Module 2: "Oedipus the King" by Sophocles

I would be a hard-hearted man indeed,
if I did not pity suppliants like these.

Oedipus, ruler of my native land,
you see how people here of every age
are crouching down around your altars,
some fledglings barely strong enough to fly
and others bent by age, with priests as well—
for I’m priest of Zeus—and these ones here,
the pick of all our youth.

Disease infects fruit blossoms in our land,
disease infects our herds of grazing cattle,
makes women in labour lose their children,
and deadly pestilence, that fiery god,
swoops down to blast the city, emptying
the House of Cadmus, and fills black Hades
with groans and howls.

Lord Apollo,
as he returns may fine shining fortune,
bright as his countenance, attend on him.

What is the oracle? So far your words
inspire in me no confidence or fear?

Their solemn chants ring out—
they mingle with the voices of lament.

And so we find in you alone, great seer,
our shield and saviour.

I did not want to speak, but you incited me.

Creon, my old trusted family friend,
has secretly conspired to overthrow me
and paid off a double-dealing quack like this,
a crafty bogus priest, who can only see
his own advantage, who in his special art
is absolutely blind.

Without your knowledge you have turned into
the enemy of your own relatives,
those in the world below and those up here,
and the dreadful scourge of that two-edged curse
of father and mother will one day drive you
from this land in exile.

You have no notion of the quantity
of other troubles which will render you
and your own children equals.

Must I tolerate this insolence from him?

Speaking from the Delphic rock
the oracular voice intoned a name.

Against him Zeus’ son now springs,
armed with lightning fire and leading on
the inexorable and terrifying Furies.

But until I see the words confirmed,
I will not approve of any man
who censures Oedipus, for it was clear
when that winged Sphinx went after him
he was a wise man then.

He passed the test and endeared himself
to all the city.

In these present troubles, if he believes
that he has suffered injury from me,
in word or deed, then I have no desire
to keep on living into ripe old age
still bearing his reproach.

This attempt of yours, is it not madness—
to chase after the king’s place without friends,
without a horde of men, to seek a goal
which only gold or factions could attain?

For a man concerned about being killed,
my lord, he has spoken eloquently.

You are stubborn—
obviously unhappy to concede,
and when you lose your temper, you go too far.

By all the gods, my king, please let me know
why in this present matter you now feel
such unremitting rage.

No. He set up that treasonous prophet.

Five men, including a herald, went with him.

My forebodings now have grown so great
I will not keep them from you, for who is there
I should confide in rather than in you
about such a twisted turn of fortune.

But when he spoke he uttered monstrous things,
strange terrors and horrific miseries—
my fate was to defile my mother’s bed,
to bring forth to men a human family
that people could not bear to look upon,
and slay the father who engendered me.

But when he spoke he uttered monstrous things,
strange terrors and horrific miseries—
my fate was to defile my mother’s bed,
to bring forth to men a human family
that people could not bear to look upon,
and slay the father who engendered me.

Am I not depraved?

Am I not utterly abhorrent?

If anyone
claimed this came from some malevolent god,
would he not be right?

My lord, to us these things are ominous.

I pray fate still finds me worthy,
demonstrating piety and reverence
in all I say and do—in everything
our loftiest traditions consecrate,
those laws engendered in the heavenly skies,
whose only father is Olympus.

I pray fate still finds me worthy,
demonstrating piety and reverence
in all I say and do—in everything
our loftiest traditions consecrate,
those laws engendered in the heavenly skies,
whose only father is Olympus.

I pray fate still finds me worthy,
demonstrating piety and reverence
in all I say and do—in everything
our loftiest traditions consecrate,
those laws engendered in the heavenly skies,
whose only father is Olympus.

But if a man conducts himself
disdainfully in what he says and does,
and manifests no fear of righteousness,
no reverence for the statues of the gods,
may miserable fate seize such a man
for his disastrous arrogance,
if he does not behave with justice
when he strives to benefit himself,
appropriates all things impiously,
and, like a fool, profanes the sacred.

But if a man conducts himself
disdainfully in what he says and does,
and manifests no fear of righteousness,
no reverence for the statues of the gods,
may miserable fate seize such a man
for his disastrous arrogance,
if he does not behave with justice
when he strives to benefit himself,
appropriates all things impiously,
and, like a fool, profanes the sacred.

But if a man conducts himself
disdainfully in what he says and does,
and manifests no fear of righteousness,
no reverence for the statues of the gods,
may miserable fate seize such a man
for his disastrous arrogance,
if he does not behave with justice
when he strives to benefit himself,
appropriates all things impiously,
and, like a fool, profanes the sacred.

It’s best to live haphazardly, as best one can.

Or was it the Bacchanalian god
dwelling on the mountain tops
who took you as a new-born joy
from maiden nymphs of Helicon
with whom he often romps and plays?

That’s what he says,
but he knows nothing—a useless busybody.

I am the most abhorred of men, I,
the finest man of all those bred in Thebes,
I have condemned myself, telling everyone
they had to banish for impiety
the man the gods have now exposed
as sacrilegious—a son of Laius, too.

I am the most abhorred of men, I,
the finest man of all those bred in Thebes,
I have condemned myself, telling everyone
they had to banish for impiety
the man the gods have now exposed
as sacrilegious—a son of Laius, too.

Ah, you marriage rites—you gave birth to me,
and when I was born, you gave birth again,
children from the child of that same womb,
creating an incestuous blood family
of fathers, brothers, children, brides,
wives and mothers—the most atrocious act
that human beings commit!

What perversion is not manifest in us?

Do not let them live as vagrant paupers,
wandering around unmarried.

Do not let them live as vagrant paupers,
wandering around unmarried.