Oedipus the King Prompting from us or been by others schooled;

By Sophocles No, by a god inspired (so all men deem,

And testify) didst thou renew our life.
Translated by F. Storr And now, O Oedipus, our peerless king,
---------------------------------------------------------------------- All we thy votaries beseech thee, find
Dramatis Personae Some succor, whether by a voice from heaven
OEDIPUS Whispered, or haply known by human wit.
THE PRIEST OF ZEUS Tried counselors, methinks, are aptest found
CREON To furnish for the future pregnant rede.
CHORUS OF THEBAN ELDERS Upraise, O chief of men, upraise our State!
TEIRESIAS Look to thy laurels! for thy zeal of yore
JOCASTA Our country's savior thou art justly hailed:
MESSENGER O never may we thus record thy reign:--
HERD OF LAIUS "He raised us up only to cast us down."
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Uplift us, build our city on a rock.
Thebes. Before the Palace of Oedipus. Suppliants of all Thy happy star ascendant brought us luck,
ages are seated O let it not decline! If thou wouldst rule
round the altar at the palace doors, at their head a PRIEST This land, as now thou reignest, better sure
OF ZEUS. To rule a peopled than a desert realm.
To them enter OEDIPUS. Nor battlements nor galleys aught avail,
---------------------------------------------------------------------- If men to man and guards to guard them tail.

OEDIPUS My children, latest born to Cadmus old, OEDIPUS Ah! my poor children, known, ah, known too
Why sit ye here as suppliants, in your hands well,
Branches of olive filleted with wool?
What means this reek of incense everywhere, The quest that brings you hither and your need.
And everywhere laments and litanies? Ye sicken all, well wot I, yet my pain,
Children, it were not meet that I should learn How great soever yours, outtops it all.
From others, and am hither come, myself, Your sorrow touches each man severally,
I Oedipus, your world-renowned king. Him and none other, but I grieve at once
Ho! aged sire, whose venerable locks Both for the general and myself and you.
Proclaim thee spokesman of this company, Therefore ye rouse no sluggard from day-dreams.
Explain your mood and purport. Is it dread Many, my children, are the tears I've wept,
Of ill that moves you or a boon ye crave? And threaded many a maze of weary thought.
My zeal in your behalf ye cannot doubt; Thus pondering one clue of hope I caught,
Ruthless indeed were I and obdurate And tracked it up; I have sent Menoeceus' son,
If such petitioners as you I spurned. Creon, my consort's brother, to inquire
Of Pythian Phoebus at his Delphic shrine,
PRIEST Yea, Oedipus, my sovereign lord and king, How I might save the State by act or word.
Thou seest how both extremes of age besiege And now I reckon up the tale of days
Thy palace altars--fledglings hardly winged, Since he set forth, and marvel how he fares.
And greybeards bowed with years, priests, as am I 'Tis strange, this endless tarrying, passing strange.
Of Zeus, and these the flower of our youth. But when he comes, then I were base indeed,
Meanwhile, the common folk, with wreathed boughs If I perform not all the god declares.
Crowd our two market-places, or before
Both shrines of Pallas congregate, or where PRIEST Thy words are well timed; even as thou speakest
Ismenus gives his oracles by fire. That shouting tells me Creon is at hand.
For, as thou seest thyself, our ship of State,
Sore buffeted, can no more lift her head, OEDIPUS O King Apollo! may his joyous looks
Foundered beneath a weltering surge of blood. Be presage of the joyous news he brings!
A blight is on our harvest in the ear,
A blight upon the grazing flocks and herds, PRIEST As I surmise, 'tis welcome; else his head
A blight on wives in travail; and withal Had scarce been crowned with berry-laden bays.
Armed with his blazing torch the God of Plague
Hath swooped upon our city emptying OEDIPUS We soon shall know; he's now in earshot range.
The house of Cadmus, and the murky realm (Enter CREON.)
Of Pluto is full fed with groans and tears. My royal cousin, say, Menoeceus' child,
What message hast thou brought us from the god?
Therefore, O King, here at thy hearth we sit,
I and these children; not as deeming thee CREON Good news, for e'en intolerable ills,
A new divinity, but the first of men; Finding right issue, tend to naught but good.
First in the common accidents of life,
And first in visitations of the Gods. OEDIPUS How runs the oracle? thus far thy words
Art thou not he who coming to the town Give me no ground for confidence or fear.
Of Cadmus freed us from the tax we paid
To the fell songstress? Nor hadst thou received CREON If thou wouldst hear my message publicly,

1
I'll tell thee straight, or with thee pass within. Of Phoebus, worthy thine too, for the dead;
I also, as is meet, will lend my aid
OEDIPUS Speak before all; the burden that I bear To avenge this wrong to Thebes and to the god.
Is more for these my subjects than myself. Not for some far-off kinsman, but myself,
Shall I expel this poison in the blood;
CREON Let me report then all the god declared. For whoso slew that king might have a mind
King Phoebus bids us straitly extirpate To strike me too with his assassin hand.
A fell pollution that infests the land, Therefore in righting him I serve myself.
And no more harbor an inveterate sore. Up, children, haste ye, quit these altar stairs,
Take hence your suppliant wands, go summon hither
OEDIPUS What expiation means he? What's amiss? The Theban commons. With the god's good help
Success is sure; 'tis ruin if we fail. (Exeunt OEDIPUS and
CREON Banishment, or the shedding blood for blood. CREON.)
This stain of blood makes shipwreck of our state.
PRIEST Come, children, let us hence; these gracious
OEDIPUS Whom can he mean, the miscreant thus words
denounced?
Forestall the very purpose of our suit.
CREON Before thou didst assume the helm of State, And may the god who sent this oracle
The sovereign of this land was Laius. Save us withal and rid us of this pest. (Exeunt PRIEST and
SUPPLIANTS.)
OEDIPUS I heard as much, but never saw the man.
CHORUS (strophe 1)
CREON He fell; and now the god's command is plain:
Punish his takers-off, whoe'er they be. Sweet-voiced daughter of Zeus from thy gold-paved
Pythian shrine
OEDIPUS Where are they? Where in the wide world to find
Wafted to Thebes divine,
The far, faint traces of a bygone crime? What dost thou bring me? My soul is racked and shivers
with fear.
CREON In this land, said the god; "who seeks shall find;
Healer of Delos, hear!
Who sits with folded hands or sleeps is blind." Hast thou some pain unknown before,
Or with the circling years renewest a penance of yore?
OEDIPUS Was he within his palace, or afield, Offspring of golden Hope, thou voice immortal, O tell me.
Or traveling, when Laius met his fate?
(antistrophe 1)
CREON Abroad; he started, so he told us, bound
For Delphi, but he never thence returned. First on Athene I call; O Zeus-born goddess, defend!
Goddess and sister, befriend,
OEDIPUS Came there no news, no fellow-traveler Artemis, Lady of Thebes, high-throned in the midst of our
To give some clue that might be followed up? mart!

CREON But one escape, who flying for dear life, Lord of the death-winged dart!
Could tell of all he saw but one thing sure. Your threefold aid I crave
From death and ruin our city to save.
OEDIPUS And what was that? One clue might lead us far, If in the days of old when we nigh had perished, ye drave
With but a spark of hope to guide our quest.
From our land the fiery plague, be near us now and defend
CREON Robbers, he told us, not one bandit but us!
A troop of knaves, attacked and murdered him.
(strophe 2)
OEDIPUS Did any bandit dare so bold a stroke,
Unless indeed he were suborned from Thebes? Ah me, what countless woes are mine!
All our host is in decline;
CREON So 'twas surmised, but none was found to avenge Weaponless my spirit lies.
His murder mid the trouble that ensued. Earth her gracious fruits denies;
Women wail in barren throes;
OEDIPUS What trouble can have hindered a full quest, Life on life downstriken goes,
When royalty had fallen thus miserably? Swifter than the wind bird's flight,
Swifter than the Fire-God's might,
CREON The riddling Sphinx compelled us to let slide To the westering shores of Night.
The dim past and attend to instant needs.
(antistrophe 2)
OEDIPUS Well, I will start afresh and once again
Make dark things clear. Right worthy the concern Wasted thus by death on death

