610

2

when you take good men for bad, bad men for good!
A true friend thrown aside—why, life itself
is not more precious.

In time you will know this well,
for time, and time alone, will show the just man,
though scoundrels are discovered in a day.

**CHORAGOS:** This is well said, and a prudent man would ponder it.
Judgments too quickly formed are dangerous.

**OEDIPUS:** But is he not quick in his duplicity,
and shall I not be quick to parry him?
Would you have me stand still, hold my peace, and let
this man win everything, through my inaction?

**KREON:** And you want—what is it, then? to banish me?

**OEDIPUS:** No, not your exile. I want your death,
so that all the world may see what treason means.

**KREON:** You will persist, then? You will not believe me?

**OEDIPUS:** How can I believe you?

**KREON:** Then you are a fool.

**OEDIPUS:** To save myself?

**KREON:** In justice, think of me.

**OEDIPUS:** You are evil incarnate.

**KREON:** But suppose that you are wrong?

**OEDIPUS:** Still I must rule.

**KREON:** But not if you rule badly.

**OEDIPUS:** O city, city!

**KREON:** It is my city, too!

**CHORAGOS:** Now, my lords, be still. I see the Queen,

632

3

Iokaste, coming from her palace chambers;
and it is time she came, for the sake of you both:
your present quarrel can be resolved through her.

[enter IOKASTE]

IOKASTE: Poor wicked men, what idiot din is this?
With Thebes sick to death, is it not shameful
that you should rake some private quarrel up?
Come into the house—and you, Kreon, go now;
let us have no more of this tumult over nothing.

KREON: Nothing? No, sister: what your husband plans for me
is one of two great evils: exile or death.

OEDIPUS: He is right.

Why, woman, I have caught him squarely,
plotting against my life.

KREON: No! Let me die
accursed if ever I have wished you harm!

IOKASTE: Ah, believe it, Oedipus!
In the name of the gods, respect this oath of his
for my sake, for the sake of these people here!

[note: the KOMMOS (649) follows.]

INVOCATION TO THE ORACLE

FROM SOPHOCLES' KING OEDIPUS

Murmuring word of God, from the golden deep
Delphic place of shadows, O whisper,
what will you say to Thebes, the unshaded city?
Fear unjoints me, I tremble in all my mind.
Lord of wonder, weaver of light indwelling,
what fresh net do you
spread or lift again from the whirl of years?
Be promise to our hope, immortality song.
unearthly

Let me pray to the immortal daughter of Zeus,
Athena, to Artemis her sister,
keeping her fine throne in the market ring,
and to Apollo, bowman at the far butts of heaven:
come, gods, be beautiful in your mercy,
leap like streams against
the fires of our grief, as in the old time
you stepped from the splendid air, O come again.

Dudley Fitts

Robert Fitzgerald

rsf to df : 7/18/48

11. 151--189

Murmuring word of Zeus, from the golden deep
Delphic place of shadows, O whisper,
What are you singing to the blaze of Thebes?
Fear unjoints me, I tremble in all my mind.
God of wonder, worker of light indwelling,
What fresh net do you
Spread or weave again from the whirl of years?
Tell me, divine verse, image of golden hope.
Let me pray to the immortal daughter of Zeus,
Athena, to Artemis her sister,
Keeping her fine throne in the market ring,
And to Apollo, bowman at the far butts of heaven;
Come, gods, be beautiful in your mercy,
Leap like streams against
The fires of our grief, as in the old time
You sprang from the splendid air, O come again!

Else our afflictions have no end,
Now all our sickened host lies down,
And no man fights off death in his mind;
No grain is reaped, no child is born
From Thebes' rich earth, or the burning mothers;
See how their lives like birds take wing--
Like flames that catch when a fire soars--
To the shores of the god of evening.

rsf to df

11/22/47

1086--1109

If truth beyond the hour
Falls to the mind's power
And study of God's will,
I prophesy Kithairon glorified
Before the next full moon shall ride
Clear of her stone window sill:
O mountain of our King!
Let the stately dance ascend
In splendor to his cradling place;
Let the Theban chorus sing!
Apollo, may it please your grace:
Let it be so: attend.

Who bore you, royal child,
Of the immortal wild
Goddesses of delight?
An Oread whom the ranging Silenus chose,
Or Apollo, lover of plateaus,
Or Hermes, lord of Kyllene's height?
Or that elated god,
Great Dionysus, roamer of mountains,
He--was it he who found you there,
And took you up in his own proud
Arms from your mother's arms: a fair
Nymph of Parnassus fountains?

rsf to df

1/3/48

1086--1109

If light beyond the hour
Glows in the mind's power
And study of God's will,
I prophesy this mountain glorified
Before the next full moon shall ride
Clear of her stone window sill:
Kithairon of our king!
Let the choral dancers bend
In wonder of his cradling place,
And all our Theban choir sing!
Apollo, may it please your grace:
Let it be so: attend.

Who bore you, royal child,
Of the immortal wild
Goddesses of delight?
Some Oread whom Pan the Ranger chose,
Or Apollo, lover of plateaus,
Or Hermes, lord of Kyllene's height?
Or flushed as evening cloud,
Great Dionysus, roamer of mountains,
He--was it he who found you there,
And took you up in his own proud
Arms from your mother's arms: a fair
Nymph of the Muses' fountains?

rsf and df

8/30/47

1086--1109

O Kithairon:

If I can divine the truth,
The next found moon at her rising
Will hear you praised as the gentle
Mother and nurse of our king;
You will be honored in dances
For the grace you lend our House:
O Phoebus, bring it to pass.

Oedipus, son:

What delighting Oread bore you
To Pan who strays on the mountains
Or to the upland Apollo
Or Hermes of high Kyllene?
Or was it the bacchanals' god,
Dionysus, who took you proudly
From the arms of a nymph of Parnassus?

rsf to df : 7/5/48

11. 151--189

What charge do you lay upon sunbeaten Thebes?

With sacred fear, Delian artificer,
dwelling in brightness,

What fresh met do you

Divine song, mirror of hope, O tell!

Let me pray to the immortal daughter of God,

Keeping her dear throne in the market ring,

And Apollo, bowman at the far butts of heaven,

Leap like streams against

Alas, endless our sorrows.

No soul in all the dying host

Can cut through death in his mind.

The noble land has no more harvests;

Though they bear no more;
Mothers groan in labor,

See how their souls like winging birds take flight

One by one, as a conflagration soars,

To the beach of the god of evening.

rsf to df

9/19/47

(II)

Alas, generations of men!
Your lives, your living days
Exist and do not exist.
What man knows happiness?
What man has ever known
Joy but he did not trust
A dream that sinks away?
Oedipus, Oedipus!
Your ghostly glory gone,
Your doom has taught me to say
No man alive is blest.

[7]

Once, years ago, with happy augury,
You brought us fortune; be the same again!
No man disputes your power to rule the land:
But rule over men, not over a dead city!
Ships are only hulls, citadels are nothing,
When no life moves in the empty passageways.

OEDIPUS:
Poor children! You may be sure I know
All that you longed for in your coming here.
I know that you are deathly sick, and yet,
Sick as you are, not one is as sick as I.
Each of you suffers in himself alone
His anguish, not another's; but my spirit
Groans for the city, for myself, for you.

I was not sleeping, you are not waking me.
No, I have been in tears for a long while
And in my wandering thought walked many ways.
In all my I have searched them, found one helpful course,
That I know.
And (taken from I have sent Creon,
Som of Menoikeus, brother of the Queen,
To Delphi, Apollo's place of revelation,
To learn there, if he can,
What act or pledge of mine may save the city.

I have counted the days, and now, this very day,
I am troubled, for he has overstayed his time.
What is he doing? He has been gone too long.
Yet whenever he comes back, I should do ill
whatever hint the god may give.
To scant anything that the god may reveal.

[9]

It is a deathly thing, beyond expiation.

We must not let it feed upon us longer.

OEDIPUS: What defilement? How shall we rid ourselves of it?

CREON: By exile or death, blood for blood. It was
Murder that brought the plague-wind on the city.

OEDIPUS: Murder of whom? Surely the god has named him?

CREON: My lord: long ago Laios was our king,
Before you came to govern us.

OEDIPUS: I know;
I learned of him from others; I never saw him.

CREON: He was murdered; and Apollo commands us now
To take revenge upon whoever killed him.

OEDIPUS: Upon whom? Where are they? Where shall we find a clue
To solve that crime, after so many years?

CREON: Here in this land, he said.

If we make enquiry,
We may touch things that otherwise escape us.

OEDIPUS: Tell me: Was Laios murdered in his house,
Or in the fields, or in some foreign country?

CREON: He said he planned to make a pilgrimage.
He did not come home again.

OEDIPUS: And was there no one,

[10]

No witness, no companion to tell what happened?

CREON: They were all killed but one, and he got away
So frightened that he could remember one thing only.

OEDIPUS: What was that one thing? One may be the key
To everything, if we resolve to use it.

CREON: He said that a band of highwaymen attacked them,
Outnumbered them, and overwhelmed the King.

OEDIPUS: Strange, that a highwayman should be so daring—
Unless some faction here bribed him to do it.

CREON: We thought of that. But after Laios' death
New troubles arose and *we had no avenger.*
*put off our revenge.*

OEDIPUS: What troubles could prevent your hunting down the *killers*?
What troubles could prevent your hunting down the *murderers*?

CREON: The riddling Sphinx's song
Made us deaf to all mysteries but her own.

OEDIPUS: Then once more I must bring what is dark to light.
It is most fitting that Apollo shows,
As you do, this compunction for the dead.
You shall see how I stand by you, *as I should,*
To avenge the city and the city's god,
And not as though it were for some distant friend,
But for my own sake, to be rid of evil.
Whoever killed King Laios might—who knows?—
Decide at any moment to kill me as well.
By avenging Laios I protect myself.
*the murdered king)*
*the avenger)*

[13]

CHORUS:

What is the god singing in his profound
Delphi of gold and shadow?

What oracle for Thebes, the sunwhipped city?

