Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone

The Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles

PRIESTYea, Oedipus, my sovereign lord and king, Thou seest how both extremes of age besiege Thy palace altars—fledglings hardly winged, and greybeards bowed with years; priests, as am I of Zeus, and these the flower of our youth. Meanwhile, the common folk, with wreathed boughs Crowd our two market-places, or before Both shrines of Pallas congregate, or where Ismenus gives his oracles by fire. For, as thou seest thyself, our ship of State, Sore buffeted, can no more lift her head, Foundered beneath a weltering surge of blood. A blight is on our harvest in the ear, A blight on the grazing flocks and herds, A blight on wives in travail; and withal Armed with his blazing torch the God of Plague Hath swooped on our city emptying The house of Cadmus, and the murky realm Of Pluto is full fed with groans and tears. Therefore, O King, here at thy hearth we sit, I and these children; not as deeming thee A new divinity, but the first of men; First in the common accidents of life, And first in visitations of the Gods. Art thou not he who coming to the town of Cadmus freed us from the tax we paid To the fell songstress? Nor hadst thou received Prompting from us or been by others schooled; No, by a god inspired (so all men deem, And testify) didst thou renew our life. And now, O Oedipus, our peerless king, All we thy votaries beseech thee, find Some succor, whether by a voice from heaven Whispered, or haply known by human wit. Tried counselors, methinks, are aptest found1 To furnish for the future pregnant rede. Upraise, O chief of men, upraise our State! Look to thy laurels! for thy zeal of yore Our country's savior thou art justly hailed: O never may we thus record thy reign:— "He raised us up only to cast us down." Uplift us, build our city on a rock. Thy happy star ascendant brought us luck, O let it not decline! If thou wouldst rule This land, as now thou reignest, better sure To rule a peopled than a desert realm. Nor battlements nor galleys aught avail, If men to man and guards to guard them tail.

OEDIPUSAh! my poor children, known, ah, known too well, The quest that brings you hither and your need. Ye sicken all, well wot I, yet my pain, How great soever yours, outtops it all. Your sorrow touches each man severally, Him and none other, but I grieve at once Both for the general and myself and you. Therefore ye rouse no sluggard from day-dreams. Many, my children, are the tears I've wept, And threaded many a maze of weary thought. Thus pondering one clue of hope I caught, And tracked it up; I have sent Menoeceus' son, Creon, my consort's brother, to inquire Of Pythian Phoebus at his Delphic shrine, How I might save the State by act or word. And now I reckon up the tale of days Since he set forth, and marvel how he fares. 'Tis strange, this endless tarrying, passing strange. But when he comes, then I were base indeed, If I perform not all the god declares.

PRIESTThy words are well timed; even as thou speakest That shouting tells me Creon is at hand.

OEDIPUSO King Apollo! may his joyous looks Be presage of the joyous news he brings!

PRIESTAs I surmise, 'tis welcome; else his head Had scarce been crowned with berry-laden bays.

OEDIPUSWe soon shall know; he's now in earshot range.

[Enter CREON] My royal cousin, say, Menoeceus' child, What message hast thou brought us from the god?

CREONGood news, for e'en intolerable ills, Finding right issue, tend to naught but good.

OEDIPUSHow runs the oracle? thus far thy words Give me no ground for confidence or fear. CREON. If thou wouldst hear my message publicly, I'll tell thee straight, or with thee pass within.

OEDIPUSSpeak before all; the burden that I bear Is more for these my subjects than myself.

CREONLet me report then all the god declared. King Phoebus bids us straitly extirpate A fell pollution that infests the land, And no more harbor an inveterate sore. OEDIPUS. What expiation means he? What's amiss? CREON. Banishment, or the shedding blood for blood. This stain of blood makes shipwreck of our state. OEDIPUS. Whom can he mean, the miscreant thus denounced?

CREONBefore thou didst assume the helm of State, The sovereign of this land was Laius. OEDIPUS. I heard as much, but never saw the man.

CREONHe fell; and now the god's command is plain: Punish his takers-off, whoe'er they be.

OEDIPUSWhere are they? Where in the wide world to find The far, faint traces of a bygone crime? CREON. In this land, said the god; "who seeks shall find; Who sits with folded hands or sleeps is blind."

OEDIPUSWas he within his palace, or afield, Or traveling, when Laius met his fate?

