LZ]

Oedipus Rex

: SOPHOCLES
TRANSLATED BY DUDLEY FITTS AND ROBERT FITZGERALD

CHARACTERS

OEDIPUS, King of Thebes, supposed son of Polybos

and Merope, King and Queen of Corinth
IOKASTE!, wife of Oedipus and widow of the late
King Laios
KREON, brother of Iokaste, a prince of Thebes
TEIRESIAS, a blind seer who serves Apollo
PRIEST MESSENGER, from Corinth
SHEPHERD, former servant of Laios
SECOND MESSENGER, from the palace
CHORUS OF THEBAN
ELDERS CHORAGOS, leader of the Chorus
ANTIGONE and ISMENE, young daughters of Oedipus and Iokaste. They
appear in the Exodos but do not speak.
SUPPLIANTS, GUARDS,
SERVANTS

THE SCENE

Before the palace of Oedipus, King of Thebes. A central door and two lateral doors
open onto a platform which runs the length of the facade. On the platform, right
and left, are altars; and three steps lead down into the orchestra, or chorus-
ground. At the beginning of the action these steps are crowded by suppliants who
have brought branches and chaplets of olive leaves and who sit in various
attitudes of despair. Oedipus enters.

okaste has been translated as Jocasta in other versions of the play.

Translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. Copyright © 1949 by Harcourt,

Inc. and
renewed 1977 by Cornelia Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. Reprinted by permission of
Harcourt, Inc.
SOPHOCLES &l Oedipus Rex

SOPHOCLES 91 Oedipus Rex

PROLOGUE?

OEDIPUS. My children, generations of the living

And all the house of Kadmos is laid waste,

All emptied, and all darkened: Death alone
Battens upon the misery of Thebes.

In the line of Kadmos,? nursed at his ancient hearth: You are not one of the
immortal gods, we know; 35
Why have you strewn yourselves before these altars Yet we have come to you to make
our prayer
In supplication, with your boughs and garlands? As to the man surest in mortal ways
The breath of incense rises from the city 5 And wisest in the ways of God. You
saved us
With a sound of prayer and lamentation. From the Sphinx,® that flinty singer, and
the tribute
Children, We paid to her so long; yet you were never 40
I'would not have you speak through messengers, Better informed than we, nor could
we teach you:
And therefore I have come myself to hear you— A god’s touch, it seems, enabled you
to help us.
I, Oedipus, who bear the famous name.
(To a Priest.) You, there, since you are eldest in the company, 10 Therefore, O
mighty power, we turn to you:
Speak for them all, tell me what preys upon you, Find us our safety, find us a
remedy,
Whether you come in dread, or crave some blessing: Whether by counsel of the gods
or of men. 45
Tell me, and never doubt that I will help you A king of wisdom tested in the past
In every way I can; I should be heartless Can act in a time of troubles, and act
well.
Were I not moved to find you suppliant here. 15 Noblest of men, restore
PRIEST. Great Oedipus, O powerful king of Thebes! Life to your city! Think how all
men call you
You see how all the ages of our people Liberator for your boldness long ago; 50
Cling to your altar steps: here are boys Ah, when your years of kingship are
remembered,
Who can barely stand alone, and here are priests Let them not say We rose, but
later fell—
By weight of age, as I am a priest of God, 20 Keep the State from going down in the
storm!
And young men chosen from those yet unmarried; Once, years ago, with happy augury,
As for the others, all that multitude, You brought us fortune; be the same again!
55
They wait with olive chaplets in the squares, No man questions your power to rule
the land:
At the two shrines of Pallas,* and where Apollo® But rule over men, not over a dead
city!
Speaks in the glowing embers. Ships are only hulls, high walls are nothing,
Your own eyes 25 When no life moves in the empty passageways.
Must tell you: Thebes is tossed on a murdering sea OEDIPUS. Poor children! You may
be sure I know 60
And can not lift her head from the death surge. All that you longed for in your
coming here.
A rust consumes the buds and fruits of the earth; I know that you are deathly sick;
and yet,
The herds are sick; children die unborn, Sick as you are, not one is as sick as I.
And labor is vain. The god of plague and pyre 30 Each of you suffers in himself
alone
Raids like detestable lightning through the city, His anguish, not another’s; but
my spirit 65

Part of play that explains background and current action.

Groans for the city, for myself, for you.

Mythological winged creature with lion's body and human head that tormented Thebes
by demand-

“Founder of Thebes. ing the answer to this riddle: What has one voice and yet
becomes four-footed and two-footed and

’ three-footed? When the riddle was answered incorrectly, she ate the respondent.
Oedipus gives the
correct answer: A man crawls on all fours in infancy, walks on two feet when grown,
and leans on a

5God of the sun. staff in old age. After Oedipus answers correctly, the Sphinx
kills herself.

“Pallas Athene, goddess of wisdom

SOPHOCLES Gl Oedipus Rex

I was not sleeping, you are not waking me.

No, I have been in tears for a long while
And in my restless thought walked many ways.
In all my search I found one remedy,
And I have adopted it: I have sent Kreon,
Son of Menoikeus, brother of the queen,
To Delphi,” Apollo’s place of revelation,
To learn there, if he can,
What act or pledge of mine may save the city.
1 have counted the days, and now, this very day,
I am troubled, for he has overstayed his time.
What is he doing? He has been gone too long.
Yet whenever he comes back, 1 should do ill
Not to take any action the god orders.
PRIEST. It is a timely promise. At this instant
They tell me Kreon is here.
OEDIPUS. O Lord Apollo!
May his news be fair as his face is radiant!
PRIEST. Good news, I gather! he is crowned with bay,
The chaplet is thick with berries.
OEDIPUS. We shall soon know;
He is near enough to hear us now. (Enter Kreon.) O prince:
Brother: son of Menoikeus:
What answer do you bring us from the god?
KREON. A strong one. I can tell you, great afflictions
Will turn out well, if they are taken well.
OEDIPUS. What was the oracle? These vague words
Leave me still hanging between hope and fear.
KREON. Is it your pleasure to hear me with all these
Gathered around us? I am prepared to speak,
But should we not go in?
OEDIPUS. Speak to them all,
It is for them I suffer, more than for myself.
KREON. Then I will tell you what I heard at Delphi.
In plain words
The god commands us to expel from the land of Thebes
An old defilement we are sheltering.
It is a deathly thing, beyond cure;
We must not let it feed upon us longer.

"Greek temple and oracle of Apollo.

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SOPHOCLES G] Oedipus Rex

OEDIPUS. What defilement? How shall we rid ourselves of it?

KREON. By exile or death, blood for blood. It was
Murder that brought the plague-wind on the city. 105
OEDIPUS. Murder of whom? Surely the god has named him?
KREON. My Lord: Laios once ruled this land,
Before you came to govern us.
OEDIPUS. I know;
I learned of him from others; I never saw him.
KREON. He was murdered; and Apollo commands us now 110
To take revenge upon whoever killed him.
OEDIPUS. Upon whom? Where are they? Where shall we find a clue
To solve that crime, after so many years?
KREON. Here in this land, he said. Search reveals
Things that escape an inattentive man. 115
OEDIPUS. Tell me: Was Laios murdered in his house,
Or in the fields, or in some foreign country?
KREON. He said he planned to make a pilgrimage.
He did not come home again.
OEDIPUS. And was there no one,
No witness, no companion, to tell what happened? 120
KREON. They were all killed but one, and he got away
So frightened that he could remember one thing only.
OEDIPUS. What was that one thing? One may be the key
To everything, if we resolve to use it.
KREON. He said that a band of highwaymen attacked them, 125
Outnumbered them, and overwhelmed the king.
OEDIPUS. Strange, that a highwayman should be so daring—
Unless some faction here bribed him to do it.
KREON. We thought of that. But after Laios’ death
New troubles arose and we had no avenger. 130
OEDIPUS. What troubles could prevent your hunting down the killers?
KREON. The riddling Sphinx’s song
Made us deaf to all mysteries but her own.
OEDIPUS. Then once more I must bring what is dark to light.
It is most fitting that Apollo shows, 135
As you do, this compunction for the dead.
You shall see how I stand by you, as I should,
Avenging this country and the god as well,
And not as though it were for some distant friend,
But for my own sake, to be rid of evil. 140
Whoever killed King Laios might—who knows?—
SOPHOCLES 4] Oedipus Rex

Lay violent hands even on me—and soon.

I act for the murdered king in my own interest.
Come, then, my children: leave the altar steps,
Lift up your olive boughs!
One of you go 145
And summon the people of Kadmos to gather here.
1 will do all that I can; you may tell them that.

(Exit a Page.)

So, with the help of God,

‘We shall be saved—or else indeed we are lost.
PRIEST. Let us rise, children. It was for this we came, 150
And now the king has promised it.
Phoibos® has sent us an oracle; may he descend
Himself to save us and drive out the plague.

(Exeunt® Oedipus and Kreon into the palace by the central door. The Priest and
the Suppliants disperse right and left. After a short pause the Chorus enters the
orchestra.)

