returned.OEDIPUS Came there no news, no fellow-travelerTo give some clue that might be followed up?CREON But one escape, who flying for dear life,Could tell of all he saw but one thing sure.OEDIPUS And what was that? One clue might lead us far,With but a spark of hope to guide our quest.CREON Robbers, he told us, not one bandit butA troop of knaves, attacked and murdered him.OEDIPUS Did any bandit dare so bold a stroke,Unless indeed he were suborned from Thebes?CREON So 'twas surmised, but none was found to avengeHis murder mid the trouble that ensued.OEDIPUS What trouble can have hindered a full quest,When royalty had fallen thus miserably?CREON The riddling Sphinx compelled us to let slideThe dim past and attend to instant needs.OEDIPUS Well, I will start afresh and once againMake dark things clear. Right worthy the concernOf Phoebus, worthy thine too, for the dead;I also, as is meet, will lend my aidTo avenge this wrong to Thebes and to the god.Not for some far-off kinsman, but myself,Shall I expel this poison in the blood;For whoso slew that king might have a mindTo strike me too with his assassin hand.Therefore in righting him I serve myself.Up, children, haste ye, quit these altar stairs,Take hence your suppliant wands, go summon hitherThe Theban commons. With the god's good helpSuccess is sure; 'tis ruin if we fail. (Exeunt OEDIPUS and CREON.)PRIEST Come, children, let us hence; these gracious wordsForestall the very purpose of our suit.And may the god who sent this oracleSave us withal and rid us of this pest. (Exeunt PRIEST and SUPPLIANTS.)CHORUS (strophe 1)Sweet-voiced daughter of Zeus from thy gold-paved Pythian shrineWafted to Thebes divine,What dost thou bring me? My soul is racked and shivers with fear.Healer of Delos, hear!Hast thou some pain unknown before,Or with the circling years renewest a penance of yore?Offspring of golden Hope, thou voice immortal, O tell me.

(antistrophe 1)First on Athene I call; O Zeus-born goddess, defend!Goddess and sister, befriend,Artemis, Lady of Thebes, high-throned in the midst of our mart!Lord of the death-winged dart!Your threefold aid I craveFrom death and ruin our city to save.If in the days of old when we nigh had perished, ye draveFrom our land the fiery plague, be near us now and defend us!(strophe 2)Ah me, what countless woes are mine!All our host is in decline;Weaponless my spirit lies.Earth her gracious fruits denies;Women wail in barren throes;Life on life downstriken goes,Swifter than the wind bird's flight,Swifter than the Fire-God's might,To the westering shores of Night.(antistrophe 2)Wasted thus by death on deathAll our city perisheth.Corpses spread infection round;None to tend or mourn is found.Wailing on the altar stairWives and grandams rend the air--Long-drawn moans and piercing criesBlent with prayers and litanies.Golden child of Zeus, O hearLet thine angel face appear!(strophe 3)And grant that Ares whose hot breath I feel,Though without targe or steelHe stalks, whose voice is as the battle shout,May turn in sudden rout,To the unharbored Thracian waters sped,Or Amphitrite's bed.For what night leaves undone,Smit by the morrow's sunPerisheth. Father Zeus, whose handDoth wield the lightning brand,Slay him beneath thy levin bold, we pray,Slay him, O slay!(antistrophe 3)O that thine arrows too, Lycean King,From that taut bow's gold string,

Might fly abroad, the champions of our rights;Yea, and the flashing lightsOf Artemis, wherewith the huntress sweepsAcross the Lycian steeps.Thee too I call with golden-snooded hair,Whose name our land doth bear,Bacchus to whom thy Maenads Evoe shout;Come with thy bright torch, rout,Blithe god whom we adore,The god whom gods abhor. (Enter OEDIPUS.)OEDIPUS Ye pray; 'tis well, but would ye hear my wordsAnd heed them and apply the remedy,Ye might perchance find comfort and relief.Mind you, I speak as one who comes a strangerTo this report, no less than to the crime;For how unaided could I track it farWithout a clue? Which lacking (for too lateWas I enrolled a citizen of Thebes)This proclamation I address to all:--Thebans, if any knows the man by whomLaius, son of Labdacus, was slain,I summon him to make clean shrift to me.And if he shrinks, let him reflect that thusConfessing he shall 'scape the capital charge;For the worst penalty that shall befall himIs banishment--unscathed he shall depart.But if an alien from a foreign landBe known to any as the murderer,Let him who knows speak out, and he shall haveDue recompense from me and thanks to boot.But if ye still keep silence, if through fearFor self or friends ye disregard my hest,Hear what I then resolve; I lay my banOn the assassin whosoe'er he be.Let no man in this land, whereof I holdThe sovereign rule, harbor or speak to him;Give him no part in prayer or sacrificeOr lustral rites, but hound him from your homes.For this is our defilement, so the godHath lately shown to me by oracles.Thus as their champion I maintain the causeBoth of the god and of the murdered King.And on the murderer this curse I lay(On him and all the partners in his guilt):--Wretch, may he pine in utter wretchedness!And for myself, if with my privity

He gain admittance to my hearth, I prayThe curse I laid on others fall on me.See that ye give effect to all my hest,For my sake and the god's and for our land,A desert blasted by the wrath of heaven.For, let alone the god's express command,It were a scandal ye should leave unpurgedThe murder of a great man and your king,Nor track it home. And now that I am lord,Successor to his throne, his bed, his wife,(And had he not been frustrate in the hopeOf issue, common children of one wombHad forced a closer bond twixt him and me,But Fate swooped down upon him), therefore IHis blood-avenger will maintain his causeAs though he were my sire, and leave no stoneUnturned to track the assassin or avengeThe son of Labdacus, of Polydore,Of Cadmus, and Agenor first of the race.And for the disobedient thus I pray:May the gods send them neither timely fruitsOf earth, nor teeming increase of the womb,But may they waste and pine, as now they waste,Aye and worse stricken; but to all of you,My loyal subjects who approve my acts,May Justice, our ally, and all the godsBe gracious and attend you evermore.CHORUS The oath thou profferest, sire, I take and swear.I slew him not myself, nor can I nameThe slayer. For the quest, 'twere well, methinksThat Phoebus, who proposed the riddle, himselfShould give the answer--who the murderer was.OEDIPUS Well argued; but no living man can hopeTo force the gods to speak against their will.CHORUS May I then say what seems next best to me?OEDIPUS Aye, if there be a third best, tell it too.CHORUS My liege, if any man sees eye to eyeWith our lord Phoebus, 'tis our prophet, lordTeiresias; he of all men best might guideA searcher of this matter to the light.OEDIPUS Here too my zeal has nothing lagged, for twiceAt Creon's instance have I sent to fetch him,And long I marvel why he is not here.CHORUS 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,But none has seen the man who saw him fall.CHORUS Well, if he knows what fear is, he will quailAnd flee before the terror of thy curse.OEDIPUS Words scare not him who blenches not at deeds.CHORUS But here is one to arraign him. Lo, at lengthThey bring the god-inspired seer in whomAbove all other men is truth inborn. (Enter TEIRESIAS, led by a boy.)OEDIPUS Teiresias, seer who comprehendest all,Lore of the wise and hidden mysteries,High things of heaven and low things of the earth,Thou knowest, though thy blinded eyes see naught,What plague infects our city; and we turnTo thee, O seer, our one defense and shield.The purport of the answer that the GodReturned to us who sought his oracle,The messengers have doubtless told thee--howOne course alone could rid us of the pest,To find the murderers of Laius,And slay them or expel them from the land.Therefore begrudging neither auguryNor other divination that is thine,O save thyself, thy country, and thy king,Save all from this defilement of blood shed.On thee we rest. This is man's highest end,To others' service all his powers to lend.TEIRESIAS Alas, alas, what misery to be wiseWhen wisdom profits nothing! This old loreI had forgotten; else I were not here.OEDIPUS What ails thee? Why this melancholy mood?TEIRESIAS Let me go home; prevent me not; 'twere bestThat thou shouldst bear thy burden and I mine.OEDIPUS For shame! no true-born Theban patriotWould thus withhold the word of prophecy.TEIRESIAS Thy words, O king, are wide of the mark, and IFor fear lest I too trip like thee...OEDIPUS Oh speak,Withhold not, I adjure thee, if thou know'st,Thy knowledge. We are all thy suppliants.TEIRESIAS Aye, for ye all are witless, but my voiceWill ne'er reveal my miseries--or thine.OEDIPUS What then, thou knowest, and yet willst not speak!Wouldst thou betray us and destroy the State?TEIRESIAS I will not vex myself nor thee. Why askThus idly what from me thou shalt not learn?

