OEDIPUS

Within the market place sit others crowned 20 with suppliant garlands,3 at the double shrine of Pallas4 and the temple where Ismenus gives oracles by fire.5 King, you yourself have seen our city reeling like a wreck already; it can scarcely lift its prow 25 out of the depths, out of the bloody surf.

Indeed I’m willing to give all that you may need; I would be very hard should I not pity suppliants like these. priest:

This you did in virtue of no knowledge we could give you, in virtue of no teaching; it was God that aided you, men say, and you are held 45 with God’s assistance to have saved our lives.

O holy Lord Apollo, 90 grant that his news too may be bright for us and bring us safety. priest:

We have not come as suppliants to this altar 35 because we thought of you as of a God, but rather judging you the first of men in all the chances of this life and when we mortals have to do with more than man.

You have not roused me like a man from sleep; 75 know that I have given many tears to this, gone many ways wandering in thought, but as I thought I found only one remedy and that I took.

And justly you will see in me an ally, a champion of my country and the God.

Have you so much brazen-faced daring that you venture in my house although you are proved manifestly43 the murderer of that man, and though you tried, openly, highway robbery of my crown?

I solved the riddle by my wit alone.

So, let us never speak about your reign as of a time when first our feet were set secure on high, but later fell to ruin.

Within the market place sit others crowned 20 with suppliant garlands,3 at the double shrine of Pallas4 and the temple where Ismenus gives oracles by fire.5 King, you yourself have seen our city reeling like a wreck already; it can scarcely lift its prow 25 out of the depths, out of the bloody surf.

Noblest of men, go, and raise up our city, go,—and give heed.

As much as you desire; it will be said in vain. teiresias: 410 I say that with those you love best you live in foulest shame unconsciously and do not see where you are in calamity.35 oedipus:

Well, let him go then—if I must die ten times for it, or be sent out dishonored into exile.

You have come full of longing, but I have known the story before you told it only too well.

May destiny ever find me 960 pious in word and deed prescribed by the laws that live on high: laws begotten in the clear air of heaven, whose only father is Olympus; no mortal nature brought them to birth, 965 no forgetfulness shall lull them to sleep; for God is great in them and grows not old.

As I count the days, it vexes me what ails him; he is gone far longer than he needed for the journey.

I never heard in the present 555 nor past of a quarrel between the sons of Labdacus and Polybus, that I might bring as proof in attacking the popular fame of Oedipus, seeking 560 to take vengeance for undiscovered death in the line of Labdacus.

By banishing a man, or expiation11 of blood by blood, since it is murder guilt 115 which holds our city in this destroying storm. oedipus:

May Phoebus who gave us the oracle come to our rescue and stay the plague.

215 Whatsoever escapes the night at last the light of day revisits; so smite the War God, Father Zeus, beneath your thunderbolt, for you are the Lord of the lightning, the lightning that 220 carries fire.

Take yourself off, I tell you. creon: 755 I’ll go, you have not known me, but they have, and they have known my innocence.

60 Once you have brought us luck with happy omen; be no less now in fortune.

He has been your friend before all men’s eyes; do not cast him away dishonored on an obscure conjecture. oedipus:

As much as you desire; it will be said in vain. teiresias: 410 I say that with those you love best you live in foulest shame unconsciously and do not see where you are in calamity.35 oedipus:

165 Come, children, take your suppliant boughs and go; up from the altars now.

Within the market place sit others crowned 20 with suppliant garlands,3 at the double shrine of Pallas4 and the temple where Ismenus gives oracles by fire.5 King, you yourself have seen our city reeling like a wreck already; it can scarcely lift its prow 25 out of the depths, out of the bloody surf.

865 I was held greatest of the citizens in Corinth till a curious chance befell me as I shall tell you—curious, indeed, but hardly worth the store I set upon it.

Now Oedipus, Greatest in all men’s eyes, here falling at your feet we all entreat you, find us some strength for rescue.

