diff options
Diffstat (limited to '27673.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 27673.txt | 4274 |
1 files changed, 4274 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/27673.txt b/27673.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..16bc9ce --- /dev/null +++ b/27673.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4274 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oedipus King of Thebes, by Sophocles + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Oedipus King of Thebes + Translated into English Rhyming Verse with Explanatory Notes + +Author: Sophocles + +Translator: Gilbert Murray + +Release Date: December 31, 2008 [EBook #27673] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OEDIPUS KING OF THEBES *** + + + + +Produced by Sigal Alon, Turgut Dincer, R. Cedron and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + +OEDIPUS + +KING OF THEBES + +BY + +SOPHOCLES + + +TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH RHYMING VERSE + + WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES BY + +GILBERT MURRAY + +LL.D., D.LITT., F.B.A. + +REGIUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD + + +FOURTEENTH THOUSAND + + + LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD. + RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.1 + + + + _First published_ _February 1911_ + _Reprinted_ _January 1912_ + " _ " 1912_ + " _February 1912_ + " _July 1917_ + + + + +PREFACE + + +If I have turned aside from Euripides for a moment and attempted a +translation of the great stage masterpiece of Sophocles, my excuse must +be the fascination of this play, which has thrown its spell on me as on +many other translators. Yet I may plead also that as a rule every +diligent student of these great works can add something to the +discoveries of his predecessors, and I think I have been able to bring +out a few new points in the old and much-studied _Oedipus_, chiefly +points connected with the dramatic technique and the religious +atmosphere. + +Mythologists tell us that Oedipus was originally a daemon haunting Mount +Kithairon, and Jocasta a form of that Earth-Mother who, as Aeschylus +puts it, "bringeth all things to being, and when she hath reared them +receiveth again their seed into her body" (_Choephori_, 127: cf. +Crusius, _Beitraege z. Gr. Myth_, 21). That stage of the story lies very +far behind the consciousness of Sophocles. But there does cling about +both his hero and his heroine a great deal of very primitive atmosphere. +There are traces in Oedipus of the pre-hellenic Medicine King, the +_Basileus_ who is also a _Theos_, and can make rain or blue sky, +pestilence or fertility. This explains many things in the Priest's first +speech, in the attitude of the Chorus, and in Oedipus' own language +after the discovery. It partly explains the hostility of Apollo, who is +not a mere motiveless Destroyer but a true Olympian crushing his +Earth-born rival. And in the same way the peculiar royalty of Jocasta, +which makes Oedipus at times seem not the King but the Consort of the +Queen, brings her near to that class of consecrated queens described in +Dr. Frazer's _Lectures on the Kingship_, who are "honoured as no woman +now living on the earth." + +The story itself, and the whole spirit in which Sophocles has treated +it, belong not to the fifth century but to that terrible and romantic +past from which the fifth century poets usually drew their material. The +atmosphere of brooding dread, the pollution, the curses; the "insane and +beastlike cruelty," as an ancient Greek commentator calls it, of +piercing the exposed child's feet in order to ensure its death and yet +avoid having actually murdered it (_Schol. Eur. Phoen._, 26); the whole +treatment of the parricide and incest, not as moral offences capable of +being rationally judged or even excused as unintentional, but as +monstrous and inhuman pollutions, the last limit of imaginable horror: +all these things take us back to dark regions of pre-classical and even +pre-homeric belief. We have no right to suppose that Sophocles thought +of the involuntary parricide and metrogamy as the people in his play do. +Indeed, considering the general tone of his contemporaries and friends, +we may safely assume that he did not. But at any rate he has allowed no +breath of later enlightenment to disturb the primaeval gloom of his +atmosphere. + +Does this in any way make the tragedy insincere? I think not. We know +that people did feel and think about "pollution" in the way which +Sophocles represents; and if they so felt, then the tragedy was there. + + * * * * * + +I think these considerations explain the remarkable absence from this +play of any criticism of life or any definite moral judgment. I know +that some commentators have found in it a "humble and unquestioning +piety," but I cannot help suspecting that what they saw was only a +reflection from their own pious and unquestioning minds. Man is indeed +shown as a "plaything of Gods," but of Gods strangely and +incomprehensibly malignant, whose ways there is no attempt to explain or +justify. The original story, indeed, may have had one of its roots in a +Theban "moral tale." Aelian (_Varia Historia_, 2, 7) tells us that the +exposure of a child was forbidden by Theban Law. The state of feeling +which produced this law, against the immensely strong conception of the +_patria potestas_, may also have produced a folklore story telling how a +boy once was exposed, in a peculiarly cruel way, by his wicked parents, +and how Heaven preserved him to take upon both of them a vengeance which +showed that the unnatural father had no longer a father's sanctity nor +the unnatural mother a mother's. But, as far as Sophocles is concerned, +if anything in the nature of a criticism of life has been admitted into +the play at all, it seems to be only a flash or two of that profound and +pessimistic arraignment of the ruling powers which in other plays also +opens at times like a sudden abyss across the smooth surface of his art. + +There is not much philosophy in the _Oedipus_. There is not, in +comparison with other Greek plays, much pure poetry. What there is, is +drama; drama of amazing grandeur and power. In respect of plot no Greek +play comes near it. It contains no doubt a few points of unsophisticated +technique such as can be found in all ancient and nearly all modern +drama; for instance, the supposition that Oedipus has never inquired +into the death of his predecessor on the throne. But such flaws are +external, not essential. On the whole, I can only say that the work of +translation has made me feel even more strongly than before the +extraordinary grip and reality of the dialogue, the deftness of the +construction, and, except perhaps for a slight drop in the Creon scene, +the unbroken crescendo of tragedy from the opening to the close. + + * * * * * + +Where plot-interest is as strong as it is in the _Oedipus_, +character-interest is apt to be comparatively weak. Yet in this play +every character is interesting, vital, and distinct. Oedipus himself is +selected by Aristotle as the most effective kind of tragic hero, +because, first, he has been great and glorious, and secondly he has not +been "pre-eminently virtuous or just." This is true in its way. Oedipus +is too passionate to be just; but he is at least noble in his +impetuosity, his devotion, and his absolute truthfulness. It is +important to realise that at the beginning of the play he is prepared +for an oracle commanding him to die for his