PARADOS?
Strophe! 1

CHORUS. What is God singing in his profound

Delphi of gold and shadow?
What oracle for Thebes, the Sunwhipped city?
Fear unjoints me, the roots of my heart tremble.
Now I remember, O Healer, your power, and wonder: 5
Will you send doom like a sudden cloud, or weave it
Like nightfall of the past?
Speak to me, tell me, O
Child of golden Hope, immortal Voice.

8Apollo
9They go out. (Latin)
19Song or ode the Chorus chants when they enter the stage.

1'Song the Chorus sings as they dance from stage right to stage left.

SOPHOCLES 8] Oedipus Rex

Antistrophe’2 1

Let me pray to Athene, the immortal daughter of Zeus,

And to Artemis'? her sister

Who keeps her famous throne in the market ring,

And to Apollo, archer from distant heaven—

O gods, descend! Like three streams leap against

The fires of our grief, the fires of darkness;

Be swift to bring us rest!

As in the old time from the brilliant house

Of air you stepped to save us, come again!

Strophe 2

Now our afflictions have no end,

Now all our stricken host lies down

And no man fights off death with his mind;

The noble plowland bears no grain,

And groaning mothers can not bear—

See, how our lives like birds take wing,

Like sparks that fly when a fire soars,

To the shore of the god of evening.

Antistrophe 2

The plague burns on, it is pitiless,

Though pallid children laden with death
Lie unwept in the stony ways,

And old gray women by every path

Flock to the strand about the altars
There to strike their breasts and cry
Worship of Phoibos in wailing prayers:
Be kind, God’s golden child!

Strophe 3

There are no swords in this attack by fire,

No shields, but we are ringed with cries.
Send the besieger plunging from our homes

12Song the Chorus sings as they dance back from stage left to stage right.

BGoddess of wild animals and the hunt.

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SOPHOCLES Gl Oedipus Rex

SOPHOCLES Gl Oedipus Rex

Into the vast sea-room of the Atlantic

Or into the waves that foam eastward of Thrace—

However, if he does conceal it; if any man

Fearing for his friend or for himself disobeys this edict,

For the day ravages what the night spares— 40 Hear what I propose to do:
Destroy our enemy, lord of the thunder! I solemnly forbid the people of this
country, 20
Let him be riven by lightning from heaven! Where power and throne are mine, ever to
receive that man
Or speak to him, no matter who he is, or let him
Antistrophe 3 Join in sacrifice, lustration, or in prayer.
I decree that he be driven from every house,
Phoibos Apollo, stretch the sun’s bowstring, Being, as he is, corruption itself to
us: the Delphic 25
That golden cord, until it sing for us, Voice of Apollo has pronounced this
revelation.
Flashing arrows in heaven! Thus I associate myself with the oracle
Artemis, Huntress, 45 And take the side of the murdered king.
Race with flaring lights upon our mountains!
O scarlet god,'* O golden-banded brow, As for the criminal, I pray to God—
O Theban Bacchos in a storm of Maenads,!5 Whether it be a lurking thief, or one of
a number— 30
. I pray that that man’s life be consumed in evil and wretchedness.
(Enter Oedipus, center.) And as for me, this curse applies no less
Whirl upon Death, that all the Undying hate! If it should turn out that the culprit
is my guest here,
Come with blinding torches, come in joy! 50 Sharing my hearth.

You have heard the penalty.

SCENE 1 I lay it on you now to attend to this 35

OEDIPUS. Is this your prayer? It may be answered. Come, For my sake, for Apollo's,
for the sick

Listen to me, act as the crisis demands, Sterile city that heaven has abandoned.

And you shall have relief from all these evils. Suppose the oracle had given you no
command:

Should this defilement go uncleansed for ever?

Until now I was a stranger to this tale, You should have found the murderer: your
king, 40

As I had been a stranger to the crime. 5 A noble king, had been destroyed!

Could I track down the murderer without a clue? Now [,

But now, friends, Having the power that he held before me,

As one who became a citizen after the murder, Having his bed, begetting children
there
I make this proclamation to all Thebans: Upon his wife, as he would have, had he
lived—

If any man knows by whose hand Laios, son of Labdakos, 10 Their son would have been
my children’s brother, 45

Met his death, I direct that man to tell me everything, If Laios had had luck in
fatherhood!

No matter what he fears for having so long withheld it. (And now his bad fortune
has struck him down)—

Let it stand as promised that no further trouble I say I take the son’s part, just
as though

Will come to him, but he may leave the land in safety. I were his son, to press the
fight for him

Moreover: If anyone knows the murderer to be foreign, 15 And see it won! I'll find
the hand that brought 50

Let him not keep silent: he shall have his reward from me. Death to Labdakos’ and
Polydoros’ child,

Heir of Kadmos’ and Agenor’s line.!6

“Bacchus, god of wine, creative ecstasy, and dramatic poetry 1sLabdakos, Polydoros,
Kadmos, Agenor, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-

15Women who worship Bacchus. grandfather of Laios.

SOPHOCLES &] Oedipus Rex

And as for those who fail me,

May the gods deny them the fruit of the earth,

Fruit of the womb, and may they rot utterly!

Let them be wretched as we are wretched, and worse!

For you, for loyal Thebans, and for all

Who find my actions right, I pray the favor

Of justice, and of all the immortal gods.

CHORAGOS. Since I am under oath, my lord, I swear

1 did not do the murder, I can not name

The murderer. Phoibos ordained the search;

Why did he not say who the culprit was?

OEDIPUS. An honest question. But no man in the world

Can make the gods do more than the gods will.

CHORAGOS. There is an alternative, I think—

OEDIPUS. Tell me.

Any or all, you must not fail to tell me.

CHORAGOS. A lord clairvoyant to the lord Apollo,

As we all know, is the skilled Teiresias.

One might learn much about this from him, Oedipus.

OEDIPUS. Tam not wasting time:

Kreon spoke of this, and I have sent for him—

Twice, in fact; it is strange that he is not here.

CHORAGOS. The other matter—that old report—seems useless.
OEDIPUS. What was that? I am interested in all reports.
CHORAGOS. The king was said to have been killed by highwaymen.
OEDIPUS. T know. But we have no witnesses to that.
CHORAGOS. If the killer can feel a particle of dread,

Your curse will bring him out of hiding!

OEDIPUS. No.

The man who dared that act will fear no curse.

(Enter the blind seer Teiresias, led by a Page.)

CHORAGOS. But there is one man who may detect the criminal.
This is Teiresias, this is the holy prophet
In whom, alone of all men, truth was born.
OEDIPUS. Teiresias: seer: student of mysteries,
Of all that’s taught and all that no man tells,
Secrets of Heaven and secrets of the earth:
Blind though you are, you know the city lies
Sick with plague; and from this plague, my lord,
We find that you alone can guard or save us.

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SOPHOCLES 5] Oedipus Rex

Possibly you did not hear the messengers?

Apollo, when we sent to him,

Sent us back word that this great pestilence

Would lift, but only if we established clearly
The identity of those who murdered Laios.
They must be killed or exiled.

90

Can you use 95

Birdflight!7 or any art of divination

To purify yourself, and Thebes, and me
From this contagion? We are in your hands.
There is no fairer duty
Than that of helping others in distress.
TEIRESIAS. How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be
When there’s no help in truth! I knew this well,
But did not act on it; else I should not have come.
OEDIPUS. What is troubling you? Why are your eyes so cold?
TEIRESIAS. Let me go home. Bear your own fate, and I'll
Bear mine. It is better so: trust what I say.
OEDIPUS. What you say is ungracious and unhelpful
To your native country. Do not refuse to speak.
TEIRESIAS. When it comes to speech, your own is neither temperate
Nor opportune. I wish to be more prudent.
OEDIPUS. In God’s name, we all beg you—
TEIRESIAS.
No; I will never tell you what I know.
Now it is my misery; then, it would be yours.
OEDIPUS. What! You do know something, and will not tell us?
You would betray us all and wreck the State?
TEIRESIAS. Ido not intend to torture myself, or you.
Why persist in asking? You will not persuade me.
OEDIPUS. What a wicked old man you arc! You'd try a stone’s
Patience! Out with it! Have you no feeling at all?
TEIRESIAS. You call me unfeeling. If you could only see
The nature of your own feelings . . .
OEDIPUS. Why,
Who would not feel as I do? Who could endure
Your arrogance toward the city?
TEIRESIAS. What does it matter?
Whether I speak or not, it is bound to come.

You are all ignorant.

7Prophets predicted the future by observing the flight of birds.

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SOPHOCLES Gl Oedipus Rex

OEDIPUS. Then, if “it” is bound to come, you are bound to tell me. 125
TEIRESIAS. No, I will not go on. Rage as you please.

OEDIPUS. Rage? Why not!

And I'll tell you what I think:

You planned it, you had it done, you all but

Killed him with your own hands: if you had eyes,

I'd say the crime was yours, and yours alone. 130
TEIRESIAS. So? I charge you, then,

Abide by the proclamation you have made:

From this day forth

Never speak again to these men or to me;

You yourself are the pollution of this country. 135

OEDIPUS. You dare say that! Can you possibly think you have

Some way of going free, after such insolence?

