Sophocles's Oedipus the King

***** OEDIPUS THE KING Suppliants of all ages are seated round the altar at the palace doors, at their head a PRIEST OF ZEUS.

OEDIPUS Oh speak, Withhold not, I adjure thee, if thou know'st, Thy knowledge.

(Str. 2) Ah me, what countless woes are mine!

SOPHOCLES OEDIPUS THE KING Translation by F. Storr, BA Formerly Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge From the Loeb Library Edition Originally published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA and William Heinemann Ltd, London First published in 1912 ***** ARGUMENT To Laius, King of Thebes, an oracle foretold that the child born to him by his queen Jocasta would slay his father and wed his mother.

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

TEIRESIAS I say thou livest with thy nearest kin In infamy, unwitting in thy shame.

TEIRESIAS Not Creon, thou thyself art thine own bane.

Flout then both Creon and my words, for none Of mortals shall be striken worse than thou.

Children were born to them and Thebes prospered under his rule, but again a grievous plague fell upon the city.

Is it dread Of ill that moves you or a boon ye crave?

OEDIPUS Ye pray; 'tis well, but would ye hear my words And heed them and apply the remedy, Ye might perchance find comfort and relief.

OEDIPUS Words scare not him who blenches not at deeds.

Is it dread Of ill that moves you or a boon ye crave?

OEDIPUS And who could stay his choler when he heard How insolently thou dost flout the State?

OEDIPUS Whom can he mean, the miscreant thus denounced?

Wherefore he fled from what he deemed his father's house and in his flight he encountered and unwillingly slew his father Laius.

TEIRESIAS I say thou livest with thy nearest kin In infamy, unwitting in thy shame.

Father, I come a suppliant to thee Both for myself and my allies who now With squadrons seven beneath their seven spears Beleaguer all the plain that circles Thebes.

TEIRESIAS Such am I--as it seems to thee a fool, But to the parents who begat thee, wise.

Children were born to them and Thebes prospered under his rule, but again a grievous plague fell upon the city.

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.

What means this reek of incense everywhere, And everywhere laments and litanies?

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

(Str. 2) But the proud sinner, or in word or deed, That will not Justice heed, Nor reverence the shrine Of images divine, Perdition seize his vain imaginings, If, urged by greed profane, He grasps at ill-got gain, And lays an impious hand on holiest things.

TEIRESIAS Aye, 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!

Who has a higher claim that thou to hear My tale of dire adventures?

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

So he reigned in the room of Laius, and espoused the widowed queen.

Arriving at Thebes he answered the riddle of the Sphinx and the grateful Thebans made their deliverer king.

OEDIPUS Must I endure this fellow's insolence?

(To BYSTANDERS) But shame upon you! if ye feel no sense Of human decencies, at least revere The Sun whose light beholds and nurtures all.

TEIRESIAS Thou, goading me against my will to speak.

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.

Dost know thy lineage?

CHORUS Make a libation first of water fetched With undefiled hands from living spring.

To banish me the land?

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

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.

CHORUS Rumors bred unjust suspicious and injustice rankles sore.

Creon, unrelenting, condemns her to be immured in a rock-hewn chamber.

[Exeunt OEDIPUS and JOCASTA] CHORUS (Str. 1) My lot be still to lead The life of innocence and fly Irreverence in word or deed, To follow still those laws ordained on high Whose birthplace is the bright ethereal sky No mortal birth they own, Olympus their progenitor alone: Ne'er shall they slumber in oblivion cold, The god in them is strong and grows not old.

CHORUS No marvel if in such a plight thou feel'st The double weight of past and present woes.

OEDIPUS Thou knowest not what threats-- THESEUS I know that none Shall hale thee hence in my despite.

Up, children, haste ye, quit these altar stairs, Take hence your suppliant wands, go summon hither The Theban commons.

Wherefore he fled from what he deemed his father's house and in his flight he encountered and unwillingly slew his father Laius.

Come, Sir, why dally thus!

My zeal in your behalf ye cannot doubt; Ruthless indeed were I and obdurate If such petitioners as you I spurned.

Therefore ye rouse no sluggard from day-dreams.

Hapless wretch! how can I brook On thy misery to look?

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.

This is no time to wrangle but consult How best we may fulfill the oracle.

In old days when by self-wrought woes distraught, I yearned for exile as a glad release, Thy will refused the favor then I craved.

Up, children, haste ye, quit these altar stairs, Take hence your suppliant wands, go summon hither The Theban commons.

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.

Then she bewailed the marriage bed whereon Poor wretch, she had conceived a double brood, Husband by husband, children by her child.

Such was the burden of his moan, whereto, Not once but oft, he struck with his hand uplift His eyes, and at each stroke the ensanguined orbs Bedewed his beard, not oozing drop by drop, But one black gory downpour, thick as hail.

OEDIPUS The knave methinks will still prevaricate.

(To BYSTANDERS) But shame upon you! if ye feel no sense Of human decencies, at least revere The Sun whose light beholds and nurtures all.

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 upon 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.

JOCASTA But what provoked the quarrel? make this clear.

'Tis strange, this endless tarrying, passing strange.

Hear then: this man whom thou hast sought to arrest With threats and warrants this long while, the wretch Who murdered Laius--that man is here.

But Oedipus spurns the hypocrite, and invokes a dire curse on both his unnatural sons.

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.

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.

But now the laws to which himself appealed, These and none others shall adjudicate.

(Str. 2) But the proud sinner, or in word or deed, That will not Justice heed, Nor reverence the shrine Of images divine, Perdition seize his vain imaginings, If, urged by greed profane, He grasps at ill-got gain, And lays an impious hand on holiest things.

CREON In this land, said the god; "who seeks shall find; Who sits with folded hands or sleeps is blind."

They were indignant at the random slur Cast on my parentage and did their best To comfort me, but still the venomed barb Rankled, for still the scandal spread and grew.

CREON This had I done already, but I deemed It first behooved me to consult the god.

Now all men cry me Godspeed! wish me well, And every suitor seeks to gain my ear, If he would hope to win a grace from thee.

Ho! aged sire, whose venerable locks Proclaim thee spokesman of this company, Explain your mood and purport.

Stand then on Heaven's side and never blot Athens' fair scutcheon by abetting wrong.

(Str. 2) But the proud sinner, or in word or deed, That will not Justice heed, Nor reverence the shrine Of images divine, Perdition seize his vain imaginings, If, urged by greed profane, He grasps at ill-got gain, And lays an impious hand on holiest things.

HERDSMAN I was, a thrall, not purchased but home-bred.

JOCASTA No, for as soon as he returned and found Thee reigning in the stead of Laius slain, He clasped my hand and supplicated me To send him to the alps and pastures, where He might be farthest from the sight of Thebes.

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.

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!

ISMENE The toil and trouble, father, that I bore To find thy lodging-place and how thou faredst, I spare thee; surely 'twere a double pain To suffer, first in act and then in telling; 'Tis the misfortune of thine ill-starred sons I come to tell thee.

(Str. 2) But the proud sinner, or in word or deed, That will not Justice heed, Nor reverence the shrine Of images divine, Perdition seize his vain imaginings, If, urged by greed profane, He grasps at ill-got gain, And lays an impious hand on holiest things.

CREON I see thou wilt not yield, nor credit me.

CHORUS But hath he still no respite from his pain?

TEIRESIAS Alas, alas, what misery to be wise When wisdom profits nothing!

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.

And now I reckon up the tale of days Since he set forth, and marvel how he fares.

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.

If he deems That I have harmed or injured him in aught By word or deed in this our present trouble, I care not to prolong the span of life, Thus ill-reputed; for the calumny Hits not a single blot, but blasts my name, If by the general voice I am denounced False to the State and false by you my friends.

Afterwards doubting his parentage he inquired of the Delphic god and heard himself the word declared before to Laius.

OEDIPUS Ah! my poor children, known, ah, known too well, The quest that brings you hither and your need.

CREON Banishment, or the shedding blood for blood.

CHORUS Respect a man whose probity and troth Are known to all and now confirmed by oath.

Proof is there none: how then can I challenge our King's good name, How in a blood-feud join for an untracked deed of shame?

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

Yea with these hands all gory I pollute The bed of him I slew.

JOCASTA No, for as soon as he returned and found Thee reigning in the stead of Laius slain, He clasped my hand and supplicated me To send him to the alps and pastures, where He might be farthest from the sight of Thebes.

OEDIPUS What ails thee?

OEDIPUS Thou art glib of tongue, but I am slow to learn Of thee; I know too well thy venomous hate.

Therefore the angry gods abominate Our litanies and our burnt offerings; Therefore no birds trill out a happy note, Gorged with the carnival of human gore.

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.

CREON And as thy consort queen she shares the throne?

O Polybus, O Corinth, O my home, Home of my ancestors (so wast thou called) How fair a nursling then I seemed, how foul The canker that lay festering in the bud!

CHORUS Well, if he knows what fear is, he will quail And flee before the terror of thy curse.

And on the murderer this curse I lay (On him and all the partners in his guilt):-- Wretch, may he pine in utter wretchedness!

He tore the golden brooches that upheld Her queenly robes, upraised them high and smote Full on his eye-balls, uttering words like these: "No more shall ye behold such sights of woe, Deeds I have suffered and myself have wrought; Henceforward quenched in darkness shall ye see Those ye should ne'er have seen; now blind to those Whom, when I saw, I vainly yearned to know."