Fear unjoints me, the roots of my heart tremble.

Now I remember, O Saviour, your power, and wonder:
Will you send doom like a sudden cloud, or weave it
Like nightfall of the past?

Ah no: be merciful, issue of holy sound:
Dearest to our expectancy: be tender!

Let me pray to Athenê, the immortal daughter of Zeus,
And to Artemis her sister
Who keeps her famous throne in the market ring,

And to Apollo, bowman at the far butts of heaven--

O gods, descend! Like three streams leap against
The fires of our grief, the fires of darkness;
Be swift to bring us rest!

As in the old time from the brilliant house
Of air you stepped to save us, come again!

Now our afflictions have no end,
Now all our stricken host lies down
And no man fights off death in his mind;

[strophe 1]

[antistrophe 1]

[strophe 2]

With

[14]

The noble plowland bears no grain,
And groaning mothers can not bear--

See, how *our* lives like birds take wing,
Like sparks that fly when a fire soars,
To the shore of the god of evening.

The plague burns on, it is pitiless,
Though pallid children laden with death
Lie unwept in the stony ways,

And old grey women by every path
Flock to the strand about the altars

There to strike their breasts and cry
Worship of Zeus in wailing prayers:
Be kind, God's golden child!

[antistrophe 2]

There are no swords in this attack by fire,
No shields, but we are ringed with cries.

[strophe 3]

Send the besieger plunging from our homes
Into the vast sea-room of the Atlantic
Or into the waves that foam eastward of Thrace--

For the day ravages what the night spares--
Destroy our enemy, lord of the thunder!
Let him be rivem by lightning from heaven!

Phoibos Apollo, stretch the sun's bowstring,

[antistrophe 3]

[15]

That golden cord, until it sing for us,
Flashing arrows in heaven!

Artemis, Huntress,
Race with flaring lights upon our mountains!

O scarlet god, O golden-banded brow,
O Theban Bacchos in a storm of Maenads,

Fight that Death, that all the Undying hate!

Come with blinding cressets, come in joy!

[enter OEDIPUS, C]

[17]

OEDIPUS: Is this your prayer? It may be answered. Come, Listen to me, act as the crisis demands, And you shall have relief from all these evils.

Until now I was a stranger to this tale, As I had been a stranger to the crime. Could I track down the murderer without a clue? But now, friends, As one who became a citizen after the murder, I make this proclamation to all Thebans:

If any man knows by whose hand Laios, son of Labdakos, Met his death, I direct that man to tell me everything, No matter what he fears for having so long withheld it. Let it stand as promised that no further trouble Will come to him, but he may leave the land in safety.

Moreover: If anyone knows the murderer to be foreign, Let him not keep silent: he shall have his reward from me. However, if he does conceal it; if any man Fearing for his friend or for himself disobeys this edict, He must, in that event, what do I propose to do?

3-line spaces

Hear me!

I solemnly forbid the people of this country, Where power and throne are mine, ever to receive that man Or speak to him, no matter who he is, or let him Join in sacrifice, lustration, or in prayer. I decree that he be driven from every house, Being, as he is, corruption itself to us: the Delphic

[18]

Voice of Zeus has pronounced this revelation.

Thus I associate myself with the Oracle
And take the side of the murdered king.

As for the criminal, I pray to God—

Whether it be a lurking thief, or one of a number—

I pray that that man's life be consumed in evil and wretchedness.

And so far as I am concerned, this curse applies no less

If it should turn out that the culprit is my guest here,
Sharing my hearth.

You have heard the penalty.

I lay it on you now to attend to this

For my sake, for Apollo's, for the sick
Sterile city that heaven has abandoned.

Suppose the Oracle had given you no command:

Should this defilement go uncleansed for ever?

You should have found the murderer: your king,
A noble king, had been destroyed!

Now I,

Having the power that he held before me,
Having his bed, begetting children there

Upon his wife, as he would have, had he lived—

Their son would have been my children's brother,
If Laios had had luck in fatherhood!

(But surely ill luck rushed upon his reign)—

I say I take the son's part, just as though
I were his son, to press the fight for him

And see it won! I'll find the hand that brought

[19]

Death to Labdakos' and Polydoros' child,
Heir of Cadmos' and Agenor's line.

And as for those who fail me,
May the gods deny them the fruit of the earth,
Fruit of the womb, and may they rot utterly!
Let them be wretched as we are wretched, and worse!

For you, for loyal Thebans, and for all
Who find my actions right, I pray the favour
Of justice, and of all the immortal gods.

CHORAGOS: *Sino, I am under oath, my lord, I swear*
My lord, you know my impotence. I can say little.
I did not do the murder, I can not name
The murderer. Might not the oracle
That has ordained the search tell where to find him?

OEDIPUS: An honest question. But no man in the world
Can make the gods do more than the gods will.

CHORAGOS: There is one last expedient—

OEDIPUS: Tell me what it is.
Though it seem slight, you must not hold it back.

CHORAGOS: A lord clairvoyant to the lord Apollo,
As we all know, is the skilled Teiresias.
One might learn much about this from him, Oedipus.

OEDIPUS: I am not wasting time:
K / Creon spoke of this, and I have sent for him—
Twice, in fact; it is strange that he is not here.

CHORAGOS: The other matter--that old report--seems useless.

[20]

OEDIPUS: Tell me. I am interested in all reports.

CHORAGOS: The King was said to have been killed by highwaymen.

OEDIPUS: I know. But we have no witnesses to that.

CHORAGOS: If the killer can feel a particle of dread,
Your curse will bring him out of hiding!

OEDIPUS: No.
The man who dared that act will fear no curse.

[enter the blind seer TEIRESIAS, led by a PAGE]

CHORAGOS: But there is one man who may detect the criminal.
This is Teiresias, this is the holy prophet
In whom, alone of all men, truth was born.

OEDIPUS: Teiresias: seer: student of mysteries,
Of all that's taught and all than no man tells,
Secrets of Heaven and secrets of the earth:
Blind though you are, you know the city lies
Sick with plague; and from this plague, my lord,
We find that you alone can guard or save us.

¢Possibly you did not hear the messengers?
Apollo, when we sent to him,
Sent us back word that this great pestilence
Would lift, but only if we established clearly
The identity of those who murdered Laíos.
They must be killed or exiled.

Can you use
Birdflight or any art of divination
To purify yourself, and Thebes, and me

[21]

From this contagion? We are in your hands.

Nothing but greatness now.

Can bring relief to our city in its distress.

**TEIRESIAS:** How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be
When there's no help in truth! I knew this well,
But did not act on it: else I should not have come.

**OEDIPUS:** What is troubling you? Why do you look so stern?

**TEIRESIAS:** Let me go home. Bear your own fate, and I'll
Bear mine. It is better so: trust what I say.

**OEDIPUS:** What you say is ungracious and unhelpful
To your native country. Do not refuse to speak.

**TEIRESIAS:** When it comes to speech, your own is neither temperate
Nor opportune. I propose to be more prudent.

**OEDIPUS:** In God's name, we all beg you--

**TEIRESIAS:** You are all ignorant.
No; I will never tell you what I know.
Now it is my misery; then, it would be yours.

**OEDIPUS:** What! You do know something, and will not tell us?
You would betray us all and wreck the State?

**TEIRESIAS:** I do not intend to torture myself, or you.
Why persist in asking? You will not persuade me.

**OEDIPUS:** What a wicked old man you are! You'd try a stone's
Patience! Out with it! Have you no feeling at all?

[22]

TEIRESIAS: You call me unfeeling. If you could only see
The nature of your own feelings...

OEDIPUS: Why,
Who would not feel as I do? Who could endure
Your arrogance toward the city?

TEIRESIAS: What does it matter!
Whether I speak or not, it is bound to come.

OEDIPUS: Then, if 'it' is bound to come, you are bound to tell me.

TEIRESIAS: No, I will not go on. Rage as you please.

OEDIPUS: Rage? Why not!

And I'll tell you what I think:
You planned it, you had it done, you all but
Killed him with your own hands: if you had eyes,
I'd say the crime was yours, and yours alone.

TEIRESIAS: So? I charge you, then,
Abide *yourself* by the proclamation you made:
From this day forth
Never speak again to these men or to me;
You yourself are the sickness of this country.

OEDIPUS: You dare say that! Can you possibly think you have
Some way of going free, after such insolence?

TEIRESIAS: I have gone free. It is the truth sustains me.

OEDIPUS: Who taught you shamelessness? It was not your craft.

TEIRESIAS: You did. You made me speak. I did not want to.

[23]

OEDIPUS: Speak what? Let me hear it again more clearly.

TEIRESIAS: Was it not clear before? Are you tempting me?

OEDIPUS: I did not understand it. Say it again.

TEIRESIAS: I say that you are the murderer whom you seek.

OEDIPUS: Now twice you have spat out infamy. You'll pay for it!

TEIRESIAS: Would you care for more? Do you wish to be really angry?

OEDIPUS: Say what you will. Whatever you say is worthless.

TEIRESIAS: I say that you live in hideous love with her
Who is nearest you in blood. You are blind to the evil.

OEDIPUS: It seems you can go on mouthing like this for ever.

TEIRESIAS: I can, if there is power in truth.

OEDIPUS:

There is:

But not for you, not for you,

You sightless, witless, senseless, mad old man!

TEIRESIAS: You are the madman. There is no one here
Who will not curse you soon, as you curse me.

OEDIPUS: You child of endless night! You can not hurt me
Or any other man who sees the sun.

TEIRESIAS: True: it is not from me your fate will come.
That lies within Apollo's competence,
As it is his concern.

[24]

OEDIPUS:
Tell me:
K / Are you speaking for Creon, or for yourself?

TEIRESIAS: Creon is no threat. You weave your own doom.

OEDIPUS:
Wealth, power, craft of statesmanship!
Kingly position, everywhere admired!
What savage envy is stored up against these!
K / K If Creon, whom I trusted, Creon my friend,
For this great office which the city once
Put in my hands unsought--if for this power
Creon desires in secret to destroy me!

bought

He has bought this decrepit fortune-teller, this
Collector of dirty pennies, this mangy prophet--
Why, he is no more clairvoyant than I am!