In time you will know all with certainty; 690 time is the only test of honest men, one day is space enough to know a rogue. chorus:

In the savage forests he lurks and in the caverns like the mountain bull.

The town is heavy with a mingled burden of sounds and smells, of groans and hymns and incense; 5 I did not think it fit that I should hear of this from messengers but came myself,—

So he will not be condemned by my mind.

The riddling Sphinx induced us to neglect mysterious crimes and rather seek solution of troubles at our feet. oedipus:

485 So, muddy with contempt my words and Creon’s!

You’re quick to speak, but I am slow to grasp you, for I have found you dangerous,—and my foe. creon: 615 First of all hear what I shall say to that. oedipus:

The town is heavy with a mingled burden of sounds and smells, of groans and hymns and incense; 5 I did not think it fit that I should hear of this from messengers but came myself,—

But do not charge me on obscure opinion without some proof to back it.

You have not roused me like a man from sleep; 75 know that I have given many tears to this, gone many ways wandering in thought, but as I thought I found only one remedy and that I took.

Within the market place sit others crowned 20 with suppliant garlands,3 at the double shrine of Pallas4 and the temple where Ismenus gives oracles by fire.5 King, you yourself have seen our city reeling like a wreck already; it can scarcely lift its prow 25 out of the depths, out of the bloody surf.

The town is heavy with a mingled burden of sounds and smells, of groans and hymns and incense; 5 I did not think it fit that I should hear of this from messengers but came myself,—

Speak to me, immortal voice, child of golden Hope.

O ruler of my country, Oedipus, you see our company around the altar; 15 you see our ages; some of us, like these, who cannot yet fly far, and some of us heavy with age; these children are the chosen among the young, and I the priest of Zeus.

We will know soon, he’s within hail.

985 When such things are done, what man shall contrive to shield his soul from the shafts of the God?

Strophe 190 Our sorrows defy number; all the ship’s timbers are rotten; taking of thought is no spear for the driving away of the plague.

Did you imagine I should not observe the crafty scheme that stole upon me or seeing it, take no means to counter it?

Have you so much brazen-faced daring that you venture in my house although you are proved manifestly43 the murderer of that man, and though you tried, openly, highway robbery of my crown?

A blight is on the cattle in the fields, a blight is on our women that no children are born to them; a God that carries fire, 30 a deadly pestilence is on our town, strikes us and spares not, and the house of Cadmus is emptied of its people while black Death grows rich in groaning and in lamentation.6

I am in a flutter of foreboding;

Tell us, you villain, tell us, and do not stand there quietly unmoved and balking31 at the issue. teiresias: 370 You blame my temper but you do not see your own that lives within you; it is me you chide.32 oedipus:

Within the market place sit others crowned 20 with suppliant garlands,3 at the double shrine of Pallas4 and the temple where Ismenus gives oracles by fire.5 King, you yourself have seen our city reeling like a wreck already; it can scarcely lift its prow 25 out of the depths, out of the bloody surf.

When the old man saw this he watched his moment, and as I passed he struck me from his carriage, full on the head with his two pointed goad.56 905 But he was paid in full and presently my stick had struck him backwards from the car and he rolled out of it.

430 Great store of jealousy fill your treasury chests, if my friend Creon, friend from the first and loyal, thus secretly attacks me, secretly desires to drive me out and secretly suborns37 this juggling, trick devising quack, 435 this wily beggar who has only eyes for his own gains, but blindness in his skill.

As I count the days, it vexes me what ails him; he is gone far longer than he needed for the journey.

In the savage forests he lurks and in the caverns like the mountain bull.

There are no growing children in this famous land; there are no women bearing the pangs of childbirth.

I tell you, king, this man, this murderer (whom you have long declared you are in search of, 510 indicting him in threatening proclamation as murderer of Laius)—he is here.