CREONAbroad; he started, so he told us, bound For Delphi, but he never thence returned.

OEDIPUSCame there no news, no fellow-traveler To give some clue that might be followed up?

CREONBut one escape, who flying for dear life, Could tell of all he saw but one thing sure.

OEDIPUSAnd what was that? One clue might lead us far, With but a spark of hope to guide our quest.

CREONRobbers, he told us, not one bandit but A troop of knaves, attacked and murdered him.

OEDIPUSDid any bandit dare so bold a stroke, Unless indeed he were suborned from Thebes?

CREONSo 'twas surmised, but none was found to avenge His murder mid the trouble that ensued.

OEDIPUSWhat trouble can have hindered a full quest, When royalty had fallen thus miserably?

CREONThe riddling Sphinx compelled us to let slide The dim past and attend to instant needs.

OEDIPUSWell, I will start afresh and once again Make dark things clear. Right worthy the concern Of Phoebus, worthy thine too, for the dead; I also, as is meet, will lend my aid To avenge this wrong to Thebes and to the god. Not for some far-off kinsman, but myself, Shall I expel this poison in the blood; For whoso slew that king might have a mind To strike me too with his assassin hand. Therefore in righting him I serve myself. Up, children, haste ye, quit these altar stairs, Take hence your suppliant wands, go summon hither The Theban commons. With the god's good help Success is sure; 'tis ruin if we fail.

[Exeunt OEDIPUS and CREON]

PRIESTCome, children, let us hence; these gracious words Forestall the very purpose of our suit. And may the god who sent this oracle Save us withal and rid us of this pest.

[Exeunt PRIEST and SUPPLIANTS]
CHORUS. (Str. 1) Sweet-voiced daughter of Zeus from thy gold-paved Pythian shrine Wafted to Thebes divine, What dost thou bring me? My soul is racked and shivers with fear. (Healer of Delos, hear!) Hast thou some pain unknown before, Or with the circling years renewest a penance of yore? Offspring of golden Hope, thou voice immortal, O tell me.
(Ant. 1) First on Athene I call; O Zeus-born goddess, defend! Goddess and sister, befriend, Artemis, Lady of Thebes, high-throned in the midst of our mart! Lord of the death-winged dart! Your threefold aid I crave From death and ruin our city to save. If in the days of old when we nigh had perished, ye drave From our land the fiery plague, be near us now and defend us!

(Str. 2)
Ah me, what countless woes are mine!
All our host is in decline;
Weaponless my spirit lies.
Earth her gracious fruits denies;
Women wail in barren throes;
Life on life downstriken goes,
Swifter than the wind bird's flight,
Swifter than the Fire-God's might,
To the westering shores of Night.

(Ant. 2)
Wasted thus by death on death
All our city perisheth.
Corpses spread infection round;
None to tend or mourn is found.
Wailing on the altar stair
Wives and grandams rend the air—
Long-drawn moans and piercing cries
Blent with prayers and litanies.
Golden child of Zeus, O hear
Let thine angel face appear!

(Str. 3)
And grant that Ares whose hot breath I feel,
Though without targe or steel
He stalks, whose voice is as the battle shout,
May turn in sudden rout,
To the unharbored Thracian waters sped,
Or Amphitrite's bed.
For what night leaves undone,
Smit by the morrow's sun
Perisheth. Father Zeus, whose hand
Doth wield the lightning brand,
Slay him beneath thy levin bold, we pray,
Slay him, O slay!

(Ant. 3)
O that thine arrows too, Lycean King,
From that taut bow's gold string,
Might fly abroad, the champions of our rights;
Yea, and the flashing lights
Of Artemis, wherewith the huntress sweeps
Across the Lycian steeps.
Thee too I call with golden-snooded hair,
Whose name our land doth bear,
Bacchus to whom thy Maenads Evoe shout;
Come with thy bright torch, rout,
Blithe god whom we adore,
The god whom gods abhor.

[Enter OEDIPUS.]