OEDIPUS Monster! thy silence would incense a flint.Will nothing loose thy tongue? Can nothing melt thee,Or shake thy dogged taciturnity?TEIRESIAS Thou blam'st my mood and seest not thine ownWherewith thou art mated; no, thou taxest me.OEDIPUS And who could stay his choler when he heardHow insolently thou dost flout the State?TEIRESIAS Well, it will come what will, though I be mute.OEDIPUS Since come it must, thy duty is to tell me.TEIRESIAS I have no more to say; storm as thou willst,And give the rein to all thy pent-up rage.OEDIPUS Yea, I am wroth, and will not stint my words,But speak my whole mind. Thou methinks thou art he,Who planned the crime, aye, and performed it too,All save the assassination; and if thouHadst not been blind, I had been sworn to bootThat thou alone didst do the bloody deed.TEIRESIAS Is it so? Then I charge thee to abideBy thine own proclamation; from this daySpeak not to these or me. Thou art the man,Thou the accursed polluter of this land.OEDIPUS Vile slanderer, thou blurtest forth these taunts,And think'st forsooth as seer to go scot free.TEIRESIAS Yea, I am free, strong in the strength of truth.OEDIPUS Who was thy teacher? not methinks thy art.TEIRESIAS Thou, goading me against my will to speak.OEDIPUS What speech? repeat it and resolve my doubt.TEIRESIAS Didst miss my sense wouldst thou goad me on?OEDIPUS I but half caught thy meaning; say it again.TEIRESIAS I say thou art the murderer of the manWhose murderer thou pursuest.OEDIPUS Thou shalt rue itTwice to repeat so gross a calumny.TEIRESIAS Must I say more to aggravate thy rage?OEDIPUS Say all thou wilt; it will be but waste of breath.TEIRESIAS I say thou livest with thy nearest kinIn infamy, unwitting in thy shame.OEDIPUS Think'st thou for aye unscathed to wag thy tongue?TEIRESIAS Yea, if the might of truth can aught prevail.OEDIPUS With other men, but not with thee, for thouIn ear, wit, eye, in everything art blind.TEIRESIAS Poor fool to utter gibes at me which allHere present will cast back on thee ere long.OEDIPUS Offspring of endless Night, thou hast no powerO'er me or any man who sees the sun.TEIRESIAS No, for thy weird is not to fall by me.

I leave to Apollo what concerns the god.OEDIPUS Is this a plot of Creon, or thine own?TEIRESIAS Not Creon, thou thyself art thine own bane.OEDIPUS O wealth and empiry and skill by skillOutwitted in the battlefield of life,What spite and envy follow in your train!See, for this crown the State conferred on me.A gift, a thing I sought not, for this crownThe trusty Creon, my familiar friend,Hath lain in wait to oust me and subornedThis mountebank, this juggling charlatan,This tricksy beggar-priest, for gain aloneKeen-eyed, but in his proper art stone-blind.Say, sirrah, hast thou ever proved thyselfA prophet? When the riddling Sphinx was hereWhy hadst thou no deliverance for this folk?And yet the riddle was not to be solvedBy guess-work but required the prophet's art;Wherein thou wast found lacking; neither birdsNor sign from heaven helped thee, but I came,The simple Oedipus; I stopped her mouthBy mother wit, untaught of auguries.This is the man whom thou wouldst undermine,In hope to reign with Creon in my stead.Methinks that thou and thine abettor soonWill rue your plot to drive the scapegoat out.Thank thy grey hairs that thou hast still to learnWhat chastisement such arrogance deserves.CHORUS To us it seems that both the seer and thou,O Oedipus, have spoken angry words.This is no time to wrangle but consultHow best we may fulfill the oracle.TEIRESIAS King as thou art, free speech at least is mineTo make reply; in this I am thy peer.I own no lord but Loxias; him I serveAnd ne'er can stand enrolled as Creon's man.Thus then I answer: since thou hast not sparedTo twit me with my blindness--thou hast eyes,Yet see'st not in what misery thou art fallen,Nor where thou dwellest nor with whom for mate.Dost know thy lineage? Nay, thou know'st it not,And all unwitting art a double foeTo thine own kin, the living and the dead;Aye and the dogging curse of mother and sireOne day shall drive thee, like a two-edged sword,Beyond our borders, and the eyes that now

See clear shall henceforward endless night.Ah whither shall thy bitter cry not reach,What crag in all Cithaeron but shall thenReverberate thy wail, when thou hast foundWith what a hymeneal thou wast borneHome, but to no fair haven, on the gale!Aye, and a flood of ills thou guessest notShall set thyself and children in one line.Flout then both Creon and my words, for noneOf mortals shall be striken worse than thou.OEDIPUS Must I endure this fellow's insolence?A murrain on thee! Get thee hence! BegoneAvaunt! and never cross my threshold more.TEIRESIAS I ne'er had come hadst thou not bidden me.OEDIPUS I know not thou wouldst utter folly, elseLong hadst thou waited to be summoned here.TEIRESIAS Such am I--as it seems to thee a fool,But to the parents who begat thee, wise.OEDIPUS What sayest thou--"parents"? Who begat me, speak?TEIRESIAS This day shall be thy birth-day, and thy grave.OEDIPUS Thou lov'st to speak in riddles and dark words.TEIRESIAS In reading riddles who so skilled as thou?OEDIPUS Twit me with that wherein my greatness lies.TEIRESIAS And yet this very greatness proved thy bane.OEDIPUS No matter if I saved the commonwealth.TEIRESIAS 'Tis time I left thee. Come, boy, take me home.OEDIPUS Aye, take him quickly, for his presence irksAnd lets me; gone, thou canst not plague me more.TEIRESIAS I go, but first will tell thee why I came.Thy frown I dread not, for thou canst not harm me.Hear then: this man whom thou hast sought to arrestWith threats and warrants this long while, the wretchWho murdered Laius--that man is here.He passes for an alien in the landBut soon shall prove a Theban, native born.And yet his fortune brings him little joy;For blind of seeing, clad in beggar's weeds,For purple robes, and leaning on his staff,To a strange land he soon shall grope his way.And of the children, inmates of his home,He shall be proved the brother and the sire,Of her who bare him son and husband both,Co-partner, and assassin of his sire.Go in and ponder this, and if thou findThat I have missed the mark, henceforth declareI have no wit nor skill in prophecy. (Exeunt TEIRESIAS and OEDIPUS.)