Tell us:

Has your mystic mummery ever approached the truth?
When that bitch the Sphinx was performing here,
What help were you to these people?
Her magic was not for the first man who came along:
It demanded a real exorcist. Your birds--
What good were they? or the gods, for the matter of that?
But I came by,
Oedipus, the simple man, who knows nothing--
I thought it out for myself, no birds helped me!

And this is the man you think you can destroy,
That you may be close to Creon when he's king!
K / Well, you and your friend Creon, it seems to me,

K

K

[25]

W

Will suffer most. If you were not an old man,

You would have paid already for your plot.

CHORAGOS:
We can not see that his words or yours
Have been spoken except in anger, Oedipus,
And anger we have no need. How can God's will
Be accomplished best? That is what most concerns us.

TEIRESIAS:
You are a king. But where argument's concerned
I am your man, as much a king as you.
I am not your servant, but Apollo's.
I have no need of; creon to speak for me.

Listen to me. You mock my blindness, do you?
But I say that you, with both your eyes, are blind:
You can not see the wretchedness of your life,
Nor in whose house you live, no, nor with whom.

Who are your father and mother? Can you tell me?
You do not even know the blind wrongs

That you have done them, on earth and in the world below.
But the double lash of your parents' curse will whip you
Out of this land some day, with only night
Upon your precious eyes.

Your cries then--where will they not be heard?

What fastness of Kithairon will not echo them?

And that bridal-descant of yours—you'll know it then,
The song they sang when you came here to Thebes
And found your misguided berthing.

All this, and more, that you can not guess at now,
Will bring you to yourself among your children.

[26]

K

Be angry, then. Curse Greon. Curse my words.
I tell you, no man that walks upon the earth
Shall be rooted out more horribly than you.

OEDIPUS: Am I to bear this from him? --- Damnation
Take you! Out of this place! Out of my sight!

TEIRESIAS: I would not have come at all if you had not asked me.

OEDIPUS: Could I have told that you'd talk nonsense, that
You'd come here to make a fool of yourself, and of me?

TEIRESIAS: A fool? Your parents thought me sane enough.

OEDIPUS: My parents again! --- Wait: who were my parents?

TEIRESIAS: This day will give you a father, and break your heart.

OEDIPUS: Your infantile riddles! Your damned abracadabra!

TEIRESIAS: You were a great man once at solving riddles.

OEDIPUS: You could not mock me with that if it were not true.

TEIRESIAS: It was true enough. It brought about your ruin.

OEDIPUS: But if it saved this town?

TEIRESIAS: Boy, give me your hand. [to the PAGE

OEDIPUS: Yes, boy; lead him away.

--While you are here
We can do nothing. Go; leave us in peace.

TEIRESIAS: I will go when I have said what I have to say.
How can you hurt me? And I tell you again:

[27]

The man you have been looking for all this time,
The damned man, the murderer of Laios,
That man is in Thebes. To your mind he is foreign-born,
But it will soon be shown that he is a Theban,
A revelation that will fail to please.

A blind man,
Who has his eyes now; a penniless man, who is rich now;
And he will go tapping the strange earth with his staff.
To the children with whom he lives now he will be
Brother and father—the very same; to her
Who bore him, son and husband—the very same
Who came to his father's bed, wet with his father's blood.

Enough. Go think that over.

If later you find error in what I have said,
You may say that I have no skill in prophecy.

[Exit TEIRESIAS, led by his PAGE. OEDIPUS goes into the house.

[30]

And never until now has any man brought word
Of Laios' dark death staining Oedipus the King.

Divine Zeus and Apollo hold

[antistrophe 2]

Perfect intelligence alone of all tales ever told;

And well though this diviner works, he works in his own night;

No man can judge that rough unknown or trust in second sight,

For wisdom changes hands among the wise.

Shall I believe my great lord criminal

At a raging word that a blind old man let fall?

I saw him, when the carrion woman faced him of old,

Prove his heroic mind! These evil words are lies.

[32]

[enter CREON, angerily K]

CREON:

Men of Thebes:

I am told that heavy accusations
Have been brought against me by King Oedipus.

I am not the kind of man to bear this tamely.

If in these present difficulties
He holds me accountable for any harm to him
Through anything I have said or done--why, then,
I do not value life in this dishonour.

It is not as though this rumour touched upon
Some private indiscretion. The matter is grave.
The fact is that I am being called disloyal
To the State, to my fellow citizens, to my friends.

CHORAGOS:

He may have spoken in anger, not from his mind.

CREON:

But did you not hear him say I was the one
Who seduced the old prophet into lying?

CHORAGOS:

The thing was said; I do not know how seriously.

CREON:

But you were watching him! Were his eyes steady?
Did he look like a man in his right mind?

CHORAGOS:

I do not know.

I can not judge the behaviour of great men.
But here is the King himself.

[enter OEDIPUS, SMiling]

OEDIPUS:

So you dared come back.

[33]

Why? How brazen of you to come to my house,
You murderer!

Do you think I do not know

That you plotted to kill me, plotted to steal my throne?

Tell me, in God's name: am I a coward, a fool,

That you should dream you could accomplish this?

A fool who could not see your slippery game?

A coward, not to fight back when I saw it?

You are the fool, Creon, are you not? hoping

Without support or friends to get a throne?

Thrones may be won or bought: you could do neither.

KREON: Now listen to me. You have talked; let me talk, too.
You can not judge unless you know the facts.

OEDIPUS: You speak well: there is one fact; but I find it hard
To learn from the deadliest enemy I have.

KREON: That above all I must dispute with you.

OEDIPUS: That above all I will not hear you deny.

KREON: If you think there is anything good in being stubborn
Against all reason, then I say you are wrong.

OEDIPUS: If you think a man can sin against his own kind
And not be punished for it, I say you are crazy.

KREON: I agree. But tell me: what have I done to you?

OEDIPUS: You advised me to send for that wizard, did you not?

KREON: I did. I should do it again.

[34]

OEDIPUS: Very well. Now tell me:
How long has it been since Laios--

KREON: What about Laios?

OEDIPUS: Since he vanished in that onset by the road?

KREON: It was long ago, a long time.

OEDIPUS: And this prophet,
Was he practising here then?

KREON: He was; and with honour, as now.

OEDIPUS: Did he speak of me at that time?

KREON: He never did;
At least, not when I was present.

OEDIPUS: But...the enquiry?
I suppose you held one?

KREON: We did, but we learned nothing.

OEDIPUS: Why did the <del>prophet</del> not speak against me then?

KREON: I do not know; and I am the kind of man
Who holds his tongue when he has no facts to go on.

OEDIPUS: There's one fact that you know, and you could tell it.

KREON: What fact is that? If I know it, you shall have it.

OEDIPUS: If he were not involved with you, he could not say
That it was I who murdered Laios.

[35]

CREON: If he says that, you are the one that knows it!--
But now it is my turn to question you.

OEDIPUS: Put your questions. I am no murderer.

CREON: First, then: You married my sister?

OEDIPUS: I married your sister.

CREON: And you rule the kingdom equally with her?

OEDIPUS: Everything that she wants she has from me.

CREON: And I am the third, equal to both of you?

OEDIPUS: That is why I call you a bad friend.

CREON: No. Reason it out, as I have done.

Think of this first: Would any sane man prefer
Power, with all a king's anxieties,
To that same power and the grace of sleep?
Certainly not I.

I have never longed for the king's power--only his rights.
Would any wise man differ from me in this?

As matters stand, I have my way in everything
With your consent, and no responsibilities.
If I were king, I should be a slave to policy.

How could I desire a sceptre more
Than what is now mine--untroubled influence?
No, I have not gone mad; I need no honours,
Perquisites, profits, more than I have now.

I am welcome everywhere; every man salutes me,

[36]

And those who want your favour seek my ear,
Since I know how to manage what they ask.
Should I exchange this ease for that anxiety?

Besides, no sober mind is treasonable.

I hate anarchy

And never would go near a man who likes it.

Test what I have said. Go to the Oracle

priestess

At Delphi, ask if I quoted her correctly.

And as for this other thing: if I am found
Guilty of treason with Teiresias,

Then sentence me to death! You have my word

It is a sentence I should cast my vote for--
But not without evidence!

You do wrong

When you take good men for bad, bad men for good.

A true friend thrown aside--why, life itself

Is not more precious!

In time you will know this well:

For time, and time alone, will show the just man,

Though scoundrels are discovered in a day.

CHORAGOS: This is well said, and a prudent man would ponder it.
Judgments too quickly formed are dangerous.

OEDIPUS: But is he not quick in his duplicity?

And shall I not be quick to parry him?

This man win everything, through my inaction?

CHORAGOS: Open your mind to her, my lord. Be ruled by her, I beg you!

[strophe 1]

OEDIPUS: What would you have me do?

CHORAGOS: Respect Kreon's word. He has never spoken like a fool,
And now he has sworn an oath.

OEDIPUS: You know what you ask?

CHORAGOS: I do.

OEDIPUS: Speak on, then.

CHORAGOS: A friend so sworn should not be baited so,
In blind malice, and without final proof.

OEDIPUS: You are aware, I hope, that what you say
Means death for me, or exile at the least.

CHORAGOS: No, I swear by Helios, first in Heaven!
May I die friendless and accurst,
The worst of deaths, if ever I meant that!

[strophe 2]

It is the withering fields
That hurt my sick heart:
Must we bear all these ills,
And now your bad blood as well?

OEDIPUS: Then let him go. And let me die, if I must,
Or be driven by him in shame from the land of Thebes.
It is your unhappiness, and not his talk,
That touches me.

As for him--
Wherever he is, I will hate him as long as I live.

AREON: Ugly in yielding, as you were ugly in rage!
Natures like yours chiefly torment themselves.

40
[4]

OEDIPUS: Can you not go? Can you not leave me?

GREON:

I can.

You do not know me; but the city knows me,
And in its eyes I am just, if not in yours.