King Phoebus bids us straitly extirpate A fell pollution that infests the land, And no more harbor an inveterate sore.

CHORUS (Str. 1) Hearken, King, reflect, we pray thee, but not stubborn but relent.

Methinks that thou and thine abettor soon Will rue your plot to drive the scapegoat out.

What means this reek of incense everywhere, And everywhere laments and litanies?

But O my heart is desolate Musing on our striken State, Doubly fall'n should discord grow Twixt you twain, to crown our woe.

STRANGER Heed then; I fain would see thee out of harm; For by the looks, marred though they be by fate, I judge thee noble; tarry where thou art, While I go seek the burghers--those at hand, Not in the city.

(Ant. 2) No more I'll seek earth's central oracle, Or Abae's hallowed cell, Nor to Olympia bring My votive offering.

Chorus of Theban Elders.

When her own brother slain in battle lay Unsepulchered, she suffered not his corse To lie for carrion birds and dogs to maul: Should not her name (they cry) be writ in gold?

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.

What say I? Can I wish that thou should'st touch One fallen like me to utter wretchedness, Corrupt and tainted with a thousand ills?

OEDIPUS O shameless railer, think'st thou this abuse Defames my grey hairs rather than thine own?

He informs Oedipus that a stranger who has taken sanctuary at the altar of Poseidon wishes to see him.

If he deems That I have harmed or injured him in aught By word or deed in this our present trouble, I care not to prolong the span of life, Thus ill-reputed; for the calumny Hits not a single blot, but blasts my name, If by the general voice I am denounced False to the State and false by you my friends.

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

OEDIPUS Must I endure this fellow's insolence?

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

I have long noted malcontents Who wagged their heads, and kicked against the yoke, Misliking these my orders, and my rule.

To err is common To all men, but the man who having erred Hugs not his errors, but repents and seeks The cure, is not a wastrel nor unwise.

What doth the lightning-flash portend?

But for the miscreant exile who returned Minded in flames and ashes to blot out His father's city and his father's gods, And glut his vengeance with his kinsmen's blood, Or drag them captive at his chariot wheels-- For Polyneices 'tis ordained that none Shall give him burial or make mourn for him, But leave his corpse unburied, to be meat For dogs and carrion crows, a ghastly sight.

And if thou doubt me, first to Delphi go, There ascertain if my report was true Of the god's answer; next investigate If with the seer I plotted or conspired, And if it prove so, sentence me to death, Not by thy voice alone, but mine and thine.

Nor would they harbor, so I stood assured, A godless parricide, a reprobate Convicted of incestuous marriage ties.

Is it a thunderbolt of Zeus or sleet Of arrowy hail? a storm so fierce as this Would warrant all surmises of mischance.

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.

(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.

ANTIGONE O sirs! ye suffered not my father blind, Albeit gracious and to ruth inclined, Knowing the deeds he wrought, not innocent, But with no ill intent; Yet heed a maiden's moan Who pleads for him alone; My eyes, not reft of sight, Plead with you as a daughter's might You are our providence, O make us not go hence!

CREON Command your minions; I am not your slave.

A blight is on our harvest in the ear, A blight upon the grazing flocks and herds, A blight on wives in travail; and withal Armed with his blazing torch the God of Plague Hath swooped upon our city emptying The house of Cadmus, and the murky realm Of Pluto is full fed with groans and tears.

OEDIPUS * * * * * * CHORUS In a strange land strange thou art; To her will incline thy heart; Honor whatso'er the State Honors, all she frowns on hate.

Sitting upon my throne of augury, As is my wont, where every fowl of heaven Find harborage, upon mine ears was borne A jargon strange of twitterings, hoots, and screams; So knew I that each bird at the other tare With bloody talons, for the whirr of wings Could signify naught else.

A blight is on our harvest in the ear, A blight upon the grazing flocks and herds, A blight on wives in travail; and withal Armed with his blazing torch the God of Plague Hath swooped upon our city emptying The house of Cadmus, and the murky realm Of Pluto is full fed with groans and tears.

When in her frenzy she had passed inside The vestibule, she hurried straight to win The bridal-chamber, clutching at her hair With both her hands, and, once within the room, She shut the doors behind her with a crash.

O child of Laius' ill-starred race Would I had ne'er beheld thy face; I raise for thee a dirge as o'er the dead.

Listen and I'll convince thee that no man Hath scot or lot in the prophetic art.

All our host is in decline; Weaponless my spirit lies.

ISMENE The gods, who once abased, uplift thee now.

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.

CHORUS Brand not a friend whom babbling tongues assail; Let not suspicion 'gainst his oath prevail.

Now like a sullen bull he roves Through forest brakes and upland groves, And vainly seeks to fly The doom that ever nigh Flits o'er his head, Still by the avenging Phoebus sped, The voice divine, From Earth's mid shrine.

Here is the proof in brief.

By him the vulture maid Was quelled, her witchery laid; He rose our savior and the land's strong tower.

Suppose a man refused to grant some boon When you importuned him, and afterwards When you had got your heart's desire, consented, Granting a grace from which all grace had fled, Would not such favor seem an empty boon?

A foot for flight he needs Fleeter than storm-swift steeds, For on his heels doth follow, Armed with the lightnings of his Sire, Apollo.

But Polyneices, a dishonored corse, (So by report the royal edict runs) No man may bury him or make lament-- Must leave him tombless and unwept, a feast For kites to scent afar and swoop upon.

Then the boy, Wroth with himself, poor wretch, incontinent Fell on his sword and drove it through his side Home, but yet breathing clasped in his lax arms The maid, her pallid cheek incarnadined With his expiring gasps.

For, as thou seest thyself, our ship of State, Sore buffeted, can no more lift her head, Foundered beneath a weltering surge of blood.

OEDIPUS Thou shalt rue it Twice to repeat so gross a calumny.

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.

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."

ISMENE What, bury him despite the interdict?

CHORUS (Str.) If my soul prophetic err not, if my wisdom aught avail, Thee, Cithaeron, I shall hail, As the nurse and foster-mother of our Oedipus shall greet Ere tomorrow's full moon rises, and exalt thee as is meet.

CHORUS Cease, princes; lo there comes, and none too soon, Jocasta from the palace.

O listen to him; other men like thee Have thankless children and are choleric, But yielding to persuasion's gentle spell They let their savage mood be exorcised.

CREON Were not his wits and vision all astray When upon me he fixed this monstrous charge?

[Exeunt TEIRESIAS and OEDIPUS] CHORUS (Str. 1) Who is he by voice immortal named from Pythia's rocky cell, Doer of foul deeds of bloodshed, horrors that no tongue can tell?

(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.

CHORUS But here is one to arraign him.

I came to you a suppliant, and you pledged Your honor; O preserve me to the end, O let not this marred visage do me wrong!

I have been banished from my native land Because by right of primogeniture I claimed possession of thy sovereign throne Wherefrom Etocles, my younger brother, Ousted me, not by weight of precedent, Nor by the last arbitrament of war, But by his popular acts; and the prime cause Of this I deem the curse that rests on thee.

ANTIGONE To see the earthy bed.

The closing scene reveals Jocasta slain by her own hand and Oedipus blinded by his own act and praying for death or exile.

Oedipus denounces the crime of which he is unaware, and undertakes to track out the criminal.

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.

Wherefore he fled from what he deemed his father's house and in his flight he encountered and unwillingly slew his father Laius.

King Phoebus bids us straitly extirpate A fell pollution that infests the land, And no more harbor an inveterate sore.

A blight is on our harvest in the ear, A blight upon the grazing flocks and herds, A blight on wives in travail; and withal Armed with his blazing torch the God of Plague Hath swooped upon our city emptying The house of Cadmus, and the murky realm Of Pluto is full fed with groans and tears.

Let us discover Where we have come, for strangers must inquire Of denizens, and do as they are bid.

Hear then: this man whom thou hast sought to arrest With threats and warrants this long while, the wretch Who murdered Laius--that man is here.

Dost thou presume To approach my doors, thou brazen-faced rogue, My murderer and the filcher of my crown?

A blight is on our harvest in the ear, A blight upon the grazing flocks and herds, A blight on wives in travail; and withal Armed with his blazing torch the God of Plague Hath swooped upon our city emptying The house of Cadmus, and the murky realm Of Pluto is full fed with groans and tears.

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?

Ah whither shall thy bitter cry not reach, What crag in all Cithaeron but shall then Reverberate thy wail, when thou hast found With what a hymeneal thou wast borne Home, but to no fair haven, on the gale!

CHORUS O doer of dread deeds, how couldst thou mar Thy vision thus?

By a gentle, tearless doom Speed this stranger to the gloom, Let him enter without pain The all-shrouding Stygian plain.

Not Ister nor all Phasis' flood, I ween, Could wash away the blood-stains from this house, The ills it shrouds or soon will bring to light, Ills wrought of malice, not unwittingly.

Vengeance of the gods Is swift to overtake the impenitent.

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

But if guile with guile contend, Bane, not blessing, is the end.

Up, children, haste ye, quit these altar stairs, Take hence your suppliant wands, go summon hither The Theban commons.

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.

Dear father, wrapt for aye in nether gloom, E'en in the tomb Never shalt thou lack of love repine, Her love and mine.

(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.

She justifies her action, asserting that she was bound to obey the eternal laws of right and wrong in spite of any human ordinance.

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."

Thy frown I dread not, for thou canst not harm me.

Ho! aged sire, whose venerable locks Proclaim thee spokesman of this company, Explain your mood and purport.