CHORUS (strophe 1)Who is he by voice immortal named from Pythia's rocky cell,Doer of foul deeds of bloodshed, horrors that no tongue can tell?A foot for flight he needsFleeter than storm-swift steeds,For on his heels doth follow,Armed with the lightnings of his Sire, Apollo.Like sleuth-hounds tooThe Fates pursue.(antistrophe 1)Yea, but now flashed forth the summons from Parnassus' snowy peak,"Near and far the undiscovered doer of this murder seek!"Now like a sullen bull he rovesThrough forest brakes and upland groves,And vainly seeks to flyThe doom that ever nighFlits o'er his head,Still by the avenging Phoebus sped,The voice divine,From Earth's mid shrine.(strophe 2)Sore perplexed am I by the words of the master seer.Are they true, are they false? I know not and bridle my tongue forfear,Fluttered with vague surmise; nor present nor future is clear.Quarrel of ancient date or in days still near know I noneTwixt the Labdacidan house and our ruler, Polybus' son.Proof is there none: how then can I challenge our King's good name,How in a blood-feud join for an untracked deed of shame?(antistrophe 2)All wise are Zeus and Apollo, and nothing is hid from their ken;They are gods; and in wits a man may surpass his fellow men;But that a mortal seer knows more than I know--whereHath this been proven? Or how without sign assured, can I blameHim who saved our State when the winged songstress came,Tested and tried in the light of us all, like gold assayed?How can I now assent when a crime is on Oedipus laid?CREON Friends, countrymen, I learn King OedipusHath laid against me a most grievous charge,And come to you protesting. If he deemsThat I have harmed or injured him in aughtBy word or deed in this our present trouble,I care not to prolong the span of life,Thus ill-reputed; for the calumnyHits not a single blot, but blasts my name,If by the general voice I am denounced

False to the State and false by you my friends.CHORUS This taunt, it well may be, was blurted outIn petulance, not spoken advisedly.CREON Did any dare pretend that it was IPrompted the seer to utter a forged charge?CHORUS Such things were said; with what intent I know not.CREON Were not his wits and vision all astrayWhen upon me he fixed this monstrous charge?CHORUS I know not; to my sovereign's acts I am blind.But lo, he comes to answer for himself. (Enter OEDIPUS.)OEDIPUS Sirrah, what mak'st thou here? Dost thou presumeTo approach my doors, thou brazen-faced rogue,My murderer and the filcher of my crown?Come, answer this, didst thou detect in meSome touch of cowardice or witlessness,That made thee undertake this enterprise?I seemed forsooth too simple to perceiveThe serpent stealing on me in the dark,Or else too weak to scotch it when I saw.This thou art witless seeking to possessWithout a following or friends the crown,A prize that followers and wealth must win.CREON Attend me. Thou hast spoken, 'tis my turnTo make reply. Then having heard me, judge.OEDIPUS Thou art glib of tongue, but I am slow to learnOf thee; I know too well thy venomous hate.CREON First I would argue out this very point.OEDIPUS O argue not that thou art not a rogue.CREON If thou dost count a virtue stubbornness,Unschooled by reason, thou art much astray.OEDIPUS If thou dost hold a kinsman may be wronged,And no pains follow, thou art much to seek.CREON Therein thou judgest rightly, but this wrongThat thou allegest--tell me what it is.OEDIPUS Didst thou or didst thou not advise that IShould call the priest?CREON Yes, and I stand to it.OEDIPUS Tell me how long is it since Laius...CREON Since Laius...? I follow not thy drift.OEDIPUS By violent hands was spirited away.CREON In the dim past, a many years agone.OEDIPUS Did the same prophet then pursue his craft?CREON Yes, skilled as now and in no less repute.OEDIPUS Did he at that time ever glance at me?CREON Not to my knowledge, not when I was by.OEDIPUS But was no search and inquisition made?

CREON Surely full quest was made, but nothing learnt.OEDIPUS Why failed the seer to tell his story then?CREON I know not, and not knowing hold my tongue.OEDIPUS This much thou knowest and canst surely tell.CREON What's mean'st thou? All I know I will declare.OEDIPUS But for thy prompting never had the seerAscribed to me the death of Laius.CREON If so he thou knowest best; but IWould put thee to the question in my turn.OEDIPUS Question and prove me murderer if thou canst.CREON Then let me ask thee, didst thou wed my sister?OEDIPUS A fact so plain I cannot well deny.CREON And as thy consort queen she shares the throne?OEDIPUS I grant her freely all her heart desires.CREON And with you twain I share the triple rule?OEDIPUS Yea, and it is that proves thee a false friend.CREON Not so, if thou wouldst reason with thyself,As I with myself. First, I bid thee think,Would any mortal choose a troubled reignOf terrors rather than secure repose,If the same power were given him? As for me,I have no natural craving for the nameOf king, preferring to do kingly deeds,And so thinks every sober-minded man.Now all my needs are satisfied through thee,And I have naught to fear; but were I king,My acts would oft run counter to my will.How could a title then have charms for meAbove the sweets of boundless influence?I am not so infatuate as to graspThe shadow when I hold the substance fast.Now all men cry me Godspeed! wish me well,And every suitor seeks to gain my ear,If he would hope to win a grace from thee.Why should I leave the better, choose the worse?That were sheer madness, and I am not mad.No such ambition ever tempted me,Nor would I have a share in such intrigue.And if thou doubt me, first to Delphi go,There ascertain if my report was trueOf the god's answer; next investigateIf with the seer I plotted or conspired,And if it prove so, sentence me to death,Not by thy voice alone, but mine and thine.But O condemn me not, without appeal,On bare suspicion. 'Tis not right to adjudge

Bad men at random good, or good men bad.I would as lief a man should cast awayThe thing he counts most precious, his own life,As spurn a true friend. Thou wilt learn in timeThe truth, for time alone reveals the just;A villain is detected in a day.CHORUS To one who walketh warily his wordsCommend themselves; swift counsels are not sure.OEDIPUS When with swift strides the stealthy plotter stalksI must be quick too with my counterplot.To wait his onset passively, for himIs sure success, for me assured defeat.CREON What then's thy will? To banish me the land?OEDIPUS I would not have thee banished, no, but dead,That men may mark the wages envy reaps.CREON I see thou wilt not yield, nor credit me.OEDIPUS 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 Thy Thebans? am not I a Theban too?CHORUS Cease, princes; lo there comes, and none too soon,Jocasta from the palace. Who so fitAs peacemaker to reconcile your feud? (Enter JOCASTA.)JOCASTA Misguided princes, why have ye upraisedThis wordy wrangle? Are ye not ashamed,While the whole land lies striken, thus to voiceYour private injuries? Go in, my lord;Go home, my brother, and forebear to makeA public scandal of a petty grief.CREON My royal sister, Oedipus, thy lord,Hath bid me choose (O dread alternative!)An outlaw's exile or a felon's death.OEDIPUS Yes, lady; I have caught him practicingAgainst my royal person his vile arts.CREON May I ne'er speed but die accursed, if IIn any way am guilty of this charge.JOCASTA Believe him, I adjure thee, Oedipus,First for his solemn oath's sake, then for mine,And for thine elders' sake who wait on thee.CHORUS (strophe 1)