[exit GREON]

CHORAGOS: Lady Iocastê, did you not ask the King to go to his chambers? [antistrophe 1]

IOCASTE: First tell me what has happened.

CHORAGOS: There was suspicion without evidence; yet it rankled
As even false charges will.

IOCASTE: On both sides?

CHORAGOS: On both.

IOCASTE: But what was said?

CHORAGOS: Oh let it rest, let it be done with!
Have we not suffered enough?

OEDIPUS: You see to what your decency has brought you:
You have made difficulties where my heart saw none.

CHORAGOS: Oedipus, it is not once only I have told you--
You must know I should count myself unwise
To the point of madness, should I now forsake you--
You, under whose hand,
In the storm of another time,
Our dear land sailed out free.
But now stand fast at the helm!

IOCASTE: In God's name, Oedipus, inform your wife as well:

41
[42]

Why are you so set in this hard anger?

OEDIPUS: I will tell you, for none of these men deserves
My confidence as you do. It is Kreon's work,
His treachery, his plotting against me.

IOCASTE: Go on, if you can make this clear to me.

OEDIPUS: He charges me with the murder of Laios.

IOCASTE: Has he some knowledge? Or does he speak from hearsay?

OEDIPUS: He would not commit himself to such a charge,
But he has brought in that damnable soothsayer
To tell his story.

IOCASTE: Set your mind at rest.
If it is a question of soothsayers, I tell you
That you will find no man whose craft gives knowledge
Of the unknowable.

Here is my proof:

An oracle was reported to Laios once
(I will not say from Phoibos himself, but from
His appointed ministers, at any rate)

That his doom would be death at the hands of his own son--
His son, born of his flesh and of mine!

Now, you remember the story: Laios was killed
By marauding strangers where three highways cross;
But his child had not been three days in this world
Before the King had pierced the baby's ankles

[43]

And had him left to die on a lonely mountain.

Thus, Apollo never caused that child
To kill his father, and it was not Laios' fate
To die at the hands of his son, as he had feared.
This is what prophets and prophecies are worth!
Have no dread of them.

It is God himself
Who can show us what he wills, in his own way.

OEDIPUS: How strange a shadowy memory crossed my mind,
Just now while you were speaking; it chilled my heart.

IOCASTE: What do you mean? What memory do you speak of?

OEDIPUS: If I understand you, Laios was killed
At a place where three roads meet.

IOCASTE: So it was said;
We have no later story.

OEDIPUS: Where did it happen?

IOCASTE: Phokis, it is called: at a place where the Theban Way
Is joined by the roads from Delphi and Daulia.

OEDIPUS: When?

IOCASTE: We had the news not long before you came
And proved the right to your succession here.

OEDIPUS: Ah, what net has God been weaving for me?

IOCASTE: Oedipus! Why does this trouble you?

[44]

OEDIPUS: Do not ask me yet.
First, tell me how Laios looked, and tell me
How old he was.

IOCASTE: He was tall, his hair just touched
With white; his form was not unlike your own.

OEDIPUS: I think that I myself may be accursed
By my own ignorant edict.

IOCASTE: You speak strangely.
It makes me tremble to look at you, my King.

OEDIPUS: I am not sure that the blind man can not see.
But I should know better if you were to tell me--

IOCASTE: Anything--though I dread to hear you ask it.

OEDIPUS: Was the King lightly escorted, or did he ride
With a large company, as a ruler should?

IOCASTE: There were five men with him in all: one was a herald;
And a single chariot, which he was driving.

OEDIPUS: Alas, that makes it plain enough!
But who--
Who told you how it happened?

IOCASTE: A household servant,
The only one to escape.

OEDIPUS: And is he still
A servant of ours?

[45]

**IOCASTE:** No; for when he came back at last
And found you enthroned in the place of the dead king,
He came to me, touched my hand with his, and begged
That I would send him away to the frontier district
Where only the shepherds go—
As far away from the city as I could send him.
I granted his prayer; for although the man was a slave,
He had earned more than this favour at my hands.

**OEDIPUS:** Can he be called back quickly?

**IOCASTE:** Easily.
But why?

**OEDIPUS:** I have taken too much upon myself
Without enquiry; therefore I wish to consult him.

**IOCASTE:** Then he shall come.

But am I not one also
To whom you might confide these fears of yours?

**OEDIPUS:** That is your right; it will not be denied you,
Now least of all; for I have reached a pitch
Of wild foreboding. Is there anyone
To whom I should sooner speak?

Polybos of Corinth is my father.
My mother is a Dorian: Meropê.
I grew up chief among the men of Corinth
Until a strange thing happened—
Not worth my passion, it may be, but strange.

[46]

At a feast, a drunken man maundering in his cups
Cries out that I am not my father's son!

I contained myself that night, though I felt anger
And a sinking heart. The next day I visited
My father and mother, and questioned them. They stormed,
Calling it all the slanderous rant of a fool;
And this relieved me. Yet the suspicion
Remained always aching in my mind;
I knew there was talk; I could not rest;
And finally, saying nothing to my parents,
I went to the shrine at Delphi.

The god dismissed my question without reply;
He spoke of other things.

Some were clear,
Full of wretchedness, dreadful, unbearable:
As, that I should lie with my own mother, breed
Children from whom all men would turn their eyes;
And that I should be my father's murderer.

I heard all this, and fled. And from that day
Corinth to me was only in the stars
Descending in that quarter of the sky,
As I/ wandered farther and farther on my way
To a land where I should never see the evil
Sung by the oracle. And I came to this country
Where, so you say, King Laios was killed.

I will tell you all that happened there, my lady.

There were three highways

[47]

Coming together at a place I passed;
And there a herald came towards me, and a chariot
Drawn by horses, with a man such as you describe.
Seated in it. The groom leading the horses
Forced me off the road at his lord's command;
But as this charioteer lurched over towards me
I struck him in my rage. The old man saw me
And brought his double goad down upon my head
As I came abreast.

He was paid back, and more!
Swinging my club in this right hand I knocked him
Out of his car, and he rolled on the ground.

I killed him.

I killed them all.

Now if that stranger and Laios were—kin,
Where is a man more miserable than I?
More hated by the gods? Citizen and alien alike
Must never shelter me or speak to me—
I must be shunned by all.

And I myself
Pronounced this malediction upon myself!

Think of it: I have touched you with these hands,
These hands that killed your husband. What defilement!

Am I all evil, then? It must be so,
Since I must flee from Thebes, yet never again
See my own countrymen, my own country,

[48]

For fear of joining my mother in marriage
And killing Polybos, my father.

Ah,
If I was created so, born to this fate,
Who could deny the savagery of God?

O holy majesty of heavenly powers!
May I never see that day! Never!
Rather let me vanish from the race of men
Than know the abomination destined me!

CHORAGOS: We too, my lord, have felt dismay at this.
But there is hope: you have yet to hear the shepherd.

OEDIPUS: Indeed, I fear no other hope is left me.

IOCASTE: What do you hope from him when he comes?

OEDIPUS: This much:
If his account of the murder tallies with yours,
Then I am cleared.

IOCASTE: What was it that I said
Of such importance?

OEDIPUS: Why, 'marauders', you said,
Killed the King, according to this man's story.
If he maintains that still, if there were several,
Clearly the guilt is not mine: I was alone.
But if he says one man, singlehanded, did it,
Then the evidence all points to me.

IOCASTE: You may be sure that he said that there were several;

[49]

And can he call back that story now? He can not.

The whole city heard it as plainly as I.

But suppose he alters some detail of it:

He can not ever show that Laios' death

Fulfilled the oracle: for Apollo said

My child was doomed to kill him; and my child—

Poor baby!—it was my child that died first.

No. From now on, where oracles are concerned,
I would not waste a second thought on any.

OEDIPUS: You may be right.

But some: let someone go

For the shepherd at once. This matter must be settled.

IOCASTE: I will send for him.

I would not wish to cross you in anything,

And surely not

least of all in this. — Let us go in.

[exeunt into the house]

[54]

[enter MESSENGER]

MESSENGER: Friends, no doubt you can direct me:
Where shall I find Oedipus' house, this house of Oedipus,
Or, better still, where is the King himself?

[enter IOCASTE]

CHORAGOS: It is this very place, stranger; he is inside.
This is his wife and mother of his children.

MESSENGER: I wish her happiness in a happy house,
Blest in all the fulfillment of her marriage.

IOCASTE: I wish as much for you: your courtesy
Deserves a like good fortune. But now, tell me:
Why have you come? What have you to say to us?

MESSENGER: Good news, my lady, for your house and your husband.

IOCASTE: What news? Who sent you here?

MESSENGER: I am from Corinth.
The news I bring ought to mean joy for you,
Though it may be you will find some grief in it.

IOCASTE: What is it? How can it touch us in both ways?

MESSENGER: The people of Corinth--so the story goes--
Intend to call Oedipus to be their king.

IOCASTE: But old Polybos--is he not reigning still?

MESSENGER: No. Death holds him in his sepulchre.

IOCASTE: What are you saying? Polybos is dead?

[55]

MESSENGER: If I am not telling the truth, may I die myself.

IOCASTE: Go in, go quickly; tell this to your master.

O riddlers of God's will, where are you now!

This was the man whom Oedipus, long ago,

Feared so, fled so, in dread of destroying him--

But it was another fate by which he died.

[enter OEDIPUS, C.]

OEDIPUS: Dearest Iocastê, why have you sent for me?

IOCASTE: Listen to what this man says, and then tell me
What has become of those old prophecies.

OEDIPUS: Who is this man? What is his news for me?

IOCASTE: He has come from Corinth to announce your father's death!

OEDIPUS: Is it true, stranger? Tell me in your own words.

MESSENGER: I can not say it more clearly: the King is dead.

OEDIPUS: Was it by treason? Or by an attack of illness?

MESSENGER: A little thing brings old men to their rest.

OEDIPUS: It was sickness, then?

MESSENGER: Yes, and his many years.

OEDIPUS: Ah!