people (pp. 6, 7). And he +never thinks of refusing that "task" any more than he tries to elude the +doom that actually comes, or to conceal any fact that tells against him. +If Oedipus had been an ordinary man the play would have been a very +different and a much poorer thing. + +Jocasta is a wonderful study. Euripides might have brought her character +out more explicitly and more at length, but even he could not have made +her more living or more tragic, or represented more subtly in her +relation to Oedipus both the mother's protecting love and the mother's +authority. As for her "impiety," of which the old commentaries used to +speak with much disapproval, the essential fact in her life is that both +her innocence and her happiness have, as she believes, been poisoned by +the craft of priests. She and Laius both "believed a bad oracle": her +terror and her love for her husband made her consent to an infamous act +of cruelty to her own child, an act of which the thought sickens her +still, and about which she cannot, when she tries, speak the whole +truth. (See note on p. 42.) And after all her crime was for nothing! The +oracle proved to be a lie. Never again will she believe a priest. + +As to Tiresias, I wish to ask forgiveness for an unintelligent criticism +made twelve years ago in my _Ancient Greek Literature_, p. 240. I +assumed then, what I fancy was a common assumption, that Tiresias was a +"sympathetic" prophet, compact of wisdom and sanctity and all the +qualities which beseem that calling; and I complained that he did not +consistently act as such. I was quite wrong. Tiresias is not anything so +insipid. He is a study of a real type, and a type which all the +tragedians knew. The character of the professional seer or "man of God" +has in the imagination of most ages fluctuated between two poles. At one +extreme are sanctity and superhuman wisdom; at the other fraud and +mental disease, self-worship aping humility and personal malignity in +the guise of obedience to God. There is a touch of all these qualities, +good and bad alike, in Tiresias. He seems to me a most life-like as well +as a most dramatic figure. + +As to the Chorus, it generally plays a smaller part in Sophocles than in +Euripides and Aeschylus, and the _Oedipus_ forms no exception to that +rule. It seems to me that Sophocles was feeling his way towards a +technique which would have approached that of the New Comedy or even the +Elizabethan stage, and would perhaps have done without a Chorus +altogether. In Aeschylus Greek tragedy had been a thing of traditional +forms and clear-cut divisions; the religious ritual showed through, and +the visible gods and the disguised dancers were allowed their full +value. And Euripides in the matter of outward formalism went back to the +Aeschylean type and even beyond it: prologue, chorus, messenger, visible +god, all the traditional forms were left clear-cut and undisguised and +all developed to full effectiveness on separate and specific lines. But +Sophocles worked by blurring his structural outlines just as he blurs +the ends of his verses. In him the traditional divisions are all made +less distinct, all worked over in the direction of greater naturalness, +at any rate in externals. This was a very great gain, but of course some +price had to be paid for it. Part of the price was that Sophocles could +never attempt the tremendous choric effects which Euripides achieves in +such plays as the _Bacchae_ and the _Trojan Women_. His lyrics, great as +they sometimes are, move their wings less boldly. They seem somehow tied +to their particular place in the tragedy, and they have not quite the +strength to lift the whole drama bodily aloft with them.... At least +that is my feeling. But I realise that this may be only the complaint of +an unskilful translator, blaming his material for his own defects of +vision. + +In general, both in lyrics and in dialogue, I believe I have allowed +myself rather less freedom than in translating Euripides. This is partly +because the writing of Euripides, being less business-like and more +penetrated by philosophic reflections and by subtleties of technique, +actually needs more thorough re-casting to express it at all adequately; +partly because there is in Sophocles, amid all his passion and all his +naturalness, a certain severe and classic reticence, which, though +impossible really to reproduce by any method, is less misrepresented by +occasional insufficiency than by habitual redundance. + +I have asked pardon for an ill deed done twelve years ago. I should like +to end by speaking of a benefit older still, and express something of +the gratitude I feel to my old master, Francis Storr, whose teaching is +still vivid in my mind and who first opened my eyes to the grandeur of +the _Oedipus_. + +G. M. + + + + + CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY + + + OEDIPUS, _supposed son of Polybus, King of Corinth; now elected King of + Thebes._ + + JOCASTA, _Queen of Thebes; widow of Laius, the late King, and now wife + to Oedipus._ + + CREON, _a Prince of Thebes, brother to Jocasta._ + + TIRESIAS, _an old blind seer._ + + PRIEST OF ZEUS. + + A STRANGER _from Corinth._ + + A SHEPHERD _of King Laius._ + + A MESSENGER _from the Palace._ + + CHORUS of the Elders of Thebes. + + A Crowd of Suppliants, men, women, and children. + + + The following do not appear in the play but are frequently mentioned:-- + + LAIUS (_pronounced as three syllables, La-i-us_), _the last King of Thebes + before Oedipus._ + + CADMUS, _the founder of Thebes; son of Agenor, King of Sidon._ + + POLYBUS AND MEROPE, _King and Queen of Corinth, supposed to be the + father and mother of Oedipus._ + + APOLLO, _the God specially presiding over the oracle of Delphi and the + island Delos: he is also called_ PHOEBUS, _the pure;_ LOXIAS, + _supposed to mean "He of the Crooked Words"; and_ LYKEIOS, _supposed + to mean "Wolf-God." He is also the great Averter of Evil, and has + names from the cries "I-e" (pronounced "Ee-ay") and "Paian," cries + for healing or for the frightening away of evil influences._ + + KITHAIRON, _a mass of wild mountain south-west of Thebes._ + + + + +ARGUMENT + +While Thebes was under the rule of LAIUS and JOCASTA there appeared a +strange and monstrous creature, "the riddling Sphinx," "the She-Wolf of +the woven song," who in some unexplained way sang riddles of death and +slew the people of Thebes. LAIUS went to ask aid of the oracle of +Delphi, but was slain mysteriously on the road. Soon afterwards there +came to Thebes a young Prince of Corinth, OEDIPUS, who had left his home +and was wandering. He faced the Sphinx and read her riddle, whereupon +she flung herself from her rock and died. The throne being vacant was +offered to OEDIPUS, and with it the hand of the Queen, JOCASTA. + +Some ten or twelve years afterwards a pestilence has fallen on Thebes. +At this point the play begins. + + +_The date of the first production of the play is not known, but was +probably about the year 425 B.C._ + + + + +OEDIPUS, KING OF THEBES + + +SCENE.--_Before the Palace of_ OEDIPUS _at Thebes. A crowd of suppliants +of all ages are waiting by the altar in front and on the steps of the +Palace; among them the_ PRIEST OF ZEUS. _As the Palace door opens and_ +OEDIPUS _comes out all the suppliants with a cry move towards him in +attitudes of prayer, holding out their olive branches, and then become +still again as he speaks._ + + +OEDIPUS. + + My children, fruit of Cadmus' ancient tree + New springing, wherefore thus with bended knee + Press ye upon us, laden all with wreaths + And suppliant branches? And the city breathes + Heavy with incense, heavy with dim prayer + And shrieks to affright the Slayer.