TEIRESIAS. T have gone free. It is the truth sustains me.

OEDIPUS. Who taught you shamelessness? It was not your craft.

TEIRESIAS. You did. You made me speak. I did not want to. 140
OEDIPUS. Speak what? Let me hear it again more clearly.

TEIRESIAS. Was it not clear before? Are you tempting me?

OEDIPUS. 1 did not understand it. Say it again.

TEIRESIAS. 1 say that you are the murderer whom you seek.

OEDIPUS. Now twice you have spat out infamy.

You'll pay for it! 145

TEIRESIAS. Would you care for more? Do you wish to be really angry?
OEDIPUS. Say what you will. Whatever you say is worthless.

TEIRESIAS. 1 say you live in hideous shame with those

Most dear to you. You can not see the evil.

OEDIPUS. Can you go on babbling like this for ever? 150

TEIRESIAS. I can, if there is power in truth.
OEDIPUS. There is:

But not for you, not for you,

You sightless, witless, senseless, mad old man!

TEIRESIAS. You are the madman. There is no one here

Who will not curse you soon, as you curse me. 155
OEDIPUS. You child of total night! I would not touch you;
Neither would any man who sees the sun.
TEIRESIAS. True: it is not from you my fate will come.

That lies within Apollo’s competence,

As it is his concern.
OEDIPUS. Tell me, who made 160

These fine discoveries? Kreon? or someone else?

SOPHOCLES Gl Oedipus Rex

TEIRESIAS. Kreon is no threat. You weave your own doom.

OEDIPUS. Wealth, power, craft of statemanship!

Kingly position, everywhere admired!

What savage envy is stored up against these,

If Kreon, whom I trusted, Kreon my friend,

For this great office which the city once

Put in my hands unsought—if for this power

Kreon desires in secret to destroy me!

He has bought this decrepit fortune-teller, this

Collector of dirty pennies, this prophet fraud—
Why, he is no more clairvoyant than I am!

Tell us:

Has your mystic mummery ever approached the truth?

When that hellcat the Sphinx was performing here,

What help were you to these people?

Her magic was not for the first man who came along;

It demanded a real exorcist. Your birds—

What good were they? or the gods, for the matter of that?

But I came by,

Oedipus, the simple man, who knows nothing—

I thought it out for myself, no birds helped me!

And this is the man you think you can destroy,

That you may be close to Kreon when he’s king!

Well, you and your friend Kreon, it seems to me,

Will suffer most. If you were not an old man,

You would have paid already for your plot.
CHORAGOS. We can not see that his words or yours

Have been spoken except in anger, Oedipus,

And of anger we have no need. How to accomplish

The god’s will best: that is what most concerns us.

TEIRESIAS. You are a king. But where argument’s concerned

I'am your man, as much a king as you.

I'am not your servant, but Apollo's.

I have no need of Kreon or Kreon’s name,

Listen to me. You mock my blindness, do you?

But I say that you, with both your eyes, are blind:
You can not see the wretchedness of your life,

Nor in whose house you live, no, nor with whom.

Who are your father and mother? Can you tell me?

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SOPHOCLES &] Oedipus Rex SOPHOCLES Gl Oedipus Rex

You do not even know the blind wrongs 200 A revelation that will fail to please.

That you have done them, on earth and in the world below. A blind man,

But the double lash of your parents’ curse will whip you Who has his eyes now; a
penniless man, who is rich now;

Out of this land some day, with only night And he will go tapping the strange earth
with his staff.

Upon your precious eyes. To the children with whom he lives now he will be 240
Your cries then—where will they not be heard? 205 Brother and father—the very same;
to her

What fastness of Kithairon'8 will not echo them? Who bore him, son and husband—the
very same

And that bridal-descant of yours—you’ll know it then, Who came to his father’s bed,
wet with his father’s blood.

The song they sang when you came here to Thebes Enough. Go think that over.

And found your misguided berthing. If later you find error in what I have said, 245
All this, and more, that you can not guess at now, 210 You may say that I have no
skill in prophecy.

Will iti you to youself amongioukiliten: (Exit Teiresias, led by his Page. Oedipus
goes into the palace.)

Be angry, then. Curse Kreon. Curse my words.

I tell you, no man that walks upon the earth ODEY 1

Shall be rooted out more horribly than you. 215 Strophe 1
OEDIPUS. Am I to bear this from him?—Damnation eee
Take you! Out of this place! Out of my sight! CHORUS. The Delphic stone of
prophecies
TEIRESIAS. I would not have come at all if you had not asked me. Remembers ancient
regicide
OEDIPUS. Could I have told that you'd talk nonsense, that And a still bloody hand.
You'd come here to make a fool of yourself, and of me? That killer's hour of flight
has come.
TEIRESIAS. A fool? Your parents thought me sane enough. 220 He must be stronger
than riderless 5
OEDIPUS. My parents again!—Wait: who were my parents? Coursers of untiring wind,
TEIRESIAS. This day will give you a father, and break your heart. For the son of
Zeus? armed with his father’s thunder
OEDIPUS. Your infantile riddles! Your damned abracadabral Leaps in lightning after
him;
TEIRESIAS. You were a great man once at solving riddles. And the Furies?! hold his
track, the sad Furies.
OEDIPUS. Mock me with that if you like; you will find it true. 225
TEIRESIAS. It was true enough. It brought about your ruin. Antistrophe 1
OEDIPUS. But if it saved this town? -
TEIRESIAS (to the Page). Boy, give me your hand. Holy Parnassos™* peak of snow 10
OEDIPUS. Yes, boy; lead him away. Flashes and blinds that secret man,
—While you are here That all shall hunt him down:
We can do nothing. Go; leave us in peace. Though he may roam the forest shade
TEIRESIAS. T will go when 1 have said what I have to say. 230 Like a bull gone wild
from pasture
How can you hurt me? And I tell you again: To rage through glooms of stone. 15

The man you have been looking for all this time,

The damned man, the murderer of Laios,

That man is in Thebes. To your mind he is foreign-born, 235

But it will soon be shown that he is a Theban, Ruler of the Olympian gods.

Goddesses of vengeance,

9Song sung by Chorus.

184s a baby, Oedipus was abandoned at this mountain. 22Mountain sacred to Apollo.
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SOPHOCLES G] Oedipus Rex

Doom comes down on him; flight will not avail him;

For the world’s heart calls him desolate,
And the immortal voices follow, for ever follow.

Strophe 2

But now a wilder thing is heard

From the old man skilled at hearing Fate in the wing-beat

of a bird. 20
Bewildered as a blown bird, my soul hovers and can not find
Foothold in this debate, or any reason or rest of mind.
But no man ever brought—none can bring
Proof of strife between Thebes’ royal house,
Labdakos’ line, and the son of Polybos;? 25
And never until now has any man brought word
Of Laios’ dark death staining Oedipus the King.

Antistrophe 2

Divine Zeus and Apollo hold

Perfect intelligence alone of all tales ever told;

And well though this diviner works, he works in his own night; 30
No man can judge that rough unknown or trust in second sight,
For wisdom changes hands among the wise.

Shall I believe my great lord criminal

At a raging word that a blind old man let fall?

I saw him, when the carrion woman?* faced him of old, 35

Prove his heroic mind. These evil words are lies.

SCENE 2

KREON. Men of Thebes:

I am told that heavy accusations
Have been brought against me by King Oedipus.

I am not the kind of man to bear this tamely.

If in these present difficulties 5

He holds me accountable for any harm to him

King who adopted Oedipus.

Sphinx

SOPHOCLES El Oedipus Rex

Through anything I have said or done—why, then,

I do not value life in this dishonor.
It is not as though this rumor touched upon
Some private indiscretion. The matter is grave. 10
The fact is that I am being called disloyal
To the State, to my fellow citizens, to my friends.
CHORAGOS. He may have spoken in anger, not from his mind.
KREON. But did you not hear him say I was the one
Who seduced the old prophet into lying? 15
CHORAGOS. The thing was said; I do not know how seriously.
KREON. But you were watching him! Were his eyes steady?
Did he look like a man in his right mind?
CHORAGOS. I do not know.
I can not judge the behavior of great men.
But here is the king himself.

(Enter Oedipus.)

OEDIPUS. So you dared come back. 20

Why? How brazen of you to come to my house,
You murderer!
Do you think I do not know
That you plotted to kill me, plotted to steal my throne?
Tell me, in God’s name: am I coward, a fool,
That you should dream you could accomplish this? 25
A fool who could not see your slippery game?
A coward, not to fight back when I saw it?
You are the fool, Kreon, are you not? hoping
Without support or friends to get a throne?
Thrones may be won or bought: you could do neither. 30
KREON. Now listen to me. You have talked; let me talk, too.
You can not judge unless you know the facts.
OEDIPUS. You speak well: there is one fact; but I find it hard
To learn from the deadliest enemy I have.
KREON. That above all I must dispute with you. 35
OEDIPUS. That above all I will not hear you deny.
KREON. If you think there is anything good in being stubborn.
Against all reason, then I say you are wrong,
OEDIPUS. If you think a man can sin against his own kind
And not be punished for it, I say you are mad. 40
KREON. Tagree. But tell me: what have I done to you?
OEDIPUS. You advised me to send for that wizard, did you not?
KREON. I did. I should do it again.
SOPHOCLES G1 Oedipus Rex

OEDIPUS. Very well. Now tell me:

How long has it been since Laios—
KREON. What of Laios?