Why should a man respect the Pythian hearth, or
Give heed to the birds that jangle above his head?
They prophesied that I should kill Polybos,
Kill my own father; but he is dead and buried,

[56]

And I am here--I never touched him, never,
Unless he died of grief for my departure,
And thus, in a sense, through me. No. Polybos
Has packed the oracles off with him under ground.
They are empty words.

IOCASTE: Had I not told you so?

OEDIPUS: You had; it was my faint heart that betrayed me.

IOCASTE: From now on never think of those things again.

OEDIPUS: And yet--must I not fear my mother's bed?

IOCASTE: Why should anyone in this world be afraid,
Since Fate rules us and nothing can be foreseen?
A man should live--and live with all his heart.
Have no more fear of sleeping with your mother:
How many men, in dreams, have lain with their mother!
No reasonable man is troubled by such things.

OEDIPUS: That is true; only--
If only my mother were not still alive!
But she is alive. I can not help my dread.

IOCASTE: Yet this news of your father's death is wonderful.

OEDIPUS: Wonderful. But I fear the living woman.

MESSENGER: Tell me, who is this woman that you fear?

OEDIPUS: It is Meropê, man; the wife of King Polybos.

MESSENGER: Meropê? Why should you be afraid of her?

[57]

OEDIPUS: An oracle of the gods, a dreadful saying.

MESSENGER: Can you tell me about it? Or are you sworn to silence?

OEDIPUS: I can tell you, and I will.

Apollo said through his prophet that I was the man

Who should marry his own mother, shed his father's blood

With his own hands. And so, for all these years

I have kept clear of Corinth, and no harm has come--

Though it would have been sweet to see my parents again.

MESSENGER: And is this the fear that drove you out of Corinth?

OEDIPUS: Would you have me kill my father?

MESSENGER: As for that,

You must be reassured by the news I gave you.

OEDIPUS: If you could reassure me, I would reward you.

MESSENGER: I had that in mind, I will confess: I thought

I could count on you when you returned to Corinth.

OEDIPUS: No: I will never go near my parents again.

MESSENGER: Ah, son, you still do not know what you are doing--

OEDIPUS: What do you mean? In the name of God, tell me!

MESSENGER: --If these are your reasons for not going home.

OEDIPUS: I tell you, I fear the oracle may come true.

MESSENGER: And guilt may come upon you through your parents?

[58]

OEDIPUS: That is the dread that is always in my heart.

MESSENGER: Can you not see that all your fears are groundless?

OEDIPUS: How can you say that? They are my parents, surely?

MESSENGER: Polybos was not your father.

OEDIPUS: Not my father?

MESSENGER: No more your father than the man speaking to you.

OEDIPUS: But you are nothing to me!

MESSENGER: Neither was he.

OEDIPUS: Then why did he call me son?

MESSENGER: I will tell you:

Long ago he had you from my hands, as a gift.

OEDIPUS: Then how could he love me so, if I was not his?

MESSENGER: He had no children, and his heart turned to you.

OEDIPUS: What of you? Did you buy me? Did you find me by chance?

MESSENGER: I came upon you in the crooked pass of Kithairon.

OEDIPUS: And what were you doing there?

MESSENGER: Tending my flocks.

OEDIPUS: A wandering shepherd?

MESSENGER: But your saviour, son, that day.

[59]

OEDIPUS: From what did you save me?

MESSENGER: Your ankles should tell you that.

OEDIPUS: Ah, stranger, why do you speak of that childhood pain?

MESSENGER: I cut the bonds that tied your ankles together.

OEDIPUS: I have had the mark as long as I can remember.

MESSENGER: That was why you were given the name you bear.

OEDIPUS: God! Was it my father or my mother who did it?
Tell me!

MESSENGER: I do not know. The man who gave you to me
Can tell you better than I.

OEDIPUS: It was not you that found me, but another?

MESSENGER: It was another shepherd gave you to me.

OEDIPUS: Who was he? Can you tell me who he was?

MESSENGER: I think he was said to be one of Laios' people.

OEDIPUS: You mean the Laios who was king here years ago?

MESSENGER: Yes; King Laios; and the man was one of his herdsmen.

OEDIPUS: Is he still alive? Can I see him?

MESSENGER: These men here
Know best about such things.

OEDIPUS: Does anyone here

[60]

Know this shepherd that he is talking about?
Have you seen him in the fields, or in the town?
If you have, tell me. It is time things were made plain.

CHORAGOS:

I think the man he means is that same shepherd
You have already asked to see. Iocastê perhaps
Could tell you something.

OEDIPUS:

Do you know anything
About him, Lady? Is he the man we have summoned?
Is that the man this shepherd means?

IOCASTE:

Why think of him?
Forget this herdsman. Forget it all.
This talk is a waste of time.

OEDIPUS:

How can you say that,
When the clues to my true birth are in my hands?

IOCASTE:

For God's love, let us have no more questioning!
Is your life nothing to you?
My own is pain enough for me to bear.

OEDIPUS:

You need not worry. Suppose my mother a slave,
And born of slaves: no baseness can touch you.

IOCASTE:

Listen to me, I beg you: do not do this thing!

OEDIPUS:

I will not listen; the truth must be made known.

IOCASTE:

Everything that I say is for your own good!

OEDIPUS:

My own good

[61]

Snaps my patience, then; I want none of it.

IOCASTE: You are fatally wrong! May you never learn who you are!

OEDIPUS: Go, one of you, and bring the shepherd here.
Let us leave this woman to brag of her royal name.

IOCASTE: Ah, miserable!

That is the only word I have for you now.

That is the only word I can ever have.

[exit into the house

palace

CHORAGOS: Why has she left us, Oedipus? Why has she gone
In such a passion of sorrow? I fear this silence:
Something dreadful may come of it.

OEDIPUS: Let it come!

However base my birth, I must know about it.
The Queen there, like a woman, is ashamed
To think of my low origin. But I
Am a child of Luck; I can not be dishonoured.
Luck is my mother; the passing months, my brothers,
Have seen me rich and poor.

If this is so,
How could I wish that I were someone else?
How could I not be glad to know my birth?

[64]

OEDIPUS: Sirs: though I do not know the man,
I think I see him coming, this shepherd we want:
He is old, like our friend here, and the men
Bringing him seem to be servants of my house.
But you can tell, if you have ever seen him.

[enter SHEPHERD escorted by servants]

CHORAGOS: I know him, he was Laios' man. You can trust him.

OEDIPUS: Tell me first, you from Corinth: is this the shepherd
We were discussing?

MESSENGER: This is the very man.

OEDIPUS: Come here. No, look at me. You must answer
Everything I ask. --- You belonged to Laios?

[to SHEPHERD]

SHEPHERD: Yes: born his slave, brought up in his house.

OEDIPUS: Tell me: what kind of work did you do for him?

SHEPHERD: I was a shepherd of his, most of my life.

OEDIPUS: Where did you go mainly for pasturage?

SHEPHERD: Sometimes Kithairon, sometimes the hills near-by.

OEDIPUS: Do you remember ever seeing this man out there?

SHEPHERD: What would he be doing there? Do you mean this man?

OEDIPUS: This man standing here. Have you ever seen him before?

SHEPHERD: No. At least, not to my recollection.

MESSENGER: And that is not strange, my lord. But I'll refresh

[65]

His memory: he must remember when we two
Spent three whole seasons together, March to September,
On Kithairon or thereabouts. He had two flocks;
I had one. Each autumn I'd drive mine home
And he would go back with his to Laios' sheepfold.---
Is this not true, just as I have described it?

**SHEPHERD:** True, yes; but it was all so long ago.

**MESSENGER:** Well, then: do you remember, back in those days,
That you gave me a baby boy to bring up as my own?

**SHEPHERD:** What if I did? What are you trying to say?

**MESSENGER:** King Oedipus was once that little boy.

**SHEPHERD:** Damn you, hold your tongue!

**OEDIPUS:** No more of that!
It is your tongue needs watching, not this man's.

**SHEPHERD:** My King, my Master, what is it I have done wrong?

**OEDIPUS:** You have not answered his question about the boy.

**SHEPHERD:** He does not know... He is only making trouble...

**OEDIPUS:** Come, speak plainly, or it will be the worse for you.

**SHEPHERD:** In God's name, do not tortute an old man!

**OEDIPUS:** Come here, one of you; bind his arms behind him.

**SHEPHERD:** Unhappy king! What more do you wish to learn?

**OEDIPUS:** Did you give this man the child he speaks of?

[66]

SHEPHERD: I did.
And I would to God I had died that very day.

OEDIPUS: You will die now unless you speak the truth.

SHEPHERD: Yet if I speak the truth, I am worse than dead.

OEDIPUS: Very well; since you insist upon delaying—

SHEPHERD: No! I have told you already that I gave him the boy.

OEDIPUS: Where did you get him? From your house? From somewhere else?

SHEPHERD: Not from mine, no. A man gave him to me.

OEDIPUS: Is that man here? Do you know whose slave he was?

SHEPHERD: For God's love, my King, do not ask me any more!

OEDIPUS: You are a dead man if I have to ask you again.

SHEPHERD: Then... Then the child was from the palace of Laios.

OEDIPUS: A slave child? or a child of his own line?

SHEPHERD: Ah, I am on the brink of dreadful speech!

OEDIPUS: And I of dreadful hearing. Yet I must hear.

SHEPHERD: If you must be told, then...

They said it was Laios' child;
But it is your wife who can tell you about that.

OEDIPUS: My wife! — Did she give it to you?

SHEPHERD: My lord, she did.

[67]

OEDIPUS: Do you know why?

SHEPHERD: I was told to get rid of it.

OEDIPUS: An unspeakable mother!

SHEPHERD: There had been prophecies...

OEDIPUS: Tell me.

SHEPHERD: It was said that the boy would kill his own father.

OEDIPUS: Then why did you give him over to this old man?

SHEPHERD: I pitied the baby, my King,
And I thought that this man would take him far away
To his own country.

He saved him--but for what a fate!
For if you are what this man says you are,
No man living is more wretched than Oedipus.

OEDIPUS: Ah God!
It was true!

All the prophecies!