--Children, care + For this so moves me, I have scorned withal + Message or writing: seeing 'tis I ye call, + 'Tis I am come, world-honoured Oedipus. + Old Man, do thou declare--the rest have thus + Their champion--in what mood stand ye so still, + In dread or sure hope? Know ye not, my will + Is yours for aid 'gainst all? Stern were indeed + The heart that felt not for so dire a need. + +[Sidenote: vv. 15-39] + +PRIEST. + + O Oedipus, who holdest in thy hand + My city, thou canst see what ages stand + At these thine altars; some whose little wing + Scarce flieth yet, and some with long living + O'erburdened; priests, as I of Zeus am priest, + And chosen youths: and wailing hath not ceased + Of thousands in the market-place, and by + Athena's two-fold temples and the dry + Ash of Ismenus' portent-breathing shore. + For all our ship, thou see'st, is weak and sore + Shaken with storms, and no more lighteneth + Her head above the waves whose trough is death. + She wasteth in the fruitless buds of earth, + In parched herds and travail without birth + Of dying women: yea, and midst of it + A burning and a loathly god hath lit + Sudden, and sweeps our land, this Plague of power; + Till Cadmus' house grows empty, hour by hour, + And Hell's house rich with steam of tears and blood. + O King, not God indeed nor peer to God + We deem thee, that we kneel before thine hearth, + Children and old men, praying; but of earth + A thing consummate by thy star confessed + Thou walkest and by converse with the blest; + Who came to Thebes so swift, and swept away + The Sphinx's song, the tribute of dismay, + That all were bowed beneath, and made us free. + A stranger, thou, naught knowing more than we, + Nor taught of any man, but by God's breath + Filled, thou didst raise our life. So the world saith; + So we say. + +[Sidenote: vv. 40-69] + + Therefore now, O Lord and Chief, + We come to thee again; we lay our grief + On thy head, if thou find us not some aid. + Perchance thou hast heard Gods talking in the shade + Of night, or eke some man: to him that knows, + Men say, each chance that falls, each wind that blows + Hath life, when he seeks counsel. Up, O chief + Of men, and lift thy city from its grief; + Face thine own peril! All our land doth hold + Thee still our saviour, for that help of old: + Shall they that tell of thee hereafter tell + "By him was Thebes raised up, and after fell!" + Nay, lift us till we slip no more. Oh, let + That bird of old that made us fortunate + Wing back; be thou our Oedipus again. + And let thy kingdom be a land of men, + Not emptiness. Walls, towers, and ships, they all + Are nothing with no men to keep the wall. + +OEDIPUS. + + My poor, poor children! Surely long ago + I have read your trouble. Stricken, well I know, + Ye all are, stricken sore: yet verily + Not one so stricken to the heart as I. + Your grief, it cometh to each man apart + For his own loss, none other's; but this heart + For thee and me and all of us doth weep. + Wherefore it is not to one sunk in sleep + Ye come with waking. Many tears these days + For your sake I have wept, and many ways + Have wandered on the beating wings of thought. + And, finding but one hope, that I have sought + +[Sidenote: vv. 70-86] + + And followed. I have sent Menoikeus' son, + Creon, my own wife's brother, forth alone + To Apollo's House in Delphi, there to ask + What word, what deed of mine, what bitter task, + May save my city. + And the lapse of days + Reckoned, I can but marvel what delays + His journey. 'Tis beyond all thought that thus + He comes not, beyond need. But when he does, + Then call me false and traitor, if I flee + Back from whatever task God sheweth me. + +PRIEST. + + At point of time thou speakest. Mark the cheer + Yonder. Is that not Creon drawing near? + + [_They all crowd to gaze where_ CREON _is + approaching in the distance._ + +OEDIPUS. + + O Lord Apollo, help! And be the star + That guides him joyous as his seemings are! + + PRIEST. + + Oh! surely joyous! How else should he bear + That fruited laurel wreathed about his hair? + + OEDIPUS. + + We soon shall know.--'Tis not too far for one + Clear-voiced. + + (_Shouting_) Ho, brother! Prince! Menoikeus' son, + What message from the God? + +[Sidenote: vv. 87-99] + +CREON (from a distance). + + Message of joy! + +_Enter_ CREON + + I tell thee, what is now our worst annoy, + If the right deed be done, shall turn to good. + + [_The crowd, which has been full of excited + hope, falls to doubt and disappointment._ + +OEDIPUS. + + Nay, but what is the message? For my blood + Runs neither hot nor cold for words like those. + +CREON. + + Shall I speak now, with all these pressing close, + Or pass within?--To me both ways are fair. + +OEDIPUS. + + Speak forth to all! The grief that these men bear + Is more than any fear for mine own death. + +CREON. + + I speak then what I heard from God.--Thus saith + Phoebus, our Lord and Seer, in clear command. + An unclean thing there is, hid in our land, + Eating the soil thereof: this ye shall cast + Out, and not foster till all help be past. + +OEDIPUS. + + How cast it out? What was the evil deed? + +[Sidenote: vv. 100-113] + +CREON. + + Hunt the men out from Thebes, or make them bleed + Who slew. For blood it is that stirs to-day. + +OEDIPUS. + + Who was the man they killed? Doth Phoebus say? + +CREON. + + O King, there was of old King Laius + In Thebes, ere thou didst come to pilot us. + +OEDIPUS. + + I know: not that I ever saw his face. + +CREON. + + 'Twas he. And Loxias now bids us trace + And smite the unknown workers of his fall. + +OEDIPUS. + + Where in God's earth are they? Or how withal + Find the blurred trail of such an ancient stain? + +CREON. + + In Thebes, he said.--That which men seek amain + They find. 'Tis things forgotten that go by. + +OEDIPUS. + + And where did Laius meet them? Did he die + In Thebes, or in the hills, or some far land? + +[Sidenote: vv. 114-127] + +CREON. + + To ask God's will in Delphi he had planned + His journey. Started and returned no more. + +OEDIPUS. + + And came there nothing back? No message, nor + None of his company, that ye might hear? + +CREON. + + They all were slain, save one man; blind with fear + He came, remembering naught--or almost naught. + +OEDIPUS. + + And what was that? One thing has often brought + Others, could we but catch one little clue. + +CREON. + + 'Twas not one man, 'twas robbers--that he knew-- + Who barred the road and slew him: a great band. + +OEDIPUS. + + Robbers?... What robber, save the work was planned + By treason here, would dare a risk so plain? + +CREON. + + So some men thought. But Laius lay slain, + And none to avenge him in his evil day. + +[Sidenote: vv. 128-148] + +OEDIPUS. + + And what strange mischief, when your master lay + Thus fallen, held you back from search and deed? + +CREON. + + The dark-songed Sphinx was here. We had no heed + Of distant sorrows, having death so near. + +OEDIPUS. + + It falls on me then. I will search and clear + This darkness.--Well hath Phoebus done, and thou + Too, to recall that dead king, even now, + And with you for the right I also stand, + To obey the God and succour this dear land. + Nor is it as for one that touches me + Far off; 'tis for mine own sake I must see + This sin cast out. Whoe'er it was that slew + Laius, the same wild hand may seek me too: + And caring thus for Laius, is but care + For mine own blood.