OEDIPUS. Since he vanished in that onset by the road?

KREON. Tt was long ago, a long time.

OEDIPUS. And this prophet,

Was he practicing here then?

KREON. He was; and with honor, as now.

OEDIPUS. Did he speak of me at that time?

KREON. He never did,

At least, not when I was present.

OEDIPUS. But... the enquiry?

I suppose you held one?

KREON. We did, but we learned nothing.

OEDIPUS. Why did the prophet not speak against me then?

KREON. I do not know; and I am the kind of man
Who holds his tongue when he has no facts to go on.
OEDIPUS. There’s one fact that you know, and you could tell it.
KREON. What fact is that? If I know it, you shall have it.
OEDIPUS. If he were not involved with you, he could not say
That it was I who murdered Laios.
KREON. If he says that, you are the one that knows it!—
But now it is my turn to question you.
OEDIPUS. Put your questions. I am no murderer.
KREON. First, then: You married my sister?
OEDIPUS. I married your sister.
KREON. And you rule the kingdom equally with her?
OEDIPUS. Everything that she wants she has from me.
KREON. And I am the third, equal to both of you?
OEDIPUS. That is why I call you a bad friend.
KREON. No. Reason it out, as I have done.
Think of this first: would any sane man prefer
Power, with all a king’s anxieties,
To that same power and the grace of sleep?
Certainly not I.
I have never longed for the king’s power—only his rights.
Would any wise man differ from me in this?
As matters stand, I have my way in everything
With your consent, and no responsibilities.
If T were king, I should be a slave to policy.
How could I desire a scepter more
Than what is now mine—untroubled influence?

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SOPHOCLES 4G] Oedipus Rex

No, I have not gone mad; I need no honors,

Except those with the perquisites I have now.
I am welcome everywhere; every man salutes me, 80
And those who want your favor seek my ear,
Since I know how to manage what they ask.
Should I exchange this ease for that anxiety?
Besides, no sober mind is treasonable.
I hate anarchy 85
And never would deal with any man who likes it.
Test what I have said. Go to the priestess
At Delphi, ask if T quoted her correctly.
And as for this other thing: if T am found
Guilty of treason with Teiresias, 90
Then sentence me to death. You have my word
It is a sentence I should cast my vote for—
But not without evidence!
You do wrong
When you take good men for bad, bad men for good.
A true friend thrown aside—why, life itself 95
Is not more precious!
In time you will know this well:
For time, and time alone, will show the just man,
Though scoundrels are discovered in a day.
CHORAGOS. This is well said, and a prudent man would ponder it.
Judgments too quickly formed are dangerous. 100
OEDIPUS. But is he not quick in his duplicity?
And shall I not be quick to parry him?
Would you have me stand still, hold my peace, and let
This man win everything, through my inaction?
KREON. And you want—what is it, then? To banish me? 105
OEDIPUS. No, not exile. It is your death I want,
So that all the world may see what treason means.
KREON. You will persist, then? You will not believe me?
OEDIPUS. How can I believe you?

KREON. Then you are a fool.

OEDIPUS. To save myself?

KREON. In justice, think of me. 110

OEDIPUS. You are evil incarnate.

KREON. But suppose that you are wrong?

OEDIPUS. Still I must rule.

KREON. But not if you rule badly.

OEDIPUS. O city, city!

SOPHOCLES 4] Oedipus Rex

KREON. It is my city, too!

CHORAGOS. Now, my lords, be still. I see the queen,
lokaste, coming from her palace chambers; 115

And it is time she came, for the sake of you both.

This dreadful quarrel can be resolved through her.

(Enter Tokaste.)

IOKASTE. Poor foolish men, what wicked din is this?

With Thebes sick to death, is it not shameful
That you should take some private quarrel up? 120
(To Oedipus.) Come into the house.
—And you, Kreon, go now:
Let us have no more of this tumult over nothing.
KREON. Nothing? No, sister: what your husband plans for me
Is one of two great evils: exile or death.
OEDIPUS. He is right.
Why, woman I have caught him squarely 125
Plotting against my life.
KREON. No! Let me die
Accurst if ever I have wished you harm!
IOKASTE. Ah, believe it, Oedipus!
In the name of the gods, respect this oath of his
For my sake, for the sake of these people here! 130

Strophe 1

CHORAGOS. Open your mind to her, my lord. Be ruled by her, I beg you!
OEDIPUS. What would you have me do?
CHORAGOS. Respect Kreon’s word. He has never spoken like a fool,

And now he has sworn an oath.

OEDIPUS. You know what you ask?

CHORAGOS. I do.
OEDIPUS. Speak on, then.
CHORAGOS. A friend so sworn should not be baited so, 135

In blind malice, and without final proof.

OEDIPUS. You are aware, I hope, that what you say
Means death for me, or exile at the least.

Strophe 2

CHORAGOS. No, I swear by Helios, first in heaven!

May I die friendless and accurst, 140

SOPHOCLES 81 Oedipus Rex

The worst of deaths, if ever I meant that!

It is the withering fields

That hurt my sick heart:

Must we bear all these ills,

And now your bad blood as well? 145
OEDIPUS. Then let him go. And let me die, if I must,

Or be driven by him in shame from the land of Thebes.

It is your unhappiness, and not his talk,

That touches me.

As for him—

Wherever he goes, hatred will follow him. 150

<REON. Ugly in yielding, as you were ugly in rage!

Natures like yours chiefly torment themselves.

DEDIPUS. Can you not go? Can you not leave me?
<REON. I can.

You do not know me; but the city knows me,

And in its eyes I am just, if not in yours. 155

(Exit Kreon.)
Antistrophe 1

CHORAGOS. Lady Iokaste, did you not ask the King to go to his
chambers?
IOKASTE. First tell me what has happened.
CHORAGOS. There was suspicion without evidence; yet it rankled
As even false charges will.
IOKASTE. On both sides?
CHORAGOS. On both.
IOKASTE. But what was said? 160
CHORAGOS. Oh let it rest, let it be done with!
Have we not suffered enough?
OEDIPUS. You see to what your decency has brought you:
You have made difficulties where my heart saw none.

Antistrophe 2

CHORAGOS. Oedipus, it is not once only I have told you— 165

You must know I should count myself unwise
To the point of madness, should I now forsake you—
You, under whose hand,
In the storm of another time,
Our dear land sailed out free. 170
But now stand fast at the helm!
SOPHOCLES 4G] Oedipus Rex

IOKASTE. In God’s name, Oedipus, inform your wife as well:

Why are you so set in this hard anger?
OEDIPUS. Twill tell you, for none of these men deserves
My confidence as you do. It is Kreon’s work, 175
His treachery, his plotting against me.
IOKASTE. Go on, if you can make this clear to me.
OEDIPUS. He charges me with the murder of Laios.
|OKASTE. Has he some knowledge? Or does he speak from hearsay?
OEDIPUS. Te would not commit himself to such a charge, 180
But he has brought in that damnable soothsayer
To tell his story.
IOKASTE. Set your mind at rest.
If it is a question of soothsayers, I tell you
That you will find no man whose craft gives knowledge
Of the unknowable.
Here is my proof: 185
An oracle was reported to Laios once
(I will not say from Phoibos himself, but from
His appointed ministers, at any rate)
That his doom would be death at the hands of his own son—
His son, born of his flesh and of mine! 190

Now, you remember the story: Laios was killed

By marauding strangers where three highways meet;

But his child had not been three days in this world

Before the king had pierced the baby’s ankles

And left him to die on a lonely mountainside. 195

Thus, Apollo never caused that child

To kill his father, and it was not Laios’ fate
To die at the hands of his son, as he had feared.
This is what prophets and prophecies are worth!
Have no dread of them.
It is God himself 200
Who can show us what he wills, in his own way.
OEDIPUS. How strange a shadowy memory crossed my mind,
Just now while you were speaking; it chilled my heart.
JOKASTE. What do you mean? What memory do you speak of?
OEDIPUS. If I understand you, Laios was killed 205
At a place where three roads meet.

SOPHOCLES 8] Oedipus Rex

IOKASTE. So it was said;

We have no later story.
OEDIPUS. Where did it happen?

