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.
So when
in time a son was born the infant's feet were riveted together
and he was left to die on Mount Cithaeron. But a shepherd found the
babe and tended him, and delivered him to another
shepherd who took
him to
his master, the King or
Corinth. Polybus being
childless
adopted the boy, who grew up believing that he was
indeed the King's
son. Afterwards doubting his parentage he
inquired of the Delphic god
and heard himself the weird declared before to
Laius. Wherefore he
fled from
what he deemed his father's
house and in his flight he
encountered
and unwillingly slew his father Laius.
Arriving at Thebes
he answered
the riddle of the Sphinx and the grateful Thebans made
their deliverer
king. So he reigned in the room of Laius,
and
espoused the
widowed queen. Children were
born to them and Thebes
prospered under his rule, but again a grievous plague
fell upon the
city. Again
the oracle was
consulted and it
bade them purge
themselves
of blood-guiltiness. Oedipus denounces
the crime of which
he is
unaware, and undertakes to track
out the criminal. Step by
step it
is brought home to him that he is the man.
The closing scene
reveals Jocasta slain by her own hand and Oedipus
blinded by his own
act and
praying for death or exile.
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DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Oedipus.
The Priest of Zeus.
Creon.
Chorus of Theban Elders.
Teiresias.
Jocasta.
Messenger.
Herd of Laius.
Second Messenger.
Scene: Thebes. Before the Palace
of Oedipus.
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OEDIPUS THE KING
Suppliants
of all ages are seated round the altar at the palace doors,
at
their head a PRIEST OF ZEUS. To them
enter OEDIPUS.
OEDIPUS
My
children, latest born to Cadmus old,
Why sit
ye here as suppliants, in your hands
Branches
of olive filleted with wool?
What
means this reek of incense everywhere,
And
everywhere laments and litanies?
Children,
it were not meet that I should learn
From
others, and am hither come, myself,
I
Oedipus, your world-renowned king.
Ho!
aged sire, whose venerable locks
Proclaim
thee spokesman of this company,
Explain
your mood and purport. Is it dread
Of ill
that moves you or a boon ye crave?
My zeal
in your behalf ye cannot doubt;
Ruthless
indeed were I and obdurate
If such
petitioners as you I spurned.
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.
Meanwhile,
the common folk, with wreathed boughs
Crowd
our two market-places, or before
Both
shrines of Pallas congregate, or where
Ismenus
gives his oracles by fire.
For, as
thou seest thyself, our ship of State,
Sore
buffeted, can no more lift her head,
Foundered
beneath a weltering surge of blood.
A
blight is on our harvest in the ear,
A
blight 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.
Therefore, O King, here at thy hearth we
sit,
I and
these children; not as deeming thee
A new
divinity, but the first of men;
First
in the common accidents of life,
And
first in visitations of the Gods.
Art
thou not he who coming to the town
of
Cadmus freed us from the tax we paid
To the
fell songstress? Nor hadst thou
received
Prompting
from us or been by others schooled;
No, by
a god inspired (so all men deem,
And
testify) didst thou renew our life.
And
now, O Oedipus, our peerless king,
All we
thy votaries beseech thee, find
Some
succor, whether by a voice from heaven
Whispered,
or haply known by human wit.
Tried
counselors, methinks, are aptest found [1]
To
furnish for the future pregnant rede.
Upraise,
O chief of men, upraise our State!
Look to
thy laurels! for thy zeal of yore
Our
country's savior thou art justly hailed:
O never
may we thus record thy reign:--
"He
raised us up only to cast us down."
Uplift
us, build our city on a rock.
Thy
happy star ascendant brought us luck,
O let
it not decline! If thou wouldst rule
This
land, as now thou reignest, better sure
To rule
a peopled than a desert realm.
Nor
battlements nor galleys aught avail,
If men
to man and guards to guard them tail.
OEDIPUS
Ah! my
poor children, known, ah, known too well,
The
quest that brings you hither and your need.
Ye
sicken all, well wot I, yet my pain,
How
great soever yours, outtops it all.
Your
sorrow touches each man severally,
Him and
none other, but I grieve at once
Both
for the general and myself and you.
Therefore
ye rouse no sluggard from day-dreams.