--Up! Leave this altar-stair, + Children. Take from it every suppliant bough. + Then call the folk of Thebes. Say, 'tis my vow + To uphold them to the end. So God shall crown + Our greatness, or for ever cast us down. + + [_He goes in to the Palace._ + +PRIEST. + + My children, rise.--The King most lovingly + Hath promised all we came for. And may He + +[Sidenote: vv. 149-161] + + Who sent this answer, Phoebus, come confessed + Helper to Thebes, and strong to stay the pest. + + [_The suppliants gather up their boughs and + stand at the side. The chorus of Theban + elders enter._ + +CHORUS. + + [_They speak of the Oracle which they have not + yet heard, and cry to_ APOLLO _by his + special cry "I-e."_ + + A Voice, a Voice, that is borne on the Holy Way! + What art thou, O Heavenly One, O Word of the Houses of Gold? + Thebes is bright with thee, and my heart it leapeth; yet is it cold, + And my spirit faints as I pray. + I-e! I-e! + What task, O Affrighter of Evil, what task shall thy people essay? + One new as our new-come affliction, + Or an old toil returned with the years? + Unveil thee, thou dread benediction, + Hope's daughter and Fear's. + + [_They pray to_ ATHENA, ARTEMIS, _and_ + APOLLO. + + Zeus-Child that knowest not death, to thee I pray, + O Pallas; next to thy Sister, who calleth Thebes her own, + Artemis, named of Fair Voices, who sitteth her orbed throne + In the throng of the market way: + +[Sidenote: vv. 162-189] + + And I-e! I-e! + Apollo, the Pure, the Far-smiter; O Three that keep evil away, + If of old for our city's desire, + When the death-cloud hung close to her brow, + Ye have banished the wound and the fire, + Oh! come to us now! + + [_They tell of the Pestilence._ + + Wounds beyond telling; my people sick unto death; + And where is the counsellor, where is the sword of thought? + And Holy Earth in her increase perisheth: + The child dies and the mother awaketh not. + I-e! I-e! + We have seen them, one on another, gone as a bird is gone, + Souls that are flame; yea, higher, + Swifter they pass than fire, + To the rocks of the dying Sun. + + [_They end by a prayer to_ ATHENA, + + Their city wasteth unnumbered; their children lie + Where death hath cast them, unpitied, unwept upon. + The altars stand, as in seas of storm a high + Rock standeth, and wives and mothers grey thereon + Weep, weep and pray. + Lo, joy-cries to fright the Destroyer; a flash in the dark they rise, + Then die by the sobs overladen. + Send help, O heaven-born Maiden, + Let us look on the light of her eyes! + +[Sidenote: vv. 190-217] + + [_To_ ZEUS, _that he drive out the Slayer,_ + + And Ares, the abhorred + Slayer, who bears no sword, + But shrieking, wrapped in fire, stands over me, + Make that he turn, yea, fly + Broken, wind-wasted, high + Down the vexed hollow of the Vaster Sea; + Or back to his own Thrace, + To harbour shelterless. + Where Night hath spared, he bringeth end by day. + Him, Him, O thou whose hand + Beareth the lightning brand, + O Father Zeus, now with thy thunder, slay and slay! + + [_To_ APOLLO, ARTEMIS, _and_ DIONYSUS. + + Where is thy gold-strung bow, + O Wolf-god, where the flow + Of living shafts unconquered, from all ills + Our helpers? Where the white + Spears of thy Sister's light, + Far-flashing as she walks the wolf-wild hills? + And thou, O Golden-crown, + Theban and named our own, + O Wine-gleam, Voice of Joy, for ever more + Ringed with thy Maenads white, + Bacchus, draw near and smite, + Smite with thy glad-eyed flame the God whom Gods abhor. + + [_During the last lines_ OEDIPUS _has + come out from the Palace._ + +OEDIPUS. + + Thou prayest: but my words if thou wilt hear + And bow thee to their judgement, strength is near + +[Sidenote: vv. 218-245] + + For help, and a great lightening of ill. + Thereof I come to speak, a stranger still + To all this tale, a stranger to the deed: + (Else, save that I were clueless, little need + Had I to cast my net so wide and far:) + Howbeit, I, being now as all ye are, + A Theban, to all Thebans high and low + Do make proclaim: if any here doth know + By what man's hand died Laius, your King, + Labdacus' son, I charge him that he bring + To me his knowledge. Let him feel no fear + If on a townsman's body he must clear + Our guilt: the man shall suffer no great ill, + But pass from Thebes, and live where else he will. + + [_No answer._ + + Is it some alien from an alien shore + Ye know to have done the deed, screen him no more! + Good guerdon waits you now and a King's love + Hereafter. + Hah! If still ye will not move + But, fearing for yourselves or some near friend, + Reject my charge, then hearken to what end + Ye drive me.--If in this place men there be + Who know and speak not, lo, I make decree + That, while in Thebes I bear the diadem, + No man shall greet, no man shall shelter them, + Nor give them water in their thirst, nor share + In sacrifice nor shrift nor dying prayer, + But thrust them from our doors, the thing they hide + Being this land's curse. Thus hath the God replied + This day to me from Delphi, and my sword + I draw thus for the dead and for God's word. + +[Sidenote: vv. 246-273] + + And lastly for the murderer, be it one + Hiding alone or more in unison, + I speak on him this curse: even as his soul + Is foul within him let his days be foul, + And life unfriended grind him till he die. + More: if he ever tread my hearth and I + Know it, be every curse upon my head + That I have spoke this day. + All I have said + I charge ye strictly to fulfil and make + Perfect, for my sake, for Apollo's sake, + And this land's sake, deserted of her fruit + And cast out from her gods. Nay, were all mute + At Delphi, still 'twere strange to leave the thing + Unfollowed, when a true man and a King + Lay murdered. All should search. But I, as now + Our fortunes fall--his crown is on my brow, + His wife lies in my arms, and common fate, + Had but his issue been more fortunate, + Might well have joined our children--since this red + Chance hath so stamped its heel on Laius' head, + I am his champion left, and, as I would + For mine own father, choose for ill or good + This quest, to find the man who slew of yore + Labdacus' son, the son of Polydore, + Son of great Cadmus whom Agenor old + Begat, of Thebes first master. And, behold, + For them that aid me not, I pray no root + Nor seed in earth may bear them corn nor fruit, + No wife bear children, but this present curse + Cleave to them close and other woes yet worse. + Enough: ye other people of the land, + +[Sidenote: vv. 274-289] + + Whose will is one with mine, may Justice stand + Your helper, and all gods for evermore. + + [_The crowd disperses._ + +LEADER. + + O King, even while thy curse yet hovers o'er + My head, I answer thee. I slew him not, + Nor can I shew the slayer. But, God wot, + If Phoebus sends this charge, let Phoebus read + Its meaning and reveal who did the deed. + +OEDIPUS. + + Aye, that were just, if of his grace he would + Reveal it. How shall man compel his God? + +LEADER. + + Second to that, methinks, 'twould help us most ... + +OEDIPUS. + + Though it be third, speak! Nothing should be lost. + +LEADER. + + To our High Seer on earth vision is given + Most like to that High Phoebus hath in heaven. + Ask of Tiresias: he could tell thee true. + +OEDIPUS. + + That also have I thought for. Aye, and two + Heralds have sent ere now. 'Twas Creon set + Me on.