Hearken, King, reflect, we pray thee, but not stubborn but relent.OEDIPUS Say to what should I consent?CHORUS Respect a man whose probity and trothAre known to all and now confirmed by oath.OEDIPUS Dost know what grace thou cravest?CHORUS Yea, I know.OEDIPUS Declare it then and make thy meaning plain.CHORUS Brand not a friend whom babbling tongues assail;Let not suspicion 'gainst his oath prevail.OEDIPUS Bethink you that in seeking this ye seekIn very sooth my death or banishment?CHORUS No, by the leader of the host divine!(strophe 2)Witness, thou Sun, such thought was never mine,Unblest, unfriended may I perish,If ever I such wish did cherish!But O my heart is desolateMusing on our striken State,Doubly fall'n should discord growTwixt you twain, to crown our woe.OEDIPUS Well, let him go, no matter what it cost me,Or certain death or shameful banishment,For your sake I relent, not his; and him,Where'er he be, my heart shall still abhor.CREON Thou art as sullen in thy yielding moodAs in thine anger thou wast truculent.Such tempers justly plague themselves the most.OEDIPUS Leave me in peace and get thee gone.CREON I go,By thee misjudged, but justified by these. (Exeunt CREON.)CHORUS (antistrophe 1)Lady, lead indoors thy consort; wherefore longer here delay?JOCASTA Tell me first how rose the fray.CHORUS Rumors bred unjust suspicious and injustice rankles sore.JOCASTA Were both at fault?CHORUS Both.JOCASTA What was the tale?CHORUS Ask me no more. The land is sore distressed; 'Twere bettersleeping ills to leave at rest.OEDIPUS Strange counsel, friend! I know thou mean'st me well,And yet would'st mitigate and blunt my zeal.CHORUS (antistrophe 2)King, I say it once again,Witless were I proved, insane,If I lightly put awayThee my country's prop and stay,

Pilot who, in danger sought,To a quiet haven broughtOur distracted State; and nowWho can guide us right but thou?JOCASTA Let me too, I adjure thee, know, O king,What cause has stirred this unrelenting wrath.OEDIPUS I will, for thou art more to me than these.Lady, the cause is Creon and his plots.JOCASTA But what provoked the quarrel? make this clear.OEDIPUS He points me out as Laius' murderer.JOCASTA Of his own knowledge or upon report?OEDIPUS He is too cunning to commit himself,And makes a mouthpiece of a knavish seer.JOCASTA Then thou mayest ease thy conscience on that score.Listen and I'll convince thee that no manHath scot or lot in the prophetic art.Here is the proof in brief. An oracleOnce came to Laius (I will not say'Twas from the Delphic god himself, but fromHis ministers) declaring he was doomedTo perish by the hand of his own son,A child that should be born to him by me.Now Laius--so at least report affirmed--Was murdered on a day by highwaymen,No natives, at a spot where three roads meet.As for the child, it was but three days old,When Laius, its ankles pierced and pinnedTogether, gave it to be cast awayBy others on the trackless mountain side.So then Apollo brought it not to passThe child should be his father's murderer,Or the dread terror find accomplishment,And Laius be slain by his own son.Such was the prophet's horoscope. O king,Regard it not. Whate'er the god deems fitTo search, himself unaided will reveal.OEDIPUS What memories, what wild tumult of the soulCame o'er me, lady, as I heard thee speak!JOCASTA What mean'st thou? What has shocked and startled thee?OEDIPUS Methought I heard thee say that LaiusWas murdered at the meeting of three roads.JOCASTA So ran the story that is current still.OEDIPUS Where did this happen? Dost thou know the place?JOCASTA Phocis the land is called; the spot is whereBranch roads from Delphi and from Daulis meet.OEDIPUS And how long is it since these things befell?

JOCASTA 'Twas but a brief while were thou wast proclaimedOur country's ruler that the news was brought.OEDIPUS O Zeus, what hast thou willed to do with me!JOCASTA What is it, Oedipus, that moves thee so?OEDIPUS Ask me not yet; tell me the build and heightOf Laius? Was he still in manhood's prime?JOCASTA Tall was he, and his hair was lightly strewnWith silver; and not unlike thee in form.OEDIPUS O woe is me! Mehtinks unwittinglyI laid but now a dread curse on myself.JOCASTA What say'st thou? When I look upon thee, my king,I tremble.OEDIPUS 'Tis a dread presentimentThat in the end the seer will prove not blind.One further question to resolve my doubt.JOCASTA I quail; but ask, and I will answer all.OEDIPUS Had he but few attendants or a trainOf armed retainers with him, like a prince?JOCASTA They were but five in all, and one of themA herald; Laius in a mule-car rode.OEDIPUS Alas! 'tis clear as noonday now. But say,Lady, who carried this report to Thebes?JOCASTA A serf, the sole survivor who returned.OEDIPUS Haply he is at hand or in the house?JOCASTA No, for as soon as he returned and foundThee reigning in the stead of Laius slain,He clasped my hand and supplicated meTo send him to the alps and pastures, whereHe might be farthest from the sight of Thebes.And so I sent him. 'Twas an honest slaveAnd well deserved some better recompense.OEDIPUS Fetch him at once. I fain would see the man.JOCASTA He shall be brought; but wherefore summon him?OEDIPUS Lady, I fear my tongue has overrunDiscretion; therefore I would question him.JOCASTA Well, he shall come, but may not I too claimTo share the burden of thy heart, my king?OEDIPUS And thou shalt not be frustrate of thy wish.Now my imaginings have gone so far.Who has a higher claim that thou to hearMy tale of dire adventures? Listen then.My sire was Polybus of Corinth, andMy mother Merope, a Dorian;And I was held the foremost citizen,Till a strange thing befell me, strange indeed,Yet scarce deserving all the heat it stirred.

A roisterer at some banquet, flown with wine,Shouted "Thou art not true son of thy sire."It irked me, but I stomached for the nonceThe insult; on the morrow I sought outMy mother and my sire and questioned them.They were indignant at the random slurCast on my parentage and did their bestTo comfort me, but still the venomed barbRankled, for still the scandal spread and grew.So privily without their leave I wentTo Delphi, and Apollo sent me backBaulked of the knowledge that I came to seek.But other grievous things he prophesied,Woes, lamentations, mourning, portents dire;To wit I should defile my mother's bedAnd raise up seed too loathsome to behold,And slay the father from whose loins I sprang.Then, lady,--thou shalt hear the very truth--As I drew near the triple-branching roads,A herald met me and a man who satIn a car drawn by colts--as in thy tale--The man in front and the old man himselfThreatened to thrust me rudely from the path,Then jostled by the charioteer in wrathI struck him, and the old man, seeing this,Watched till I passed and from his car brought downFull on my head the double-pointed goad.Yet was I quits with him and more; one strokeOf my good staff sufficed to fling him cleanOut of the chariot seat and laid him prone.And so I slew them every one. But ifBetwixt this stranger there was aught in commonWith Laius, who more miserable than I,What mortal could you find more god-abhorred?Wretch whom no sojourner, no citizenMay harbor or address, whom all are boundTo harry from their homes. And this same curseWas laid on me, and laid by none but me.Yea with these hands all gory I polluteThe bed of him I slew. Say, am I vile?Am I not utterly unclean, a wretchDoomed to be banished, and in banishmentForgo the sight of all my dearest ones,And never tread again my native earth;Or else to wed my mother and slay my sire,Polybus, who begat me and upreared?