Many,
my children, are the tears I've wept,
And
threaded many a maze of weary thought.
Thus
pondering one clue of hope I caught,
And
tracked it up; I have sent Menoeceus' son,
Creon,
my consort's brother, to inquire
Of
Pythian Phoebus at his Delphic shrine,
How I
might save the State by act or word.
And now
I reckon up the tale of days
Since
he set forth, and marvel how he fares.
'Tis
strange, this endless tarrying, passing strange.
But
when he comes, then I were base indeed,
If I
perform not all the god declares.
PRIEST
Thy
words are well timed; even as thou speakest
That
shouting tells me Creon is at hand.
OEDIPUS
O King
Apollo! may his joyous looks
Be
presage of the joyous news he brings!
PRIEST
As I
surmise, 'tis welcome; else his head
Had
scarce been crowned with berry-laden bays.
OEDIPUS
We soon
shall know; he's now in earshot range.
[Enter
CREON]
My
royal cousin, say, Menoeceus' child,
What
message hast thou brought us from the god?
CREON
Good
news, for e'en intolerable ills,
Finding
right issue, tend to naught but good.
OEDIPUS
How
runs the oracle? thus far thy words
Give me
no ground for confidence or fear.
CREON
If thou
wouldst hear my message publicly,
I'll
tell thee straight, or with thee pass within.
OEDIPUS
Speak
before all; the burden that I bear
Is more
for these my subjects than myself.
CREON
Let me
report then all the god declared.
King
Phoebus bids us straitly extirpate
A fell
pollution that infests the land,
And no
more harbor an inveterate sore.
OEDIPUS
What
expiation means he? What's amiss?
CREON
Banishment,
or the shedding blood for blood.
This
stain of blood makes shipwreck of our state.
OEDIPUS
Whom
can he mean, the miscreant thus denounced?
CREON
Before
thou didst assume the helm of State,
The
sovereign of this land was Laius.
OEDIPUS
I heard
as much, but never saw the man.
CREON
He
fell; and now the god's command is plain:
Punish
his takers-off, whoe'er they be.
OEDIPUS
Where
are they? Where in the wide world to
find
The
far, faint traces of a bygone crime?
CREON
In this
land, said the god; "who seeks shall find;
Who
sits with folded hands or sleeps is blind."
OEDIPUS
Was he
within his palace, or afield,
Or
traveling, when Laius met his fate?
CREON
Abroad;
he started, so he told us, bound
For
Delphi, but he never thence returned.
OEDIPUS
Came
there no news, no fellow-traveler
To give
some clue that might be followed up?
CREON
But one
escape, who flying for dear life,
Could
tell of all he saw but one thing sure.
OEDIPUS
And
what was that? One clue might lead us
far,
With
but a spark of hope to guide our quest.
CREON
Robbers,
he told us, not one bandit but
A troop
of knaves, attacked and murdered him.
OEDIPUS
Did any
bandit dare so bold a stroke,
Unless
indeed he were suborned from Thebes?
CREON
So
'twas surmised, but none was found to avenge
His
murder mid the trouble that ensued.
OEDIPUS
What
trouble can have hindered a full quest,
When
royalty had fallen thus miserably?
CREON
The
riddling Sphinx compelled us to let slide
The dim
past and attend to instant needs.
OEDIPUS
Well,
_I_ will start afresh and once again
Make
dark things clear. Right worthy the
concern
Of
Phoebus, worthy thine too, for the dead;
I also,
as is meet, will lend my aid
To
avenge this wrong to Thebes and to the god.
Not for
some far-off kinsman, but myself,
Shall I
expel this poison in the blood;
For
whoso slew that king might have a mind
To
strike me too with his assassin hand.
Therefore
in righting him I serve myself.
Up,
children, haste ye, quit these altar stairs,
Take
hence your suppliant wands, go summon hither
The
Theban commons. With the god's good
help
Success
is sure; 'tis ruin if we fail.
[Exeunt
OEDIPUS and CREON]
PRIEST
Come,
children, let us hence; these gracious words
Forestall
the very purpose of our suit.
And may
the god who sent this oracle
Save us
withal and rid us of this pest.