IOKASTE. Phokis, it is called: at a place where the Theban Way

Divides into the roads toward Delphi and Daulia.
OEDIPUS. When?
IOKASTE. We had the news not long before you came 210
And proved the right to your succession here.
OEDIPUS. Ah, what net has God been weaving for me?
IOKASTE. Oedipus! Why does this trouble you?
OEDIPUS.
First, tell me how Laios looked, and tell me
How old he was.
IOKASTE. He was tall, his hair just touched 215
With white; his form was not unlike your own.
OEDIPUS. TI think that I myself may be accurst
By my own ignorant edict.
IOKASTE. You speak strangely.
It makes me tremble to look at you, my king.
OEDIPUS. Iam not sure that the blind man can not see. 220
But I should know better if you were to tell me—
IOKASTE. Anything—though I dread to hear you ask it.
OEDIPUS. Was the king lightly escorted, or did he ride
With a large company, as a ruler should?
IOKASTE. There were five men with him in all: one was a herald; 225
And a single chariot, which he was driving.
OEDIPUS. Alas, that makes it plain enough!

Do not ask me yet.

But who—
Who told you how it happened?
|OKASTE. A household servant,
The only one to escape.
OEDIPUS. And is he still
A servant of ours?
IOKASTE. No; for when he came back at last 230

And found you enthroned in the place of the dead king,

He came to me, touched my hand with his, and begged

That I would send him away to the frontier district

Where only the shepherds go—

As far away from the city as I could send him. 235

I granted his prayer; for although the man was a slave,

He had earned more than this favor at my hands.

SOPHOCLES Gl Oedipus Rex

SOPHOCLES 9 Oedipus Rex

OEDIPUS. Can he be called back quickly?

IOKASTE. Easily.
But why?
OEDIPUS. 1 have taken too much upon myself
Without enquiry; therefore I wish to consult him.
IOKASTE. Then he shall come.
But am [ not one also
To whom you might confide these fears of yours?
OEDIPUS. That is your right; it will not be denied you,
Now least of all; for I have reached a pitch
Of wild foreboding. Is there anyone
To whom I should sooner speak?

Polybos of Corinth is my father.

My mother is a Dorian: Merope.
I grew up chief among the men of Corinth
Until a strange thing happened—
Not worth my passion, it may be, but strange.
At a feast, a drunken man maundering in his cups
Cries out that I am not my father’s son!
I contained myself that night, though I felt anger
And a sinking heart. The next day I visited
My father and mother, and questioned them. They stormed,
Calling it all the slanderous rant of a fool;
And this relieved me. Yet the suspicion
Remained always aching in my mind;
I knew there was talk; I could not rest;
And finally, saying nothing to my parents,
I went to the shrine at Delphi.
The god dismissed my question without reply;
He spoke of other things.
Some were clear,
Full of wretchedness, dreadful, unbearable:
As, that I should lie with my own mother, breed
Children from whom all men would turn their eyes;
And that I should be my father’s murderer.

1 heard all this, and fled. And from that day

Corinth to me was only in the stars

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260

265

270

Descending in that quarter of the sky,

As I wandered farther and farther on my way

To a land where I should never see the evil

Sung by the oracle. And I came to this country

Where, so you say, King Laios was killed. 275

1 will tell you all that happened there, my lady.

There were three highways
Coming together at a place I passed;
And there a herald came towards me, and a chariot
Drawn by horses, with a man such as you describe 280
Seated in it. The groom leading the horses
Forced me off the road at his lord’s command;
But as this charioteer lurched over towards me
I struck him in my rage. The old man saw me
And brought his double goad down upon my head 285
As 1 came abreast.
He was paid back, and more!
Swinging my club in this right hand I knocked him

Out of his car, and he rolled on the ground.

1 killed him.

I killed them all.

Now if that stranger and Laios were—Kkin, 200
Where is a man more miserable than I?
More hated by the gods? Citizen and alien alike
Must never shelter me or speak to me—
I must be shunned by all.
And I myself

Pronounced this malediction upon myself! 295

Think of it: I have touched you with these hands,

These hands that killed your husband. What defilement!

Am | all evil, then? It must be so,

Since I must flee from Thebes, yet never again

See my own countrymen, iy own country, 300

For fear of joining my mother in marriage

And killing Polybos, my father.

Ah,

25
SOPHOCLES G1 Oedipus Rex

If T was created so, born to this fate,

Who could deny the savagery of God?

O holy majesty of heavenly powers! 305

May I never see that day! Never!
Rather let me vanish from the race of men
Than know the abomination destined me!
CHORAGOS. We too, my lord, have felt dismay at this.
But there is hope: you have yet to hear the shepherd. 310
OEDIPUS. Indeed, I fear no other hope is left me.
IOKASTE. What do you hope from him when he comes?
OEDIPUS. This much:
If his account of the murder tallies with yours,
Then I am cleared.

IOKASTE. What was it that I said

Of such importance?
OEDIPUS. Why, “marauders,” you said, 315

Killed the king, according to this man’s story.

If he maintains that still, if there were several,

Clearly the guilt is not mine: I was alone.

But if he says one man, singlehanded, did it,

Then the evidence all points to me. 320

IOKASTE. You may be sure that he said there were several;

And can he call back that story now? He can not.

The whole city heard it as plainly as I.

But suppose he alters some detail of it:

He can not ever show that Laios’ death 325

Fulfilled the oracle: for Apollo said

My child was doomed to kill him; and my child—

Poor baby!—it was my child that died first.

No. From now on, where oracles are concerned,

I would not waste a second thought on any. 330

OEDIPUS. You may be right.

But come: let someone go

For the shepherd at once. This matter must be settled.

IOKASTE. I will send for him.

I would not wish to cross you in anything,

And surely not in this.—Let us go in. 335

(Exeunt into the palace.)

SOPHOCLES G1 Oedipus Rex

ODE 2

Strophe 1

CHORUS. Let me be reverent in the ways of right,

Lowly the paths I journey on;

Let all my words and actions keep

The laws of the pure universe

From highest Heaven handed down.

For Heaven is their bright nurse,

Those generations of the realms of light;

Ah, never of mortal kind were they begot,
Nor are they slaves of memory, lost in sleep:

Their Father is greater than Time, and ages not.

Antistrophe 1

The tyrant is a child of Pride

Who drinks from his great sickening cup

Recklessness and vanity,

Until from his high crest headlong

He plummets to the dust of hope.

That strong man is not strong.

But let no fair ambition be denied;

May God protect the wrestler for the State

In government, in comely policy,

Who will fear God, and on his ordinance wait.

Haughtiness and the high hand of disdain

Tempt and outrage God's holy law;

And any mortal who dares hold

No immortal Power in awe

Will be caught up in a net of pain:

The price for which his levity is sold.

Let each man take due earnings, then,
And keep his hands from holy things,
And from blasphemy stand apart—

Else the crackling blast of heaven

Blows on his head, and on his desperate heart.

Though fools will honor impious men,

In their cities no tragic poet sings.

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SOPHOCLES Gl Oedipus Rex

Antistrophe 2

Shall we lose faith in Delphi’s obscurities,

We who have heard the world’s core 35

Discredited, and the sacred wood

Of Zeus at Elis praised no more?

The deeds and the strange prophecies

Must make a pattern yet to be understood.

Zeus, if indeed you are lord of all, 40

Throned in light over night and day,

Mirror this in your endless mind:

Our masters call the oracle

Words on the wind, and the Delphic vision blind!

Their hearts no longer know Apollo, 45

And reverence for the gods has died away.

SCENE 3
Enter Iokaste.

IOKASTE. Princes of Thebes, it has occurred to me

To visit the altars of the gods, bearing

These branches as a suppliant, and this incense.
Our king is not himself: his noble soul
Is overwrought with fantasies of dread, 5
Else he would consider
The new prophecies in the light of the old.
He will listen to any voice that speaks disaster,
And my advice goes for nothing. (She approaches the

altar, right.)

To you, then, Apollo,

Lycean lord, since you are nearest, I turn in prayer 10

Receive these offerings, and grant us deliverance
From defilement. Our hearts are heavy with fear
When we see our leader distracted, as helpless sailors
Are terrified by the confusion of their helmsman.

(Enter Messenger.)
MESSENGER. Friends, no doubt you can direct me: 15

Where shall I find the house of Oedipus,

Or, better still, where is the king himself?

CHORAGOS. It is this very place, stranger; he is inside.

This is his wife and mother of his children.

SOPHOCLES 4 Oedipus Rex

MESSENGER. I wish her happiness in a happy house,

Blest in all the fulfillment of her marriage.

IOKASTE. I wish as much for you: your courtesy

Deserves a like good fortune. But now, tell me:

Why have you come? What have you to say to us?

MESSENGER. Good news, my lady, for your house and your husband.
IOKASTE. What news? Who sent you here?
MESSENGER.

The news I bring ought to mean joy for you,

Though it may be you will find some grief in it.

IOKASTE. What is it? How can it touch us in both ways?
MESSENGER. The word is that the people of the Isthmus

Intend to call Oedipus to be their king.

IOKASTE. But old King Polybos—is he not reigning still?

MESSENGER. No. Death holds him in his sepulchre.
IOKASTE. What are you saying? Polybos is dead?
MESSENGER. If I am not telling the truth, may I die myself.

I am from Corinth.

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35

IOKASTE (fo a Maidservant). Go in, go quickly; tell this to your master.

O riddlers of God’s will, where are you now!

This was the man whom Oedipus, long ago,
Feared so, fled so, in dread of destroying him—
But it was another fate by which he died.