2
All our city perisheth. Give him no part in prayer or sacrifice
Corpses spread infection round; Or lustral rites, but hound him from your homes.
None to tend or mourn is found. For this is our defilement, so the god
Wailing on the altar stair Hath lately shown to me by oracles.
Wives and grandams rend the air-- Thus as their champion I maintain the cause
Long-drawn moans and piercing cries Both of the god and of the murdered King.
Blent with prayers and litanies. And on the murderer this curse I lay
Golden child of Zeus, O hear (On him and all the partners in his guilt):--
Let thine angel face appear! Wretch, may he pine in utter wretchedness!
And for myself, if with my privity
(strophe 3) He gain admittance to my hearth, I pray
The curse I laid on others fall on me.
And grant that Ares whose hot breath I feel, See that ye give effect to all my hest,
Though without targe or steel For my sake and the god's and for our land,
He stalks, whose voice is as the battle shout, A desert blasted by the wrath of heaven.
May turn in sudden rout, For, let alone the god's express command,
To the unharbored Thracian waters sped, It were a scandal ye should leave unpurged
Or Amphitrite's bed. The murder of a great man and your king,
For what night leaves undone, Nor track it home. And now that I am lord,
Smit by the morrow's sun Successor to his throne, his bed, his wife,
Perisheth. Father Zeus, whose hand (And had he not been frustrate in the hope
Doth wield the lightning brand, Of issue, common children of one womb
Slay him beneath thy levin bold, we pray, Had forced a closer bond twixt him and me,
Slay him, O slay! But Fate swooped down upon him), therefore I
His blood-avenger will maintain his cause
(antistrophe 3) As though he were my sire, and leave no stone
Unturned to track the assassin or avenge
O that thine arrows too, Lycean King, The son of Labdacus, of Polydore,
From that taut bow's gold string, Of Cadmus, and Agenor first of the race.
Might fly abroad, the champions of our rights; And for the disobedient thus I pray:
Yea, and the flashing lights May the gods send them neither timely fruits
Of Artemis, wherewith the huntress sweeps Of earth, nor teeming increase of the womb,
Across the Lycian steeps. But may they waste and pine, as now they waste,
Thee too I call with golden-snooded hair, Aye and worse stricken; but to all of you,
Whose name our land doth bear, My loyal subjects who approve my acts,
Bacchus to whom thy Maenads Evoe shout; May Justice, our ally, and all the gods
Come with thy bright torch, rout, Be gracious and attend you evermore.
Blithe god whom we adore,
The god whom gods abhor. (Enter OEDIPUS.) CHORUS The oath thou profferest, sire, I take and swear.

OEDIPUS Ye pray; 'tis well, but would ye hear my words I slew him not myself, nor can I name
And heed them and apply the remedy, The slayer. For the quest, 'twere well, methinks
Ye might perchance find comfort and relief. That Phoebus, who proposed the riddle, himself
Mind you, I speak as one who comes a stranger Should give the answer--who the murderer was.
To this report, no less than to the crime;
For how unaided could I track it far OEDIPUS Well argued; but no living man can hope
Without a clue? Which lacking (for too late To force the gods to speak against their will.
Was I enrolled a citizen of Thebes)
This proclamation I address to all:-- CHORUS May I then say what seems next best to me?
Thebans, if any knows the man by whom
Laius, son of Labdacus, was slain, OEDIPUS Aye, if there be a third best, tell it too.
I summon him to make clean shrift to me.
And if he shrinks, let him reflect that thus CHORUS My liege, if any man sees eye to eye
Confessing he shall 'scape the capital charge; With our lord Phoebus, 'tis our prophet, lord
For the worst penalty that shall befall him Teiresias; he of all men best might guide
Is banishment--unscathed he shall depart. A searcher of this matter to the light.
But if an alien from a foreign land
Be known to any as the murderer, OEDIPUS Here too my zeal has nothing lagged, for twice
Let him who knows speak out, and he shall have At Creon's instance have I sent to fetch him,
Due recompense from me and thanks to boot. And long I marvel why he is not here.
But if ye still keep silence, if through fear
For self or friends ye disregard my hest, CHORUS I mind me too of rumors long ago--
Hear what I then resolve; I lay my ban Mere gossip.
On the assassin whosoe'er he be.
Let no man in this land, whereof I hold OEDIPUS Tell them, I would fain know all.
The sovereign rule, harbor or speak to him;

3
CHORUS 'Twas said he fell by travelers. OEDIPUS Monster! thy silence would incense a flint.
Will nothing loose thy tongue? Can nothing melt thee,
OEDIPUS So I heard, Or shake thy dogged taciturnity?
But none has seen the man who saw him fall.
TEIRESIAS Thou blam'st my mood and seest not thine
CHORUS Well, if he knows what fear is, he will quail own
And flee before the terror of thy curse. Wherewith thou art mated; no, thou taxest me.

OEDIPUS Words scare not him who blenches not at OEDIPUS And who could stay his choler when he heard
deeds. How insolently thou dost flout the State?

CHORUS But here is one to arraign him. Lo, at length TEIRESIAS Well, it will come what will, though I be mute.
They bring the god-inspired seer in whom
Above all other men is truth inborn. (Enter TEIRESIAS, led OEDIPUS Since come it must, thy duty is to tell me.
by a boy.)
TEIRESIAS I have no more to say; storm as thou willst,
OEDIPUS Teiresias, seer who comprehendest all, And give the rein to all thy pent-up rage.
Lore of the wise and hidden mysteries,
High things of heaven and low things of the earth, OEDIPUS Yea, I am wroth, and will not stint my words,
Thou knowest, though thy blinded eyes see naught, But speak my whole mind. Thou methinks thou art he,
What plague infects our city; and we turn Who planned the crime, aye, and performed it too,
To thee, O seer, our one defense and shield. All save the assassination; and if thou
The purport of the answer that the God Hadst not been blind, I had been sworn to boot
Returned to us who sought his oracle, That thou alone didst do the bloody deed.
The messengers have doubtless told thee--how
One course alone could rid us of the pest, TEIRESIAS Is it so? Then I charge thee to abide
To find the murderers of Laius, By thine own proclamation; from this day
And slay them or expel them from the land. Speak not to these or me. Thou art the man,
Therefore begrudging neither augury Thou the accursed polluter of this land.
Nor other divination that is thine,
O save thyself, thy country, and thy king, OEDIPUS Vile slanderer, thou blurtest forth these taunts,
Save all from this defilement of blood shed.
On thee we rest. This is man's highest end, And think'st forsooth as seer to go scot free.
To others' service all his powers to lend.
TEIRESIAS Yea, I am free, strong in the strength of truth.
TEIRESIAS Alas, alas, what misery to be wise
When wisdom profits nothing! This old lore OEDIPUS Who was thy teacher? not methinks thy art.
I had forgotten; else I were not here.
TEIRESIAS Thou, goading me against my will to speak.
OEDIPUS What ails thee? Why this melancholy mood?
OEDIPUS What speech? repeat it and resolve my doubt.
TEIRESIAS Let me go home; prevent me not; 'twere best
That thou shouldst bear thy burden and I mine. TEIRESIAS Didst miss my sense wouldst thou goad me
on?
OEDIPUS For shame! no true-born Theban patriot
Would thus withhold the word of prophecy. OEDIPUS I but half caught thy meaning; say it again.

TEIRESIAS Thy words, O king, are wide of the mark, and I TEIRESIAS I say thou art the murderer of the man
Whose murderer thou pursuest.
For fear lest I too trip like thee...
OEDIPUS Thou shalt rue it
OEDIPUS Oh speak, Twice to repeat so gross a calumny.
Withhold not, I adjure thee, if thou know'st,
Thy knowledge. We are all thy suppliants. TEIRESIAS Must I say more to aggravate thy rage?

TEIRESIAS Aye, for ye all are witless, but my voice OEDIPUS Say all thou wilt; it will be but waste of breath.
Will ne'er reveal my miseries--or thine.
TEIRESIAS I say thou livest with thy nearest kin
OEDIPUS What then, thou knowest, and yet willst not In infamy, unwitting in thy shame.
speak!
OEDIPUS Think'st thou for aye unscathed to wag thy
Wouldst thou betray us and destroy the State? tongue?