(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.

Wailing on the altar stair Wives and grandams rend the air-- Long-drawn moans and piercing cries Blent with prayers and litanies.

Hold thy wanton tongue!

Such is the edict (if report speak true) Of Creon, our most noble Creon, aimed At thee and me, aye me too; and anon He will be here to promulgate, for such As have not heard, his mandate; 'tis in sooth No passing humor, for the edict says Whoe'er transgresses shall be stoned to death.

Ho! aged sire, whose venerable locks Proclaim thee spokesman of this company, Explain your mood and purport.

If now 'tis sunshine betwixt Thebes and thee And not a cloud, Time in his endless course Gives birth to endless days and nights, wherein The merest nothing shall suffice to cut With serried spears your bonds of amity.

An outlaw's exile or a felon's death.

He tore the golden brooches that upheld Her queenly robes, upraised them high and smote Full on his eye-balls, uttering words like these: "No more shall ye behold such sights of woe, Deeds I have suffered and myself have wrought; Henceforward quenched in darkness shall ye see Those ye should ne'er have seen; now blind to those Whom, when I saw, I vainly yearned to know."

OEDIPUS Arrest the villain, seize and pinion him!

PRIEST Yea, 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.

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

OEDIPUS Where is he, strangers, he who sways the realm?

With the god's good help Success is sure; 'tis ruin if we fail.

O Zeus, reveal thy might, King, if thou'rt named aright Omnipotent, all-seeing, as of old; For Laius is forgot; His weird, men heed it not; Apollo is forsook and faith grows cold.

For he who most doth know Of bliss, hath but the show; A moment, and the visions pale and fade.

CHORUS Well, if he knows what fear is, he will quail And flee before the terror of thy curse.

OEDIPUS Vile slanderer, thou blurtest forth these taunts, And think'st forsooth as seer to go scot free.

TEIRESIAS Well, it will come what will, though I be mute.

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.

CREON Not in derision, Oedipus, I come Nor to upbraid thee with thy past misdeeds.

Oh, touch me not, but let me all alone Find out the sepulcher that destiny Appoints me in this land.

My sire was Polybus of Corinth, and My mother Merope, a Dorian; And I was held the foremost citizen, Till a strange thing befell me, strange indeed, Yet scarce deserving all the heat it stirred.

Herd of Laius.

Then, lady,--thou shalt hear the very truth-- As I drew near the triple-branching roads, A herald met me and a man who sat In a car drawn by colts--as in thy tale-- The man in front and the old man himself Threatened to thrust me rudely from the path, Then jostled by the charioteer in wrath I struck him, and the old man, seeing this, Watched till I passed and from his car brought down Full on my head the double-pointed goad.

OEDIPUS A vagrant shepherd journeying for hire?

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.

I know thee near, and though bereft of eyes, Thy voice I recognize.

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."

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.

Hard by, the Titan, he who bears the torch, Prometheus, has his worship; but the spot Thou treadest, the Brass-footed Threshold named, Is Athens' bastion, and the neighboring lands Claim as their chief and patron yonder knight Colonus, and in common bear his name.

These two maids Their sisters, girls, gave all their sex could give, Food and safe harborage and filial care; While their two brethren sacrificed their sire For lust of power and sceptred sovereignty.

Hear, gentle daughters of primeval Night, Hear, namesake of great Pallas; Athens, first Of cities, pity this dishonored shade, The ghost of him who once was Oedipus.

A wayfarer, I ween, A wayfarer, no countryman of ours, That old man must have been; Never had native dared to tempt the Powers, Or enter their demesne, The Maids in awe of whom each mortal cowers, Whose name no voice betrays nor cry, And as we pass them with averted eye, We move hushed lips in reverent piety.

OEDIPUS 'Tis a dread presentiment That in the end the seer will prove not blind.

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.

CHORUS (Str.) If my soul prophetic err not, if my wisdom aught avail, Thee, Cithaeron, I shall hail, As the nurse and foster-mother of our Oedipus shall greet Ere tomorrow's full moon rises, and exalt thee as is meet.

A wayfarer, I ween, A wayfarer, no countryman of ours, That old man must have been; Never had native dared to tempt the Powers, Or enter their demesne, The Maids in awe of whom each mortal cowers, Whose name no voice betrays nor cry, And as we pass them with averted eye, We move hushed lips in reverent piety.

CREON Which loses in this parley, I o'erthrown By thee, or thou who overthrow'st thyself?

JOCASTA Tell me first how rose the fray.

But when my frenzied grief had spent its force, And I was fain to taste the sweets of home, Then thou wouldst thrust me from my country, then These ties of kindred were by thee ignored; And now again when thou behold'st this State And all its kindly people welcome me, Thou seek'st to part us, wrapping in soft words Hard thoughts.

OEDIPUS O front of brass, thy subtle tongue would twist To thy advantage every plea of right Why try thy arts on me, why spread again Toils where 'twould gall me sorest to be snared?

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

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.

Earth's might decays, the might of men decays, Honor grows cold, dishonor flourishes, There is no constancy 'twixt friend and friend, Or city and city; be it soon or late, Sweet turns to bitter, hate once more to love.

Creon, unrelenting, condemns her to be immured in a rock-hewn chamber.

King Phoebus bids us straitly extirpate A fell pollution that infests the land, And no more harbor an inveterate sore.

ANTIGONE Long-suffering father, Oedipus, the towers That fence the city still are faint and far; But where we stand is surely holy ground; A wilderness of laurel, olive, vine; Within a choir or songster nightingales Are warbling.

I seemed forsooth too simple to perceive The serpent stealing on me in the dark, Or else too weak to scotch it when I saw.

Command my liegemen leave the sacrifice And hurry, foot and horse, with rein unchecked, To where the paths that packmen use diverge, Lest the two maidens slip away, and I Become a mockery to this my guest, As one despoiled by force.

[Exeunt THESEUS and CREON] CHORUS (Str. 1) O when the flying foe, Turning at last to bay, Soon will give blow for blow, Might I behold the fray; Hear the loud battle roar Swell, on the Pythian shore, Or by the torch-lit bay, Where the dread Queen and Maid Cherish the mystic rites, Rites they to none betray, Ere on his lips is laid Secrecy's golden key By their own acolytes, Priestly Eumolpidae.

Having come Unto a State that champions right and asks For every action warranty of law, Thou hast set aside the custom of the land, And like some freebooter art carrying off What plunder pleases thee, as if forsooth Thou thoughtest this a city without men, Or manned by slaves, and me a thing of naught.

OEDIPUS Elders, if I, who never yet before Have met the man, may make a guess, methinks I see the herdsman who we long have sought; His time-worn aspect matches with the years Of yonder aged messenger; besides I seem to recognize the men who bring him As servants of my own.

[Exeunt OEDIPUS and JOCASTA] CHORUS (Str. 1) My lot be still to lead The life of innocence and fly Irreverence in word or deed, To follow still those laws ordained on high Whose birthplace is the bright ethereal sky No mortal birth they own, Olympus their progenitor alone: Ne'er shall they slumber in oblivion cold, The god in them is strong and grows not old.

Aye, and a flood of ills thou guessest not Shall set thyself and children in one line.

(Str. 2) But the proud sinner, or in word or deed, That will not Justice heed, Nor reverence the shrine Of images divine, Perdition seize his vain imaginings, If, urged by greed profane, He grasps at ill-got gain, And lays an impious hand on holiest things.

No sooner has he gone than Creon enters with an armed guard who seize Antigone and carry her off (Ismene, the other sister, they have already captured) and he is about to lay hands on Oedipus, when Theseus, who has heard the tumult, hurries up and, upbraiding Creon for his lawless act, threatens to detain him till he has shown where the captives are and restored them.

And for thy foemen, though their words were brave, Boasting to bring thee back, they are like to find The seas between us wide and hard to sail.

ISMENE The toil and trouble, father, that I bore To find thy lodging-place and how thou faredst, I spare thee; surely 'twere a double pain To suffer, first in act and then in telling; 'Tis the misfortune of thine ill-starred sons I come to tell thee.

For Zeus who hates the braggart's boast Beheld that gold-bespangled host; As at the goal the paean they upraise, He struck them with his forked lightning blaze.

ANTIGONE Hush! for I see some grey-beards on their way, Their errand to spy out our resting-place.

How like a ghost forlorn My voice flits from me on the air!

O listen to him; other men like thee Have thankless children and are choleric, But yielding to persuasion's gentle spell They let their savage mood be exorcised.

Hear us, Zeus, and hear us, child Of Zeus, Athene undefiled, Hear, Apollo, hunter, hear, Huntress, sister of Apollo, Who the dappled swift-foot deer O'er the wooded glade dost follow; Help with your two-fold power Athens in danger's hour!

Say, didst thou too abet This crime, or dost abjure all privity?

Wouldst thou betray us and destroy the State?

CREON If thou wouldst hear my message publicly, I'll tell thee straight, or with thee pass within.

Go in, my lord; Go home, my brother, and forebear to make A public scandal of a petty grief.

My zeal in your behalf ye cannot doubt; Ruthless indeed were I and obdurate If such petitioners as you I spurned.

TEIRESIAS And kings are all a lucre-loving race.

Now like a sullen bull he roves Through forest brakes and upland groves, And vainly seeks to fly The doom that ever nigh Flits o'er his head, Still by the avenging Phoebus sped, The voice divine, From Earth's mid shrine.