--Now,

O Light, may I look on you for the last time!

I, Oedipus,
Oedipus, damned in his birth, in his marriage damned,
damned in the blood he shed with his own hand!

[he rushes into the palace]

[69]

CHORUS: Alas for the seed of men.

[strophe 1]

What measure shall I give these generations
That breathe on the void and are void
And exist and do not exist?

What man has known more joy
Than mist of sunlight shifting in images,
Or who shall make his thought stay on
That down time drifts away?

Your splendour is all fallen.

O naked brow of wrath and tears,
O change of Oedipus!
I who saw your days call no man blest--
Your great days like ghosts gone.

That mind was a strong bow.

[antistrophe 1]

Deep, how deep you drew it then, hard archer,
At a dark fearful range,
And brought dear glory down!

You overcame the stranger--
The virgin with her hooking lion claws--
And though death sang, stood like a tower
To make pale Thebes take heart.

Fortress against our sorrow!

Divine king, giver of laws,

[enter, from the house, SECOND MESSENGER]

2nd MESSENGER: Elders of Thebes, most honoured in this land,
What horrors are yours to see and hear, what weight
Of sorrow to be endured, if, true to your birth,
You venerate the line of Labdakos!

I think neither Istros nor Phasis, those great rivers,
Could purify this place of the corruption
It shelters now, or soon must bring to light--
Evil not done unconsciously, but willed.

The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.

CHORAGOS: Surely, friend, we have grief enough already;
What new sorrow do you mean?

2nd MESSENGER: The Queen is dead.

CHORAGOS: Iocaste? Dead? But at whose hand?

2nd MESSENGER: Her own.

The full horror of what happened you can not know,
For you did not see it; but I, who did, will tell you
As clearly as I can how she met her death.

When she had left us,
In passionate silence, passing through the court,
She ran to her apartment in the house,
Her hair clutched by the fingers of both hands.
She closed the doors behind her; then, by that bed
Where long ago the fatal son was conceived--

[74]

That son who should bring about his father's death--
We heard her call upon Laios, dead so many years,
And heard her wail for the double fruit of her marriage,
A husband by her husband, children by her child.

Exactly how she died I do not know:

For Oedipus burst in moaning and would not let us
Keep vigil to the end: it was by him
As he stormed about the room that our eyes were caught.
From one to another of us he went, begging a sword,
Cursing the wife who was not wife, the mother
Whose womb had carried his own children and himself.

I do not know: it was none of us who aided him,
But surely one of the gods was in control!

For with a dreadful cry

He hurled his weight, as though wrenched out of himself,
At the twin doors: the bolts gave, and he rushed in.
And there we saw her hanging, her body swaying
From the cruel cord she had noosed about her neck.
A great sob broke from him, heartbreaking to hear,
As he loosed the rope and lowered her to the ground.

I would blot out from my mind what happened next!

For the King ripped from her gown the golden brooches
That were her ornament, and raised them, and plunged them down
Straight into his own eyeballs, crying, 'No more,

'No more shall you look on the misery about me,

'The horrors of my own doing! Too long you have known

'The faces of those whom I should never have seen,

'Too long been blind to those for whom I was searching!

[75]

'From this hour, go in darkness!' And as he spoke,
He struck at his eyes--not once, but many times;
And the blood spattered his beard,
Bursting from his ruined sockets like red hail.

So from the crimes of two this evil has sprung,
A curse on the man and woman alike. The old
Happiness of the house of Labdakos
Was happiness enough: where is it today?
It is all wailing and ruin, disgrace, death--all
The misery of mankind that has a name--
And it is wholly and for ever theirs.

CHORAGOS: Is he in agony still? Is there no rest for him?

2nd MESSENGER: He is calling for someone to lead him to the gates
K So that all the children of Gadmos may look upon
His father's murderer, his mother's--no,
I can not say it!

And then he will leave Thebes,
Self-exiled, in order that the curse
Which he himself pronounced may depart from the house.
He is weak, and there is none to lead him,
So terrible is his suffering.

But you will see:
Look, the doors are opening; in a moment
You will see a thing that would crush a heart of stone.

[the central door is opened; OEDIPUS, blinded, is led in

[77]

The flooding pain
Of memory, never to be gouged out.

CHORAGOS: This is not strange.
You suffer it all twice over, remorse in pain,
Pain in remorse.

OEDIPUS: Ah dear friend, [antistrophe 1]
Are you faithful even yet, you alone?
Are you still standing near me, will you stay here,
Patient, to care for the blind?

The blind man!
Yet even blind I know who it is attends me,
By the voice's tone—
Though my new darkness hide the comforter.

CHORAGOS: Oh fearful act!
What god was it drove you to rake black
Night across your eyes?

OEDIPUS: Apollo. Apollo. Dear [strophe 2]
Children, the god was Apollo.
He brought my sick, sick fate upon me.
But the blinding hand was my own!
How could I bear to see
When all my sight was horror everywhere?

CHORAGOS: Everywhere; that is true.

OEDIPUS: And now what is left?

[79]

That I have laid upon myself is just.
If I had eyes,
I do not know how I could bear the sight
Of my father, when I came to the house of Death,
Or my mother: for I have sinned against them both
So vilely that I could not make my peace
By strangling my own life.

Or do you think my children,
Born as they were born, would be sweet to my eyes?
Ah never, never! Nor this town with its high walls,
Nor the holy images of the gods.

For I,
Thrice miserable!--Oedipus, noblest of all the line
Of Ladmos, have condemned myself to enjoy
These things no more, by my own malediction
Expelling that man whom the gods declared
To be a defilement in the house of Laios.
After exposing the rankness of my own guilt,
How could I look men frankly in the eyes?
No, I swear it,
If I could have stifled my hearing at its source,
I would have done it and made all this body
A tight cell of misery, blank to light and sound:
So I should have been safe in a dark agony
Beyond all recollection.

Ah Kithairon!
Why did you shelter me? When I was cast upon you,
Why did I not die? Then I should never
Have shown the world my execrable birth.

[80]

Ah Polybos! Corinth, city that I believed
The ancient seat of my ancestors: how fair
I seemed, your child! And all the while this evil
Was cancerous within me!

For I am sick
In my daily life, sick in my origin.

O three roads, dark ravine, woodland and way
Where three roads met: you, drinking my father's blood,
My own blood, spilled by my own hand: can you remember
The unspeakable things I did there, and the things
I went on from there to do?

O marriage, marriage!
The act that engendered me, and again the act
Performed by the child in the same bed--

Ah, the net
Of incest, mingling fathers, brothers, sons,
With brides, wives, mothers: the last evil
That can be known by men: no tongue can say
How evil!

No. For the love of God, conceal me
Somewhere far from Thebes; or kill me; or hurl me
Into the sea, away from men's eyes for ever.
Come, lead me. You need not fear to touch me.
Of all men, I alone can bear this guilt.

[enter KREON]

CHORAGOS: We are not the ones to decide; but Kreon here
May fitly judge of what you ask. He only

[81]

Is left to protect the city in your place.

OEDIPUS:
Alas, how can I speak to him? What right have I
To beg his courtesy whom I have deeply wronged?

I have not come to mock you, Oedipus,
Or to reproach you, either.

--You, standing there: [to ATTENDANTS

If you have lost all respect for man's dignity,
At least respect the flame of Lord Helios:
Do not allow this pollution to show itself
Openly here, an affront to the earth
And Heaven's rain and the light of day. No, take him
Into the house as quickly as you can.
For it is proper
That only the close kindred see his grief.

OEDIPUS:
I pray you in God's name, since your courtesy
I ignores my dark expectation, visiting
With mercy this man of all men most execrable:
Give me what I ask--for your good, not for mine.

OEDIPUS:
And what is it that you would have me do?

OEDIPUS:
Drive out of this country as quickly as may be
To a place where no human voice can ever greet me.

OEDIPUS:
I should have done that before now--only,
God's will had not been wholly revealed to me.

But his command is plain: the parricide

[82]

Must be destroyed. I am that evil man.

KREON: That is the sense of it, yes; but as things are,
We had best discover clearly what is to be done.

OEDIPUS: You would learn more about a man like me?

KREON: You are ready now to listen to the god.

OEDIPUS: I will listen. But it is to you
That I must turn for help. I beg you, hear me.

The woman in there--

Give her whatever funeral you think proper:

She is your sister.

--But let me go, Kreon!

Let me purge my father's Thebes of the pollution
Of my living here, and go out to the wild hills,
To Kithairon, that has won such fame with me,
The tomb my mother and father appointed for me,
And let me die there, as they willed I should.

And yet I know

Death will not ever come to me through sickness
Or in any natural way: I have been preserved
For some unthinkable fate. But let that be.

As for my sons, you need not care for them.

They are men, they will find some way to live.

But my poor daughters, who have shared my table,

Who never before have been parted from their father--

[83]

Take care of them, Kreon; do this for me.
And will you let me touch them with my hands
A last time, and let us weep together?
Be kind, my lord,
Great prince, be kind!

Could I but touch them,
They would be mine again, as when I had my eyes.

[enter ANTIGONE and ISMENE, attended]

Ah, God!
Is it my dearest children I hear weeping?
Has Kreon pitied me and sent my daughters?

KREON:
Yes, Oedipus: I knew that they were dear to you
In the old days, and know you must love them still.

OEDIPUS:
May God bless you for this--and be a friendlier
Guardian to you than he has been to me!
Children, where are you?
Come quickly to my hands: they are your brother's--
Hands that have brought your father's once clear eyes
To this way of seeing--

Ah dearest ones,
I had neither sight nor knowledge then, your father
By the woman who was the source of his own life!
And I weep for you--having no strength to see you--,
I weep for you when I think of the bitterness
That men will visit upon you all your lives.
What homes, what festivals can you attend
Without being forced to depart again in tears?

[84]

And when you come to marriageable age,
Where is the man, my daughters, who would dare
Risk the bane that lies on all my children?
Is there any evil wanting? Your father killed
His father; sowed the womb of her who bore him;
Engendered you at the fount of his own existence!
That is what they will say of you.