TEIRESIAS I will not vex myself nor thee. Why ask TEIRESIAS Yea, if the might of truth can aught prevail.
Thus idly what from me thou shalt not learn?
OEDIPUS With other men, but not with thee, for thou

4
In ear, wit, eye, in everything art blind. Home, but to no fair haven, on the gale!
Aye, and a flood of ills thou guessest not
TEIRESIAS Poor fool to utter gibes at me which all Shall set thyself and children in one line.
Here present will cast back on thee ere long. Flout then both Creon and my words, for none
Of mortals shall be striken worse than thou.
OEDIPUS Offspring of endless Night, thou hast no power
O'er me or any man who sees the sun. OEDIPUS Must I endure this fellow's insolence?
A murrain on thee! Get thee hence! Begone
TEIRESIAS No, for thy weird is not to fall by me. Avaunt! and never cross my threshold more.
I leave to Apollo what concerns the god.
TEIRESIAS I ne'er had come hadst thou not bidden me.
OEDIPUS Is this a plot of Creon, or thine own?
OEDIPUS I know not thou wouldst utter folly, else
TEIRESIAS Not Creon, thou thyself art thine own bane. Long hadst thou waited to be summoned here.

OEDIPUS O wealth and empiry and skill by skill TEIRESIAS Such am I--as it seems to thee a fool,
Outwitted in the battlefield of life, But to the parents who begat thee, wise.
What spite and envy follow in your train!
See, for this crown the State conferred on me. OEDIPUS What sayest thou--"parents"? Who begat me,
A gift, a thing I sought not, for this crown speak?
The trusty Creon, my familiar friend,
Hath lain in wait to oust me and suborned TEIRESIAS This day shall be thy birth-day, and thy grave.
This mountebank, this juggling charlatan,
This tricksy beggar-priest, for gain alone OEDIPUS Thou lov'st to speak in riddles and dark words.
Keen-eyed, but in his proper art stone-blind.
Say, sirrah, hast thou ever proved thyself TEIRESIAS In reading riddles who so skilled as thou?
A prophet? When the riddling Sphinx was here
Why hadst thou no deliverance for this folk? OEDIPUS Twit me with that wherein my greatness lies.
And yet the riddle was not to be solved
By guess-work but required the prophet's art; TEIRESIAS And yet this very greatness proved thy bane.
Wherein thou wast found lacking; neither birds
Nor sign from heaven helped thee, but I came, OEDIPUS No matter if I saved the commonwealth.
The simple Oedipus; I stopped her mouth
By mother wit, untaught of auguries. TEIRESIAS 'Tis time I left thee. Come, boy, take me home.
This is the man whom thou wouldst undermine,
In hope to reign with Creon in my stead. OEDIPUS Aye, take him quickly, for his presence irks
Methinks that thou and thine abettor soon And lets me; gone, thou canst not plague me more.
Will rue your plot to drive the scapegoat out.
Thank thy grey hairs that thou hast still to learn TEIRESIAS I go, but first will tell thee why I came.
What chastisement such arrogance deserves. Thy frown I dread not, for thou canst not harm me.
Hear then: this man whom thou hast sought to arrest
CHORUS To us it seems that both the seer and thou, With threats and warrants this long while, the wretch
O Oedipus, have spoken angry words. Who murdered Laius--that man is here.
This is no time to wrangle but consult He passes for an alien in the land
How best we may fulfill the oracle. But soon shall prove a Theban, native born.
And yet his fortune brings him little joy;
TEIRESIAS King as thou art, free speech at least is mine For blind of seeing, clad in beggar's weeds,
For purple robes, and leaning on his staff,
To make reply; in this I am thy peer. To a strange land he soon shall grope his way.
I own no lord but Loxias; him I serve And of the children, inmates of his home,
And ne'er can stand enrolled as Creon's man. He shall be proved the brother and the sire,
Thus then I answer: since thou hast not spared Of her who bare him son and husband both,
To twit me with my blindness--thou hast eyes, Co-partner, and assassin of his sire.
Yet see'st not in what misery thou art fallen, Go in and ponder this, and if thou find
Nor where thou dwellest nor with whom for mate. That I have missed the mark, henceforth declare
Dost know thy lineage? Nay, thou know'st it not, I have no wit nor skill in prophecy. (Exeunt TEIRESIAS
And all unwitting art a double foe and OEDIPUS.)
To thine own kin, the living and the dead;
Aye and the dogging curse of mother and sire CHORUS (strophe 1)
One day shall drive thee, like a two-edged sword,
Beyond our borders, and the eyes that now Who is he by voice immortal named from Pythia's rocky
See clear shall henceforward endless night. cell,
Ah whither shall thy bitter cry not reach,
What crag in all Cithaeron but shall then Doer of foul deeds of bloodshed, horrors that no tongue
Reverberate thy wail, when thou hast found can tell?
With what a hymeneal thou wast borne

5
A foot for flight he needs Hits not a single blot, but blasts my name,
Fleeter than storm-swift steeds, If by the general voice I am denounced
For on his heels doth follow, False to the State and false by you my friends.
Armed with the lightnings of his Sire, Apollo.
Like sleuth-hounds too CHORUS This taunt, it well may be, was blurted out
The Fates pursue. In petulance, not spoken advisedly.

(antistrophe 1) CREON Did any dare pretend that it was I

Prompted the seer to utter a forged charge?
Yea, but now flashed forth the summons from Parnassus'
snowy peak, CHORUS Such things were said; with what intent I know
not.
"Near and far the undiscovered doer of this murder seek!"
CREON Were not his wits and vision all astray
Now like a sullen bull he roves When upon me he fixed this monstrous charge?
Through forest brakes and upland groves,
And vainly seeks to fly CHORUS I know not; to my sovereign's acts I am blind.
The doom that ever nigh But lo, he comes to answer for himself. (Enter OEDIPUS.)
Flits o'er his head,
Still by the avenging Phoebus sped, OEDIPUS Sirrah, what mak'st thou here? Dost thou
The voice divine, presume
From Earth's mid shrine.
To approach my doors, thou brazen-faced rogue,
(strophe 2) My murderer and the filcher of my crown?
Come, answer this, didst thou detect in me
Sore perplexed am I by the words of the master seer. Some touch of cowardice or witlessness,
Are they true, are they false? I know not and bridle my That made thee undertake this enterprise?
tongue for I seemed forsooth too simple to perceive
fear, The serpent stealing on me in the dark,
Fluttered with vague surmise; nor present nor future is Or else too weak to scotch it when I saw.
clear. This thou art witless seeking to possess
Without a following or friends the crown,
Quarrel of ancient date or in days still near know I none A prize that followers and wealth must win.

Twixt the Labdacidan house and our ruler, Polybus' son. CREON Attend me. Thou hast spoken, 'tis my turn
Proof is there none: how then can I challenge our King's To make reply. Then having heard me, judge.
good name,
OEDIPUS Thou art glib of tongue, but I am slow to learn
How in a blood-feud join for an untracked deed of shame?
Of thee; I know too well thy venomous hate.
(antistrophe 2)
CREON First I would argue out this very point.
All wise are Zeus and Apollo, and nothing is hid from their
ken; OEDIPUS O argue not that thou art not a rogue.

They are gods; and in wits a man may surpass his fellow CREON If thou dost count a virtue stubbornness,
men; Unschooled by reason, thou art much astray.

But that a mortal seer knows more than I know--where OEDIPUS If thou dost hold a kinsman may be wronged,
Hath this been proven? Or how without sign assured, can I And no pains follow, thou art much to seek.
blame
CREON Therein thou judgest rightly, but this wrong
Him who saved our State when the winged songstress That thou allegest--tell me what it is.
came,
OEDIPUS Didst thou or didst thou not advise that I
Tested and tried in the light of us all, like gold assayed? Should call the priest?

How can I now assent when a crime is on Oedipus laid? CREON Yes, and I stand to it.

CREON Friends, countrymen, I learn King Oedipus OEDIPUS Tell me how long is it since Laius...
Hath laid against me a most grievous charge,
And come to you protesting. If he deems CREON Since Laius...? I follow not thy drift.
That I have harmed or injured him in aught
By word or deed in this our present trouble, OEDIPUS By violent hands was spirited away.
I care not to prolong the span of life,
Thus ill-reputed; for the calumny CREON In the dim past, a many years agone.