Dear father, wrapt for aye in nether gloom, E'en in the tomb Never shalt thou lack of love repine, Her love and mine.

TEIRESIAS I will not vex myself nor thee.

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.

But other grievous things he prophesied, Woes, lamentations, mourning, portents dire; To wit I should defile my mother's bed And raise up seed too loathsome to behold, And slay the father from whose loins I sprang.

'Tis not right to adjudge Bad men at random good, or good men bad.

TEIRESIAS Alas! doth any know and lay to heart-- CREON Is this the prelude to some hackneyed saw?

CREON And with you twain I share the triple rule?

Or how without sign assured, can I blame Him who saved our State when the winged songstress came, Tested and tried in the light of us all, like gold assayed?

Yea with these hands all gory I pollute The bed of him I slew.

We offered first a prayer To Pluto and the goddess of cross-ways, With contrite hearts, to deprecate their ire.

And when ye come to marriageable years, Where's the bold wooers who will jeopardize To take unto himself such disrepute As to my children's children still must cling, For what of infamy is lacking here?

O that Death Might nip my breath, And let me share my aged father's fate.

JOCASTA And what of special import did I say?

And now I reckon up the tale of days Since he set forth, and marvel how he fares.

OEDIPUS Here shall I vanquish those who cast me forth.

(Str. 2) But the proud sinner, or in word or deed, That will not Justice heed, Nor reverence the shrine Of images divine, Perdition seize his vain imaginings, If, urged by greed profane, He grasps at ill-got gain, And lays an impious hand on holiest things.

For Zeus who hates the braggart's boast Beheld that gold-bespangled host; As at the goal the paean they upraise, He struck them with his forked lightning blaze.

Who when such deeds are done Can hope heaven's bolts to shun?

ISMENE Thy angry wraith, when at thy tomb they stand. [6] OEDIPUS And who hath told thee what thou tell'st me, child?

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.

Can nothing melt thee, Or shake thy dogged taciturnity?

OEDIPUS Then may the gods ne'er quench their fatal feud, And mine be the arbitrament of the fight, For which they now are arming, spear to spear; That neither he who holds the scepter now May keep this throne, nor he who fled the realm Return again.

What means this reek of incense everywhere, And everywhere laments and litanies?

We offered first a prayer To Pluto and the goddess of cross-ways, With contrite hearts, to deprecate their ire.

CHORUS Heaven's justice never smites Him who ill with ill requites.

OEDIPUS Thou shalt rue it Twice to repeat so gross a calumny.

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.

ISMENE But how, my rash, fond sister, in such case Can I do anything to make or mar?

CREON This is but prelude to thy woes.

If sin like this to honor can aspire, Why dance I still and lead the sacred choir?

OEDIPUS What power hast thou to execute this threat?

O ye his daughters, sisters mine, do ye This sullen, obstinate silence try to move.

So having reached the abrupt Earth-rooted Threshold with its brazen stairs, He paused at one of the converging paths, Hard by the rocky basin which records The pact of Theseus and Peirithous.

Now like a sullen bull he roves Through forest brakes and upland groves, And vainly seeks to fly The doom that ever nigh Flits o'er his head, Still by the avenging Phoebus sped, The voice divine, From Earth's mid shrine.

CREON Go, quibble with thy reason.

OEDIPUS He is too cunning to commit himself, And makes a mouthpiece of a knavish seer.

I had a mind to visit the high shrines, For Oedipus is overwrought, alarmed With terrors manifold.

(Ant. 1) First on Athene I call; O Zeus-born goddess, defend!

O King, thy willful temper ails the State, For all our shrines and altars are profaned By what has filled the maw of dogs and crows, The flesh of Oedipus' unburied son.

Such threats Vented in anger oft, are blusterers, An idle breath, forgot when sense returns.

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.

Am I not utterly unclean, a wretch Doomed to be banished, and in banishment Forgo the sight of all my dearest ones, And never tread again my native earth; Or else to wed my mother and slay my sire, Polybus, who begat me and upreared?

[Exit THESEUS] CHORUS (Str.) Who craves excess of days, Scorning the common span Of life, I judge that man A giddy wight who walks in folly's ways.

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

(Ant.) Child, who bare thee, nymph or goddess? sure thy sure was more than man, Haply the hill-roamer Pan. Of did Loxias beget thee, for he haunts the upland wold; Or Cyllene's lord, or Bacchus, dweller on the hilltops cold?

JOCASTA Tall was he, and his hair was lightly strewn With silver; and not unlike thee in form.

Then she bewailed the marriage bed whereon Poor wretch, she had conceived a double brood, Husband by husband, children by her child.

So he reigned in the room of Laius, and espoused the widowed queen.

Come hither, deign to touch an abject wretch; Draw near and fear not; I myself must bear The load of guilt that none but I can share.

Ah whither shall thy bitter cry not reach, What crag in all Cithaeron but shall then Reverberate thy wail, when thou hast found With what a hymeneal thou wast borne Home, but to no fair haven, on the gale!

[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?

Ah whither shall thy bitter cry not reach, What crag in all Cithaeron but shall then Reverberate thy wail, when thou hast found With what a hymeneal thou wast borne Home, but to no fair haven, on the gale!

Were I on Theban soil, to prosecute The justest claim imaginable, I Would never wrest by violence my own Without sanction of your State or King; I should behave as fits an outlander Living amongst a foreign folk, but thou Shamest a city that deserves it not, Even thine own, and plentitude of years Have made of thee an old man and a fool.

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.

Who when such deeds are done Can hope heaven's bolts to shun?

And the Muses' quire will never disdain To visit this heaven-favored plain, Nor the Cyprian queen of the golden rein.

I had a mind to visit the high shrines, For Oedipus is overwrought, alarmed With terrors manifold.

No sooner had we come, Driven from thy presence by those awful threats, Than straight we swept away all trace of dust, And bared the clammy body.

His son Haemon, to whom Antigone is betrothed, pleads in vain for her life and threatens to die with her.

(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.

OEDIPUS Stern-visaged queens, since coming to this land First in your sanctuary I bent the knee, Frown not on me or Phoebus, who, when erst He told me all my miseries to come, Spake of this respite after many years, Some haven in a far-off land, a rest Vouchsafed at last by dread divinities.

I came to you a suppliant, and you pledged Your honor; O preserve me to the end, O let not this marred visage do me wrong!

OEDIPUS O wealth and empiry and skill by skill Outwitted in the battlefield of life, What spite and envy follow in your train!

When from the hail-storm of thy threats I fled I sware thou wouldst not see me here again; But the wild rapture of a glad surprise Intoxicates, and so I'm here forsworn.

Ah! who had e'er imagined she could fall To such a depth of misery as this, To tend in penury thy stricken frame, A virgin ripe for wedlock, but unwed, A prey for any wanton ravisher?

His son Haemon, to whom Antigone is betrothed, pleads in vain for her life and threatens to die with her.

CHORUS Surely we pity thee and him alike Daughter of Oedipus, for your distress; But as we reverence the decrees of Heaven We cannot say aught other than we said.

O Polybus, O Corinth, O my home, Home of my ancestors (so wast thou called) How fair a nursling then I seemed, how foul The canker that lay festering in the bud!

But you by special summons I convened As my most trusted councilors; first, because I knew you loyal to Laius of old; Again, when Oedipus restored our State, Both while he ruled and when his rule was o'er, Ye still were constant to the royal line.

THESEUS What profit dost thou proffer to have brought?

JOCASTA Then let I no more weigh upon thy soul.

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.

Our quest was at a standstill, when one spake And bowed us all to earth like quivering reeds, For there was no gainsaying him nor way To escape perdition: _Ye_are_bound_to_tell_ _The_King,_ye_cannot_hide_it; so he spake.

Ill fares the husband mated with a shrew, And her embraces very soon wax cold.

For I will speak; thy lewd and impious speech Has broken all the bonds of reticence.

Thou didst kindle the strife, this feud of kinsman with kin, By the eyes of a winsome wife, and the yearning her heart to win.

Let me clasp you with these hands, A brother's hands, a father's; hands that made Lack-luster sockets of his once bright eyes; Hands of a man who blindly, recklessly, Became your sire by her from whom he sprang.

Yet 'tis no easy matter to discern The temper of a man, his mind and will, Till he be proved by exercise of power; And in my case, if one who reigns supreme Swerve from the highest policy, tongue-tied By fear of consequence, that man I hold, And ever held, the basest of the base.

For lo, the palace portals are unbarred, And soon ye shall behold a sight so sad That he who must abhorred would pity it.

Since it pleaseth thee To triumph o'er thy country and thy friends Who mandate, though a prince, I here discharge, Enjoy thy triumph; soon or late thou'lt find Thou art an enemy to thyself, both now And in time past, when in despite of friends Thou gav'st the rein to passion, still thy bane.

Thou art his father, therefore canst not pay In kind a son's most impious outrages.

PRIEST Yea, 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.

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.

ANTIGONE My fatherland, city of Thebes divine, Ye gods of Thebes whence sprang my line, Look, puissant lords of Thebes, on me; The last of all your royal house ye see.

I warrant such a one in either case Would shine, as King or subject; such a man Would in the storm of battle stand his ground, A comrade leal and true; but Anarchy-- What evils are not wrought by Anarchy!

For myself, I call To witness Zeus, whose eyes are everywhere, If I perceive some mischievous design To sap the State, I will not hold my tongue; Nor would I reckon as my private friend A public foe, well knowing that the State Is the good ship that holds our fortunes all: Farewell to friendship, if she suffers wreck.