If one should say, this is the handiworkOf some inhuman power, who could blameHis judgment? But, ye pure and awful gods,Forbid, forbid that I should see that day!May I be blotted out from living menEre such a plague spot set on me its brand!CHORUS We too, O king, are troubled; but till thouHast questioned the survivor, still hope on.OEDIPUS My hope is faint, but still enough survivesTo bid me bide the coming of this herd.JOCASTA Suppose him here, what wouldst thou learn of him?OEDIPUS I'll tell thee, lady; if his tale agreesWith thine, I shall have 'scaped calamity.JOCASTA And what of special import did I say?OEDIPUS In thy report of what the herdsman saidLaius was slain by robbers; now if heStill speaks of robbers, not a robber, ISlew him not; "one" with "many" cannot square.But if he says one lonely wayfarer,The last link wanting to my guilt is forged.JOCASTA Well, rest assured, his tale ran thus at first,Nor can he now retract what then he said;Not I alone but all our townsfolk heard it.E'en should he vary somewhat in his story,He cannot make the death of LaiusIn any wise jump with the oracle.For Loxias said expressly he was doomedTo die by my child's hand, but he, poor babe,He shed no blood, but perished first himself.So much for divination. Henceforth IWill look for signs neither to right nor left.OEDIPUS Thou reasonest well. Still I would have thee sendAnd fetch the bondsman hither. See to it.JOCASTA That will I straightway. Come, let us within.I would do nothing that my lord mislikes. (Exeunt OEDIPUS and JOCASTA.)CHORUS (strophe 1)My lot be still to leadThe life of innocence and flyIrreverence in word or deed,To follow still those laws ordained on highWhose birthplace is the bright ethereal skyNo mortal birth they own,Olympus their progenitor alone:Ne'er shall they slumber in oblivion cold,The god in them is strong and grows not old.(antistrophe 1)

Of insolence is bredThe tyrant; insolence full blown,With empty riches surfeited,Scales the precipitous height and grasps the throne.Then topples o'er and lies in ruin prone;No foothold on that dizzy steep.But O may Heaven the true patriot keepWho burns with emulous zeal to serve the State.God is my help and hope, on him I wait.(strophe 2)But the proud sinner, or in word or deed,That will not Justice heed,Nor reverence the shrineOf images divine,Perdition seize his vain imaginings,If, urged by greed profane,He grasps at ill-got gain,And lays an impious hand on holiest things.Who when such deeds are doneCan hope heaven's bolts to shun?If sin like this to honor can aspire,Why dance I still and lead the sacred choir?(antistrophe 2)No more I'll seek earth's central oracle,Or Abae's hallowed cell,Nor to Olympia bringMy votive offering.If before all God's truth be not bade plain.O Zeus, reveal thy might,King, if thou'rt named arightOmnipotent, all-seeing, as of old;For Laius is forgot;His weird, men heed it not;Apollo is forsook and faith grows cold. (Enter JOCASTA.)JOCASTA My lords, ye look amazed to see your queenWith wreaths and gifts of incense in her hands.I had a mind to visit the high shrines,For Oedipus is overwrought, alarmedWith terrors manifold. He will not useHis past experience, like a man of sense,To judge the present need, but lends an earTo any croaker if he augurs ill.Since then my counsels naught avail, I turnTo thee, our present help in time of trouble,Apollo, Lord Lycean, and to theeMy prayers and supplications here I bring.

Lighten us, lord, and cleanse us from this curse!For now we all are cowed like marinersWho see their helmsman dumbstruck in the storm. (Enter CorinthianMESSENGER.)MESSENGER My masters, tell me where the palace isOf Oedipus; or better, where's the king.CHORUS Here is the palace and he bides within;This is his queen the mother of his children.MESSENGER All happiness attend her and the house,Blessed is her husband and her marriage-bed.JOCASTA My greetings to thee, stranger; thy fair wordsDeserve a like response. But tell me whyThou comest--what thy need or what thy news.MESSENGER Good for thy consort and the royal house.JOCASTA What may it be? Whose messenger art thou?MESSENGER The Isthmian commons have resolved to makeThy husband king--so 'twas reported there.JOCASTA What! is not aged Polybus still king?MESSENGER No, verily; he's dead and in his grave.JOCASTA What! is he dead, the sire of Oedipus?MESSENGER If I speak falsely, may I die myself.JOCASTA Quick, maiden, bear these tidings to my lord.Ye god-sent oracles, where stand ye now!This is the man whom Oedipus long shunned,In dread to prove his murderer; and nowHe dies in nature's course, not by his hand. (Enter OEDIPUS.)OEDIPUS My wife, my queen, Jocasta, why hast thouSummoned me from my palace?JOCASTA Hear this man,And as thou hearest judge what has becomeOf all those awe-inspiring oracles.OEDIPUS Who is this man, and what his news for me?JOCASTA He comes from Corinth and his message this:Thy father Polybus hath passed away.OEDIPUS What? let me have it, stranger, from thy mouth.MESSENGER If I must first make plain beyond a doubtMy message, know that Polybus is dead.OEDIPUS By treachery, or by sickness visited?MESSENGER One touch will send an old man to his rest.OEDIPUS So of some malady he died, poor man.MESSENGER Yes, having measured the full span of years.OEDIPUS Out on it, lady! why should one regardThe Pythian hearth or birds that scream i' the air?Did they not point at me as doomed to slayMy father? but he's dead and in his graveAnd here am I who ne'er unsheathed a sword;

Unless the longing for his absent sonKilled him and so I slew him in a sense.But, as they stand, the oracles are dead--Dust, ashes, nothing, dead as Polybus.JOCASTA Say, did not I foretell this long ago?OEDIPUS Thou didst: but I was misled by my fear.JOCASTA Then let I no more weigh upon thy soul.OEDIPUS Must I not fear my mother's marriage bed.JOCASTA Why should a mortal man, the sport of chance,With no assured foreknowledge, be afraid?Best live a careless life from hand to mouth.This wedlock with thy mother fear not thou.How oft it chances that in dreams a manHas wed his mother! He who least regardsSuch brainsick phantasies lives most at ease.OEDIPUS I should have shared in full thy confidence,Were not my mother living; since she livesThough half convinced I still must live in dread.JOCASTA And yet thy sire's death lights out darkness much.OEDIPUS Much, but my fear is touching her who lives.MESSENGER Who may this woman be whom thus you fear?OEDIPUS Merope, stranger, wife of Polybus.MESSENGER And what of her can cause you any fear?OEDIPUS A heaven-sent oracle of dread import.MESSENGER A mystery, or may a stranger hear it?OEDIPUS Aye, 'tis no secret. Loxias once foretoldThat I should mate with mine own mother, and shedWith my own hands the blood of my own sire.Hence Corinth was for many a year to meA home distant; and I trove abroad,But missed the sweetest sight, my parents' face.MESSENGER Was this the fear that exiled thee from home?OEDIPUS Yea, and the dread of slaying my own sire.MESSENGER Why, since I came to give thee pleasure, King,Have I not rid thee of this second fear?OEDIPUS Well, thou shalt have due guerdon for thy pains.MESSENGER Well, I confess what chiefly made me comeWas hope to profit by thy coming home.OEDIPUS Nay, I will ne'er go near my parents more.MESSENGER My son, 'tis plain, thou know'st not what thou doest.OEDIPUS How so, old man? For heaven's sake tell me all.MESSENGER If this is why thou dreadest to return.OEDIPUS Yea, lest the god's word be fulfilled in me.MESSENGER Lest through thy parents thou shouldst be accursed?OEDIPUS This and none other is my constant dread.MESSENGER Dost thou not know thy fears are baseless all?