6
 If with the seer I plotted or conspired,
OEDIPUS Did the same prophet then pursue his craft? And if it prove so, sentence me to death,
Not by thy voice alone, but mine and thine.
CREON Yes, skilled as now and in no less repute. But O condemn me not, without appeal,
On bare suspicion. 'Tis not right to adjudge
OEDIPUS Did he at that time ever glance at me? Bad men at random good, or good men bad.
I would as lief a man should cast away
CREON Not to my knowledge, not when I was by. The thing he counts most precious, his own life,
As spurn a true friend. Thou wilt learn in time
OEDIPUS But was no search and inquisition made? The truth, for time alone reveals the just;
A villain is detected in a day.
CREON Surely full quest was made, but nothing learnt.
CHORUS To one who walketh warily his words
OEDIPUS Why failed the seer to tell his story then? Commend themselves; swift counsels are not sure.

CREON I know not, and not knowing hold my tongue. OEDIPUS When with swift strides the stealthy plotter stalks

OEDIPUS This much thou knowest and canst surely tell. I must be quick too with my counterplot.
To wait his onset passively, for him
CREON What's mean'st thou? All I know I will declare. Is sure success, for me assured defeat.

OEDIPUS But for thy prompting never had the seer CREON What then's thy will? To banish me the land?
Ascribed to me the death of Laius.
OEDIPUS I would not have thee banished, no, but dead,
CREON If so he thou knowest best; but I That men may mark the wages envy reaps.
Would put thee to the question in my turn.
CREON I see thou wilt not yield, nor credit me.
OEDIPUS Question and prove me murderer if thou canst.
OEDIPUS None but a fool would credit such as thou.
CREON Then let me ask thee, didst thou wed my sister?
CREON Thou art not wise.
OEDIPUS A fact so plain I cannot well deny.
OEDIPUS Wise for myself at least.
CREON And as thy consort queen she shares the throne?
CREON Why not for me too?
OEDIPUS I grant her freely all her heart desires.
OEDIPUS Why for such a knave?
CREON And with you twain I share the triple rule?
CREON Suppose thou lackest sense.
OEDIPUS Yea, and it is that proves thee a false friend.
OEDIPUS Yet kings must rule.
CREON Not so, if thou wouldst reason with thyself,
As I with myself. First, I bid thee think, CREON Not if they rule ill.
Would any mortal choose a troubled reign
Of terrors rather than secure repose, OEDIPUS Oh my Thebans, hear him!
If the same power were given him? As for me,
I have no natural craving for the name CREON Thy Thebans? am not I a Theban too?
Of king, preferring to do kingly deeds,
And so thinks every sober-minded man. CHORUS Cease, princes; lo there comes, and none too
Now all my needs are satisfied through thee, soon,
And I have naught to fear; but were I king,
My acts would oft run counter to my will. Jocasta from the palace. Who so fit
How could a title then have charms for me As peacemaker to reconcile your feud? (Enter JOCASTA.)
Above the sweets of boundless influence?
I am not so infatuate as to grasp JOCASTA Misguided princes, why have ye upraised
The shadow when I hold the substance fast. This wordy wrangle? Are ye not ashamed,
Now all men cry me Godspeed! wish me well, While the whole land lies striken, thus to voice
And every suitor seeks to gain my ear, Your private injuries? Go in, my lord;
If he would hope to win a grace from thee. Go home, my brother, and forebear to make
Why should I leave the better, choose the worse? A public scandal of a petty grief.
That were sheer madness, and I am not mad.
No such ambition ever tempted me, CREON My royal sister, Oedipus, thy lord,
Nor would I have a share in such intrigue. Hath bid me choose (O dread alternative!)
And if thou doubt me, first to Delphi go, An outlaw's exile or a felon's death.
There ascertain if my report was true
Of the god's answer; next investigate OEDIPUS Yes, lady; I have caught him practicing

7
Against my royal person his vile arts.
CHORUS Rumors bred unjust suspicious and injustice
CREON May I ne'er speed but die accursed, if I rankles sore.
In any way am guilty of this charge.
JOCASTA Were both at fault?
JOCASTA Believe him, I adjure thee, Oedipus,
First for his solemn oath's sake, then for mine, CHORUS Both.
And for thine elders' sake who wait on thee.
JOCASTA What was the tale?
CHORUS (strophe 1)
CHORUS Ask me no more. The land is sore distressed;
Hearken, King, reflect, we pray thee, but not stubborn but 'Twere better
relent. sleeping ills to leave at rest.

OEDIPUS Say to what should I consent? OEDIPUS Strange counsel, friend! I know thou mean'st me
well,
CHORUS Respect a man whose probity and troth
Are known to all and now confirmed by oath. And yet would'st mitigate and blunt my zeal.

OEDIPUS Dost know what grace thou cravest? CHORUS (antistrophe 2)

CHORUS Yea, I know. King, I say it once again,

Witless were I proved, insane,
OEDIPUS Declare it then and make thy meaning plain. If I lightly put away
Thee my country's prop and stay,
CHORUS Brand not a friend whom babbling tongues Pilot who, in danger sought,
assail; To a quiet haven brought
Our distracted State; and now
Let not suspicion 'gainst his oath prevail. Who can guide us right but thou?

OEDIPUS Bethink you that in seeking this ye seek JOCASTA Let me too, I adjure thee, know, O king,
In very sooth my death or banishment? What cause has stirred this unrelenting wrath.

CHORUS No, by the leader of the host divine! OEDIPUS I will, for thou art more to me than these.
Lady, the cause is Creon and his plots.
(strophe 2)
JOCASTA But what provoked the quarrel? make this clear.
Witness, thou Sun, such thought was never mine,
Unblest, unfriended may I perish, OEDIPUS He points me out as Laius' murderer.
If ever I such wish did cherish!
But O my heart is desolate JOCASTA Of his own knowledge or upon report?
Musing on our striken State,
Doubly fall'n should discord grow OEDIPUS He is too cunning to commit himself,
Twixt you twain, to crown our woe. And makes a mouthpiece of a knavish seer.

OEDIPUS Well, let him go, no matter what it cost me, JOCASTA Then thou mayest ease thy conscience on that
Or certain death or shameful banishment, score.
For your sake I relent, not his; and him,
Where'er he be, my heart shall still abhor. Listen and I'll convince thee that no man
Hath scot or lot in the prophetic art.
CREON Thou art as sullen in thy yielding mood Here is the proof in brief. An oracle
As in thine anger thou wast truculent. Once came to Laius (I will not say
Such tempers justly plague themselves the most. 'Twas from the Delphic god himself, but from
His ministers) declaring he was doomed
OEDIPUS Leave me in peace and get thee gone. To perish by the hand of his own son,
A child that should be born to him by me.
CREON I go, Now Laius--so at least report affirmed--
By thee misjudged, but justified by these. (Exeunt Was murdered on a day by highwaymen,
CREON.) No natives, at a spot where three roads meet.
As for the child, it was but three days old,
CHORUS (antistrophe 1) When Laius, its ankles pierced and pinned
Together, gave it to be cast away
Lady, lead indoors thy consort; wherefore longer here By others on the trackless mountain side.
delay? So then Apollo brought it not to pass
The child should be his father's murderer,
JOCASTA Tell me first how rose the fray. Or the dread terror find accomplishment,

8
And Laius be slain by his own son. JOCASTA No, for as soon as he returned and found
Such was the prophet's horoscope. O king, Thee reigning in the stead of Laius slain,
Regard it not. Whate'er the god deems fit He clasped my hand and supplicated me
To search, himself unaided will reveal. To send him to the alps and pastures, where
He might be farthest from the sight of Thebes.
OEDIPUS What memories, what wild tumult of the soul And so I sent him. 'Twas an honest slave
Came o'er me, lady, as I heard thee speak! And well deserved some better recompense.

JOCASTA What mean'st thou? What has shocked and OEDIPUS Fetch him at once. I fain would see the man.
startled thee?
JOCASTA He shall be brought; but wherefore summon
OEDIPUS Methought I heard thee say that Laius him?
Was murdered at the meeting of three roads.
OEDIPUS Lady, I fear my tongue has overrun
JOCASTA So ran the story that is current still. Discretion; therefore I would question him.

OEDIPUS Where did this happen? Dost thou know the JOCASTA Well, he shall come, but may not I too claim
place? To share the burden of thy heart, my king?