Nay, thou know'st it not, And all unwitting art a double foe To thine own kin, the living and the dead; Aye and the dogging curse of mother and sire One day shall drive thee, like a two-edged sword, Beyond our borders, and the eyes that now See clear shall henceforward endless night.

Again the oracle was consulted and it bade them purge themselves of blood-guiltiness.

(Ant. 1) Of insolence is bred The tyrant; insolence full blown, With empty riches surfeited, Scales the precipitous height and grasps the throne.

O Zeus, reveal thy might, King, if thou'rt named aright Omnipotent, all-seeing, as of old; For Laius is forgot; His weird, men heed it not; Apollo is forsook and faith grows cold.

From Theseus Oedipus craves protection in life and burial in Attic soil; the benefits that will accrue shall be told later.

GUARD No man, my lord, should make a vow, for if He ever swears he will not do a thing, His afterthoughts belie his first resolve.

Listen and I'll convince thee that no man Hath scot or lot in the prophetic art.

HAEMON What threat is this, vain counsels to reprove?

I whom ye dislodged First from my seat of rock and now would drive Forth from your land, dreading my name alone; For me you surely dread not, nor my deeds, Deeds of a man more sinned against than sinning, As I might well convince you, were it meet To tell my mother's story and my sire's, The cause of this your fear.

Then topples o'er and lies in ruin prone; No foothold on that dizzy steep.

Lead him straight within, For it is seemly that a kinsman's woes Be heard by kin and seen by kin alone.

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

Thus by the law of conscience I was led To honor thee, dear brother, and was judged By Creon guilty of a heinous crime.

But when he comes, then I were base indeed, If I perform not all the god declares.

Nay, thou know'st it not, And all unwitting art a double foe To thine own kin, the living and the dead; Aye and the dogging curse of mother and sire One day shall drive thee, like a two-edged sword, Beyond our borders, and the eyes that now See clear shall henceforward endless night.

OEDIPUS O what avails renown or fair repute?

Learning may fixed decree anent thy bride, Thou mean'st not, son, to rave against thy sire?

For the long years heap up a grievous load, Scant pleasures, heavier pains, Till not one joy remains For him who lingers on life's weary road And come it slow or fast, One doom of fate Doth all await, For dance and marriage bell, The dirge and funeral knell.

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.

If aught thou wouldst beseech, Speak where 'tis right; till then refrain from speech.

[Exeunt OEDIPUS and CREON] PRIEST Come, children, let us hence; these gracious words Forestall the very purpose of our suit.

PRIEST Yea, 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.

First, he can claim the hospitality To which by mutual contract we stand pledged: Next, coming here, a suppliant to the gods, He pays full tribute to the State and me; His favors therefore never will I spurn, But grant him the full rights of citizen; And, if it suits the stranger here to bide, I place him in your charge, or if he please Rather to come with me--choose, Oedipus, Which of the two thou wilt.

JOCASTA No, for as soon as he returned and found Thee reigning in the stead of Laius slain, He clasped my hand and supplicated me To send him to the alps and pastures, where He might be farthest from the sight of Thebes.

But a shepherd found the babe and tended him, and delivered him to another shepherd who took him to his master, the King of Corinth.

[Exeunt OEDIPUS and JOCASTA] CHORUS (Str. 1) My lot be still to lead The life of innocence and fly Irreverence in word or deed, To follow still those laws ordained on high Whose birthplace is the bright ethereal sky No mortal birth they own, Olympus their progenitor alone: Ne'er shall they slumber in oblivion cold, The god in them is strong and grows not old.

CREON Lo, here is Creon, the one man to grant Thy prayer by action or advice, for he Is left the State's sole guardian in thy stead.

OEDIPUS I'll tell thee, lady; if his tale agrees With thine, I shall have 'scaped calamity.

(Str. 2) And here there grows, unpruned, untamed, Terror to foemen's spear, A tree in Asian soil unnamed, By Pelops' Dorian isle unclaimed, Self-nurtured year by year; 'Tis the grey-leaved olive that feeds our boys; Nor youth nor withering age destroys The plant that the Olive Planter tends And the Grey-eyed Goddess herself defends.

(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.

A blight is on our harvest in the ear, A blight upon the grazing flocks and herds, A blight on wives in travail; and withal Armed with his blazing torch the God of Plague Hath swooped upon our city emptying The house of Cadmus, and the murky realm Of Pluto is full fed with groans and tears.

My zeal in your behalf ye cannot doubt; Ruthless indeed were I and obdurate If such petitioners as you I spurned.

But a shepherd found the babe and tended him, and delivered him to another shepherd who took him to his master, the King of Corinth.

OEDIPUS (Ant. 2) My curse on him whoe'er unrived The waif's fell fetters and my life revived!

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.

STRANGER Inviolable, untrod; goddesses, Dread brood of Earth and Darkness, here abide.

JOCASTA Hear this man, And as thou hearest judge what has become Of all those awe-inspiring oracles.

STRANGER Whate'er I know thou too shalt know; the place Is all to great Poseidon consecrate.

Where in the wide world to find The far, faint traces of a bygone crime?

She ruins States, and overthrows the home, She dissipates and routs the embattled host; While discipline preserves the ordered ranks.

Thy fall, O Oedipus, thy piteous fall Warns me none born of women blest to call.

All that I lately gathered on the way Made my conjecture doubly sure; and now Thy garb and that marred visage prove to me That thou art he.

CHORUS Respect a man whose probity and troth Are known to all and now confirmed by oath.

If thou fail'st To find these malefactors, thou shalt own The wages of ill-gotten gains is death.

Yet not from Thebes this villainy was learnt; Thebes is not wont to breed unrighteous sons, Nor would she praise thee, if she learnt that thou Wert robbing me--aye and the gods to boot, Haling by force their suppliants, poor maids.

Foremost the peerless warrior, peerless seer, Amphiaraiis with his lightning lance; Next an Aetolian, Tydeus, Oeneus' son; Eteoclus of Argive birth the third; The fourth Hippomedon, sent to the war By his sire Talaos; Capaneus, the fifth, Vaunts he will fire and raze the town; the sixth Parthenopaeus, an Arcadian born Named of that maid, longtime a maid and late Espoused, Atalanta's true-born child; Last I thy son, or thine at least in name, If but the bastard of an evil fate, Lead ag...

Yet was I quits with him and more; one stroke Of my good staff sufficed to fling him clean Out of the chariot seat and laid him prone.

I am not so infatuate as to grasp The shadow when I hold the substance fast.

For, as thou seest thyself, our ship of State, Sore buffeted, can no more lift her head, Foundered beneath a weltering surge of blood.

TEIRESIAS Must I say more to aggravate thy rage?

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.

OEDIPUS This and none other is my constant dread.

In that faith I hunted down my quarry; and e'en then I had refrained but for the curses dire Wherewith he banned my kinsfolk and myself: Such wrong, methought, had warrant for my act.

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.

And of the children, inmates of his home, He shall be proved the brother and the sire, Of her who bare him son and husband both, Co-partner, and assassin of his sire.

I had a mind to visit the high shrines, For Oedipus is overwrought, alarmed With terrors manifold.

O yield to us; just suitors should not need To be importunate, nor he that takes A favor lack the grace to make return.

But, ye pure and awful gods, Forbid, forbid that I should see that day!

But I will revive His blunted memories.

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

And in his frenzy some supernal power (No mortal, surely, none of us who watched him) Guided his footsteps; with a terrible shriek, As though one beckoned him, he crashed against The folding doors, and from their staples forced The wrenched bolts and hurled himself within.

I know thou mean'st me well, And yet would'st mitigate and blunt my zeal.

CREON I will not bandy insults with thee, seer.

JOCASTA A serf, the sole survivor who returned.

I thought He'd take it to the country whence he came; But he preserved it for the worst of woes.

[Enter THESEUS] THESEUS Wherefore again this general din? at once My people call me and the stranger calls.

OEDIPUS But was no search and inquisition made?

But for my daughters twain, poor innocent maids, Who ever sat beside me at the board Sharing my viands, drinking of my cup, For them, I pray thee, care, and, if thou willst, O might I feel their touch and make my moan.

[Exeunt] CHORUS (Str. 1) Sunbeam, of all that ever dawn upon Our seven-gated Thebes the brightest ray, O eye of golden day, How fair thy light o'er Dirce's fountain shone, Speeding upon their headlong homeward course, Far quicker than they came, the Argive force; Putting to flight The argent shields, the host with scutcheons white.

Nor did I deem that thou, a mortal man, Could'st by a breath annul and override The immutable unwritten laws of Heaven.

OEDIPUS I cannot; I must probe this matter home.

JOCASTA My lords, ye look amazed to see your queen With wreaths and gifts of incense in her hands.

OEDIPUS What memories, what wild tumult of the soul Came o'er me, lady, as I heard thee speak!

POLYNEICES Woe worth my journey and my baffled hopes!

I shall not thwart thy wish.

And yet his fortune brings him little joy; For blind of seeing, clad in beggar's weeds, For purple robes, and leaning on his staff, To a strange land he soon shall grope his way.

Or how without sign assured, can I blame Him who saved our State when the winged songstress came, Tested and tried in the light of us all, like gold assayed?

STRANGER The Gracious Ones, All-seeing, so our folk Call them, but elsewhere other names are rife.

CHORUS Yea, in three streams; and be the last bowl drained To the last drop.