Lycean King,22 I beg to be at our side for help; and the gleaming torches of Artemis with which she scours the Lycean hills, and I call on the God with the turban of gold,23 who gave his 225 name to this country of ours, the Bacchic God with the wind flushed face,24

I had to fly and in my banishment not even see 920 my kindred nor set foot in my own country, or otherwise my fate was to be yoked in marriage with my mother and kill my father,

The town is heavy with a mingled burden of sounds and smells, of groans and hymns and incense; 5 I did not think it fit that I should hear of this from messengers but came myself,—

It’s not just 685 lightly to count your knaves as honest men, nor honest men as knaves.

A blight is on the fruitful plants of the earth,

Children, young sons and daughters of old Cadmus,1 why do you sit here with your suppliant crowns?2

May destiny ever find me 960 pious in word and deed prescribed by the laws that live on high: laws begotten in the clear air of heaven, whose only father is Olympus; no mortal nature brought them to birth, 965 no forgetfulness shall lull them to sleep; for God is great in them and grows not old.

A blight is on the fruitful plants of the earth,

How shamelessly you started up this taunt!

So long as you are here, you’ll be a stumbling block and a vexation; 505 once gone, you will not trouble me again. teiresias:

In the unnumbered deaths of its people the city dies; those children that are born lie dead on the naked earth 200 unpitied, spreading contagion of death; and gray-haired mothers and wives everywhere stand at the altar’s edge, suppliant, moaning; the hymn to the healing God17 rings out but with it the wailing voices are blended.

But did he say that it was in compliance with schemes of mine that the seer told him lies? chorus: 590 Yes, he said that, but why, I do not know. creon:

Polybus who begot me and had reared me.

Insolence57 breeds the tyrant, insolence if it is glutted with a surfeit,58 unseasonable, unprofitable, climbs to the roof-top and plunges 970 sheer down to the ruin that must be, and there its feet are no service.

For, tell me, where have you seen clear, Teiresias, with your prophetic eyes?

Strophe 975 If a man walks with haughtiness of hand or word and gives no heed to Justice and the shrines of Gods despises—may an evil doom 980 smite him for his ill-starred pride of heart!— if he reaps gains without justice and will not hold from impiety and his fingers itch for untouchable things.

King Phoebus10 in plain words commanded us to drive out a pollution from our land, pollution grown ingrained within the land; 110 drive it out, said the God, not cherish it, till it’s past cure. oedipus:

335 Do not begrudge us oracles from birds, or any other way of prophecy within your skill; save yourself and the city, save me; redeem the debt of our pollution that lies on us because of this dead man.

Why have you raised this foolish squabbling brawl?

Within the market place sit others crowned 20 with suppliant garlands,3 at the double shrine of Pallas4 and the temple where Ismenus gives oracles by fire.5 King, you yourself have seen our city reeling like a wreck already; it can scarcely lift its prow 25 out of the depths, out of the bloody surf.

May destiny ever find me 960 pious in word and deed prescribed by the laws that live on high: laws begotten in the clear air of heaven, whose only father is Olympus; no mortal nature brought them to birth, 965 no forgetfulness shall lull them to sleep; for God is great in them and grows not old.

A blight is on the cattle in the fields, a blight is on our women that no children are born to them; a God that carries fire, 30 a deadly pestilence is on our town, strikes us and spares not, and the house of Cadmus is emptied of its people while black Death grows rich in groaning and in lamentation.6

On you I lay my charge to fulfill all this for me, for the God, and for this land of ours destroyed and blighted, by the God forsaken.

Insolence57 breeds the tyrant, insolence if it is glutted with a surfeit,58 unseasonable, unprofitable, climbs to the roof-top and plunges 970 sheer down to the ruin that must be, and there its feet are no service.

Strophe 975 If a man walks with haughtiness of hand or word and gives no heed to Justice and the shrines of Gods despises—may an evil doom 980 smite him for his ill-starred pride of heart!— if he reaps gains without justice and will not hold from impiety and his fingers itch for untouchable things.

I know of him by hearsay.

Even in this my actions have not been sluggard.30

For now this land of ours 55 calls you its savior since you saved it once.