JOCASTA Phocis the land is called; the spot is where OEDIPUS And thou shalt not be frustrate of thy wish.
Branch roads from Delphi and from Daulis meet. Now my imaginings have gone so far.
Who has a higher claim that thou to hear
OEDIPUS And how long is it since these things befell? My tale of dire adventures? Listen then.
My sire was Polybus of Corinth, and
JOCASTA 'Twas but a brief while were thou wast My mother Merope, a Dorian;
proclaimed And I was held the foremost citizen,
Till a strange thing befell me, strange indeed,
Our country's ruler that the news was brought. Yet scarce deserving all the heat it stirred.
A roisterer at some banquet, flown with wine,
OEDIPUS O Zeus, what hast thou willed to do with me! Shouted "Thou art not true son of thy sire."
It irked me, but I stomached for the nonce
JOCASTA What is it, Oedipus, that moves thee so? The insult; on the morrow I sought out
My mother and my sire and questioned them.
OEDIPUS Ask me not yet; tell me the build and height They were indignant at the random slur
Of Laius? Was he still in manhood's prime? Cast on my parentage and did their best
To comfort me, but still the venomed barb
JOCASTA Tall was he, and his hair was lightly strewn Rankled, for still the scandal spread and grew.
With silver; and not unlike thee in form. So privily without their leave I went
To Delphi, and Apollo sent me back
OEDIPUS O woe is me! Mehtinks unwittingly Baulked of the knowledge that I came to seek.
I laid but now a dread curse on myself. But other grievous things he prophesied,
Woes, lamentations, mourning, portents dire;
JOCASTA What say'st thou? When I look upon thee, my To wit I should defile my mother's bed
king, And raise up seed too loathsome to behold,
And slay the father from whose loins I sprang.
I tremble. Then, lady,--thou shalt hear the very truth--
As I drew near the triple-branching roads,
OEDIPUS 'Tis a dread presentiment A herald met me and a man who sat
That in the end the seer will prove not blind. In a car drawn by colts--as in thy tale--
One further question to resolve my doubt. The man in front and the old man himself
Threatened to thrust me rudely from the path,
JOCASTA I quail; but ask, and I will answer all. Then jostled by the charioteer in wrath
I struck him, and the old man, seeing this,
OEDIPUS Had he but few attendants or a train Watched till I passed and from his car brought down
Of armed retainers with him, like a prince? Full on my head the double-pointed goad.
Yet was I quits with him and more; one stroke
JOCASTA They were but five in all, and one of them Of my good staff sufficed to fling him clean
A herald; Laius in a mule-car rode. Out of the chariot seat and laid him prone.
And so I slew them every one. But if
OEDIPUS Alas! 'tis clear as noonday now. But say, Betwixt this stranger there was aught in common
Lady, who carried this report to Thebes? With Laius, who more miserable than I,
What mortal could you find more god-abhorred?
JOCASTA A serf, the sole survivor who returned. Wretch whom no sojourner, no citizen
May harbor or address, whom all are bound
OEDIPUS Haply he is at hand or in the house? To harry from their homes. And this same curse
Was laid on me, and laid by none but me.

9
Yea with these hands all gory I pollute Olympus their progenitor alone:
The bed of him I slew. Say, am I vile? Ne'er shall they slumber in oblivion cold,
Am I not utterly unclean, a wretch The god in them is strong and grows not old.
Doomed to be banished, and in banishment
Forgo the sight of all my dearest ones, (antistrophe 1)
And never tread again my native earth;
Or else to wed my mother and slay my sire, Of insolence is bred
Polybus, who begat me and upreared? The tyrant; insolence full blown,
If one should say, this is the handiwork With empty riches surfeited,
Of some inhuman power, who could blame Scales the precipitous height and grasps the throne.
His judgment? But, ye pure and awful gods, Then topples o'er and lies in ruin prone;
Forbid, forbid that I should see that day! No foothold on that dizzy steep.
May I be blotted out from living men But O may Heaven the true patriot keep
Ere such a plague spot set on me its brand! Who burns with emulous zeal to serve the State.
God is my help and hope, on him I wait.
CHORUS We too, O king, are troubled; but till thou
Hast questioned the survivor, still hope on. (strophe 2)

OEDIPUS My hope is faint, but still enough survives But the proud sinner, or in word or deed,
To bid me bide the coming of this herd. That will not Justice heed,
Nor reverence the shrine
JOCASTA Suppose him here, what wouldst thou learn of Of images divine,
him? Perdition seize his vain imaginings,
If, urged by greed profane,
OEDIPUS I'll tell thee, lady; if his tale agrees He grasps at ill-got gain,
With thine, I shall have 'scaped calamity. And lays an impious hand on holiest things.
Who when such deeds are done
JOCASTA And what of special import did I say? Can hope heaven's bolts to shun?
If sin like this to honor can aspire,
OEDIPUS In thy report of what the herdsman said Why dance I still and lead the sacred choir?
Laius was slain by robbers; now if he
Still speaks of robbers, not a robber, I (antistrophe 2)
Slew him not; "one" with "many" cannot square.
But if he says one lonely wayfarer, No more I'll seek earth's central oracle,
The last link wanting to my guilt is forged. Or Abae's hallowed cell,
Nor to Olympia bring
JOCASTA Well, rest assured, his tale ran thus at first, My votive offering.
If before all God's truth be not bade plain.
Nor can he now retract what then he said; O Zeus, reveal thy might,
Not I alone but all our townsfolk heard it. King, if thou'rt named aright
E'en should he vary somewhat in his story, Omnipotent, all-seeing, as of old;
He cannot make the death of Laius For Laius is forgot;
In any wise jump with the oracle. His weird, men heed it not;
For Loxias said expressly he was doomed Apollo is forsook and faith grows cold. (Enter JOCASTA.)
To die by my child's hand, but he, poor babe,
He shed no blood, but perished first himself. JOCASTA My lords, ye look amazed to see your queen
So much for divination. Henceforth I With wreaths and gifts of incense in her hands.
Will look for signs neither to right nor left. I had a mind to visit the high shrines,
For Oedipus is overwrought, alarmed
OEDIPUS Thou reasonest well. Still I would have thee With terrors manifold. He will not use
send His past experience, like a man of sense,
To judge the present need, but lends an ear
And fetch the bondsman hither. See to it. To any croaker if he augurs ill.
Since then my counsels naught avail, I turn
JOCASTA That will I straightway. Come, let us within. To thee, our present help in time of trouble,
I would do nothing that my lord mislikes. (Exeunt Apollo, Lord Lycean, and to thee
OEDIPUS and JOCASTA.) My prayers and supplications here I bring.
Lighten us, lord, and cleanse us from this curse!
CHORUS (strophe 1) For now we all are cowed like mariners
Who see their helmsman dumbstruck in the storm. (Enter
My lot be still to lead Corinthian
The life of innocence and fly MESSENGER.)
Irreverence in word or deed,
To follow still those laws ordained on high MESSENGER My masters, tell me where the palace is
Whose birthplace is the bright ethereal sky Of Oedipus; or better, where's the king.
No mortal birth they own,

10
CHORUS Here is the palace and he bides within; But, as they stand, the oracles are dead--
This is his queen the mother of his children. Dust, ashes, nothing, dead as Polybus.

MESSENGER All happiness attend her and the house, JOCASTA Say, did not I foretell this long ago?
Blessed is her husband and her marriage-bed.
OEDIPUS Thou didst: but I was misled by my fear.
JOCASTA My greetings to thee, stranger; thy fair words
Deserve a like response. But tell me why JOCASTA Then let I no more weigh upon thy soul.
Thou comest--what thy need or what thy news.
OEDIPUS Must I not fear my mother's marriage bed.
MESSENGER Good for thy consort and the royal house.
JOCASTA Why should a mortal man, the sport of chance,
JOCASTA What may it be? Whose messenger art thou? With no assured foreknowledge, be afraid?
Best live a careless life from hand to mouth.
MESSENGER The Isthmian commons have resolved to This wedlock with thy mother fear not thou.
make How oft it chances that in dreams a man
Thy husband king--so 'twas reported there. Has wed his mother! He who least regards
Such brainsick phantasies lives most at ease.
JOCASTA What! is not aged Polybus still king?
OEDIPUS I should have shared in full thy confidence,
MESSENGER No, verily; he's dead and in his grave. Were not my mother living; since she lives
Though half convinced I still must live in dread.
JOCASTA What! is he dead, the sire of Oedipus?
JOCASTA And yet thy sire's death lights out darkness
MESSENGER If I speak falsely, may I die myself. much.