OEDIPUS How baseless, if I am their very son?MESSENGER Since Polybus was naught to thee in blood.OEDIPUS What say'st thou? was not Polybus my sire?MESSENGER As much thy sire as I am, and no more.OEDIPUS My sire no more to me than one who is naught?MESSENGER Since I begat thee not, no more did he.OEDIPUS What reason had he then to call me son?MESSENGER Know that he took thee from my hands, a gift.OEDIPUS Yet, if no child of his, he loved me well.MESSENGER A childless man till then, he warmed to thee.OEDIPUS A foundling or a purchased slave, this child?MESSENGER I found thee in Cithaeron's wooded glens.OEDIPUS What led thee to explore those upland glades?MESSENGER My business was to tend the mountain flocks.OEDIPUS A vagrant shepherd journeying for hire?MESSENGER True, but thy savior in that hour, my son.OEDIPUS My savior? from what harm? what ailed me then?MESSENGER Those ankle joints are evidence enow.OEDIPUS Ah, why remind me of that ancient sore?MESSENGER I loosed the pin that riveted thy feet.OEDIPUS Yes, from my cradle that dread brand I bore.MESSENGER Whence thou deriv'st the name that still is thine.OEDIPUS Who did it? I adjure thee, tell me whoSay, was it father, mother?MESSENGER I know not.The man from whom I had thee may know more.OEDIPUS What, did another find me, not thyself?MESSENGER Not I; another shepherd gave thee me.OEDIPUS Who was he? Would'st thou know again the man?MESSENGER He passed indeed for one of Laius' house.OEDIPUS The king who ruled the country long ago?MESSENGER The same: he was a herdsman of the king.OEDIPUS And is he living still for me to see him?MESSENGER His fellow-countrymen should best know that.OEDIPUS Doth any bystander among you knowThe herd he speaks of, or by seeing himAfield or in the city? answer straight!The hour hath come to clear this business up.CHORUS Methinks he means none other than the hindWhom thou anon wert fain to see; but thatOur queen Jocasta best of all could tell.OEDIPUS Madam, dost know the man we sent to fetch?Is the same of whom the stranger speaks?JOCASTA Who is the man? What matter? Let it be.'Twere waste of thought to weigh such idle words.OEDIPUS No, with such guiding clues I cannot fail

To bring to light the secret of my birth.JOCASTA Oh, as thou carest for thy life, give o'erThis quest. Enough the anguish I endure.OEDIPUS Be of good cheer; though I be proved the sonOf a bondwoman, aye, through three descentsTriply a slave, thy honor is unsmirched.JOCASTA Yet humor me, I pray thee; do not this.OEDIPUS I cannot; I must probe this matter home.JOCASTA 'Tis for thy sake I advise thee for the best.OEDIPUS I grow impatient of this best advice.JOCASTA Ah mayst thou ne'er discover who thou art!OEDIPUS Go, fetch me here the herd, and leave yon womanTo glory in her pride of ancestry.JOCASTA O woe is thee, poor wretch! With that last wordI leave thee, henceforth silent evermore. (Exit JOCASTA.)CHORUS Why, Oedipus, why stung with passionate griefHath the queen thus departed? Much I fearFrom this dead calm will burst a storm of woes.OEDIPUS Let the storm burst, my fixed resolve still holds,To learn my lineage, be it ne'er so low.It may be she with all a woman's prideThinks scorn of my base parentage. But IWho rank myself as Fortune's favorite child,The giver of good gifts, shall not be shamed.She is my mother and the changing moonsMy brethren, and with them I wax and wane.Thus sprung why should I fear to trace my birth?Nothing can make me other than I am.CHORUS (strophe)If my soul prophetic err not, if my wisdom aught avail,Thee, Cithaeron, I shall hail,As the nurse and foster-mother of our Oedipus shall greetEre tomorrow's full moon rises, and exalt thee as is meet.Dance and song shall hymn thy praises, lover of our royal race.Phoebus, may my words find grace!(antistrophe)Child, who bare thee, nymph or goddess? sure thy sure was more thanman,Haply the hill-roamer Pan.Of did Loxias beget thee, for he haunts the upland wold;Or Cyllene's lord, or Bacchus, dweller on the hilltops cold?Did some Heliconian Oread give him thee, a new-born joy?Nymphs with whom he love to toy?OEDIPUS Elders, if I, who never yet beforeHave met the man, may make a guess, methinksI see the herdsman who we long have sought;

His time-worn aspect matches with the yearsOf yonder aged messenger; besidesI seem to recognize the men who bring himAs servants of my own. But you, perchance,Having in past days known or seen the herd,May better by sure knowledge my surmise.CHORUS I recognize him; one of Laius' house;A simple hind, but true as any man. (Enter HERDSMAN.)OEDIPUS Corinthian, stranger, I address thee first,Is this the man thou meanest!MESSENGER This is he.OEDIPUS And now old man, look up and answer allI ask thee. Wast thou once of Laius' house?HERDSMAN I was, a thrall, not purchased but home-bred.OEDIPUS What was thy business? how wast thou employed?HERDSMAN The best part of my life I tended sheep.OEDIPUS What were the pastures thou didst most frequent?HERDSMAN Cithaeron and the neighboring alps.OEDIPUS Then thereThou must have known yon man, at least by fame?HERDSMAN Yon man? in what way? what man dost thou mean?OEDIPUS The man here, having met him in past times...HERDSMAN Off-hand I cannot call him well to mind.MESSENGER No wonder, master. But I will reviveHis blunted memories. Sure he can recallWhat time together both we drove our flocks,He two, I one, on the Cithaeron range,For three long summers; I his mate from springTill rose Arcturus; then in winter timeI led mine home, he his to Laius' folds.Did these things happen as I say, or no?HERDSMAN 'Tis long ago, but all thou say'st is true.MESSENGER Well, thou mast then remember giving meA child to rear as my own foster-son?HERDSMAN Why dost thou ask this question? What of that?MESSENGER Friend, he that stands before thee was that child.HERDSMAN A plague upon thee! Hold thy wanton tongue!OEDIPUS Softly, old man, rebuke him not; thy wordsAre more deserving chastisement than his.HERDSMAN O best of masters, what is my offense?OEDIPUS Not answering what he asks about the child.HERDSMAN He speaks at random, babbles like a fool.OEDIPUS If thou lack'st grace to speak, I'll loose thy tongue.HERDSMAN For mercy's sake abuse not an old man.OEDIPUS Arrest the villain, seize and pinion him!HERDSMAN Alack, alack!