[Exeunt
PRIEST and SUPPLIANTS]
CHORUS
(Str.
1)
Sweet-voiced
daughter of Zeus from thy gold-paved Pythian shrine
Wafted to Thebes divine,
What
dost thou bring me? My soul is racked
and shivers with fear.
(Healer of Delos, hear!)
Hast
thou some pain unknown before,
Or with
the circling years renewest a penance of yore?
Offspring
of golden Hope, thou voice immortal, O tell me.
(Ant.
1)
First
on Athene I call; O Zeus-born goddess, defend!
Goddess and sister, befriend,
Artemis,
Lady of Thebes, high-throned in the midst of our mart!
Lord of the death-winged dart!
Your threefold aid I crave
From death and ruin our city to save.
If in
the days of old when we nigh had perished, ye drave
From
our land the fiery plague, be near us now and defend us!
(Str.
2)
Ah me, what countless woes are mine!
All our host is in decline;
Weaponless my spirit lies.
Earth her gracious fruits denies;
Women wail in barren throes;
Life on life downstriken goes,
Swifter than the wind bird's flight,
Swifter than the Fire-God's might,
To the westering shores of Night.
(Ant.
2)
Wasted thus by death on death
All our city perisheth.
Corpses spread infection round;
None to tend or mourn is found.
Wailing on the altar stair
Wives and grandams rend the air--
Long-drawn moans and piercing cries
Blent with prayers and litanies.
Golden child of Zeus, O hear
Let thine angel face appear!
(Str.
3)
And
grant that Ares whose hot breath I feel,
Though without targe or steel
He
stalks, whose voice is as the battle shout,
May
turn in sudden rout,
To the
unharbored Thracian waters sped,
Or Amphitrite's bed.
For what night leaves undone,
Smit by the morrow's sun
Perisheth. Father Zeus, whose hand
Doth
wield the lightning brand,
Slay
him beneath thy levin bold, we pray,
Slay him, O slay!
(Ant.
3)
O that
thine arrows too, Lycean King,
From that taut bow's gold string,
Might
fly abroad, the champions of our rights;
Yea, and the flashing lights
Of
Artemis, wherewith the huntress sweeps
Across the Lycian steeps.
Thee
too I call with golden-snooded hair,
Whose name our land doth bear,
Bacchus
to whom thy Maenads Evoe shout;
Come with thy bright torch, rout,
Blithe god whom we adore,
The god whom gods abhor.
[Enter
OEDIPUS.]
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.
Mind
you, I speak as one who comes a stranger
To this
report, no less than to the crime;
For how
unaided could I track it far
Without
a clue? Which lacking (for too late
Was I
enrolled a citizen of Thebes)
This
proclamation I address to all:--
Thebans,
if any knows the man by whom
Laius,
son of Labdacus, was slain,
I summon
him to make clean shrift to me.
And if
he shrinks, let him reflect that thus
Confessing
he shall 'scape the capital charge;
For the
worst penalty that shall befall him
Is
banishment--unscathed he shall depart.
But if
an alien from a foreign land
Be
known to any as the murderer,
Let him
who knows speak out, and he shall have
Due
recompense from me and thanks to boot.
But if
ye still keep silence, if through fear
For
self or friends ye disregard my hest,
Hear
what I then resolve; I lay my ban
On the
assassin whosoe'er he be.
Let no
man in this land, whereof I hold
The
sovereign rule, harbor or speak to him;
Give
him no part in prayer or sacrifice
Or
lustral rites, but hound him from your homes.
For
this is our defilement, so the god
Hath lately
shown to me by oracles.
Thus as
their champion I maintain the cause
Both of
the god and of the murdered King.
And on
the murderer this curse I lay
(On him
and all the partners in his guilt):--
Wretch,
may he pine in utter wretchedness!
And for
myself, if with my privity
He gain
admittance to my hearth, I pray
The
curse I laid on others fall on me.
See
that ye give effect to all my hest,
For my
sake and the god's and for our land,
A
desert blasted by the wrath of heaven.
For,
let alone the god's express command,
It were
a scandal ye should leave unpurged
The
murder of a great man and your king,
Nor
track it home. And now that I am lord,
Successor
to his throne, his bed, his wife,
(And
had he not been frustrate in the hope
Of
issue, common children of one womb
Had
forced a closer bond twixt him and me,
But
Fate swooped down 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.