JOCASTA Quick, maiden, bear these tidings to my lord. OEDIPUS Much, but my fear is touching her who lives.
Ye god-sent oracles, where stand ye now!
This is the man whom Oedipus long shunned, MESSENGER Who may this woman be whom thus you
In dread to prove his murderer; and now fear?
He dies in nature's course, not by his hand. (Enter
OEDIPUS.) OEDIPUS Merope, stranger, wife of Polybus.

OEDIPUS My wife, my queen, Jocasta, why hast thou MESSENGER And what of her can cause you any fear?
Summoned me from my palace?
OEDIPUS A heaven-sent oracle of dread import.
JOCASTA Hear this man,
And as thou hearest judge what has become MESSENGER A mystery, or may a stranger hear it?
Of all those awe-inspiring oracles.
OEDIPUS Aye, 'tis no secret. Loxias once foretold
OEDIPUS Who is this man, and what his news for me? That I should mate with mine own mother, and shed
With my own hands the blood of my own sire.
JOCASTA He comes from Corinth and his message this: Hence Corinth was for many a year to me
Thy father Polybus hath passed away. A home distant; and I trove abroad,
But missed the sweetest sight, my parents' face.
OEDIPUS What? let me have it, stranger, from thy mouth.
MESSENGER Was this the fear that exiled thee from
MESSENGER If I must first make plain beyond a doubt home?
My message, know that Polybus is dead.
OEDIPUS Yea, and the dread of slaying my own sire.
OEDIPUS By treachery, or by sickness visited?
MESSENGER Why, since I came to give thee pleasure,
MESSENGER One touch will send an old man to his rest. King,

OEDIPUS So of some malady he died, poor man. Have I not rid thee of this second fear?

MESSENGER Yes, having measured the full span of OEDIPUS Well, thou shalt have due guerdon for thy pains.
years.
MESSENGER Well, I confess what chiefly made me come
OEDIPUS Out on it, lady! why should one regard Was hope to profit by thy coming home.
The Pythian hearth or birds that scream i' the air?
Did they not point at me as doomed to slay OEDIPUS Nay, I will ne'er go near my parents more.
My father? but he's dead and in his grave
And here am I who ne'er unsheathed a sword; MESSENGER My son, 'tis plain, thou know'st not what thou
Unless the longing for his absent son doest.
Killed him and so I slew him in a sense.

11
OEDIPUS How so, old man? For heaven's sake tell me all. The man from whom I had thee may know more.

MESSENGER If this is why thou dreadest to return. OEDIPUS What, did another find me, not thyself?

OEDIPUS Yea, lest the god's word be fulfilled in me. MESSENGER Not I; another shepherd gave thee me.

MESSENGER Lest through thy parents thou shouldst be OEDIPUS Who was he? Would'st thou know again the
accursed? man?

OEDIPUS This and none other is my constant dread. MESSENGER He passed indeed for one of Laius' house.

MESSENGER Dost thou not know thy fears are baseless OEDIPUS The king who ruled the country long ago?
all?
MESSENGER The same: he was a herdsman of the king.
OEDIPUS How baseless, if I am their very son?
OEDIPUS And is he living still for me to see him?
MESSENGER Since Polybus was naught to thee in blood.
MESSENGER His fellow-countrymen should best know
OEDIPUS What say'st thou? was not Polybus my sire? that.

MESSENGER As much thy sire as I am, and no more. OEDIPUS Doth any bystander among you know
The herd he speaks of, or by seeing him
OEDIPUS My sire no more to me than one who is naught? Afield or in the city? answer straight!
The hour hath come to clear this business up.
MESSENGER Since I begat thee not, no more did he.
CHORUS Methinks he means none other than the hind
OEDIPUS What reason had he then to call me son? Whom thou anon wert fain to see; but that
Our queen Jocasta best of all could tell.
MESSENGER Know that he took thee from my hands, a
gift. OEDIPUS Madam, dost know the man we sent to fetch?
Is the same of whom the stranger speaks?
OEDIPUS Yet, if no child of his, he loved me well.
JOCASTA Who is the man? What matter? Let it be.
MESSENGER A childless man till then, he warmed to thee. 'Twere waste of thought to weigh such idle words.

OEDIPUS A foundling or a purchased slave, this child? OEDIPUS No, with such guiding clues I cannot fail
To bring to light the secret of my birth.
MESSENGER I found thee in Cithaeron's wooded glens.
JOCASTA Oh, as thou carest for thy life, give o'er
OEDIPUS What led thee to explore those upland glades? This quest. Enough the anguish I endure.

MESSENGER My business was to tend the mountain OEDIPUS Be of good cheer; though I be proved the son
flocks. Of a bondwoman, aye, through three descents
Triply a slave, thy honor is unsmirched.
OEDIPUS A vagrant shepherd journeying for hire?
JOCASTA Yet humor me, I pray thee; do not this.
MESSENGER True, but thy savior in that hour, my son.
OEDIPUS I cannot; I must probe this matter home.
OEDIPUS My savior? from what harm? what ailed me
then? JOCASTA 'Tis for thy sake I advise thee for the best.

MESSENGER Those ankle joints are evidence enow. OEDIPUS I grow impatient of this best advice.

OEDIPUS Ah, why remind me of that ancient sore? JOCASTA Ah mayst thou ne'er discover who thou art!

MESSENGER I loosed the pin that riveted thy feet. OEDIPUS Go, fetch me here the herd, and leave yon
woman
OEDIPUS Yes, from my cradle that dread brand I bore.
To glory in her pride of ancestry.
MESSENGER Whence thou deriv'st the name that still is
thine. JOCASTA O woe is thee, poor wretch! With that last word

OEDIPUS Who did it? I adjure thee, tell me who I leave thee, henceforth silent evermore. (Exit JOCASTA.)
Say, was it father, mother?
CHORUS Why, Oedipus, why stung with passionate grief
MESSENGER I know not. Hath the queen thus departed? Much I fear

12
From this dead calm will burst a storm of woes. OEDIPUS What was thy business? how wast thou
employed?
OEDIPUS Let the storm burst, my fixed resolve still holds,
HERDSMAN The best part of my life I tended sheep.
To learn my lineage, be it ne'er so low.
It may be she with all a woman's pride OEDIPUS What were the pastures thou didst most
Thinks scorn of my base parentage. But I frequent?
Who rank myself as Fortune's favorite child,
The giver of good gifts, shall not be shamed. HERDSMAN Cithaeron and the neighboring alps.
She is my mother and the changing moons
My brethren, and with them I wax and wane. OEDIPUS Then there
Thus sprung why should I fear to trace my birth? Thou must have known yon man, at least by fame?
Nothing can make me other than I am.
HERDSMAN Yon man? in what way? what man dost thou
CHORUS (strophe) mean?

If my soul prophetic err not, if my wisdom aught avail, OEDIPUS The man here, having met him in past times...

Thee, Cithaeron, I shall hail, HERDSMAN Off-hand I cannot call him well to mind.
As the nurse and foster-mother of our Oedipus shall greet
MESSENGER No wonder, master. But I will revive
Ere tomorrow's full moon rises, and exalt thee as is meet. His blunted memories. Sure he can recall
What time together both we drove our flocks,
Dance and song shall hymn thy praises, lover of our royal He two, I one, on the Cithaeron range,
race. For three long summers; I his mate from spring
Till rose Arcturus; then in winter time
Phoebus, may my words find grace! I led mine home, he his to Laius' folds.
Did these things happen as I say, or no?
(antistrophe)
HERDSMAN 'Tis long ago, but all thou say'st is true.
Child, who bare thee, nymph or goddess? sure thy sure
was more than MESSENGER Well, thou mast then remember giving me
man, A child to rear as my own foster-son?
Haply the hill-roamer Pan.
Of did Loxias beget thee, for he haunts the upland wold; HERDSMAN Why dost thou ask this question? What of
that?
Or Cyllene's lord, or Bacchus, dweller on the hilltops cold?
MESSENGER Friend, he that stands before thee was that
Did some Heliconian Oread give him thee, a new-born joy? child.

Nymphs with whom he love to toy? HERDSMAN A plague upon thee! Hold thy wanton tongue!