--I marvel that he comes not yet. + +[Sidenote: vv. 290-301] + +LEADER. + + Our other clues are weak, old signs and far. + +OEDIPUS. + + What signs? I needs must question all that are. + +LEADER. + + Some travellers slew him, the tale used to be. + +OEDIPUS. + + The tale, yes: but the witness, where is he? + +LEADER. + + The man hath heard thy curses. If he knows + The taste of fear, he will not long stay close. + +OEDIPUS. + + He fear my words, who never feared the deed? + +LEADER. + + Well, there is one shall find him.--See, they lead + Hither our Lord Tiresias, in whose mind + All truth is born, alone of human kind. + + [_Enter_ TIRESIAS _led by a young disciple. He is an old + blind man in a prophet's robe, dark, unkempt and + sinister in appearance._ + +OEDIPUS. + + Tiresias, thou whose mind divineth well + All Truth, the spoken and the unspeakable, + +[Sidenote: vv. 302-321] + + The things of heaven and them that walk the earth; + Our city ... thou canst see, for all thy dearth + Of outward eyes, what clouds are over her. + In which, O gracious Lord, no minister + Of help, no champion, can we find at all + Save thee. For Phoebus--thou hast heard withal + His message--to our envoy hath decreed + One only way of help in this great need: + To find and smite with death or banishing, + Him who smote Laius, our ancient King. + Oh, grudge us nothing! Question every cry + Of birds, and all roads else of prophecy + Thou knowest. Save our city: save thine own + Greatness: save me; save all that yet doth groan + Under the dead man's wrong! Lo, in thy hand + We lay us. And, methinks, no work so grand + Hath man yet compassed, as, with all he can + Of chance or power, to help his fellow man. + +TIRESIAS (_to himself_). + + Ah me! + A fearful thing is knowledge, when to know + Helpeth no end. I knew this long ago, + But crushed it dead. Else had I never come. + +OEDIPUS. + + What means this? Comest thou so deep in gloom? + +TIRESIAS. + + Let me go back! Thy work shall weigh on thee + The less, if thou consent, and mine on me. + +[Sidenote: vv. 322-336] + +OEDIPUS. + + Prophet, this is not lawful; nay, nor kind + To Thebes, who feeds thee, thus to veil thy mind. + +TIRESIAS. + + 'Tis that I like not thy mind, nor the way + It goeth. Therefore, lest I also stray.... + + [_He moves to go off._ OEDIPUS _bars his road._ + +OEDIPUS. + + Thou shalt not, knowing, turn and leave us! See, + We all implore thee, all, on bended knee. + +TIRESIAS. + + All without light!--And never light shall shine + On this dark evil that is mine ... and thine. + +OEDIPUS. + + What wilt thou? Know and speak not? In my need + Be false to me, and let thy city bleed? + +TIRESIAS. + + I will not wound myself nor thee. Why seek + To trap and question me? I will not speak. + +OEDIPUS. + + Thou devil! + + [_Movement of_ LEADER _to check him._ + + Nay; the wrath of any stone + Would rise at him. It lies with thee to have done + And speak. Is there no melting in thine eyes! + +[Sidenote: vv. 337-351] + +TIRESIAS. + + Naught lies with me! With thee, with thee there lies, + I warrant, what thou ne'er hast seen nor guessed. + +OEDIPUS (_to_ LEADER, _who tries to calm him._) + + How can I hear such talk?--he maketh jest + Of the land's woe--and keep mine anger dumb? + +TIRESIAS. + + Howe'er I hold it back, 'twill come, 'twill come. + +OEDIPUS. + + The more shouldst thou declare it to thy King. + +TIRESIAS. + + I speak no more. For thee, if passioning + Doth comfort thee, on, passion to thy fill! + + [_He moves to go._ + +OEDIPUS. + + 'Fore God, I am in wrath; and speak I will, + Nor stint what I see clear. 'Twas thou, 'twas thou, + Didst plan this murder; aye, and, save the blow, + Wrought it.--I know thou art blind; else I could swear + Thou, and thou only, art the murderer. + +TIRESIAS (_returning_). + + So?--I command thee by thine own word's power, + To stand accurst, and never from this hour + +[Sidenote: vv. 352-363] + + Speak word to me, nor yet to these who ring + Thy throne. Thou art thyself the unclean thing. + +OEDIPUS. + + Thou front of brass, to fling out injury + So wild! Dost think to bate me and go free? + +TIRESIAS. + + I am free. The strong truth is in this heart. + +OEDIPUS. + + What prompted thee? I swear 'twas not thine art. + +TIRESIAS. + + 'Twas thou. I spoke not, save for thy command. + +OEDIPUS. + + Spoke what? What was it? Let me understand. + +TIRESIAS. + + Dost tempt me? Were my words before not plain! + +OEDIPUS. + + Scarce thy full meaning. Speak the words again. + +TIRESIAS. + + Thou seek'st this man of blood: Thyself art he. + +OEDIPUS. + + 'Twill cost thee dear, twice to have stabbed at me! + +[Sidenote: vv. 364-377] + +TIRESIAS. + + Shall I say more, to see thee rage again? + +OEDIPUS. + + Oh, take thy fill of speech: 'twill all be vain. + +TIRESIAS. + + Thou livest with those near to thee in shame + Most deadly, seeing not thyself nor them. + +OEDIPUS. + + Thou think'st 'twill help thee, thus to speak and speak? + +TIRESIAS. + + Surely, until the strength of Truth be weak. + +OEDIPUS. + + 'Tis weak to none save thee. Thou hast no part + In truth, thou blind man, blind eyes, ears and heart. + +TIRESIAS. + + More blind, more sad thy words of scorn, which none + Who hears but shall cast back on thee: soon, soon. + +OEDIPUS. + + Thou spawn of Night, not I nor any free + And seeing man would hurt a thing like thee. + +TIRESIAS. + + God is enough.--'Tis not my doom to fall + By thee. He knows and shall accomplish all. + +[Sidenote: vv. 378-402] + +OEDIPUS (_with a flash of discovery_). + + Ha! Creon!--Is it his or thine, this plot? + +TIRESIAS. + + 'Tis thyself hates thee. Creon hates thee not. + +OEDIPUS. + + O wealth and majesty, O conquering skill + That carved life's rebel pathways to my will, + What is your heart but bitterness, if now + For this poor crown Thebes bound upon my brow, + A gift, a thing I sought not--for this crown + Creon the stern and true, Creon mine own + Comrade, comes creeping in the dark to ban + And slay me; sending first this magic-man + And schemer, this false beggar-priest, whose eye + Is bright for gold and blind for prophecy? + Speak, thou. When hast thou ever shown thee strong + For aid? The She-Wolf of the woven song + Came, and thy art could find no word, no breath, + To save thy people from her riddling death. + 'Twas scarce a secret, that, for common men + To unravel. There was need of Seer-craft then. + And thou hadst none to show. No fowl, no flame, + No God revealed it thee. 'Twas I that came, + Rude Oedipus, unlearned in wizard's lore, + And read her secret, and she spoke no more. + Whom now thou thinkest to hunt out, and stand + Foremost in honour at King Creon's hand. + I think ye will be sorry, thou and he + That shares thy sin-hunt. Thou dost look to me + +[Sidenote: vv. 403-424] + + An old man; else, I swear this day should bring + On thee the death thou plottest for thy King. + +LEADER. + + Lord Oedipus, these be but words of wrath, + All thou hast spoke and all the Prophet hath. + Which skills not. We must join, for ill or well, + In search how best to obey God's oracle. + +TIRESIAS. + + King though thou art, thou needs must bear the right + Of equal answer. Even in me is might + For thus much, seeing I live no thrall of thine, + But Lord Apollo's; neither do I sign + Where Creon bids me. + I am blind, and thou + Hast mocked my blindness. Yea, I will speak now. + Eyes hast thou, but thy deeds thou canst not see + Nor where thou art, nor what things dwell with thee. + Whence art thou born? Thou know'st not; and unknown, + On quick and dead, on all that were thine own, + Thou hast wrought hate. For that across thy path + Rising, a mother's and a father's wrath, + Two-handed, shod with fire, from the haunts of men + Shall scourge thee, in thine eyes now light, but then + Darkness. Aye, shriek! What harbour of the sea, + What wild Kithairon shall not cry to thee + In answer, when thou hear'st what bridal song, + What wind among the torches, bore thy strong + Sail to its haven, not of peace but blood. + Yea, ill things multitude on multitude + +[Sidenote: vv. 425-438] + + Thou seest not, which so soon shall lay thee low, + Low as thyself, low as thy children.