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
The
oath thou profferest, sire, I take and swear.
I slew
him not myself, nor can I name
The
slayer. For the quest, 'twere well,
methinks
That
Phoebus, who proposed the riddle, himself
Should
give the answer--who the murderer was.
OEDIPUS
Well
argued; but no living man can hope
To
force the gods to speak against their will.
CHORUS
May I
then say what seems next best to me?
OEDIPUS
Aye, if
there be a third best, tell it too.
CHORUS
My
liege, if any man sees eye to eye
With
our lord Phoebus, 'tis our prophet, lord
Teiresias;
he of all men best might guide
A
searcher of this matter to the light.
OEDIPUS
Here
too my zeal has nothing lagged, for twice
At
Creon's instance have I sent to fetch him,
And
long I marvel why he is not here.
CHORUS
I mind
me too of rumors long ago--
Mere
gossip.
OEDIPUS
Tell them, I would fain know
all.
CHORUS
'Twas
said he fell by travelers.
OEDIPUS
So I heard,
But
none has seen the man who saw him fall.
CHORUS
Well,
if he knows what fear is, he will quail
And
flee before the terror of thy curse.
OEDIPUS
Words
scare not him who blenches not at deeds.
CHORUS
But
here is one to arraign him. Lo, at
length
They
bring the god-inspired seer in whom
Above
all other men is truth inborn.
[Enter
TEIRESIAS, led by a boy.]
OEDIPUS
Teiresias,
seer who comprehendest all,
Lore of
the wise and hidden mysteries,
High
things of heaven and low things of the earth,
Thou
knowest, though thy blinded eyes see naught,
What
plague infects our city; and we turn
To
thee, O seer, our one defense and shield.
The
purport of the answer that the God
Returned
to us who sought his oracle,
The
messengers have doubtless told thee--how
One
course alone could rid us of the pest,
To find
the murderers of Laius,
And
slay them or expel them from the land.
Therefore
begrudging neither augury
Nor
other divination that is thine,
O save
thyself, thy country, and thy king,
Save
all from this defilement of blood shed.
On thee
we rest. This is man's highest end,
To
others' service all his powers to lend.
TEIRESIAS
Alas,
alas, what misery to be wise
When
wisdom profits nothing! This old lore
I had
forgotten; else I were not here.
OEDIPUS
What
ails thee? Why this melancholy mood?
TEIRESIAS
Let me
go home; prevent me not; 'twere best
That
thou shouldst bear thy burden and I mine.
OEDIPUS
For
shame! no true-born Theban patriot
Would
thus withhold the word of prophecy.
TEIRESIAS
_Thy_
words, O king, are wide of the mark, and I
For
fear lest I too trip like thee...
OEDIPUS
Oh
speak,
Withhold
not, I adjure thee, if thou know'st,
Thy
knowledge. We are all thy suppliants.
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!
Wouldst
thou betray us and destroy the State?
TEIRESIAS
I will
not vex myself nor thee. Why ask
Thus
idly what from me thou shalt not learn?
OEDIPUS
Monster!
thy silence would incense a flint.
Will
nothing loose thy tongue? Can nothing
melt thee,
Or
shake thy dogged taciturnity?
TEIRESIAS
Thou
blam'st my mood and seest not thine own
Wherewith
thou art mated; no, thou taxest me.
OEDIPUS
And who
could stay his choler when he heard
How
insolently thou dost flout the State?
TEIRESIAS
Well,
it will come what will, though I be mute.
OEDIPUS
Since
come it must, thy duty is to tell me.
TEIRESIAS
I have
no more to say; storm as thou willst,
And
give the rein to all thy pent-up rage.
OEDIPUS
Yea, I
am wroth, and will not stint my words,
But
speak my whole mind. Thou methinks thou
art he,
Who
planned the crime, aye, and performed it too,
All
save the assassination; and if thou
Hadst
not been blind, I had been sworn to boot
That
thou alone didst do the bloody deed.
TEIRESIAS
Is it
so? Then I charge thee to abide
By
thine own proclamation; from this day
Speak
not to these or me. Thou art the man,
Thou
the accursed polluter of this land.