OEDIPUS Elders, if I, who never yet before OEDIPUS Softly, old man, rebuke him not; thy words
Have met the man, may make a guess, methinks Are more deserving chastisement than his.
I see the herdsman who we long have sought;
His time-worn aspect matches with the years HERDSMAN O best of masters, what is my offense?
Of yonder aged messenger; besides
I seem to recognize the men who bring him OEDIPUS Not answering what he asks about the child.
As servants of my own. But you, perchance,
Having in past days known or seen the herd, HERDSMAN He speaks at random, babbles like a fool.
May better by sure knowledge my surmise.
OEDIPUS If thou lack'st grace to speak, I'll loose thy
CHORUS I recognize him; one of Laius' house; tongue.
A simple hind, but true as any man. (Enter HERDSMAN.)
HERDSMAN For mercy's sake abuse not an old man.
OEDIPUS Corinthian, stranger, I address thee first,
Is this the man thou meanest! OEDIPUS Arrest the villain, seize and pinion him!

MESSENGER This is he. HERDSMAN Alack, alack!

What have I done? what wouldst thou further learn?
OEDIPUS And now old man, look up and answer all
I ask thee. Wast thou once of Laius' house? OEDIPUS Didst give this man the child of whom he asks?

HERDSMAN I was, a thrall, not purchased but home-bred. HERDSMAN I did; and would that I had died that day!

OEDIPUS And die thou shalt unless thou tell the truth.

13
 A moment, and the visions pale and fade.
HERDSMAN But, if I tell it, I am doubly lost. Thy fall, O Oedipus, thy piteous fall
Warns me none born of women blest to call.
OEDIPUS The knave methinks will still prevaricate.
(antistrophe 1)
HERDSMAN Nay, I confessed I gave it long ago.
For he of marksmen best,
OEDIPUS Whence came it? was it thine, or given to thee? O Zeus, outshot the rest,
And won the prize supreme of wealth and power.
HERDSMAN I had it from another, 'twas not mine. By him the vulture maid
Was quelled, her witchery laid;
OEDIPUS From whom of these our townsmen, and what He rose our savior and the land's strong tower.
house? We hailed thee king and from that day adored
Of mighty Thebes the universal lord.
HERDSMAN Forbear for God's sake, master, ask no more.
(strophe 2)
OEDIPUS If I must question thee again, thou'rt lost.
O heavy hand of fate!
HERDSMAN Well then--it was a child of Laius' house. Who now more desolate,
Whose tale more sad than thine, whose lot more dire?
OEDIPUS Slave-born or one of Laius' own race? O Oedipus, discrowned head,
Thy cradle was thy marriage bed;
HERDSMAN Ah me! One harborage sufficed for son and sire.
I stand upon the perilous edge of speech. How could the soil thy father eared so long
Endure to bear in silence such a wrong?
OEDIPUS And I of hearing, but I still must hear.
(antistrophe 2)
HERDSMAN Know then the child was by repute his own,
But she within, thy consort best could tell. All-seeing Time hath caught
Guilt, and to justice brought
OEDIPUS What! she, she gave it thee? The son and sire commingled in one bed.
O child of Laius' ill-starred race
HERDSMAN 'Tis so, my king. Would I had ne'er beheld thy face;
I raise for thee a dirge as o'er the dead.
OEDIPUS With what intent? Yet, sooth to say, through thee I drew new breath,
And now through thee I feel a second death. (Enter
HERDSMAN To make away with it. SECOND MESSENGER.)

OEDIPUS What, she its mother. SECOND MESSENGER Most grave and reverend
senators of Thebes,
HERDSMAN Fearing a dread weird.
What Deeds ye soon must hear, what sights behold
OEDIPUS What weird? How will ye mourn, if, true-born patriots,
Ye reverence still the race of Labdacus!
HERDSMAN 'Twas told that he should slay his sire. Not Ister nor all Phasis' flood, I ween,
Could wash away the blood-stains from this house,
OEDIPUS What didst thou give it then to this old man? The ills it shrouds or soon will bring to light,
Ills wrought of malice, not unwittingly.
HERDSMAN Through pity, master, for the babe. I thought The worst to bear are self-inflicted wounds.
He'd take it to the country whence he came;
But he preserved it for the worst of woes. CHORUS Grievous enough for all our tears and groans
For if thou art in sooth what this man saith, Our past calamities; what canst thou add?
God pity thee! thou wast to misery born.
SECOND MESSENGER My tale is quickly told and quickly
OEDIPUS Ah me! ah me! all brought to pass, all true! heard.
O light, may I behold thee nevermore!
I stand a wretch, in birth, in wedlock cursed, Our sovereign lady queen Jocasta's dead.
A parricide, incestuously, triply cursed! (Exit OEDIPUS.)
CHORUS Alas, poor queen! how came she by her death?
CHORUS (strophe 1)
SECOND MESSENGER By her own hand. And all the
Races of mortal man horror of it,
Whose life is but a span,
I count ye but the shadow of a shade! Not having seen, yet cannot comprehend.
For he who most doth know Nathless, as far as my poor memory serves,
Of bliss, hath but the show; I will relate the unhappy lady's woe.

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When in her frenzy she had passed inside That he who must abhorred would pity it. (Enter OEDIPUS
The vestibule, she hurried straight to win blinded.)
The bridal-chamber, clutching at her hair
With both her hands, and, once within the room, CHORUS Woeful sight! more woeful none
She shut the doors behind her with a crash. These sad eyes have looked upon.
"Laius," she cried, and called her husband dead Whence this madness? None can tell
Long, long ago; her thought was of that child Who did cast on thee his spell, prowling all thy life around,
By him begot, the son by whom the sire
Was murdered and the mother left to breed Leaping with a demon bound.
With her own seed, a monstrous progeny. Hapless wretch! how can I brook
Then she bewailed the marriage bed whereon On thy misery to look?
Poor wretch, she had conceived a double brood, Though to gaze on thee I yearn,
Husband by husband, children by her child. Much to question, much to learn,
What happened after that I cannot tell, Horror-struck away I turn.
Nor how the end befell, for with a shriek
Burst on us Oedipus; all eyes were fixed OEDIPUS Ah me! ah woe is me!
On Oedipus, as up and down he strode, Ah whither am I borne!
Nor could we mark her agony to the end. How like a ghost forlorn
For stalking to and fro "A sword!" he cried, My voice flits from me on the air!
"Where is the wife, no wife, the teeming womb On, on the demon goads. The end, ah where?
That bore a double harvest, me and mine?"
And in his frenzy some supernal power CHORUS An end too dread to tell, too dark to see.
(No mortal, surely, none of us who watched him)
Guided his footsteps; with a terrible shriek, OEDIPUS (strophe 1)
As though one beckoned him, he crashed against
The folding doors, and from their staples forced Dark, dark! The horror of darkness, like a shroud,
The wrenched bolts and hurled himself within. Wraps me and bears me on through mist and cloud.
Then we beheld the woman hanging there, Ah me, ah me! What spasms athwart me shoot,
A running noose entwined about her neck. What pangs of agonizing memory?
But when he saw her, with a maddened roar
He loosed the cord; and when her wretched corpse CHORUS No marvel if in such a plight thou feel'st
Lay stretched on earth, what followed--O 'twas dread! The double weight of past and present woes.
He tore the golden brooches that upheld
Her queenly robes, upraised them high and smote OEDIPUS (antistrophe 1)
Full on his eye-balls, uttering words like these:
"No more shall ye behold such sights of woe, Ah friend, still loyal, constant still and kind,
Deeds I have suffered and myself have wrought; Thou carest for the blind.
Henceforward quenched in darkness shall ye see I know thee near, and though bereft of eyes,
Those ye should ne'er have seen; now blind to those Thy voice I recognize.
Whom, when I saw, I vainly yearned to know."
Such was the burden of his moan, whereto, CHORUS O doer of dread deeds, how couldst thou mar
Not once but oft, he struck with his hand uplift Thy vision thus? What demon goaded thee?
His eyes, and at each stroke the ensanguined orbs
Bedewed his beard, not oozing drop by drop, OEDIPUS (strophe 2)
But one black gory downpour, thick as hail.
Such evils, issuing from the double source, Apollo, friend, Apollo, he it was
Have whelmed them both, confounding man and wife. That brought these ills to pass;
Till now the storied fortune of this house But the right hand that dealt the blow
Was fortunate indeed; but from this day Was mine, none other. How,
Woe, lamentation, ruin, death, disgrace, How, could I longer see when sight
All ills that can be named, all, all are theirs. Brought no delight?