Then, whom
Can you ever marry? There are no bridegrooms for you,
And your lives must wither away in sterile dreaming.

O Creon, son of Menoiceus!

You are the only father my daughters have,
Since we, their parents, are both of us gone for ever.
They are your own blood: you will not let them
Fall into beggary and loneliness;
You will keep them from the miseries that are mine!
Take pity on them; see, they are only children,
Friendless except for you. Promise me this,
Great Prince, and give me your hand in token of it.

[CREON clasps his right hand

Children:

I could say much, if you could understand me,
But as it is, I have only this prayer for you:
Live where you can, be as happy as you can--
Happier, please God, than God has made your father!

[86]

CHORAGOS:

Men of Thebes: look upon Oedipus.

This is the king who solved the famous riddle
And towered up, most powerful of men.
No mortal eyes but looked on him with envy,
Yet in the end ruin swept over him.

Let every man in mankind's frailty
Consider his last day; and let none

Presume on his good fortune until he find

Life, at his death, a memory without pain.

(3)

THE PERSONS REPRESENTED:

OEDIPUS
A PRIEST
KREON
TEIRESIAS

IOCASTE
MESSENGER
HERDSMAN OF LAIOS
SECOND MESSENGER

CHORUS OF THEBAN ELDERS

SCENE: Before the palace of Oedipus, King of Thebes. A central door and two lateral doors open onto a platform which runs the length of the façade. On the platform right and left, are altars; and three steps lead down into the 'orchestra', or chorus-ground. At the beginning of the action these steps are crowded by suppliants in various attitudes of despair. OEDIPUS enters.

(8)

May his news be fair as his face is radiant!

PRIEST: It could not be otherwise: he is crowned with bay,
The chaplet is thick with berries.

OEDIPUS: We shall soon know:
He is near enough now to hear us.

(enter KREON)

O Prince:

Brother: son of Menoikeus:

What answer do you bring us from the god?

KREON: It is favourable. I can tell you, great afflictions
Will turn out well, if they are taken well.

OEDIPUS: What was the oracle? These vague words
Leave me still hanging between hope and fear.

KREON: Is it your pleasure to hear me with all these
Gathered around us? I am prepared to speak,
But should we not go in?

OEDIPUS: Let them all hear it.
It is for them I suffer, more than for myself.

KREON: Then I will tell you what I heard at Delphi.
In plain words
The god commands us to expel from the land of Thebes
An old defilement that it seems we shelter.
It is a deathly thing, beyond expiation.
We must not let it feed upon us longer.

(9)

KREON: By exile or death, blood for blood. It was
Murder that brought the plague-wind on the city.

KREON: My lord: long ago Laios was our king,
Before you came to govern us.

OEDIPUS: I know:
I learned of him from others; I never saw him.

KREON: He was murdered; and Apollo commands us now
To take revenge upon whoever killed him.

KREON: Here in this land, he said.

KREON: He said he planned to make a pilgrimage.
He did not come home again.

OEDIPUS: And was there no one,
No witness, no companion to tell what happened?

KREON: They were all killed but one, and he got away
So frightened that he could remember one thing only.

THE PERSONS REPRESENTED:

CHORUS OF THEBAN ELDERS

SCENE: Before the palace of Oedipus, King of Thebes. A central door and two lateral doors open onto a platform which runs the length of the façade and from which three steps lead down into the 'orchestra', or chorus-ground. At the beginning of the action these steps are crowded by suppliants in various attitudes of despair. OEDIPUS enters.

[5]

OEDIPUS:
My children, generations of the living
In the line of Kadmos, nursed at his ancient hearth:
Why have you strewn yourselves before these altars
In supplication, with your boughs and garlands?
The breath of incense rises from the city
With a sound of lamentation.

O my sons,
There is no need of messengers between us:
See, I have come myself to hear your story,
I, Oedipus, who bear the famous name.

You, there, since you are eldest in the company,
Speak for them all, tell me what preys upon you.
Are you afraid? Or do you crave some blessing?
Tell me, and never doubt that I will help you
In every way I can; I should be heartless
Were I unmoved by such petitioners.

[to a PRIEST]

PRIEST:
Great Oedipus, O powerful King of Thebes!
See how these emissaries, young and old,
Cling to your altar steps: here are boys
Who can barely stand alone, and here are priests
By weight of age, as I am a priest of God,
And young men chosen from those yet unmarried;
As for the others, all that multitude,
They wait with olive chaplets in the squares,
At the two shrines of Pallas, and where Apollo
Speaks in the glowing embers.

Your own eyes

[6]

Must tell you: Thebes is in her extremity
And can not lift her head from the surge of death.
A rust consumes the buds and fruits of the earth;
The herds are sick; unborn children die
In the failing womb. The god of plague and pyre
Raids like detestable lightning through the city:
He makes the house of Cadmos an empty house
And dark; and dark Death richer for our weeping.

You are no god, I know; we all know that;
Yet we have come to you to make our prayer
As to the man of all men best in adversity
And wisest in the ways of God. You saved us
From the Sphinx, that flinty singer, and the tribute
We paid to her so long; yet you were never
Better informed than we, nor could we teach you:
Some god inspired you to set us free.

Therefore, great King,
We turn to you to find our safety now,
Whether you learn the way from gods or men.
A king who has proved his wisdom in the past
Can deal with present troubles as he will.
Noblest of men, act for us now, restore
Life to your city! Think: men call you
Liberator for your triumph long ago;
Ah, when your years of kingship are remembered,
Let them not say _We rose, but later fell_--
No; keep the State from foundering in the storm!

[7]

OEDIPUS:

Poor children! You may be sure I know
All that you longed for in your coming here.
I know that you are deathly sick; and yet,
Sick as you are, not one is as sick as I.
Each of you suffers in himself alone
His anguish, not another's; but my spirit
Groans for the city, for myself, for you.

I was not sleeping, you are not waking me.
No, I have been in tears for a long while
And in my wandering thought walked many ways.
I have searched them, found one helpful course,
And taken it: I have sent Creon,
Som of Menoikeus, brother of the Queen,
To Delphi, Apollo's place of revelation,
To learn there, if he can,
What act or pledge of mine may save the city.

I have counted the days, and now, this very day,
I am troubled, for he has overstayed his time.
What is he doing? He has been gone too long.
Yet whenever he comes back, I should do ill
To scant anything that the god may reveal.

[8]

PRIEST: It is a timely promise. At this instant
They tell me Kreon is here.

OEDIPUS: O Lord Apollo!
May his news be fair as his face is radiant!

OEDIPUS: We shall soon know;
He is near enough now to hear us.

O Prince:

[enter KREON]

Brother: son of Menoicus:
What answer do you bring us from the god?

CREON: It is favourable. I can tell you, great afflictions
Will turn out well, if they are taken well.

OEDIPUS: What was the oracle? These hinting words
Leave me still hanging between hope and fear.

CREON: Is it your pleasure to hear me with all these
Gathered around us? I am prepared to speak,
But should we not go in?

CREON: Then I will tell you what I heard at Delphi.
In plain words
The god commands us to expel from the land of Thebes
An old defilement that it seems we shelter.

[9]

OEDIPUS: I know,
I learned of him from others; I never saw him.

OEDIPUS: Tell me: Was Laios murdered in his house,
Or in the fields, or in some foreign country.

[10]

OEDIPUS: Strange, that a highwayman should be so daring--
Unless some faction here bribed him to do it.

CREON: We thought of that. But after Laios' death
New troubles arose and put off our revenge.

OEDIPUS: What troubles could prevent your hunting down the murderers?

You shall see how I stand by you: it is my part
To avenge the city and the city's god,
And not as though it were for some distant friend,
But for my own sake, to be rid of evil.

[15]

[enter OEDIPUS, C]

(3)

THE PERSONS REPRESENTED:

IOCASTE
MESSENGER
HERDSMAN OF LATOS
SECOND MESSENGER

CHORUS OF THEBAN ELDERS

SCENE: Before the palace of Oedipus, King of Thebes. A central door and two lateral doors open onto a platform which runs the length of the facade. On the platform, right and left, are altars; and three steps lead down into the 'orchestra', or chorus-ground. At the beginning of the action these steps are crowded by suppliants in various attitudes of despair. OEDIPUS enters.

(5)

OEDIPUS:
My children, generations of the living
In the line of Cadmos, nursed at his ancient hearth:
Why have you strewn yourselves before these altars
In supplication, with your boughs and garlands?
The breath of incense rises from the city
With a sound of prayer and lamentation.

Children,
I would not have you speak through messengers,
And therefore I have come myself to hear you --
I, Oedipus, who bear the famous name.

You, there, since you are eldest in the company, (to a PRIEST
Speak for them all, tell me what preys upon you.
Are you afraid? Or do you crave some blessing?
Tell me, and never doubt that I will help you
In every way I can; I should be heartless
Were I not moved to find you suppliant here.

PRIEST:
Great Oedipus, O powerful King of Thebes!
You see how all the ages of our people
Cling to your altar steps: here are boys
Who can barely stand alone, and here are priests
By weight of age, as I am a priest of God,
And young men chosen from those yet unmarried;
As for the others, all that multitude,
They wait with olive chaplets in the squares,
At the two shrines of Pallas, and where Apollo
Speaks in the glowing embers.

Your own eyes

(6)

Must tell you: Thebes is in her extremity
And can not lift her head from the surge of death.
A rust consumes the buds and fruits of the earth;
The herds are sick; the children die unborn,
And labor is vain. The god of plague and pyre
Raids like detestable lightning through the city:
And all the house of Kadmos is laid in waste,
All emptied, and all darkened: Death alone
Battens upon the misery of Thebes.

You are not one of the immortal gods, we know;
Yet we have come to you to make our prayer
As to the man of all men best in adversity
And wisest in the ways of God. You saved us
From the Sphinx, that flinty singer, and the tribute
We paid to her so long; yet you were never
Better informed than we, nor could we teach you:
It was some god breathed in you to set us free.