OEDIPUS
Vile
slanderer, thou blurtest forth these taunts,
And
think'st forsooth as seer to go scot free.
TEIRESIAS
Yea, I
am free, strong in the strength of truth.
OEDIPUS
Who was
thy teacher? not methinks thy art.
TEIRESIAS
Thou,
goading me against my will to speak.
OEDIPUS
What
speech? repeat it and resolve my doubt.
TEIRESIAS
Didst
miss my sense wouldst thou goad me on?
OEDIPUS
I but
half caught thy meaning; say it again.
TEIRESIAS
I say
thou art the murderer of the man
Whose
murderer thou pursuest.
OEDIPUS
Thou shalt rue
it
Twice
to repeat so gross a calumny.
TEIRESIAS
Must I
say more to aggravate thy rage?
OEDIPUS
Say all
thou wilt; it will be but waste of breath.
TEIRESIAS
I say
thou livest with thy nearest kin
In
infamy, unwitting in thy shame.
OEDIPUS
Think'st
thou for aye unscathed to wag thy tongue?
TEIRESIAS
Yea, if
the might of truth can aught prevail.
OEDIPUS
With
other men, but not with thee, for thou
In ear,
wit, eye, in everything art blind.
TEIRESIAS
Poor
fool to utter gibes at me which all
Here
present will cast back on thee ere long.
OEDIPUS
Offspring
of endless Night, thou hast no power
O'er me
or any man who sees the sun.
TEIRESIAS
No, for
thy weird is not to fall by me.
I leave
to Apollo what concerns the god.
OEDIPUS
Is this
a plot of Creon, or thine own?
TEIRESIAS
Not
Creon, thou thyself art thine own bane.
OEDIPUS
O
wealth and empiry and skill by skill
Outwitted
in the battlefield of life,
What
spite and envy follow in your train!
See,
for this crown the State conferred on me.
A gift,
a thing I sought not, for this crown
The
trusty Creon, my familiar friend,
Hath
lain in wait to oust me and suborned
This
mountebank, this juggling charlatan,
This
tricksy beggar-priest, for gain alone
Keen-eyed,
but in his proper art stone-blind.
Say,
sirrah, hast thou ever proved thyself
A
prophet? When the riddling Sphinx was
here
Why
hadst thou no deliverance for this folk?
And yet
the riddle was not to be solved
By
guess-work but required the prophet's art;
Wherein
thou wast found lacking; neither birds
Nor
sign from heaven helped thee, but _I_ came,
The
simple Oedipus; _I_ stopped her mouth
By
mother wit, untaught of auguries.
This is
the man whom thou wouldst undermine,
In hope
to reign with Creon in my stead.
Methinks
that thou and thine abettor soon
Will
rue your plot to drive the scapegoat out.
Thank
thy grey hairs that thou hast still to learn
What
chastisement such arrogance deserves.
CHORUS
To us
it seems that both the seer and thou,
O
Oedipus, have spoken angry words.
This is
no time to wrangle but consult
How
best we may fulfill the oracle.
TEIRESIAS
King as
thou art, free speech at least is mine
To make
reply; in this I am thy peer.
I own
no lord but Loxias; him I serve
And
ne'er can stand enrolled as Creon's man.
Thus
then I answer: since thou hast not
spared
To twit
me with my blindness--thou hast eyes,
Yet
see'st not in what misery thou art fallen,
Nor
where thou dwellest nor with whom for mate.
Dost
know thy lineage? 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.
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!
Aye,
and a flood of ills thou guessest not
Shall
set thyself and children in one line.
Flout
then both Creon and my words, for none
Of
mortals shall be striken worse than thou.
OEDIPUS
Must I
endure this fellow's insolence?
A
murrain on thee! Get thee hence! Begone
Avaunt!
and never cross my threshold more.
TEIRESIAS
I ne'er
had come hadst thou not bidden me.
OEDIPUS
I know
not thou wouldst utter folly, else
Long
hadst thou waited to be summoned here.
TEIRESIAS
Such am
I--as it seems to thee a fool,
But to
the parents who begat thee, wise.