OEDIPUSYe pray; 'tis well, but would ye hear my words And heed them and apply the remedy, Ye might perchance find comfort and relief. Mind you, I speak as one who comes a stranger To this report, no less than to the crime; For how unaided could I track it far Without a clue? Which lacking (for too late Was I enrolled a citizen of Thebes) This proclamation I address to all:— Thebans, if any knows the man by whom Laius, son of Labdacus, was slain, I summon him to make clean shrift to me. And if he shrinks, let him reflect that thus Confessing he shall 'scape the capital charge; For the worst penalty that shall befall him Is banishment—unscathed he shall depart. But if an alien from a foreign land Be known to any as the murderer, Let him who knows speak out, and he shall have Due recompense from me and thanks to boot. But if ye still keep silence, if through fear For self or friends ye disregard my hest, Hear what I then resolve; I lay my ban On the assassin whosoe'er he be. Let no man in this land, whereof I hold The sovereign rule, harbor or speak to him; Give him no part in prayer or sacrifice Or lustral rites, but hound him from your homes. For this is our defilement, so the god Hath lately shown to me by oracles. Thus as their champion I maintain the cause Both of the god and of the murdered King. And on the murderer this curse I lay (On him and all the partners in his guilt):— Wretch, may he pine in utter wretchedness! And for myself, if with my privity He gain admittance to my hearth, I pray The curse I laid on others fall on me. See that ye give effect to all my hest, For my sake and the god's and for our land, A desert blasted by the wrath of heaven. For, let alone the god's express command, It were a scandal ye should leave unpurged The murder of a great man and your king, Nor track it home. And now that I am lord, Successor to his throne, his bed, his wife, (And had he not been frustrate in the hope Of issue, common children of one womb Had forced a closer bond twixt him and me, But Fate swooped down on him), therefore I His blood-avenger will maintain his cause As though he were my sire, and leave no stone Unturned to track the assassin or avenge The son of Labdacus, of Polydore, Of Cadmus, and Agenor first of the race. And for the disobedient thus I pray: May the gods send them neither timely fruits Of earth, nor teeming increase of the womb, But may they waste and pine, as now they waste, Aye and worse stricken; but to all of you, My loyal subjects who approve my acts, May Justice, our ally, and all the gods Be gracious and attend you evermore.

CHORUSThe oath thou profferest, sire, I take and swear. I slew him not myself, nor can I name The slayer. For the quest, 'twere well, methinks That Phoebus, who proposed the riddle, himself Should give the answer—who the murderer was.

OEDIPUSWell argued; but no living man can hope To force the gods to speak against their will. CHORUS. May I then say what seems next best to me? OEDIPUS. Aye, if there be a third best, tell it too.

CHORUSMy liege, if any man sees eye to eye With our lord Phoebus, 'tis our prophet, lord Teiresias; he of all men best might guide A searcher of this matter to the light.

OEDIPUSHere too my zeal has nothing lagged, for twice At Creon's instance have I sent to fetch him, And long I marvel why he is not here.

CHORUSI mind me too of rumors long ago— Mere gossip. OEDIPUS. Tell them, I would fain know all. CHORUS. 'Twas said he fell by travelers.

OEDIPUSSo I heard, But none has seen the man who saw him fall.

CHORUSWell, if he knows what fear is, he will quail And flee before the terror of thy curse. OEDIPUS. Words scare not him who blenches not at deeds.

CHORUSBut here is one to arraign him. Lo, at length They bring the god-inspired seer in whom Above all other men is truth inborn.

[Enter TEIRESIAS, led by a boy.]

OEDIPUSTeiresias, seer who comprehendest all, Lore of the wise and hidden mysteries, High things of heaven and low things of the earth, Thou knowest, though thy blinded eyes see naught, What plague infects our city; and we turn To thee, O seer, our one defense and shield. The purport of the answer that the God Returned to us who sought his oracle, The messengers have doubtless told thee—how One course alone could rid us of the pest, To find the murderers of Laius, And slay them or expel them from the land. Therefore begrudging neither augury Nor other divination that is thine, O save thyself, thy country, and thy king, Save all from this defilement of blood shed. On thee we rest. This is man's highest end, To others' service all his powers to lend.

TEIRESIASAlas, alas, what misery to be wise When wisdom profits nothing! This old lore I had forgotten; else I were not here. OEDIPUS. What ails thee? Why this melancholy mood?

TEIRESIASLet me go home; prevent me not; 'twere best That thou shouldst bear thy burden and I mine.

OEDIPUSFor shame! no true-born Theban patriot Would thus withhold the word of prophecy.