--Go, + Heap scorn on Creon and my lips withal: + For this I tell thee, never was there fall + Of pride, nor shall be, like to thine this day. + +OEDIPUS. + + To brook such words from this thing? Out, I say! + Out to perdition! Aye, and quick, before ... + + [_The_ LEADER _restrains him_. + + Enough then!--Turn and get thee from my door. + +TIRESIAS. + + I had not come hadst thou not called me here. + +OEDIPUS. + + I knew thee not so dark a fool. I swear + 'Twere long before I called thee, had I known. + +TIRESIAS. + + Fool, say'st thou? Am I truly such an one? + The two who gave thee birth, they held me wise. + +OEDIPUS. + + Birth?... Stop! Who were they? Speak thy prophecies. + +TIRESIAS. + + This day shall give thee birth and blot thee out. + +[Sidenote: vv. 439-455] + +OEDIPUS. + + Oh, riddles everywhere and words of doubt! + +TIRESIAS. + + Aye. Thou wast their best reader long ago. + +OEDIPUS. + + Laugh on. I swear thou still shalt find me so. + +TIRESIAS. + + That makes thy pride and thy calamity. + +OEDIPUS. + + I have saved this land, and care not if I die. + +TIRESIAS. + + Then I will go.--Give me thine arm, my child. + +OEDIPUS. + + Aye, help him quick.--To see him there makes wild + My heart. Once gone, he will not vex me more. + +TIRESIAS (_turning again as he goes_). + + I fear thee not; nor will I go before + That word be spoken which I came to speak. + How canst thou ever touch me?--Thou dost seek + With threats and loud proclaim the man whose hand + Slew Laius. Lo, I tell thee, he doth stand + Here. He is called a stranger, but these days + Shall prove him Theban true, nor shall he praise + His birthright. Blind, who once had seeing eyes, + Beggared, who once had riches, in strange guise, + +[Sidenote: vv. 456-478] + + His staff groping before him, he shall crawl + O'er unknown earth, and voices round him call: + "Behold the brother-father of his own + Children, the seed, the sower and the sown, + Shame to his mother's blood, and to his sire + Son, murderer, incest-worker." + Cool thine ire + With thought of these, and if thou find that aught + Faileth, then hold my craft a thing of naught. + + [_He goes out._ OEDIPUS _returns to the Palace._ + +CHORUS. + + [_They sing of the unknown murderer,_ + + What man, what man is he whom the voice of Delphi's cell + Hath named of the bloody hand, of the deed no tongue may tell? + Let him fly, fly, for his need + Hath found him; oh, where is the speed + That flew with the winds of old, the team of North-Wind's spell? + For feet there be that follow. Yea, thunder-shod + And girt with fire he cometh, the Child of God; + And with him are they that fail not, the Sin-Hounds risen from Hell. + + For the mountain hath spoken, a voice hath flashed from amid the snows, + That the wrath of the world go seek for the man whom no man knows. + Is he fled to the wild forest, + To caves where the eagles nest? + O angry bull of the rocks, cast out from thy herd-fellows! + +[Sidenote: vv. 479-512] + + Rage in his heart, and rage across his way, + He toileth ever to beat from his ears away + The word that floateth about him, living, where'er he goes. + + [_And of the Prophet's strange accusation._ + + Yet strange, passing strange, the wise augur and his lore; + And my heart it cannot speak; I deny not nor assent, + But float, float in wonder at things after and before; + Did there lie between their houses some old wrath unspent, + That Corinth against Cadmus should do murder by the way? + No tale thereof they tell, nor no sign thereof they show; + Who dares to rise for vengeance and cast Oedipus away + For a dark, dark death long ago! + + Ah, Zeus knows, and Apollo, what is dark to mortal eyes; + They are Gods. But a prophet, hath he vision more than mine? + Who hath seen? Who can answer? There be wise men and unwise. + I will wait, I will wait, for the proving of the sign. + But I list not nor hearken when they speak Oedipus ill. + We saw his face of yore, when the riddling singer passed; + And we knew him that he loved us, and we saw him great in skill. + Oh, my heart shall uphold him to the last! + +[Sidenote: vv. 513-531] + +_Enter_ CREON. + +CREON. + + Good brother citizens, a frantic word + I hear is spoken by our chosen Lord + Oedipus against me, and here am come + Indignant. If he dreams, 'mid all this doom + That weighs upon us, he hath had from me + Or deed or lightest thought of injury, ... + 'Fore God, I have no care to see the sun + Longer with such a groaning name. Not one + Wound is it, but a multitude, if now + All Thebes must hold me guilty--aye, and thou + And all who loved me--of a deed so foul. + +LEADER. + + If words were spoken, it was scarce the soul + That spoke them: 'twas some sudden burst of wrath. + +CREON. + + The charge was made, then, that Tiresias hath + Made answer false, and that I bribed him, I? + +LEADER. + + It was--perchance for jest. I know not why. + +CREON. + + His heart beat true, his eyes looked steadily + And fell not, laying such a charge on me? + +LEADER. + + I know not. I have no eyes for the thing + My masters do.--But see, here comes the King. + +[Sidenote: vv. 532-550] + +_Enter_ OEDIPUS _from the Palace._ + +OEDIPUS. + + How now, assassin? Walking at my gate + With eye undimmed, thou plotter demonstrate + Against this life, and robber of my crown? + God help thee! Me! What was it set me down + Thy butt? So dull a brain hast found in me + Aforetime, such a faint heart, not to see + Thy work betimes, or seeing not to smite? + Art thou not rash, this once! It needeth might + Of friends, it needeth gold, to make a throne + Thy quarry; and I fear me thou hast none. + +CREON. + + One thing alone I ask thee. Let me speak + As thou hast spoken; then, with knowledge, wreak + Thy judgement. I accept it without fear. + +OEDIPUS. + + More skill hast thou to speak than I to hear + Thee. There is peril found in thee and hate. + +CREON. + + That one thing let me answer ere too late. + +OEDIPUS. + + One thing be sure of, that thy plots are known. + +CREON. + + The man who thinks that bitter pride alone + Can guide him, without thought--his mind is sick. + +[Sidenote: vv. 551-562] + +OEDIPUS. + + Who thinks to slay his brother with a trick + And suffer not himself, his eyes are blind. + +CREON. + + Thy words are more than just. But say what kind + Of wrong thou fanciest I have done thee. Speak. + +OEDIPUS. + + Didst urge me, or didst urge me not, to seek + A counsel from that man of prophecies? + +CREON. + + So judged I then, nor now judge otherwise. + +OEDIPUS. + + [_Suddenly seeing a mode of attack._ + + How many years have passed since Laius ... + + [_The words seem to choke him._ + +CREON. + + Speak on. I cannot understand thee thus. + +OEDIPUS. + + [_With an effort._ + + Passed in that bloody tempest from men's sight? + +CREON. + + Long years and old. I scarce can tell them right. + +OEDIPUS. + + At that time was this seer in Thebes, or how? + +[Sidenote: vv. 563-573] + +CREON. + + He was; most wise and honoured, even as now. + +OEDIPUS. + + At that time did he ever speak my name? + +CREON. + + No. To mine ear at least it never came. + +OEDIPUS. + + Held you no search for those who slew your King? + +CREON. + + For sure we did, but found not anything. + +OEDIPUS. + + How came the all-knowing seer to leave it so? + +CREON. + + Ask him! I speak not where I cannot know. + +OEDIPUS. + + One thing thou canst, with knowledge full, I wot. + +CREON. + + Speak it. If true, I will conceal it not. + +OEDIPUS. + + This: that until he talked with thee, the seer + Ne'er spoke of me as Laius' murderer. + +[Sidenote: vv. 574-589] + +CREON. + + I know not if he hath so spoken now. + I heard him not.