Then the boy, Wroth with himself, poor wretch, incontinent Fell on his sword and drove it through his side Home, but yet breathing clasped in his lax arms The maid, her pallid cheek incarnadined With his expiring gasps.

Then we sat High on the ridge to windward of the stench, While each man kept he fellow alert and rated Roundly the sluggard if he chanced to nap.

Time with never sleeping eye Watches what is writ on high, Overthrowing now the great, Raising now from low estate.

THESEUS Show us the trail, and I'll attend thee too, That, if thou hast the maidens hereabouts, Thou mayest thyself discover them to me; But if thy guards outstrip us with their spoil, We may draw rein; for others speed, from whom They will not 'scape to thank the gods at home.

Thou hast withstood authority, A self-willed rebel, thou must die.

He will not use His past experience, like a man of sense, To judge the present need, but lends an ear To any croaker if he augurs ill.

"Laius," she cried, and called her husband dead Long, long ago; her thought was of that child By him begot, the son by whom the sire Was murdered and the mother left to breed With her own seed, a monstrous progeny.

But if Betwixt this stranger there was aught in common With Laius, who more miserable than I, What mortal could you find more god-abhorred?

OEDIPUS That voice, O king, grates on a father's ears; I have come to loathe it.

But for the miscreant exile who returned Minded in flames and ashes to blot out His father's city and his father's gods, And glut his vengeance with his kinsmen's blood, Or drag them captive at his chariot wheels-- For Polyneices 'tis ordained that none Shall give him burial or make mourn for him, But leave his corpse unburied, to be meat For dogs and carrion crows, a ghastly sight.

CREON Woman, who like a viper unperceived Didst harbor in my house and drain my blood, Two plagues I nurtured blindly, so it proved, To sap my throne.

But O condemn me not, without appeal, On bare suspicion.

OEDIPUS Say to what should I consent?

If thou wouldst rule This land, as now thou reignest, better sure To rule a peopled than a desert realm.

ANTIGONE A specious pretext.

And on the murderer this curse I lay (On him and all the partners in his guilt):-- Wretch, may he pine in utter wretchedness!

No sooner has he gone than Creon enters with an armed guard who seize Antigone and carry her off (Ismene, the other sister, they have already captured) and he is about to lay hands on Oedipus, when Theseus, who has heard the tumult, hurries up and, upbraiding Creon for his lawless act, threatens to detain him till he has shown where the captives are and restored them.

He tore the golden brooches that upheld Her queenly robes, upraised them high and smote Full on his eye-balls, uttering words like these: "No more shall ye behold such sights of woe, Deeds I have suffered and myself have wrought; Henceforward quenched in darkness shall ye see Those ye should ne'er have seen; now blind to those Whom, when I saw, I vainly yearned to know."

ISMENE But now thy bark is stranded, I am bold To claim my share as partner in the loss.

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.

Corpses spread infection round; None to tend or mourn is found.

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.

OEDIPUS O wealth and empiry and skill by skill Outwitted in the battlefield of life, What spite and envy follow in your train!

OEDIPUS My children, latest born to Cadmus old, Why sit ye here as suppliants, in your hands Branches of olive filleted with wool?

CREON Were not his wits and vision all astray When upon me he fixed this monstrous charge?

So, by our fountains and familiar gods I pray thee, yield and hear; a beggar I And exile, thou an exile likewise; both Involved in one misfortune find a home As pensioners, while he, the lord of Thebes, O agony! makes a mock of thee and me.

OEDIPUS I pray thee do not wonder if the sight Of children, given o'er for lost, has made My converse somewhat long and tedious.

Like sleuth-hounds too The Fates pursue.

OEDIPUS Come to your father's arms, O let me feel A child's embrace I never hoped for more.

OEDIPUS Yes, from my cradle that dread brand I bore.

Perturbed in soul, I straight essayed the sacrifice by fire On blazing altars, but the God of Fire Came not in flame, and from the thigh bones dripped And sputtered in the ashes a foul ooze; Gall-bladders cracked and spurted up: the fat Melted and fell and left the thigh bones bare.

I would as lief a man should cast away The thing he counts most precious, his own life, As spurn a true friend.

[Enter POLYNEICES] POLYNEICES Ah me, my sisters, shall I first lament My own afflictions, or my aged sire's, Whom here I find a castaway, with you, In a strange land, an ancient beggar clad In antic tatters, marring all his frame, While o'er the sightless orbs his unkept locks Float in the breeze; and, as it were to match, He bears a wallet against hunger's pinch.

Command my liegemen leave the sacrifice And hurry, foot and horse, with rein unchecked, To where the paths that packmen use diverge, Lest the two maidens slip away, and I Become a mockery to this my guest, As one despoiled by force.

How could the soil thy father eared so long Endure to bear in silence such a wrong?

SOPHOCLES OEDIPUS THE KING Translation by F. Storr, BA Formerly Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge From the Loeb Library Edition Originally published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA and William Heinemann Ltd, London First published in 1912 ***** ARGUMENT To Laius, King of Thebes, an oracle foretold that the child born to him by his queen Jocasta would slay his father and wed his mother.

A blight is on our harvest in the ear, A blight upon the grazing flocks and herds, A blight on wives in travail; and withal Armed with his blazing torch the God of Plague Hath swooped upon our city emptying The house of Cadmus, and the murky realm Of Pluto is full fed with groans and tears.

JOCASTA A serf, the sole survivor who returned.

(Str. 2) To earthy from earth rebounding, down he crashed; The fire-brand from his impious hand was dashed, As like a Bacchic reveler on he came, Outbreathing hate and flame, And tottered.

JOCASTA Well, rest assured, his tale ran thus at first, Nor can he now retract what then he said; Not I alone but all our townsfolk heard it.

CHORUS Then lay upon it thrice nine olive sprays With both thy hands, and offer up this prayer.

OEDIPUS What is the site, to what god dedicate?

By him the vulture maid Was quelled, her witchery laid; He rose our savior and the land's strong tower.

Oedipus denounces the crime of which he is unaware, and undertakes to track out the criminal.

I have long noted malcontents Who wagged their heads, and kicked against the yoke, Misliking these my orders, and my rule.

But when my frenzied grief had spent its force, And I was fain to taste the sweets of home, Then thou wouldst thrust me from my country, then These ties of kindred were by thee ignored; And now again when thou behold'st this State And all its kindly people welcome me, Thou seek'st to part us, wrapping in soft words Hard thoughts.

What happened after that I cannot tell, Nor how the end befell, for with a shriek Burst on us Oedipus; all eyes were fixed On Oedipus, as up and down he strode, Nor could we mark her agony to the end.

CREON O cease, you vex me with your babblement; I am like to think you dote in your old age.

Foremost the peerless warrior, peerless seer, Amphiaraiis with his lightning lance; Next an Aetolian, Tydeus, Oeneus' son; Eteoclus of Argive birth the third; The fourth Hippomedon, sent to the war By his sire Talaos; Capaneus, the fifth, Vaunts he will fire and raze the town; the sixth Parthenopaeus, an Arcadian born Named of that maid, longtime a maid and late Espoused, Atalanta's true-born child; Last I thy son, or thine at least in name, If but the bastard of an evil fate, Lead ag...

And for thy foemen, though their words were brave, Boasting to bring thee back, they are like to find The seas between us wide and hard to sail.

And thou, my child, whilom thou wentest forth, Eluding the Cadmeians' vigilance, To bring thy father all the oracles Concerning Oedipus, and didst make thyself My faithful lieger, when they banished me.

CHORUS This taunt, it well may be, was blurted out In petulance, not spoken advisedly.

My zeal in your behalf ye cannot doubt; Ruthless indeed were I and obdurate If such petitioners as you I spurned.

A wayfarer, I ween, A wayfarer, no countryman of ours, That old man must have been; Never had native dared to tempt the Powers, Or enter their demesne, The Maids in awe of whom each mortal cowers, Whose name no voice betrays nor cry, And as we pass them with averted eye, We move hushed lips in reverent piety.

Not Ister nor all Phasis' flood, I ween, Could wash away the blood-stains from this house, The ills it shrouds or soon will bring to light, Ills wrought of malice, not unwittingly.

A wayfarer, I ween, A wayfarer, no countryman of ours, That old man must have been; Never had native dared to tempt the Powers, Or enter their demesne, The Maids in awe of whom each mortal cowers, Whose name no voice betrays nor cry, And as we pass them with averted eye, We move hushed lips in reverent piety.

Betwixt that rift and the Thorician rock, The hollow pear-tree and the marble tomb, Midway he sat and loosed his beggar's weeds; Then calling to his daughters bade them fetch Of running water, both to wash withal And make libation; so they clomb the steep; And in brief space brought what their father bade, Then laved and dressed him with observance due.

[Exeunt TEIRESIAS and OEDIPUS] CHORUS (Str. 1) Who is he by voice immortal named from Pythia's rocky cell, Doer of foul deeds of bloodshed, horrors that no tongue can tell?

TEIRESIAS Yea, if the might of truth can aught prevail.

Am I not utterly unclean, a wretch Doomed to be banished, and in banishment Forgo the sight of all my dearest ones, And never tread again my native earth; Or else to wed my mother and slay my sire, Polybus, who begat me and upreared?

My spirit quails and cowers: my hair Bristles for fear.

Nor did I deem that thou, a mortal man, Could'st by a breath annul and override The immutable unwritten laws of Heaven.