TEIRESIASThy words, O king, are wide of the mark, and I For fear lest I too trip like thee...

OEDIPUSOh speak, Withhold not, I adjure thee, if thou know'st, Thy knowledge. We are all thy suppliants.

TEIRESIASAye, for ye all are witless, but my voice Will ne'er reveal my miseries—or thine.2 OEDIPUS. What then, thou knowest, and yet willst not speak! Wouldst thou betray us and destroy the State?

TEIRESIASI will not vex myself nor thee. Why ask Thus idly what from me thou shalt not learn?

OEDIPUSMonster! thy silence would incense a flint. Will nothing loose thy tongue? Can nothing melt thee, Or shake thy dogged taciturnity?

TEIRESIASThou blam'st my mood and seest not thine own Wherewith thou art mated; no, thou taxest me.

OEDIPUSAnd who could stay his choler when he heard How insolently thou dost flout the State? TEIRESIAS. Well, it will come what will, though I be mute. OEDIPUS. Since come it must, thy duty is to tell me.

TEIRESIASI have no more to say; storm as thou willst, And give the rein to all thy pent-up rage.

OEDIPUSYea, I am wroth, and will not stint my words, But speak my whole mind. Thou methinks thou art he, Who planned the crime, aye, and performed it too, All save the assassination; and if thou Hadst not been blind, I had been sworn to boot That thou alone didst do the bloody deed.

TEIRESIASIs it so? Then I charge thee to abide By thine own proclamation; from this day Speak not to these or me. Thou art the man, Thou the accursed polluter of this land. OEDIPUS. Vile slanderer, thou blurtest forth these taunts, And think'st forsooth as seer to go scot free. TEIRESIAS. Yea, I am free, strong in the strength of truth. OEDIPUS. Who was thy teacher? not methinks thy art. TEIRESIAS. Thou, goading me against my will to speak. OEDIPUS. What speech? repeat it and resolve my doubt. TEIRESIAS. Didst miss my sense wouldst thou goad me on? OEDIPUS. I but half caught thy meaning; say it again.

TEIRESIASI say thou art the murderer of the man Whose murderer thou pursuest.

OEDIPUSThou shalt rue it Twice to repeat so gross a calumny. TEIRESIAS. Must I say more to aggravate thy rage? OEDIPUS. Say all thou wilt; it will be but waste of breath.

TEIRESIASI say thou livest with thy nearest kin In infamy, unwitting in thy shame. OEDIPUS. Think'st thou for aye unscathed to wag thy tongue? TEIRESIAS. Yea, if the might of truth can aught prevail.

OEDIPUSWith other men, but not with thee, for thou In ear, wit, eye, in everything art blind.

TEIRESIASPoor fool to utter gibes at me which all Here present will cast back on thee ere long.

OEDIPUSOffspring of endless Night, thou hast no power O'er me or any man who sees the sun.

TEIRESIASNo, for thy weird is not to fall by me. I leave to Apollo what concerns the god. OEDIPUS. Is this a plot of Creon, or thine own? TEIRESIAS. Not Creon, thou thyself art thine own bane.

OEDIPUSO wealth and empiry and skill by skill Outwitted in the battlefield of life, What spite and envy follow in your train! See, for this crown the State conferred on me. A gift, a thing I sought not, for this crown The trusty Creon, my familiar friend, Hath lain in wait to oust me and suborned This mountebank, this juggling charlatan, This tricksy beggar-priest, for gain alone Keen-eyed, but in his proper art stone-blind. Say, sirrah, hast thou ever proved thyself A prophet? When the riddling Sphinx was here Why hadst thou no deliverance for this folk? And yet the riddle was not to be solved By guess-work but required the prophet's art; Wherein thou wast found lacking; neither birds Nor sign from heaven helped thee, but I came, The simple Oedipus; I stopped her mouth By mother wit, untaught of auguries. This is the man whom thou wouldst undermine, In hope to reign with Creon in my stead. Methinks that thou and thine abettor soon Will rue your plot to drive the scapegoat out. Thank thy grey hairs that thou hast still to learn What chastisement such arrogance deserves.

CHORUSTo us it seems that both the seer and thou, O Oedipus, have spoken angry words. This is no time to wrangle but consult How best we may fulfill the oracle.