(Enter Oedipus, center.)

OEDIPUS. Dearest lokaste, why have you sent for me?

IOKASTE. Listen to what this man says, and then tell me
What has become of the solemn prophecies.
OEDIPUS. Who is this man? What is his news for me?
IOKASTE. He has come from Corinth to announce your father’s
death!
OEDIPUS. Is it true, stranger? Tell me in your own words.
MESSENGER. I can not say it more clearly: the king is dead.
OEDIPUS. Was it by treason? Or by an attack of illness?
MESSENGER. A little thing brings old men to their rest.
OEDIPUS. It was sickness, then?
MESSENGER.
OEDIPUS. Ah!
Why should a man respect the Pythian hearth, or
Give heed to the birds that jangle above his head?

25Delphi

Yes, and his many years.

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SOPHOCLES &l Oedipus Rex

They prophesied that I should kill Polybos,

Kill my own father; but he is dead and buried,

And I am here—I never touched him, never,

Unless he died of grief for my departure,

And thus, in a sense, through me. No. Polybos

Has packed the oracles off with him underground.

They are empty words.

IOKASTE. Had I not told you so?
OEDIPUS. You had; it was my faint heart that betrayed me.
IOKASTE. From now on never think of those things again.
OEDIPUS. And yet—must I not fear my mother’s bed?
IOKASTE. Why should anyone in this world be afraid

Since Fate rules us and nothing can be foreseen?

A man should live only for the present day.

Have no more fear of sleeping with your mother:

How many men, in dreams, have lain with their mothers!

No reasonable man is troubled by such things.

OEDIPUS. That is true, only—

If only my mother were not still alive!

But she is alive. I can not help my dread.

IOKASTE. Yet this news of your father’s death is wonderful.

OEDIPUS. Wonderful. But I fear the living woman.

MESSENGER. Tell me, who is this woman that you fear?

OEDIPUS. It is Merope, man; the wife of King Polybos.

MESSENGER. Merope? Why should you be afraid of her?

OEDIPUS. An oracle of the gods, a dreadful saying.

MESSENGER. Can you tell me about it or are you sworn to silence?

OEDIPUS. I can tell you, and I will.

Apollo said through his prophet that I was the man

Who should marry his own mother, shed his father’s blood

With his own hands. And so, for all these years

I have kept clear of Corinth, and no harm has come—

Though it would have been sweet to see my parents again.

MESSENGER. And is this the fear that drove you out of Corinth?
OEDIPUS. Would you have me kill my father?
MESSENGER.

You must be reassured by the news I gave you.

OEDIPUS. If you could reassure me, I would reward you.
MESSENGER. I had that in mind, I will confess: I thought

I could count on you when you returned to Corinth.

As for that

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SOPHOCLES 4G] Oedipus Rex

OEDIPUS. No. I will never go near my parents again.

MESSENGER. Ah, son, you still do not know what you are doing—
OEDIPUS. What do you mean? In the name of God tell me!

MESSENGER. —If these are your reasons for not going home. 95
OEDIPUS. I tell you, I fear the oracle may come true.

MESSENGER. And guilt may come upon you through your parents?
OEDIPUS. That is the dread that is always in my heart.

MESSENGER. Can you not see that all your fears are groundless?
OEDIPUS. Groundless? Am I not my parents’ son? 100
MESSENGER. Polybos was not your father.

OEDIPUS. Not my father?

MESSENGER. No more your father than the man speaking to you.
OEDIPUS. But you are nothing to me!

MESSENGER. Neither was he.

OEDIPUS. Then why did he call me son?
MESSENGER. I will tell you:

Long ago he had you from my hands, as a gift. 105

OEDIPUS. Then how could he love me so, if I was not his?
MESSENGER. He had no children, and his heart turned to you.
OEDIPUS. What of you? Did you buy me? Did you find me by chance?
MESSENGER. I came upon you in the woody vales of Kithairon.
OEDIPUS. And what were you doing there?
MESSENGER.
OEDIPUS. A wandering shepherd?
MESSENGER. But your savior, son, that day.
OEDIPUS. From what did you save me?
MESSENGER, Your ankles should tell you that.
OEDIPUS. Ah, stranger, why do you speak of that childhood pain?
MESSENGER. I pulled the skewer that pinned your feet together.
OEDIPUS. I have had the mark as long as I can remember. 115
MESSENGER. That was why you were given the name?® you bear.
OEDIPUS. God! Was it my father or my mother who did it?
Tell me!
MESSENGER. I do not know. The man who gave you to me
Can tell you better than I.
OEDIPUS. It was not you that found me, but another? 120
MESSENGER. It was another shepherd gave you to me.
OEDIPUS. Who was he? Can you tell me who he was?
MESSENGER. I think he was said to be one of Laios’ people.

Tending my flocks. 110

%Qedipus means “swollen foot.”

nn

SOPHOCLES %] Oedipus Rex

SOPHOCLES 9] Oedipus Rex

OEDIPUS. You mean the Laios who was king here years ago?
MESSENGER. Yes; King Laios; and the man was one of his herdsmen. 125
OEDIPUS. Is he still alive? Can T see him?
MESSENGER.
Know best about such things.
OEDIPUS. Does anyone here
Know this shepherd that he is talking about?
Have you seen him in the fields, or in the town?
If you have, tell me. It is time things were made plain. 130
CHORAGOS. T think the man he means is that same shepherd
You have already asked to see. Iokaste perhaps
Could tell you something.
OEDIPUS. Do you know anything
About him, Lady? Is he the man we have summoned?
Is that the man this shepherd means?
IOKASTE.
Forget this herdsman. Forget it all.
This talk is a waste of time.
OEDIPUS. How can you say that,
When the clues to my true birth are in my hands?
IOKASTE. For God’s love, let us have no more questioning!
Is your life nothing to you? 140
My own is pain enough for me to bear.
OEDIPUS. You need not worry. Suppose my mother a slave,
And born of slaves: no baseness can touch you.
IOKASTE. Listen to me, I beg you: do not do this thing!
OEDIPUS. T will not listen; the truth must be made known. 145
IOKASTE. Everything that I say is for your own good!
OEDIPUS. My own good
Snaps my patience, then; I want none of it.
IOKASTE. You are fatally wrong! May you never learn who you are!
OEDIPUS. Go, one of you, and bring the shepherd here,
Let us leave this woman to brag of her royal name. 150
IOKASTE. Ah, miserable!
That is the only word I have for you now.
That is the only word I can ever have.

These men here

Why think of him? 135

(Exit into the palace.)

CHORAGOS. Why has she left us, Oedipus? Why has she gone
In such a passion of sorrow? I fear this silence: 155
Something dreadful may come of it,

OEDIPUS.

Let it come!
However base my birth, I must know about it.
The Queen, like a woman, is perhaps ashamed
To think of my low origin. But I
Am a child of Luck, I can not be dishonored.
Luck is my mother; the passing months, my brothers,
Have seen me rich and poor.
If this is so,
How could I wish that I were someone else?
How could I not be glad to know my birth?

ODE 3

Strophe

CHORUS. If ever the coming time were known

To my heart's pondering,
Kithairon, now by Heaven I see the torches
At the festival of the next full moon
And see the dance, and hear the choir sing
A grace to your gentle shade:
Mountain where Oedipus was found,
O mountain guard of a noble race!
May the god?” who heals us lend his aid,
And let that glory come to pass
For our king’s cradling-ground.

Antistrophe

Of the nymphs that flower beyond the years,

Who bore you, royal child,

To Pan?® of the hills or the timberline Apollo,

Cold in delight where the upland clears,

Or Hermes? for whom Kyllene’s® heights are piled?

Or flushed as evening cloud,

Apollo

ili i i 5 as half-man
28God of nature, shepherds, and fertility; associated with lechery, and often
represented ,

half-goat.
Messenger of the gods.

Mountain that was birthplace of Hermes.

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SOPHOCLES 4] Oedipus Rex

Great Dionysos,’! roamer of mountains,

He—was it he who found you there,
And caught you up in his own proud
Arms from the sweet god-ravisher

Who laughed by the Muses’? fountains?

SCENE 4

OEDIPUS. Sirs: though I do not know the man,

I think I see him coming, this shepherd we want:
He is old, like our friend here, and the men
Bringing him seem to be servants of my house.
But you can tell, if you have ever seen him.

(Enter Shepherd escorted by Servants.)

CHORAGOS. I know him, he was Laios’ man. You can trust him.
OEDIPUS. Tell me first, you from Corinth: is this the shepherd
We were discussing?
MESSENGER. This is the very man.
OEDIPUS (to Shepherd). Come here. No, look at me.
You must answer
Everything I ask.—You belonged to Laios?
SHEPHERD. Yes: born his slave, brought up in his house.
OEDIPUS. Tell me: what kind of work did you do for him?
SHEPHERD. I was a shepherd of his, most of my life.
OEDIPUS. Where mainly did you go for pasturage?
SHEPHERD. Sometimes Kithairon, sometimes the hills near-by.
OEDIPUS. Do you remember ever seeing this man out there?
SHEPHERD. What would he be doing there? This man?
OEDIPUS. This man standing here. Have you ever seen him before?
SHEPHERD. At least, not to my recollection.
MESSENGER. And that is not strange, my lord. But I'll refresh
His memory: he must remember when we two
Spent three whole seasons together, March to September,
On Kithairon or thereabouts. He had two flocks;
I had one. Each autumn I’d drive mine home
And he would go back with his to Laios’ sheepfold.—
Is this not true, just as I have described it?