[Exeunt OEDIPUS and JOCASTA] CHORUS (Str. 1) My lot be still to lead The life of innocence and fly Irreverence in word or deed, To follow still those laws ordained on high Whose birthplace is the bright ethereal sky No mortal birth they own, Olympus their progenitor alone: Ne'er shall they slumber in oblivion cold, The god in them is strong and grows not old.

Against our land the proud invader came To vindicate fell Polyneices' claim.

He the all-presumptuous man, Whither vanished? search the ground!

Dost thou presume To approach my doors, thou brazen-faced rogue, My murderer and the filcher of my crown?

Now like a sullen bull he roves Through forest brakes and upland groves, And vainly seeks to fly The doom that ever nigh Flits o'er his head, Still by the avenging Phoebus sped, The voice divine, From Earth's mid shrine.

What tongue can tell That sight ineffable?

CREON Before thou didst assume the helm of State, The sovereign of this land was Laius.

CHORUS Brand not a friend whom babbling tongues assail; Let not suspicion 'gainst his oath prevail.

OEDIPUS What memories, what wild tumult of the soul Came o'er me, lady, as I heard thee speak!

For, had I sight, I know not with what eyes I could have met my father in the shades, Or my poor mother, since against the twain I sinned, a sin no gallows could atone.

CHORUS To one who walketh warily his words Commend themselves; swift counsels are not sure.

For the long years heap up a grievous load, Scant pleasures, heavier pains, Till not one joy remains For him who lingers on life's weary road And come it slow or fast, One doom of fate Doth all await, For dance and marriage bell, The dirge and funeral knell.

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

Thy ready help we crave, Whether adown Parnassian heights descending, Or o'er the roaring straits thy swift was wending, Save us, O save!

I seemed forsooth too simple to perceive The serpent stealing on me in the dark, Or else too weak to scotch it when I saw.

Nothing is here for tears; it must be borne By _me_ till death, and I shall think of thee As of my murderer; thou didst thrust me out; 'Tis thou hast made me conversant with woe, Through thee I beg my bread in a strange land; And had not these my daughters tended me I had been dead for aught of aid from thee.

Hither comes in angry mood Haemon, latest of thy brood; Is it for his bride he's grieved, Or her marriage-bed deceived, Doth he make his mourn for thee, Maid forlorn, Antigone?

(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.

Sitting upon my throne of augury, As is my wont, where every fowl of heaven Find harborage, upon mine ears was borne A jargon strange of twitterings, hoots, and screams; So knew I that each bird at the other tare With bloody talons, for the whirr of wings Could signify naught else.

Envy, sedition, strife, Carnage and war, make up the tale of life.

Come Creon then, come all the mightiest In Thebes to seek me; for if ye my friends, Championed by those dread Powers indigenous, Espouse my cause; then for the State ye gain A great deliverer, for my foemen bane.

Envy, sedition, strife, Carnage and war, make up the tale of life.

For transgressions past May be amended, cannot be made worse.

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.

To you, my children I had much to say, Were ye but ripe to hear.

Thus as their champion I maintain the cause Both of the god and of the murdered King.

[Enter POLYNEICES] POLYNEICES Ah me, my sisters, shall I first lament My own afflictions, or my aged sire's, Whom here I find a castaway, with you, In a strange land, an ancient beggar clad In antic tatters, marring all his frame, While o'er the sightless orbs his unkept locks Float in the breeze; and, as it were to match, He bears a wallet against hunger's pinch.

When in her frenzy she had passed inside The vestibule, she hurried straight to win The bridal-chamber, clutching at her hair With both her hands, and, once within the room, She shut the doors behind her with a crash.

Such tempers justly plague themselves the most.

For 'tis the hope of parents they may rear A brood of sons submissive, keen to avenge Their father's wrongs, and count his friends their own.

Where'er ye go to feast or festival, No merrymaking will it prove for you, But oft abashed in tears ye will return.

(Epode) Such ills not I alone, He too our guest hath known, E'en as some headland on an iron-bound shore, Lashed by the wintry blasts and surge's roar, So is he buffeted on every side By drear misfortune's whelming tide, By every wind of heaven o'erborne Some from the sunset, some from orient morn, Some from the noonday glow.

He vows to fly self-banished from the land, Nor stay to bring upon his house the curse Himself had uttered; but he has no strength Nor one to guide him, and his torture's more Than man can suffer, as yourselves will see.

O leave them not to wander poor, unwed, Thy kin, nor let them share my low estate.

So without prologue I may utter now My brief petition, and the tale is told.

SOPHOCLES ANTIGONE Translation by F. Storr, BA Formerly Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge From the Loeb Library Edition Originally published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA and William Heinemann Ltd, London First published in 1912 ***** ARGUMENT Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, the late king of Thebes, in defiance of Creon who rules in his stead, resolves to bury her brother Polyneices, slain in his attack on Thebes.

CREON Thou art good at parry, and canst fence about Some matter of grave import, as is plain.

He, as he heard their sudden bitter cry, Folded his arms about them both and said, "My children, ye will lose your sire today, For all of me has perished, and no more Have ye to bear your long, long ministry; A heavy load, I know, and yet one word Wipes out all score of tribulations--_love_.

OEDIPUS O listen, since thy presence comes to me A shock of glad surprise--so noble thou, And I so vile--O grant me one small boon.

It serves thy turn to laud great Theseus' name, And Athens as a wisely governed State; Yet in thy flatteries one thing is to seek: If any land knows how to pay the gods Their proper rites, 'tis Athens most of all.

JOCASTA No, for as soon as he returned and found Thee reigning in the stead of Laius slain, He clasped my hand and supplicated me To send him to the alps and pastures, where He might be farthest from the sight of Thebes.

OEDIPUS They knew it, yet the ignoble greed of rule Outweighed all longing for their sire's return.

This is the man whom thou wouldst undermine, In hope to reign with Creon in my stead.

Therefore I plead compulsion and entreat The dead to pardon.

To wait his onset passively, for him Is sure success, for me assured defeat.

CREON Speak, girl, with head bent low and downcast eyes, Does thou plead guilty or deny the deed?

Not so; for, mark you, on that very day When in the tempest of my soul I craved Death, even death by stoning, none appeared To further that wild longing, but anon, When time had numbed my anguish and I felt My wrath had all outrun those errors past, Then, then it was the city went about By force to oust me, respited for years; And then my sons, who should as sons have helped, Did nothing: and, one little word from them Was all I needed, and they spoke no word, But let me wander on for...

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.

Hear, gentle daughters of primeval Night, Hear, namesake of great Pallas; Athens, first Of cities, pity this dishonored shade, The ghost of him who once was Oedipus.

Murder and incest, deeds of horror, all Thou blurtest forth against me, all I have borne, No willing sinner; so it pleased the gods Wrath haply with my sinful race of old, Since thou could'st find no sin in me myself For which in retribution I was doomed To trespass thus against myself and mine.

(Ant. 1) Of insolence is bred The tyrant; insolence full blown, With empty riches surfeited, Scales the precipitous height and grasps the throne.

So am I purposed; never by my will Shall miscreants take precedence of true men, But all good patriots, alive or dead, Shall be by me preferred and honored.

CHORUS With wool from fleece of yearling freshly shorn.

So I pray and call On the ancestral gloom of Tartarus To snatch thee hence, on these dread goddesses I call, and Ares who incensed you both To mortal enmity.

CHORUS (Ant. 1) Hark! with louder, nearer roar The bolt of Zeus descends once more.

SOPHOCLES OEDIPUS THE KING Translation by F. Storr, BA Formerly Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge From the Loeb Library Edition Originally published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA and William Heinemann Ltd, London First published in 1912 ***** ARGUMENT To Laius, King of Thebes, an oracle foretold that the child born to him by his queen Jocasta would slay his father and wed his mother.

If sin like this to honor can aspire, Why dance I still and lead the sacred choir?

(Ant. 1) Thee on the two-crested rock Lurid-flaming torches see; Where Corisian maidens flock, Thee the springs of Castaly.

OEDIPUS Go, fetch me here the herd, and leave yon woman To glory in her pride of ancestry.

OEDIPUS Had he but few attendants or a train Of armed retainers with him, like a prince?

Envy, sedition, strife, Carnage and war, make up the tale of life.

OEDIPUS A foundling or a purchased slave, this child?

OEDIPUS Yea, I am wroth, and will not stint my words, But speak my whole mind.

OEDIPUS I grow impatient of this best advice.

But the son glared at him with tiger eyes, Spat in his face, and then, without a word, Drew his two-hilted sword and smote, but missed His father flying backwards.

CREON Not in derision, Oedipus, I come Nor to upbraid thee with thy past misdeeds.

Sure 'twas a sage inspired that spake this word; _If evil good appear_ _To any, Fate is near_; And brief the respite from her flaming sword.

Now tell me of your ventures, but in brief; Brief speech suffices for young maids like you.

For transgressions past May be amended, cannot be made worse.

CHORUS O thy despair well suits thy desperate case.

As thou lov'st thy life, On thy aggressor thou would'st turn, no stay Debating, if the law would bear thee out.

What means this reek of incense everywhere, And everywhere laments and litanies?

I follow not thy drift.

O leave them not to wander poor, unwed, Thy kin, nor let them share my low estate.

HAEMON Because I see thee wrongfully perverse.

CHORUS Yea, in three streams; and be the last bowl drained To the last drop.

From Theseus Oedipus craves protection in life and burial in Attic soil; the benefits that will accrue shall be told later.

Again the oracle was consulted and it bade them purge themselves of blood-guiltiness.