--But let me ask and thou + Answer me true, as I have answered thee. + +OEDIPUS. + + Ask, ask! Thou shalt no murder find in me. + +CREON. + + My sister is thy wife this many a day? + +OEDIPUS. + + That charge it is not in me to gainsay. + +CREON. + + Thou reignest, giving equal reign to her? + +OEDIPUS. + + Always to her desire I minister. + +CREON. + + Were we not all as one, she thou and I? + +OEDIPUS. + + Yes, thou false friend! There lies thy treachery. + +CREON. + + Not so! Nay, do but follow me and scan + Thine own charge close. Think'st thou that any man + Would rather rule and be afraid than rule + And sleep untroubled? Nay, where lives the fool-- + +[Sidenote: vv. 590-613] + + I know them not nor am I one of them-- + Who careth more to bear a monarch's name + Than do a monarch's deeds? As now I stand + All my desire I compass at thy hand. + Were I the King, full half my deeds were done + To obey the will of others, not mine own. + Were that as sweet, when all the tale were told, + As this calm griefless princedom that I hold + And silent power? Am I so blind of brain + That ease with glory tires me, and I fain + Must change them? All men now give me God-speed, + All smile to greet me. If a man hath need + Of thee, 'tis me he calleth to the gate, + As knowing that on my word hangs the fate + Of half he craves. Is life like mine a thing + To cast aside and plot to be a King? + Doth a sane man turn villain in an hour? + For me, I never lusted thus for power + Nor bore with any man who turned such lust + To doing.--But enough. I claim but just + Question. Go first to Pytho; find if well + And true I did report God's oracle. + Next, seek in Thebes for any plots entwined + Between this seer and me; which if ye find, + Then seize and strike me dead. Myself that day + Will sit with thee as judge and bid thee Slay! + But damn me not on one man's guess.--'Tis all + Unjust: to call a traitor true, to call + A true man traitor with no cause nor end! + And this I tell thee. He who plucks a friend + Out from his heart hath lost a treasured thing + Dear as his own dear life. + But Time shall bring + +[Sidenote: vv. 614-626] + + Truth back. 'Tis Time alone can make men know + What hearts are true; the false one day can show. + +LEADER. + + To one that fears to fall his words are wise, + O King; in thought the swift win not the prize. + +OEDIPUS. + + When he is swift who steals against my reign + With plots, then swift am I to plot again. + Wait patient, and his work shall have prevailed + Before I move, and mine for ever failed. + +CREON. + + How then? To banish me is thy intent? + +OEDIPUS. + + Death is the doom I choose, not banishment. + +CREON. + + Wilt never soften, never trust thy friend? + +OEDIPUS. + + First I would see how traitors meet their end. + +CREON. + + I see thou wilt not think. + +OEDIPUS. + + I think to save + My life. + +[Sidenote: vv. 627-633] + +CREON. + + Think, too, of mine. + +OEDIPUS. + + Thine, thou born knave! + +CREON. + + Yes.... What, if thou art blind in everything? + +OEDIPUS. + + The King must be obeyed. + +CREON. + + Not if the King + Does evil. + +OEDIPUS. + + To your King! Ho, Thebes, mine own! + +CREON. + + Thebes is my country, not the King's alone. + + [OEDIPUS _has drawn his sword; the Chorus + show signs of breaking into two parties to + fight for_ OEDIPUS _or for_ CREON, _when + the door opens and_ JOCASTA _appears on the + steps._ + +LEADER. + + Stay, Princes, stay! See, on the Castle stair + The Queen Jocasta standeth. Show to her + Your strife. She will assuage it as is well. + +[Sidenote: vv. 634-648] + +JOCASTA. + + Vain men, what would ye with this angry swell + Of words heart-blinded? Is there in your eyes + No pity, thus, when all our city lies + Bleeding, to ply your privy hates?... Alack, + My lord, come in!--Thou, Creon, get thee back + To thine own house. And stir not to such stress + Of peril griefs that are but nothingness. + +CREON. + + Sister, it is the pleasure of thy lord, + Our King, to do me deadly wrong. His word + Is passed on me: 'tis banishment or death. + +OEDIPUS. + + I found him ... I deny not what he saith, + My Queen ... with craft and malice practising + Against my life. + +CREON. + + Ye Gods, if such a thing + Hath once been in my thoughts, may I no more + See any health on earth, but, festered o'er + With curses, die!--Have done. There is mine oath. + +JOCASTA. + + In God's name, Oedipus, believe him, both + For my sake, and for these whose hearts are all + Thine own, and for my brother's oath withal. + +[Sidenote: vv. 649-664] + +LEADER. [_Strophe._ + + Yield; consent; think! My Lord, I conjure thee! + +OEDIPUS. + + What would ye have me do? + +LEADER. + + Reject not one who never failed his troth + Of old and now is strong in his great oath. + +OEDIPUS. + + Dost know what this prayer means? + +LEADER. + + Yea, verily! + +OEDIPUS. + + Say then the meaning true. + +LEADER. + + I would not have thee cast to infamy + Of guilt, where none is proved, + One who hath sworn and whom thou once hast loved. + +OEDIPUS. + + 'Tis that ye seek? For me, then ... understand + Well ... ye seek death or exile from the land. + +LEADER. + + No, by the God of Gods, the all-seeing Sun! + May he desert me here, and every friend + With him, to death and utterest malison, + If e'er my heart could dream of such an end! + +[Sidenote: vv. 665-680] + + But it bleedeth, it bleedeth sore, + In a land half slain, + If we join to the griefs of yore + Griefs of you twain. + +OEDIPUS. + + Oh, let him go, though it be utterly + My death, or flight from Thebes in beggary. + 'Tis thy sad lips, not his, that make me know + Pity. Him I shall hate, where'er he go. + +CREON. + + I see thy mercy moving full of hate + And slow; thy wrath came swift and desperate. + Methinks, of all the pain that such a heart + Spreadeth, itself doth bear the bitterest part. + +OEDIPUS. + + Oh, leave me and begone! + +CREON. + + I go, wronged sore + By thee. These friends will trust me as before. + + [CREON _goes._ OEDIPUS _stands apart lost in + trouble of mind._ + +LEADER. [_Antistrophe._ + + Queen, wilt thou lead him to his house again? + +JOCASTA. + + I will, when I have heard. + +[Sidenote: vv. 681-696] + +LEADER. + + There fell some word, some blind imagining + Between them. Things known foolish yet can sting. + +JOCASTA. + + From both the twain it rose? + +LEADER. + + From both the twain. + +JOCASTA. + + Aye, and what was the word? + +LEADER. + + Surely there is enough of evil stirred, + And Thebes heaves on the swell + Of storm.--Oh, leave this lying where it fell. + +OEDIPUS. + + So be it, thou wise counsellor! Make slight + My wrong, and blunt my purpose ere it smite. + +LEADER. + + O King, not once I have answered. Visibly + Mad were I, lost to all wise usages, + To seek to cast thee from us. 