3lAnother name for Bacchus.

Group of sister goddesses, patrons of poetry, music, art, and sciences.

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SHEPHERD. True, yes; but it was all so long ago.

MESSENGER. Well, then: do you remember, back in those days,
That you gave me a baby boy to bring up as my own?
SHEPHERD. What if I did? What are you trying to say?
MESSENGER. King Oedipus was once that little child.
SHEPHERD. Damn you, hold your tongue!
OEDIPUS. No more of that!
It is your tongue needs watching, not this man’s.
SHEPHERD. My king, my master, what is it I have done wrong?
OEDIPUS. You have not answered his question about the boy.
SHEPHERD. Ile does not know . . . He is only making trouble . . .
OEDIPUS. Come, speak plainly, or it will go hard with you.
SHEPHERD. In God’s name, do not torture an old man!
OEDIPUS. Come here, one of you; bind his arms behind him.
SHEPHERD. Unhappy king! What more do you wish to learn?
OEDIPUS. Did you give this man the child he speaks of?
SHEPHERD. I did.
And I would to God I had died that very day.
OEDIPUS. You will die now unless you speak the truth.
SHEPHERD. Yet if I speak the truth, I am worse than dead.
OEDIPUS (fo Attendant). He intends to draw it out, apparently—
SHEPHERD. No! I have told you already that I gave him the boy.
OEDIPUS. Where did you get him? From your house?
From somewhere else?
SHEPHERD. Not from mine, no. A man gave him to me.
OEDIPUS. Is that man here? Whose house did he belong to?
SHEPHERD. For God’s love, my king, do not ask me any more!
OEDIPUS. You are a dead man if I have to ask you again.
SHEPHERD. Then... Then the child was from the palace of Laios.
OEDIPUS. A slave child? or a child of his own line?
SHEPHERD. Ah, I am on the brink of dreadful speech!
OEDIPUS. And I of dreadful hearing. Yet I must hear.
SHEPHERD. If you must be told, then . ..
They said it was Laios’ child;
But it is your wife who can tell you about that.
OEDIPUS. My wife—Did she give it to you?

SHEPHERD. My lord, she did.

OEDIPUS. Do you know why?

SHEPHERD. I was told to get rid of it.

OEDIPUS. Oh heartless mother!

SHEPHERD. But in dread of prophecies . . .

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SOPHOCLES &] Oedipus Rex

OEDIPUS. Tell me.

SHEPHERD. It was said that the boy would kill his own father.
OEDIPUS. Then why did you give him over to this old man?
SHEPHERD. I pitied the baby, my king,
And I thought that this man would take him far away
To his own country.
He saved him—but for what a fate!
For if you are what this man says you are,
No man living is more wretched than Oedipus.
OEDIPUS. Ah God!
It was true!
All the prophecies!
—Now,
O Light, may I look on you for the last time!
I, Oedipus,
Oedipus, damned in his birth, in his marriage damned,
Damned in the blood he shed with his own hand!

(He rushes into the palace.)

ODE 4

Strophe 1

CHORUS. Alas for the seed of men.

What measure shall I give these generations
That breathe on the void and are void
And exist and do not exist?
Who bears more weight of joy
Than mass of sunlight shifting in images,
Or who shall make his thought stay on
That down time drifts away?
Your splendor is all fallen.
O naked brow of wrath and tears,
O change of Oedipus!
I who saw your days call no man blest—
Your great days like ghosts gone.

Antistrophe 1

That mind was a strong bow.

Deep, how deep you drew it then, hard archer,
At a dim fearful range,

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SOPHOCLES Gl Oedipus Rex

And brought dear glory down!

You overcame the stranger®—

The virgin with her hooking lion claws—
And though death sang, stood like a tower
To make pale Thebes take heart.

Fortress against our sorrow!

True king, giver of laws,

Majestic Oedipus!

No prince in Thebes had ever such renown,

No prince won such grace of power.

Strophe 2

And now of all men ever known

Most pitiful is this man’s story:

His fortunes are most changed; his state

Fallen to a low slave’s

Ground under bitter fate.

O Oedipus, most royal one!

The great door? that expelled you to the light

Gave at night—ah, gave night to your glory:
As to the father, to the fathering son.

All understood too late.

How could that queen whom Laios won,

The garden that he harrowed at his height,
Be silent when that act was done?

Antistrophe 2

But all eyes fail before time’s eye,

All actions come to justice there.

Though never willed, though far down the deep past,

Your bed, your dread sirings,

Are brought to book at last.

Child by Laios doomed to die,

Then doomed to lose that fortunate little death,

Would God you never took breath in this air

That with my wailing lips I take to cry:

The Sphinx

Jokasate’s womb
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SOPHOCLES Gl Oedipus Rex

SOPHOCLES Gl Oedipus Rex

For 1 weep the world’s outcast.

I was blind, and now I can tell why:

Asleep, for you had given ease of breath
To Thebes, while the false years went by.

EXODOS35

Enter, from the palace, Second Messenger.

SECOND MESSENGER. Elders of Thebes, most honored in this land,

What horrors are yours to see and hear, what weight
Of sorrow to be endured, if, true to your birth,
You venerate the line of Labdakos!
I think neither Istros nor Phasis, those great rivers,
Could purify this place of all the evil
It shelters now, or soon must bring to light—
Evil not done unconsciously, but willed.

The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.

CHORAGOS. Surely, friend, we have grief enough already;
What new sorrow do you mean?

SECOND MESSENGER. The queen is dead.

CHORAGOS. O miserable queen! But at whose hand?

SECOND MESSENGER. Her own.

The full horror of what happened you can not know,

For you did not see it; but I, who did, will tell you
As clearly as I can how she met her death.

When she had left us,

In passionate silence, passing through the court,

She ran to her apartment in the house,

Her hair clutched by the fingers of both hands.

She closed the doors behind her; then, by that bed

Where long ago the fatal son was conceived—

That son who should bring about his father’s death—

We heard her call upon Laios, dead so many years,

And heard her wail for the double fruit of her marriage,
A husband by her husband, children by her child.

Final scene

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15
Exactly how she died I do not know:

For Oedipus burst in moaning and would not let us

Keep vigil to the end: it was by him

As he stormed about the room that our eyes were caught.

From one to another of us he went, begging a sword,
Hunting the wife who was not his wife, the mother
Whose womb had carried his own children and himself.
1 do not know: it was none of us aided him,

But surely one of the gods was in control!

For with a dreadful cry

He hurled his weight, as though wrenched out of himself,

At the twin doors: the bolts gave, and he rushed in.

And there we saw her hanging, her body swaying

From the cruel cord she had noosed about her neck.

A great sob broke from him, heartbreaking to hear,

As he loosed the rope and lowered her to the ground.

I would blot out from my mind what happened next!

For the king ripped from her gown the golden brooches

That were her ornament, and raised them, and plunged them
down

Straight into his own eyeballs, crying, “No more,

No more shall you look on the misery about me,

The horrors of my own doing! Too long you have known

The faces of those whom I should never have seen,

Too long been blind to those for whom I was searching!

From this hour, go in darkness!” And as he spoke,

He struck at his eyes—not once, but many times;

And the blood spattered his beard,

Bursting from his ruined sockets like red hail.

So from the unhappiness of two this evil has sprung,

A curse on the man and woman alike. The old

Happiness of the house of Labdakos

Was happiness enough: where is it today?

It is all wailing and ruin, disgrace, death—all

The misery of mankind that has a name—

And it is wholly and for ever theirs,

CHORAGOS. Is he in agony still? Is there no rest for him?

SECOND MESSENGER. He is calling for someone to open the doors

wide
So that all the children of Kadmos may look upon
His father’s murderer, his mother’s—no,

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I can not say it!

And then he will leave Thebes,

Self-exiled, in order that the curse
Which he himself pronounced may depart from the house.
He is weak, and there is none to lead him,
So terrible is his suffering,

But you will see:

Look, the doors are opening; in a moment

You will see a thing that would crush a heart of stone.

(The central door is opened; Oedipus, blinded, is led in.)

CHORAGOS. Dreadful indeed for men to see.

Never have my own eyes
Looked on a sight so full of fear.

Oedipus!
What madness came upon you, what demon
Leaped on your life with heavier
Punishment than a mortal man can bear?
No: I can not even
Look at you, poor ruined one.
And I would speak, question, ponder,
If T were able. No.
You make me shudder,

OEDIPUS. God. God.

Is there a sorrow greater?
Where shall I find harbor in this world?
My voice is hurled far on a dark wind.
What has God done to me?

CHORAGOS. Too terrible to think of, or to see.