OEDIPUS
What
sayest thou--"parents"? Who
begat me, speak?
TEIRESIAS
This
day shall be thy birth-day, and thy grave.
OEDIPUS
Thou lov'st
to speak in riddles and dark words.
TEIRESIAS
In
reading riddles who so skilled as thou?
OEDIPUS
Twit me
with that wherein my greatness lies.
TEIRESIAS
And yet
this very greatness proved thy bane.
OEDIPUS
No
matter if I saved the commonwealth.
TEIRESIAS
'Tis
time I left thee. Come, boy, take me
home.
OEDIPUS
Aye,
take him quickly, for his presence irks
And
lets me; gone, thou canst not plague me more.
TEIRESIAS
I go,
but first will tell thee why I came.
Thy
frown I dread not, for thou canst not harm me.
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.
He
passes for an alien in the land
But
soon shall prove a Theban, native born.
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.
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.
Go in
and ponder this, and if thou find
That I
have missed the mark, henceforth declare
I have
no wit nor skill in prophecy.
[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?
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.
Like sleuth-hounds too
The Fates pursue.
(Ant.
1)
Yea,
but now flashed forth the summons from Parnassus' snowy peak,
"Near
and far the undiscovered doer of this murder seek!"
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.
(Str.
2)
Sore
perplexed am I by the words of the master seer.
Are they true, are they false? I know not and bridle my tongue
for
fear,
Fluttered
with vague surmise; nor present nor future is clear.
Quarrel
of ancient date or in days still near know I none
Twixt
the Labdacidan house and our ruler, Polybus' son.
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?
(Ant.
2)
All
wise are Zeus and Apollo, and nothing is hid from their ken;
They
are gods; and in wits a man may surpass his fellow men;
But
that a mortal seer knows more than I know--where
Hath
this been proven? 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?
How can
I now assent when a crime is on Oedipus laid?
CREON
Friends,
countrymen, I learn King Oedipus
Hath
laid against me a most grievous charge,
And
come to you protesting. 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.
CHORUS
This
taunt, it well may be, was blurted out
In
petulance, not spoken advisedly.
CREON
Did any
dare pretend that it was I
Prompted
the seer to utter a forged charge?
CHORUS
Such
things were said; with what intent I know not.
CREON
Were
not his wits and vision all astray
When
upon me he fixed this monstrous charge?
CHORUS
I know
not; to my sovereign's acts I am blind.
But lo,
he comes to answer for himself.
[Enter
OEDIPUS.]
OEDIPUS
Sirrah,
what mak'st thou here? Dost thou
presume
To
approach my doors, thou brazen-faced rogue,
My
murderer and the filcher of my crown?
Come,
answer this, didst thou detect in me
Some
touch of cowardice or witlessness,
That
made thee undertake this enterprise?
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.
This
_thou_ art witless seeking to possess
Without
a following or friends the crown,
A prize
that followers and wealth must win.
CREON
Attend
me. Thou hast spoken, 'tis my turn
To make
reply. Then having heard me, judge.
OEDIPUS
Thou
art glib of tongue, but I am slow to learn
Of
thee; I know too well thy venomous hate.
CREON
First I
would argue out this very point.
OEDIPUS
O argue
not that thou art not a rogue.
CREON
If thou
dost count a virtue stubbornness,
Unschooled
by reason, thou art much astray.
OEDIPUS
If thou
dost hold a kinsman may be wronged,
And no
pains follow, thou art much to seek.
CREON
Therein
thou judgest rightly, but this wrong
That
thou allegest--tell me what it is.
OEDIPUS
Didst
thou or didst thou not advise that I
Should
call the priest?
CREON
Yes, and I stand to
it.
OEDIPUS
Tell me
how long is it since Laius...
CREON
Since
Laius...? I follow not thy drift.
OEDIPUS
By
violent hands was spirited away.
CREON
In the
dim past, a many years agone.
OEDIPUS
Did the
same prophet then pursue his craft?
CREON
Yes,
skilled as now and in no less repute.
OEDIPUS
Did he
at that time ever glance at me?
CREON
Not to
my knowledge, not when I was by.
OEDIPUS
But was
no search and inquisition made?
CREON
Surely
full quest was made, but nothing learnt.