Therefore, O mighty King, we turn to you:
Find us our safety, find us a remedy,
Whether by counsel of the gods or men.
A king of wisdom proven in the past
Can act in a time of troubles, and act well.
Noblest of men, restore

Life to your city! Think how all men call you
Liberator for your triumph long ago;
Ah, when your years of kingship are remembered,
Let them not say _We rose, but later fell_--
Keep the State from going down in the storm!

(7)

Once, years ago, with happy augury,
You brought us fortune; be the same again!
No man questions your power to rule the land;
But rule over men, not over a dead city!
Ships are only hulls, citadels are nothing,
When no life moves in the empty passageways.

OEDIPUS:

I was not sleeping, you are not waking me.
No, I have been in tears for a long while
And in my wandering thought walked many ways.
In all my search, I found one helpful course,
And that I have taken: I have sent Kreon,
Son of Menoikeus, brother of the Queen,
To Delphi, Apollo's place of revelation,
To learn there, if he can,
What act or pledge of mine may save the city.

I have counted the days, and now, this very day,
I am troubled, for he has overstayed his time.
What is he doing? He has been gone too long.
Yet whenever he comes back, I should do ill
To scant whatever hint the god may give.

(8)

(enter Kreon)

O Prince:

Brother: son of Menoikeus:

(9)

(10)

KREON: He said that a band of highwaymen attacked them,
Outnumbered them, and overwhelmed the King.

KREON: We thought of that. But after Laios' death
New troubles arose and we had no avenger.

OEDIPUS: What troubles could prevent your hunting down the killers?

KREON: The riddling Sphinx's song
Made us deaf to all mysteries but her own.

OEDIPUS: Then once more I must bring what is dark to light.
It is most fitting that Apollo shows,
As you do, this compulsion for the dead.
You shall see how I stand by you, as I should,
To avenge the city and the city's god,
And not as though it were for some distant friend,
But for my own sake, to be rid of evil.
Whoever killed King Laios might--who knows?--
Decide at any moment to kill me as well.
By avenging the murdered king I protect myself.

(11)

Come, then, my children: leave the altar steps,
Lift up your olive boughs!

One of you go
And summon the people of Kadmos to gather here.
I will do all that I can; you may tell them that.
So, with the help of God,
We shall be saved--or else indeed we are lost.

(exit a PAGE)

PRIEST:

Let us rise, children. It was for this we came,
And now the King has promised it himself.
Phoibos has sent us an oracle; may he descend
Himself to save us and drive out the plague.

(Exeunt OEDIPUS and Kreon into the palace
by the central door. The PRIEST and the
SUPPLIANTS disperse R and L. After a
short pause the CHORUS enters the
orchestra.

(13)

CHORUS:

(strophe 1)

Let me pray to Athene, the immortal daughter of Zeus, (antistrophe 1)
And to Artemis her sister

As in the old time from your brilliant house
Of air you stepped to save us, come again!

(strophe 2)

(14)

See, how our lives like birds take wing,
Like sparks that fly when a fire soars,
To the shores of the god of evening.

Be kind, God's golden child!

For the day ravages, but the night spares--

Let him be riven by lightning from heaven!

Phoibos Apollo, stretch the sun's bowstring,
(antistrophe 3)

(15)

Right that Death, that all the Undying hate!
Come with blinding cressets, come in joy!

(enter OEDIPUS, C

(27)

OEDIPUS:

If any man knows by whose hand Laíos, son of Labdakos,
Met his death, I direct that man to tell me everything,
No matter what he fears for having so long withheld it.
Let it stand as promised that no further trouble
Will come to him, but he may leave the land in safety.

Fearing for his friend or for himself disobeys this edict,
Hear what I do propose to do:

I decree that he be driven from every house,
Being, as he is, corruption itself to us: the Delphic
Voice of Zeus has pronounced this revelation.

(18)

As for the criminal, I pray to God--

Whether it be a lurking thief, or one of a number--
I pray that that man's life be consumed in evil and wretchedness.
And so far as I am concerned, this curse applies no less
If it should turn out that the culprit is my guest here,
Sharing my hearth.

You have heard the penalty.

I lay it on you now to attend to this
For my sake, for Apollo's for the sick
Sterile city that heaven has abandoned.

Now I,
Having the power that he held before me,
Having his bed, begotting children there
Upon his wife, as he would have, had he lived--
Their son would have been my children's brother,
If Lafos had had luck in fatherhood!
(But surely ill luck rushed upon his reign)--
I say I take the son's part, just as though
I were his son, to press the fight for him
And see it won! I'll find the hand that brought
Death to Labdakos' and Polydoros' child,
Heir of Kadmos' and Agenor's line.

(20)

OEDIPUS: No.
The man who dared that act will fear no curse.
(enter the blind seer TEIRESIAS, led by a PAGE

OEDIPUS: Teiresias: seer: student of mysteries,
Of all that's taught and all than no man tells,
Secrets of Heaven and secrets of the earth:
Blind though you are, you know the city lies
Sick with plague; and from this plague, my lord,
We find that you alone can guard or save us.
Possibly you did not hear the messengers?
Apollo, when we sent to him,
Sent us back word that this great pestilence
Would lift, but only if we established clearly
The identity of those who murdered Lafos.
They must be killed or exiled.

Can you use
Birdflight or any art of divination
To purify yourself, and Thebes, and me
From this contagion? We are in your hands.

(22)

OEDIPUS: Rage? Why not!

TEIRESIAS: So? I charge you, then,
Abide by the proclamation you have made:
From this day forth
Never speak again to these men or to me;
You yourself are the sickness of this country.

(23)

OEDIPUS:

There is:

OEDIPUS:

Tell me:
Are you speaking for Kreon, or for yourself?

(24)

TEIRESIAS: Kreon is no threat. You weave your own doom.

OEDIPUS: Wealth, power, craft of statesmanship!
Kingly position, everywhere admired!
What savage envy is stored up against these!
If Kreon, whom I trusted, Kreon my friend,
For this great office which the city once
Put in my hands unsought--if for this power
Kreon desires in secret to destroy me!

Tell us:

And this is the man you think you can destroy,
That you may be close to Kreon when he's king!
Well, you and your friend Kreon, it seems to me,
Will suffer most. If you were not an old man,
You would have paid already for your plot.

(25)

CHORAGOS: We can not see that his words or yours
Have been spoken except in anger, Oedipus,
And of anger we have no need. How can God's will
Be accomplished best? That is what most concerns us.

TEIRESIAS: You are a king. But where argument's concerned
I am your man, as much a king as you.
I am not your servant, but Apollo's
I have no need of Kreon to speak for me.
Listen to me. You mock my blindness, do you?
But I say that you, with both your eyes, are blind:
You can not see the wretchedness of your life,
Nor in whose house you live, no, nor with whom.
Who are your father and mother? Can you tell me?
You do not even know the blind wrongs
That you have done them, on earth and in the world below.
But the double lash of your parents' curse will whip you
Out of this land some day, with only night
Upon your precious eyes.
Your cries then--where will they not be heard?
What fastness of Kithairon will not echo them?
And that bridal-descent of yours--you'll know it then,
The song they sang when you came here to Thebes
And found your misguided berthing.
All this, and more, that you can not guess at now,
Will bring you to yourself among your children,
Be angry, then. Curse Kreon. Curse my words.

(27)

A blind man,
Who has his eyes now; a penniless man, who is rich now;
And he will go tapping the strange earth with his staff.
To the children with whom he lives now he will be
Brother and rather--the very same; to her
Who bore him, son and husband--one very same
Who came to his father's bed, wet with his father's blood.

Enough. Go think that over.

(Exit TEIRESIAS, led by his PAGE. OEDIPUS goes into the palace.)

(29)

CHORUS:

The Delphic stone of prophecies
Remembers ancient regicide
And a still bloody hand,
That killer's hour of flight has come,
Can he be stronger than riderless
Coursers of untiring wind,
For the son of Zeus armed with his father's thunder
Leaps in lightning upon him;
And the Furies follow him, the sad Furies.

(strophe 1

Parnassos' sheet of sacred snow,
A blinding light to that secret man,
Blazes the word to hunt him down:
Though he may roam the forest shade
Like a bull gone wild from pasture
To rage through glooms of stone,
He is doomed now; flight will not avail him;
For the world's heart calls him desolate,
And the immortal Furies follow, for ever follow.

(antistrophe 1

But now a wilder thing is heard
From the old man skilled at hearing Fat in the wing-beat of a bird
Bewildered as a blown bird, my soul hovers and can not find
Foothold in this debate, or any reason or that rest of mind.
But no man ever brought--none can bring
Proof of strife between Thebes' royal house,
Labekos' line, and the son of Polybos;
From the old man skilled at hearing Fat in the wing-beat of a bird
Bewildered as a blown bird, my soul hovers and can not find
Foothold in this debate, or any reason or that rest of mind.

(strophe 2

(30)

Divine Zeus and Apollo hold
(antistrophe 2)
Perfect intelligence alone of all tales ever told;
And well though this diviner works, he works in his own night;
No man can judge that rough unknown or trust in second sight,
For wisdom changes hands among the wise.

(34)

KREON:

What of Laios?

OEDIPUS:

KREON:

It was long ago, a long time.

OEDIPUS:

And this prophet,

Was he practising here then?

KREON:

OEDIPUS:

KREON:

He never did;

OEDIPUS:

But...the enquiry?

I suppose you held one?

KREON:

OEDIPUS:

Why did the prophet not speak against me then?

KREON:

OEDIPUS:

KREON:

OEDIPUS:

KREON:

(36)

Besides, no sober mind is treasonable.
I hate anarchy
And never would deal with any man who likes it.

Test what I have said. Go to the priestess
At Delphi, ask if I quoted her correctly.
And as for this other thing: if I am found
Guilty of treason with Teiresias,
Then sentence me to death! You have my word
It is a sentence I should cast my vote for--
But not without evidence!

OEDIPUS: But is he not quick in his duplicity?
And shall I not be quick to parry him?
Would you have me stand still, hold my peace, and let
This man win everything, through my inaction?

KREON: And you want--what is it, then? To banish me?