Strophe 1

OEDIPUS. O cloud of night,

Never to be turned away: night coming on,
T can not tell how: night like a shroud!
My fair winds brought me here.
O God. Again
The pain of the spikes where I had sight,
The flooding pain
Of memory, never to be gouged out.

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CHORAGOS. This is not strange.

You suffer it all twice over, remorse in pain,

Pain in remorse.
Antistrophe 1

OEDIPUS. Ah dear friend 100

Are you faithful even yet, you alone?
Are you still standing near me, will you stay here,
Patient, to care for the blind?
The blind man!
Yet even blind I know who it is attends me,

By the voice’s tone—

Though my new darkness hide the comforter.

CHORAGOS. Oh fearful act!

What god was it drove you to rake black

Night across your eyes?

105

Strophe 2

OEDIPUS. Apollo. Apollo. Dear 110

Children, the god was Apollo.

He brought my sick, sick fate upon me.

But the blinding hand was my own!

How could I bear to see

When all my sight was horror everywhere? 115

CHORAGOS. Everywhere; that is true.
OEDIPUS. And now what is left?

Images? Love? A greeting even,

Sweet to the senses? Is there anything?

Ah, no, friends: lead me away.

Lead me away from Thebes.

120

Lead the great wreck

And hell of Oedipus, whom the gods hate.
CHORAGOS. Your misery, you are not blind to that.
Would God you had never found it out!

Antistrophe 2

OEDIPUS. Death take the man who unbound 125

My feet on that hillside i
And delivered me from death to life! What life?
SOPHOCLES El Oedipus Rex

If only I had died,

This weight of monstrous doom
Could not have dragged me and my darlings down.
CHORAGOS. 1 would have wished the same.
OEDIPUS. Oh never to have come here
With my father’s blood upon me! Never
To have been the man they call his mother’s husband!
Oh accurst! Oh child of evil,
To have entered that wretched bed—the selfsame one!
More primal than sin itself, this fell to me.
CHORAGOS. I do not know what words to offer you.
You were better dead than alive and blind.
OEDIPUS. Do not counsel me any more. This punishment
That I have laid upon myself is just.
If I had eyes,
I do not know how I could bear the sight
Of my father, when 1 came to the house of Death,
Or my mother: for I have sinned against them both
So vilely that I could not make my peace
By strangling my own life.

Or do you think my children,

Born as they were born, would be sweet to my eyes?

Ah never, never! Nor this town with its high walls,
Nor the holy images of the gods.

Thrice miserable!l—Oedipus, noblest of all the line

Of Kadmos, have condemned myself to enjoy
These things no more, by my own malediction
Expelling that man whom the gods declared
To be a defilement in the house of Laios.

After exposing the rankness of my own guilt,

How could I look men frankly in the eyes?

No, I swear it,

If T could have stifled my hearing at its source,

I would have done it and made all this body

A tight cell of misery, blank to light and sound:

So I should have been safe in my dark mind
Beyond external evil.

Ah Kithairon!

Why did you shelter me? When I was cast upon you,
Why did I not die? Then I should never
Have shown the world my execrable birth.

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SOPHOCLES 4] Oedipus Rex

Ah Polybos! Corinth, city that I believed

The ancient seat of my ancestors: how fair
I seemed, your child! And all the while this evil
Was cancerous within me!
For I am sick
In my own being, sick in my origin.
O three roads, dark ravine, woodland and way
Where three roads met; you, drinking my father’s blood,
My own blood, spilled by my own hand: can you remember
The unspeakable things I did there, and the things
I went on from there to do?
O marriage, marriage!
The act that engendered me, and again the act
Performed by the son in the same bed—
Ah, the net
Of incest, mingling fathers, brothers, sons,
With brides, wives, mothers: the last evil
That can be known by men: no tongue can say
How evil!
No. For the love of God, conceal me
Somewhere far from Thebes; or kill me; or hurl me
Into the sea, away from men’s eyes for ever.

Come, lead me. You need nor fear to touch me.

Of all men, I alone can bear this guilt.

(Enter Kreon.)
CHORAGOS. Kreon is here now. As to what you ask,

He may decide the course to take. He only

Is left to protect the city in your place.

OEDIPUS. Alas, how can I speak to him? What right have I

To beg his courtesy whom I have deeply wronged?

KREON. I have not come to mock you, Oedipus,

Or to reproach you, either.

(To Attendants.)— You, standing there:

If you have lost all respect for man’s dignity,

At least respect the flame of Lord Helios:

Do not allow this pollution to show itself

Openly here, an affront to the earth

%Helios: sun god.

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SOPHOCLES Gl Oedipus Rex

And Heaven's rain and the light of day. No, take him

Into the house as quickly as you can.

For it is proper

That only the close kindred see his grief.

OEDIPUS. I pray you in God’s name, since your courtesy

Ignores my dark expectation, visiting

With mercy this man of all men most execrable:

Give me what I ask—for your good, not for mine.

KREON. And what is it that you turn to me begging for?
OEDIPUS. Drive me out of this country as quickly as may be

To a place where no human voice can ever greet me.

KREON. I should have done that before now—only,

God’s will had not been wholly revealed to me.

OEDIPUS. But his command is plain: the parricide

Must be destroyed. I am that evil man.

KREON. That is the sense of it, yes; but as things are,

We had best discover clearly what is to be done.

OEDIPUS. You would learn more about a man like me?
KREON. You are ready now to listen to the god.

OEDIPUS. T will listen. But it is to you

That I must turn for help. I beg you, hear me.

The woman is there—

Give her whatever funeral you think proper:
She is your sister.

—But let me go, Kreon!

Let me purge my father’s Thebes of the pollution

Of my living here, and go out to the wild hills,

To Kithairon, that has won such fame with me,

The tomb my mother and father appointed for me,
And let me die there, as they willed I should.

And yet I know

Death will not ever come to me through sickness

Or in any natural way: I have been preserved

For some unthinkable fate. But let that be.

As for my sons, you need not care for them.

They are men, they will find some way to live.

But my poor daughters, who have shared my table,

Who never before have been parted from their father—
Take care of them, Kreon; do this for me.

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And will you let me touch them with my hands

A last time, and let us weep together?

Be kind, my lord,

Great prince, be kind!

Could I but touch them,

They would be mine again, as when I had my eyes.

(Enter Antigone and Ismene, attended.)

Ah, God!

Is it my dearest children I hear weeping?

Has Kreon pitied me and sent my daughters?

KREON. Yes, Oedipus: I knew that they were dear to you

In the old days, and know you must love them still.
OEDIPUS. May God bless you for this—and be a friendlier

Guardian to you than he has been to me!

Children, where are you?

Come quickly to my hands: they are your brother’s—

Hands that have brought your father’s once clear eyes
To this way of seeing—

Ah dearest ones,

I had neither sight nor knowledge then, your father

By the woman who was the source of his own life!
And I weep for you—having no strength to see you—,
I weep for you when I think of the bitterness

That men will visit upon you all your lives.

What homes, what festivals can you attend

Without being forced to depart again in tears?

And when you come to marriageable age,

Where is the man, my daughters, who would dare

Risk the bane that lies on all my children?

Is there any evil wanting? Your father killed

His father; sowed the womb of her who bore him;

Engendered you at the fount of his own existence!
That is what they will say of you.

Then, whom

Can you ever marry? There are no bridegrooms for you,

And your lives must wither away in sterile dreaming.

O Kreon, son of Menoikeus!

You are the only father my daughters have,

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Since we, their parents, are both of us gone for ever. 270
They are your own blood: you will not let them

Fall into beggary and loneliness;

You will keep them from the miseries that are mine!

Take pity on them; see, they are only children,

Friendless except for you. Promise me this, 275

Great prince, and give me your hand in token of it.

(Kreon clasps his right hand.)

Children:
I could say much, if you could understand me,
But as it is, I have only this prayer for you:
Live where you can, be as happy as you can— 280
Happier, please God, than God has made your father.
KREON. Enough. You have wept enough. Now go within.
OEDIPUS. I must, but it is hard.

KREON. Time eases all things.

OEDIPUS. You know my mind, then?

KREON. Say what you desire.

OEDIPUS. Send me from Thebes!

KREON. God grant that I may! 285

OEDIPUS. But since God hates me...

KREON. No, he will grant your wish.

OEDIPUS. You promise?

KREON. I can not speak beyond my knowledge.

OEDIPUS. Then lead me in.

KREON. Come now, and leave your children.

OEDIPUS. No! Do not take them from me!

KREON. Think no longer

That you are in command here, but rather think 290
How, when you were, you served your own destruction.

(Exeunt into the house all but the Chorus; the Choragos chants directly to the

audience.)

CHORAGOS. Men of Thebes: look upon Oedipus.

This is the king who solved the famous riddle
And towered up, most powerful of men.
No mortal eyes but looked on him with envy, 205
Yet in the end ruin swept over him.

Let every man in mankind’s frailty

Consider his last day; and let none
Presume on his good fortune until he find
Life, at his death, a memory without pain.

[c. 430 B.C.L.]

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