What have I done? what wouldst thou further learn?OEDIPUS Didst give this man the child of whom he asks?HERDSMAN I did; and would that I had died that day!OEDIPUS And die thou shalt unless thou tell the truth.HERDSMAN But, if I tell it, I am doubly lost.OEDIPUS The knave methinks will still prevaricate.HERDSMAN Nay, I confessed I gave it long ago.OEDIPUS Whence came it? was it thine, or given to thee?HERDSMAN I had it from another, 'twas not mine.OEDIPUS From whom of these our townsmen, and what house?HERDSMAN Forbear for God's sake, master, ask no more.OEDIPUS If I must question thee again, thou'rt lost.HERDSMAN Well then--it was a child of Laius' house.OEDIPUS Slave-born or one of Laius' own race?HERDSMAN Ah me!I stand upon the perilous edge of speech.OEDIPUS And I of hearing, but I still must hear.HERDSMAN Know then the child was by repute his own,But she within, thy consort best could tell.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 What didst thou give it then to this old man?HERDSMAN Through pity, master, for the babe. I thoughtHe'd take it to the country whence he came;But he preserved it for the worst of woes.For if thou art in sooth what this man saith,God pity thee! thou wast to misery born.OEDIPUS Ah me! ah me! all brought to pass, all true!O light, may I behold thee nevermore!I stand a wretch, in birth, in wedlock cursed,A parricide, incestuously, triply cursed! (Exit OEDIPUS.)CHORUS (strophe 1)Races of mortal manWhose life is but a span,I count ye but the shadow of a shade!For he who most doth knowOf bliss, hath but the show;A moment, and the visions pale and fade.Thy fall, O Oedipus, thy piteous fallWarns me none born of women blest to call.

(antistrophe 1)For he of marksmen best,O Zeus, outshot the rest,And won the prize supreme of wealth and power.By him the vulture maidWas quelled, her witchery laid;He rose our savior and the land's strong tower.We hailed thee king and from that day adoredOf mighty Thebes the universal lord.(strophe 2)O heavy hand of fate!Who now more desolate,Whose tale more sad than thine, whose lot more dire?O Oedipus, discrowned head,Thy cradle was thy marriage bed;One harborage sufficed for son and sire.How could the soil thy father eared so longEndure to bear in silence such a wrong?(antistrophe 2)All-seeing Time hath caughtGuilt, and to justice broughtThe son and sire commingled in one bed.O child of Laius' ill-starred raceWould I had ne'er beheld thy face;I raise for thee a dirge as o'er the dead.Yet, sooth to say, through thee I drew new breath,And now through thee I feel a second death. (Enter SECOND MESSENGER.)SECOND MESSENGER Most grave and reverend senators of Thebes,What Deeds ye soon must hear, what sights beholdHow will ye mourn, if, true-born patriots,Ye reverence still the race of Labdacus!Not Ister nor all Phasis' flood, I ween,Could wash away the blood-stains from this house,The ills it shrouds or soon will bring to light,Ills wrought of malice, not unwittingly.The worst to bear are self-inflicted wounds.CHORUS Grievous enough for all our tears and groansOur past calamities; what canst thou add?SECOND MESSENGER My tale is quickly told and quickly heard.Our sovereign lady queen Jocasta's dead.CHORUS Alas, poor queen! how came she by her death?SECOND MESSENGER By her own hand. And all the horror of it,Not having seen, yet cannot comprehend.Nathless, as far as my poor memory serves,I will relate the unhappy lady's woe.When in her frenzy she had passed inside

The vestibule, she hurried straight to winThe bridal-chamber, clutching at her hairWith both her hands, and, once within the room,She shut the doors behind her with a crash."Laius," she cried, and called her husband deadLong, long ago; her thought was of that childBy him begot, the son by whom the sireWas murdered and the mother left to breedWith her own seed, a monstrous progeny.Then she bewailed the marriage bed whereonPoor wretch, she had conceived a double brood,Husband by husband, children by her child.What happened after that I cannot tell,Nor how the end befell, for with a shriekBurst on us Oedipus; all eyes were fixedOn Oedipus, as up and down he strode,Nor could we mark her agony to the end.For stalking to and fro "A sword!" he cried,"Where is the wife, no wife, the teeming wombThat bore a double harvest, me and mine?"And in his frenzy some supernal power(No mortal, surely, none of us who watched him)Guided his footsteps; with a terrible shriek,As though one beckoned him, he crashed againstThe folding doors, and from their staples forcedThe wrenched bolts and hurled himself within.Then we beheld the woman hanging there,A running noose entwined about her neck.But when he saw her, with a maddened roarHe loosed the cord; and when her wretched corpseLay stretched on earth, what followed--O 'twas dread!He tore the golden brooches that upheldHer queenly robes, upraised them high and smoteFull on his eye-balls, uttering words like these:"No more shall ye behold such sights of woe,Deeds I have suffered and myself have wrought;Henceforward quenched in darkness shall ye seeThose ye should ne'er have seen; now blind to thoseWhom, when I saw, I vainly yearned to know."Such was the burden of his moan, whereto,Not once but oft, he struck with his hand upliftHis eyes, and at each stroke the ensanguined orbsBedewed his beard, not oozing drop by drop,But one black gory downpour, thick as hail.Such evils, issuing from the double source,Have whelmed them both, confounding man and wife.

Till now the storied fortune of this houseWas fortunate indeed; but from this dayWoe, lamentation, ruin, death, disgrace,All ills that can be named, all, all are theirs.CHORUS But hath he still no respite from his pain?SECOND MESSENGER He cries, "Unbar the doors and let all ThebesBehold the slayer of his sire, his mother's--"That shameful word my lips may not repeat.He vows to fly self-banished from the land,Nor stay to bring upon his house the curseHimself had uttered; but he has no strengthNor one to guide him, and his torture's moreThan man can suffer, as yourselves will see.For lo, the palace portals are unbarred,And soon ye shall behold a sight so sadThat he who must abhorred would pity it. (Enter OEDIPUS blinded.)CHORUS Woeful sight! more woeful noneThese sad eyes have looked upon.Whence this madness? None can tellWho did cast on thee his spell, prowling all thy life around,Leaping with a demon bound.Hapless wretch! how can I brookOn thy misery to look?Though to gaze on thee I yearn,Much to question, much to learn,Horror-struck away I turn.OEDIPUS Ah me! ah woe is me!Ah whither am I borne!How like a ghost forlornMy voice flits from me on the air!On, on the demon goads. The end, ah where?CHORUS An end too dread to tell, too dark to see.OEDIPUS (strophe 1)Dark, dark! The horror of darkness, like a shroud,Wraps me and bears me on through mist and cloud.Ah me, ah me! What spasms athwart me shoot,What pangs of agonizing memory?CHORUS No marvel if in such a plight thou feel'stThe double weight of past and present woes.OEDIPUS (antistrophe 1)Ah friend, still loyal, constant still and kind,Thou carest for the blind.I know thee near, and though bereft of eyes,Thy voice I recognize.CHORUS O doer of dread deeds, how couldst thou marThy vision thus? What demon goaded thee?