CHORUS But hath he still no respite from his pain? CHORUS Alas! 'tis as thou sayest.

SECOND MESSENGER He cries, "Unbar the doors and let OEDIPUS Say, friends, can any look or voice
all Thebes Or touch of love henceforth my heart rejoice?
Haste, friends, no fond delay,
Behold the slayer of his sire, his mother's--" Take the twice cursed away
That shameful word my lips may not repeat. Far from all ken,
He vows to fly self-banished from the land, The man abhorred of gods, accursed of men.
Nor stay to bring upon his house the curse
Himself had uttered; but he has no strength CHORUS O thy despair well suits thy desperate case.
Nor one to guide him, and his torture's more Would I had never looked upon thy face!
Than man can suffer, as yourselves will see.
For lo, the palace portals are unbarred, OEDIPUS (antistrophe 2)
And soon ye shall behold a sight so sad

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My curse on him whoe'er unrived Down to the depths of ocean out of sight.
The waif's fell fetters and my life revived! Come hither, deign to touch an abject wretch;
He meant me well, yet had he left me there, Draw near and fear not; I myself must bear
He had saved my friends and me a world of care. The load of guilt that none but I can share. (Enter
CREON.)
CHORUS I too had wished it so.
CREON Lo, here is Creon, the one man to grant
OEDIPUS Then had I never come to shed Thy prayer by action or advice, for he
My father's blood nor climbed my mother's bed; Is left the State's sole guardian in thy stead.
The monstrous offspring of a womb defiled,
Co-mate of him who gendered me, and child. OEDIPUS Ah me! what words to accost him can I find?
Was ever man before afflicted thus, What cause has he to trust me? In the past
Like Oedipus. I have bee proved his rancorous enemy.

CHORUS I cannot say that thou hast counseled well, CREON Not in derision, Oedipus, I come
For thou wert better dead than living blind. Nor to upbraid thee with thy past misdeeds. (To
BYSTANDERS.) But
OEDIPUS What's done was well done. Thou canst never shame upon you! if ye feel no sense
shake Of human decencies, at least revere
The Sun whose light beholds and nurtures all.
My firm belief. A truce to argument. Leave not thus nakedly for all to gaze at
For, had I sight, I know not with what eyes A horror neither earth nor rain from heaven
I could have met my father in the shades, Nor light will suffer. Lead him straight within,
Or my poor mother, since against the twain For it is seemly that a kinsman's woes
I sinned, a sin no gallows could atone. Be heard by kin and seen by kin alone.
Aye, but, ye say, the sight of children joys
A parent's eyes. What, born as mine were born? OEDIPUS O listen, since thy presence comes to me
No, such a sight could never bring me joy; A shock of glad surprise--so noble thou,
Nor this fair city with its battlements, And I so vile--O grant me one small boon.
Its temples and the statues of its gods, I ask it not on my behalf, but thine.
Sights from which I, now wretchedst of all,
Once ranked the foremost Theban in all Thebes, CREON And what the favor thou wouldst crave of me?
By my own sentence am cut off, condemned
By my own proclamation 'gainst the wretch, OEDIPUS Forth from thy borders thrust me with all speed;
The miscreant by heaven itself declared
Unclean--and of the race of Laius. Set me within some vasty desert where
Thus branded as a felon by myself, No mortal voice shall greet me any more.
How had I dared to look you in the face?
Nay, had I known a way to choke the springs CREON This had I done already, but I deemed
Of hearing, I had never shrunk to make It first behooved me to consult the god.
A dungeon of this miserable frame,
Cut off from sight and hearing; for 'tis bliss to bide in OEDIPUS His will was set forth fully--to destroy
regions The parricide, the scoundrel; and I am he.
sorrow cannot reach.
Why didst thou harbor me, Cithaeron, why CREON Yea, so he spake, but in our present plight
Didst thou not take and slay me? Then I never 'Twere better to consult the god anew.
Had shown to men the secret of my birth.
O Polybus, O Corinth, O my home, OEDIPUS Dare ye inquire concerning such a wretch?
Home of my ancestors (so wast thou called)
How fair a nursling then I seemed, how foul CREON Yea, for thyself wouldst credit now his word.
The canker that lay festering in the bud!
Now is the blight revealed of root and fruit. OEDIPUS Aye, and on thee in all humility
Ye triple high-roads, and thou hidden glen, I lay this charge: let her who lies within
Coppice, and pass where meet the three-branched ways, Receive such burial as thou shalt ordain;
Ye drank my blood, the life-blood these hands spilt, Such rites 'tis thine, as brother, to perform.
My father's; do ye call to mind perchance But for myself, O never let my Thebes,
Those deeds of mine ye witnessed and the work The city of my sires, be doomed to bear
I wrought thereafter when I came to Thebes? The burden of my presence while I live.
O fatal wedlock, thou didst give me birth, No, let me be a dweller on the hills,
And, having borne me, sowed again my seed, On yonder mount Cithaeron, famed as mine,
Mingling the blood of fathers, brothers, children, My tomb predestined for me by my sire
Brides, wives and mothers, an incestuous brood, And mother, while they lived, that I may die
All horrors that are wrought beneath the sun, Slain as they sought to slay me, when alive.
Horrors so foul to name them were unmeet. This much I know full surely, nor disease
O, I adjure you, hide me anywhere Shall end my days, nor any common chance;
Far from this land, or slay me straight, or cast me For I had ne'er been snatched from death, unless

16
I was predestined to some awful doom.
So be it. I reck not how Fate deals with me CREON What thy terms for going, say.
But my unhappy children--for my sons
Be not concerned, O Creon, they are men, OEDIPUS Send me from the land an exile.
And for themselves, where'er they be, can fend.
But for my daughters twain, poor innocent maids, CREON Ask this of the gods, not me.
Who ever sat beside me at the board
Sharing my viands, drinking of my cup, OEDIPUS But I am the gods' abhorrence.
For them, I pray thee, care, and, if thou willst,
O might I feel their touch and make my moan. CREON Then they soon will grant thy plea.
Hear me, O prince, my noble-hearted prince!
Could I but blindly touch them with my hands OEDIPUS Lead me hence, then, I am willing.
I'd think they still were mine, as when I saw. (ANTIGONE
and ISMENE CREON Come, but let thy children go.
are led in.) What say I? can it be my pretty ones
Whose sobs I hear? Has Creon pitied me OEDIPUS Rob me not of these my children!
And sent me my two darlings? Can this be?
CREON Crave not mastery in all,
CREON 'Tis true; 'twas I procured thee this delight, For the mastery that raised thee was thy bane and wrought
Knowing the joy they were to thee of old. thy fall.

OEDIPUS God speed thee! and as meed for bringing them CHORUS Look ye, countrymen and Thebans, this is
May Providence deal with thee kindlier Oedipus the great,
Than it has dealt with me! O children mine,
Where are ye? Let me clasp you with these hands, He who knew the Sphinx's riddle and was mightiest in our
A brother's hands, a father's; hands that made state.
Lack-luster sockets of his once bright eyes;
Hands of a man who blindly, recklessly, Who of all our townsmen gazed not on his fame with
Became your sire by her from whom he sprang. envious eyes?
Though I cannot behold you, I must weep
In thinking of the evil days to come, Now, in what a sea of troubles sunk and overwhelmed he
The slights and wrongs that men will put upon you. lies!
Where'er ye go to feast or festival,
No merrymaking will it prove for you, Therefore wait to see life's ending ere thou count one
But oft abashed in tears ye will return. mortal blest;
And when ye come to marriageable years,
Where's the bold wooers who will jeopardize Wait till free from pain and sorrow he has gained his final
To take unto himself such disrepute rest.
As to my children's children still must cling,
For what of infamy is lacking here? THE END
"Their father slew his father, sowed the seed
Where he himself was gendered, and begat ----------------------------------------------------------------------
These maidens at the source wherefrom he sprang."
Such are the gibes that men will cast at you. http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus.pl.txt
Who then will wed you? None, I ween, but ye
Must pine, poor maids, in single barrenness.
O Prince, Menoeceus' son, to thee, I turn,
With the it rests to father them, for we
Their 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 thee
All 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.

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