O light, no light to me, but mine erewhile, Now the last time I feel thee palpable, For I am drawing near the final gloom Of Hades.

ANTIGONE Oh land extolled above all lands, 'tis now For thee to make these glorious titles good.

He the all-presumptuous man, Whither vanished? search the ground!

Rally, neighbors to my call!

Therefore the angry gods abominate Our litanies and our burnt offerings; Therefore no birds trill out a happy note, Gorged with the carnival of human gore.

So at the bidding of our distraught lord We looked, and in the craven's vaulted gloom I saw the maiden lying strangled there, A noose of linen twined about her neck; And hard beside her, clasping her cold form, Her lover lay bewailing his dead bride Death-wedded, and his father's cruelty.

CREON I meddle not with him, but her who is mine.

Now Laius--so at least report affirmed-- Was murdered on a day by highwaymen, No natives, at a spot where three roads meet.

Thou didst kindle the strife, this feud of kinsman with kin, By the eyes of a winsome wife, and the yearning her heart to win.

OEDIPUS I grant her freely all her heart desires.

CREON I go, By thee misjudged, but justified by these.

OEDIPUS Chide if thou wilt, but first attend my plea.

CHORUS Unless perchance our sovereign intervene.

Go to, and make your profit where ye will, Silver of Sardis change for gold of Ind; Ye will not purchase this man's burial, Not though the winged ministers of Zeus Should bear him in their talons to his throne; Not e'en in awe of prodigy so dire Would I permit his burial, for I know No human soilure can assail the gods; This too I know, Teiresias, dire's the fall Of craft and cunning when it tries to gloss Foul treachery with fair words for filthy gain.

'Tis the haunt of the clear-voiced nightingale, Who hid in her bower, among The wine-dark ivy that wreathes the vale, Trilleth her ceaseless song; And she loves, where the clustering berries nod O'er a sunless, windless glade, The spot by no mortal footstep trod, The pleasance kept for the Bacchic god, Where he holds each night his revels wild With the nymphs who fostered the lusty child.

Then the boy, Wroth with himself, poor wretch, incontinent Fell on his sword and drove it through his side Home, but yet breathing clasped in his lax arms The maid, her pallid cheek incarnadined With his expiring gasps.

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 upon 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.

POLYNEICES I shall not tell it; a good general Reports successes and conceals mishaps.

So, by our fountains and familiar gods I pray thee, yield and hear; a beggar I And exile, thou an exile likewise; both Involved in one misfortune find a home As pensioners, while he, the lord of Thebes, O agony! makes a mock of thee and me.

ANTIGONE (Ant. 2) At this thou touchest my most poignant pain, My ill-starred father's piteous disgrace, The taint of blood, the hereditary stain, That clings to all of Labdacus' famed race.

OEDIPUS But for thy prompting never had the seer Ascribed to me the death of Laius.

CHORUS The plea thou urgest, needs must give us pause, Set forth in weighty argument, but we Must leave the issue with the ruling powers.

OEDIPUS Ah me! what words to accost him can I find?

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

Then the boy, Wroth with himself, poor wretch, incontinent Fell on his sword and drove it through his side Home, but yet breathing clasped in his lax arms The maid, her pallid cheek incarnadined With his expiring gasps.

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

Go now proclaim What thou hast heard to the Cadmeians all, Thy staunch confederates--this the heritage that Oedipus divideth to his sons.

SOPHOCLES OEDIPUS THE KING Translation by F. Storr, BA Formerly Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge From the Loeb Library Edition Originally published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA and William Heinemann Ltd, London First published in 1912 ***** ARGUMENT To Laius, King of Thebes, an oracle foretold that the child born to him by his queen Jocasta would slay his father and wed his mother.

But as almighty Zeus in all he doth Hath Mercy for co-partner of this throne, Let Mercy, father, also sit enthroned In thy heart likewise.

Time with never sleeping eye Watches what is writ on high, Overthrowing now the great, Raising now from low estate.

OEDIPUS Yes, from my cradle that dread brand I bore.

Enough the anguish _I_ endure.

By heaven, thou shalt not rate And jeer and flout me with impunity.

Wouldst thou betray us and destroy the State?

And for my mother, wretch, art not ashamed, Seeing she was thy sister, to extort From me the story of her marriage, such A marriage as I straightway will proclaim.

[Footnote 6: Creon desires to bury Oedipus on the confines of Thebes so as to avoid the pollution and yet offer due rites at his tomb.

Take this solace to thy tomb Hers in life and death thy doom.

Oedipus denounces the crime of which he is unaware, and undertakes to track out the criminal.

'Tis the haunt of the clear-voiced nightingale, Who hid in her bower, among The wine-dark ivy that wreathes the vale, Trilleth her ceaseless song; And she loves, where the clustering berries nod O'er a sunless, windless glade, The spot by no mortal footstep trod, The pleasance kept for the Bacchic god, Where he holds each night his revels wild With the nymphs who fostered the lusty child.

CHORUS Desist, I bid thee.

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

She is my mother and the changing moons My brethren, and with them I wax and wane.

Such curse I lately launched against you twain, Such curse I now invoke to fight for me, That ye may learn to honor those who bear thee Nor flout a sightless father who begat Degenerate sons--these maidens did not so.

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

Earth's might decays, the might of men decays, Honor grows cold, dishonor flourishes, There is no constancy 'twixt friend and friend, Or city and city; be it soon or late, Sweet turns to bitter, hate once more to love.

Wherefore no alien in adversity Shall seek in vain my succor, nor shalt thou; I know myself a mortal, and my share In what the morrow brings no more than thine.

Come hither, deign to touch an abject wretch; Draw near and fear not; I myself must bear The load of guilt that none but I can share.

[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?

[Footnote 3: The Greek text that occurs in this place has been lost.]

CHORUS (Str.) If my soul prophetic err not, if my wisdom aught avail, Thee, Cithaeron, I shall hail, As the nurse and foster-mother of our Oedipus shall greet Ere tomorrow's full moon rises, and exalt thee as is meet.

Were I on Theban soil, to prosecute The justest claim imaginable, I Would never wrest by violence my own Without sanction of your State or King; I should behave as fits an outlander Living amongst a foreign folk, but thou Shamest a city that deserves it not, Even thine own, and plentitude of years Have made of thee an old man and a fool.

THESEUS How sayest thou they signify their will?

OEDIPUS Ye pray; 'tis well, but would ye hear my words And heed them and apply the remedy, Ye might perchance find comfort and relief.

But O my heart is desolate Musing on our striken State, Doubly fall'n should discord grow Twixt you twain, to crown our woe.

King Phoebus bids us straitly extirpate A fell pollution that infests the land, And no more harbor an inveterate sore.

His marriage rites Are consummated in the halls of Death: A witness that of ills whate'er befall Mortals' unwisdom is the worst of all.

ANTIGONE Wilt thou then bring to pass his prophecies Who threatens mutual slaughter to you both?

So when Etesian blasts from Thrace downpour Sweep o'er the blackening main and whirl to land From Ocean's cavernous depths his ooze and sand, Billow on billow thunders on the shore.

No man's life As of one tenor would I praise or blame, For Fortune with a constant ebb and rise Casts down and raises high and low alike, And none can read a mortal's horoscope.

[Exit THESEUS followed by ANTIGONE and ISMENE] CHORUS (Str.) If mortal prayers are heard in hell, Hear, Goddess dread, invisible!

[Enter THESEUS] THESEUS Dry your tears; when grace is shed On the quick and on the dead By dark Powers beneficent, Over-grief they would resent.

JOCASTA Then thou mayest ease thy conscience on that score.

Ah! who had e'er imagined she could fall To such a depth of misery as this, To tend in penury thy stricken frame, A virgin ripe for wedlock, but unwed, A prey for any wanton ravisher?

THESEUS I know but one thing; he implores, I am told, A word with thee--he will not trouble thee.

(Str. 2) Witness, thou Sun, such thought was never mine, Unblest, unfriended may I perish, If ever I such wish did cherish!

Eteocles He hath consigned to earth (as fame reports) With obsequies that use and wont ordain, So gracing him among the dead below.

OEDIPUS I should have shared in full thy confidence, Were not my mother living; since she lives Though half convinced I still must live in dread.

What's amiss?

It was by reason of my years that I Was chosen to persuade your guest and bring Him back to Thebes; not the delegate Of one man, but commissioned by the State, Since of all Thebans I have most bewailed, Being his kinsman, his most grievous woes.

A blight is on our harvest in the ear, A blight upon the grazing flocks and herds, A blight on wives in travail; and withal Armed with his blazing torch the God of Plague Hath swooped upon our city emptying The house of Cadmus, and the murky realm Of Pluto is full fed with groans and tears.

The land is sore distressed; 'Twere better sleeping ills to leave at rest.

(Ant. 1) On the Labdacidae I see descending Woe upon woe; from days of old some god Laid on the race a malison, and his rod Scourges each age with sorrows never ending.

They were indignant at the random slur Cast on my parentage and did their best To comfort me, but still the venomed barb Rankled, for still the scandal spread and grew.

The mariner who keeps his mainsheet taut, And will not slacken in the gale, is like To sail with thwarts reversed, keel uppermost.

CREON Old man, ye all let fly at me your shafts Like anchors at a target; yea, ye set Your soothsayer on me.

CHORUS Pour thy libation, turning to the dawn.

Though I cannot behold you, I must weep In thinking of the evil days to come, The slights and wrongs that men will put upon you.