OEDIPUS (strophe 2)Apollo, friend, Apollo, he it wasThat brought these ills to pass;But the right hand that dealt the blowWas mine, none other. How,How, could I longer see when sightBrought no delight?CHORUS Alas! 'tis as thou sayest.OEDIPUS Say, friends, can any look or voiceOr touch of love henceforth my heart rejoice?Haste, friends, no fond delay,Take the twice cursed awayFar from all ken,The man abhorred of gods, accursed of men.CHORUS O thy despair well suits thy desperate case.Would I had never looked upon thy face!OEDIPUS (antistrophe 2)My curse on him whoe'er unrivedThe waif's fell fetters and my life revived!He meant me well, yet had he left me there,He had saved my friends and me a world of care.CHORUS I too had wished it so.OEDIPUS Then had I never come to shedMy father's blood nor climbed my mother's bed;The monstrous offspring of a womb defiled,Co-mate of him who gendered me, and child.Was ever man before afflicted thus,Like Oedipus.CHORUS I cannot say that thou hast counseled well,For thou wert better dead than living blind.OEDIPUS What's done was well done. Thou canst never shakeMy firm belief. A truce to argument.For, had I sight, I know not with what eyesI could have met my father in the shades,Or my poor mother, since against the twainI sinned, a sin no gallows could atone.Aye, but, ye say, the sight of children joysA parent's eyes. What, born as mine were born?No, such a sight could never bring me joy;Nor this fair city with its battlements,Its temples and the statues of its gods,Sights from which I, now wretchedst of all,Once ranked the foremost Theban in all Thebes,By my own sentence am cut off, condemnedBy my own proclamation 'gainst the wretch,The miscreant by heaven itself declared

Unclean--and of the race of Laius.Thus branded as a felon by myself,How had I dared to look you in the face?Nay, had I known a way to choke the springsOf hearing, I had never shrunk to makeA dungeon of this miserable frame,Cut off from sight and hearing; for 'tis bliss to bide in regionssorrow cannot reach.Why didst thou harbor me, Cithaeron, whyDidst thou not take and slay me? Then I neverHad shown to men the secret of my birth.O Polybus, O Corinth, O my home,Home of my ancestors (so wast thou called)How fair a nursling then I seemed, how foulThe canker that lay festering in the bud!Now is the blight revealed of root and fruit.Ye triple high-roads, and thou hidden glen,Coppice, and pass where meet the three-branched ways,Ye drank my blood, the life-blood these hands spilt,My father's; do ye call to mind perchanceThose deeds of mine ye witnessed and the workI wrought thereafter when I came to Thebes?O fatal wedlock, thou didst give me birth,And, having borne me, sowed again my seed,Mingling the blood of fathers, brothers, children,Brides, wives and mothers, an incestuous brood,All horrors that are wrought beneath the sun,Horrors so foul to name them were unmeet.O, I adjure you, hide me anywhereFar from this land, or slay me straight, or cast meDown to the depths of ocean out of sight.Come hither, deign to touch an abject wretch;Draw near and fear not; I myself must bearThe load of guilt that none but I can share. (Enter CREON.)CREON Lo, here is Creon, the one man to grantThy prayer by action or advice, for heIs left the State's sole guardian in thy stead.OEDIPUS Ah me! what words to accost him can I find?What cause has he to trust me? In the pastI have bee proved his rancorous enemy.CREON Not in derision, Oedipus, I comeNor to upbraid thee with thy past misdeeds. (To BYSTANDERS.) Butshame upon you! if ye feel no senseOf human decencies, at least revereThe Sun whose light beholds and nurtures all.Leave not thus nakedly for all to gaze at

A horror neither earth nor rain from heavenNor light will suffer. Lead him straight within,For it is seemly that a kinsman's woesBe heard by kin and seen by kin alone.OEDIPUS O listen, since thy presence comes to meA shock of glad surprise--so noble thou,And I so vile--O grant me one small boon.I ask it not on my behalf, but thine.CREON And what the favor thou wouldst crave of me?OEDIPUS Forth from thy borders thrust me with all speed;Set me within some vasty desert whereNo mortal voice shall greet me any more.CREON This had I done already, but I deemedIt first behooved me to consult the god.OEDIPUS His will was set forth fully--to destroyThe parricide, the scoundrel; and I am he.CREON Yea, so he spake, but in our present plight'Twere better to consult the god anew.OEDIPUS Dare ye inquire concerning such a wretch?CREON Yea, for thyself wouldst credit now his word.OEDIPUS Aye, and on thee in all humilityI lay this charge: let her who lies withinReceive such burial as thou shalt ordain;Such rites 'tis thine, as brother, to perform.But for myself, O never let my Thebes,The city of my sires, be doomed to bearThe burden of my presence while I live.No, let me be a dweller on the hills,On yonder mount Cithaeron, famed as mine,My tomb predestined for me by my sireAnd mother, while they lived, that I may dieSlain as they sought to slay me, when alive.This much I know full surely, nor diseaseShall end my days, nor any common chance;For I had ne'er been snatched from death, unlessI was predestined to some awful doom.So be it. I reck not how Fate deals with meBut my unhappy children--for my sonsBe not concerned, O Creon, they are men,And for themselves, where'er they be, can fend.But for my daughters twain, poor innocent maids,Who ever sat beside me at the boardSharing my viands, drinking of my cup,For them, I pray thee, care, and, if thou willst,O might I feel their touch and make my moan.Hear me, O prince, my noble-hearted prince!

Could I but blindly touch them with my handsI'd think they still were mine, as when I saw. (ANTIGONE and ISMENEare led in.) What say I? can it be my pretty onesWhose sobs I hear? Has Creon pitied meAnd sent me my two darlings? Can this be?CREON 'Tis true; 'twas I procured thee this delight,Knowing the joy they were to thee of old.OEDIPUS God speed thee! and as meed for bringing themMay Providence deal with thee kindlierThan it has dealt with me! O children mine,Where are ye? Let me clasp you with these hands,A brother's hands, a father's; hands that madeLack-luster sockets of his once bright eyes;Hands of a man who blindly, recklessly,Became your sire by her from whom he sprang.Though I cannot behold you, I must weepIn thinking of the evil days to come,The slights and wrongs that men will put upon you.Where'er ye go to feast or festival,No merrymaking will it prove for you,But oft abashed in tears ye will return.And when ye come to marriageable years,Where's the bold wooers who will jeopardizeTo take unto himself such disreputeAs to my children's children still must cling,For what of infamy is lacking here?"Their father slew his father, sowed the seedWhere he himself was gendered, and begatThese maidens at the source wherefrom he sprang."Such are the gibes that men will cast at you.Who then will wed you? None, I ween, but yeMust pine, poor maids, in single barrenness.O Prince, Menoeceus' son, to thee, I turn,With the it rests to father them, for weTheir natural parents, both of us, are lost.O leave them not to wander poor, unwed,Thy kin, nor let them share my low estate.O pity them so young, and but for theeAll destitute. Thy hand upon it, Prince.To you, my children I had much to say,Were ye but ripe to hear. Let this suffice:Pray ye may find some home and live content,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.OEDIPUS Rob me not of these my children!CREON Crave not mastery in all,For the mastery that raised thee was thy bane and wrought thy fall.CHORUS Look ye, countrymen and Thebans, this is Oedipus the great,He who knew the Sphinx's riddle and was mightiest in our state.Who of all our townsmen gazed not on his fame with envious eyes?Now, in what a sea of troubles sunk and overwhelmed he lies!Therefore wait to see life's ending ere thou count one mortal blest;Wait till free from pain and sorrow he has gained his final rest.THE END----------------------------------------------------------------------Copyright statement:The Internet Classics Archive by Daniel C. Stevenson, Web Atomics.World Wide Web presentation is copyright (C) 1994-1998, DanielC. Stevenson, Web Atomics.All rights reserved under international and pan-American copyrightconventions, including the right of reproduction in whole or in partin any form. Direct permission requests to [email protected] of "The Deeds of the Divine Augustus" by Augustus is

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