'Twas from thee + We saw of old blue sky and summer seas, + When Thebes in the storm and rain + Reeled, like to die. + Oh, if thou canst, again + Blue sky, blue sky...! + +[Sidenote: vv. 697-713] + +JOCASTA. + + Husband, in God's name, say what hath ensued + Of ill, that thou shouldst seek so dire a feud. + +OEDIPUS. + + I will, wife. I have more regard for thee + Than these.--Thy brother plots to murder me. + +JOCASTA. + + Speak on. Make all thy charge. Only be clear. + +OEDIPUS. + + He says that I am Laius' murderer. + +JOCASTA. + + Says it himself? Says he hath witnesses? + +OEDIPUS. + + Nay, of himself he ventures nothing. 'Tis + This priest, this hellish seer, makes all the tale. + +JOCASTA. + + The seer?--Then tear thy terrors like a veil + And take free breath. A seer? No human thing + Born on the earth hath power for conjuring + Truth from the dark of God. + Come, I will tell + An old tale. There came once an oracle + To Laius: I say not from the God + Himself, but from the priests and seers who trod + His sanctuary: if ever son were bred + From him and me, by that son's hand, it said, + +[Sidenote: vv. 714-732] + + Laius must die. And he, the tale yet stays + Among us, at the crossing of three ways + Was slain by robbers, strangers. And my son-- + God's mercy!--scarcely the third day was gone + When Laius took, and by another's hand + Out on the desert mountain, where the land + Is rock, cast him to die. Through both his feet + A blade of iron they drove. Thus did we cheat + Apollo of his will. My child could slay + No father, and the King could cast away + The fear that dogged him, by his child to die + Murdered.--Behold the fruits of prophecy! + Which heed not thou! God needs not that a seer + Help him, when he would make his dark things clear. + +OEDIPUS. + + Woman, what turmoil hath thy story wrought + Within me! What up-stirring of old thought! + +JOCASTA. + + What thought? It turns thee like a frightened thing. + +OEDIPUS. + + 'Twas at the crossing of three ways this King + Was murdered? So I heard or so I thought. + +JOCASTA. + + That was the tale. It is not yet forgot. + +OEDIPUS. + + The crossing of three ways! And in what land? + +[Sidenote: vv. 733-746] + +JOCASTA. + + Phokis 'tis called. A road on either hand + From Delphi comes and Daulia, in a glen. + +OEDIPUS. + +How many years and months have passed since then? + +JOCASTA. + + 'Twas but a little time before proclaim + Was made of thee for king, the tidings came. + +OEDIPUS. + + My God, what hast thou willed to do with me? + +JOCASTA. + + Oedipus, speak! What is it troubles thee? + +OEDIPUS. + + Ask me not yet. But say, what build, what height + Had Laius? Rode he full of youth and might? + +JOCASTA. + + Tall, with the white new gleaming on his brow + He walked. In shape just such a man as thou. + +OEDIPUS. + + God help me! I much fear that I have wrought + A curse on mine own head, and knew it not. + +JOCASTA. + + How sayst thou? O my King, I look on thee + And tremble. + +[Sidenote: vv. 747-760] + +OEDIPUS (_to himself_). + + Horror, if the blind can see! + Answer but one thing and 'twill all be clear. + +JOCASTA. + + Speak. I will answer though I shake with fear. + +OEDIPUS. + + Went he with scant array, or a great band + Of armed followers, like a lord of land? + +JOCASTA. + + Four men were with him, one a herald; one + Chariot there was, where Laius rode alone. + +OEDIPUS. + + Aye me! Tis clear now. + Woman, who could bring + To Thebes the story of that manslaying? + +JOCASTA. + + A house-thrall, the one man they failed to slay. + +OEDIPUS. + + The one man...? Is he in the house to-day? + +JOCASTA. + + Indeed no. When he came that day, and found + Thee on the throne where once sat Laius crowned, + He took my hand and prayed me earnestly + +[Sidenote: vv. 761-779] + + To send him to the mountain heights, to be + A herdsman, far from any sight or call + Of Thebes. And there I sent him. 'Twas a thrall + Good-hearted, worthy a far greater boon. + +OEDIPUS. + + Canst find him? I would see this herd, and soon. + +JOCASTA. + + 'Tis easy. But what wouldst thou with the herd? + +OEDIPUS. + + I fear mine own voice, lest it spoke a word + Too much; whereof this man must tell me true. + +JOCASTA. + + The man shall come.--My lord, methinks I too + Should know what fear doth work thee this despite. + +OEDIPUS. + + Thou shalt. When I am tossed to such an height + Of dark foreboding, woman, when my mind + Faceth such straits as these, where should I find + A mightier love than thine? + My father--thus + I tell thee the whole tale--was Polybus, + In Corinth King; my mother Merope + Of Dorian line. And I was held to be + The proudest in Corinthia, till one day + A thing befell: strange was it, but no way + Meet for such wonder and such rage as mine. + A feast it was, and some one flushed with wine + +[Sidenote: vv. 780-807] + + Cried out at me that I was no true son + Of Polybus. Oh, I was wroth! That one + Day I kept silence, but the morrow morn + I sought my parents, told that tale of scorn + And claimed the truth; and they rose in their pride + And smote the mocker.... Aye, they satisfied + All my desire; yet still the cavil gnawed + My heart, and still the story crept abroad. + At last I rose--my father knew not, nor + My mother--and went forth to Pytho's floor + To ask. And God in that for which I came + Rejected me, but round me, like a flame, + His voice flashed other answers, things of woe, + Terror, and desolation. I must know + My mother's body and beget thereon + A race no mortal eye durst look upon, + And spill in murder mine own father's blood. + I heard, and, hearing, straight from where I stood, + No landmark but the stars to light my way, + Fled, fled from the dark south where Corinth lay, + To lands far off, where never I might see + My doom of scorn fulfilled. On bitterly + I strode, and reached the region where, so saith + Thy tale, that King of Thebes was struck to death.... + Wife, I will tell thee true. As one in daze + I walked, till, at the crossing of three ways, + A herald, like thy tale, and o'er his head + A man behind strong horses charioted + Met me. And both would turn me from the path, + He and a thrall in front. And I in wrath + Smote him that pushed me--'twas a groom who led + The horses. Not a word the master said, + +[Sidenote: vv. 808-828] + + But watched, and as I passed him on the road + Down on my head his iron-branched goad + Stabbed. But, by heaven, he rued it! In a flash + I swung my staff and saw the old man crash + Back from his car in blood.... Then all of them + I slew. + Oh, if that man's unspoken name + Had aught of Laius in him, in God's eye + What man doth move more miserable than I, + More dogged by the hate of heaven! No man, kin + Nor stranger, any more may take me in; + No man may greet me with a word, but all + Cast me from out their houses. And withal + 'Twas mine own self that laid upon my life + These curses.--And I hold the dead man's wife + In these polluting arms that spilt his soul.... + Am I a thing born evil? Am I foul + In every vein? Thebes now doth banish me, + And never in this exile must I see + Mine ancient folk of Corinth, never tread + The land that bore me; else my mother's bed + Shall be defiled, and Polybus, my good + Father, who loved me well, be rolled in blood. + If one should dream that such a world began + In some slow devil's heart, that hated man, + Who should deny him?--God, as thou art clean, + Suffer not this, oh, suffer not this sin + To be, that e'er I look on such a day! + Out of all vision of mankind away + To darkness let me fall ere such a fate + Touch me, so unclean and so desolate! + +[Sidenote: vv. 829-850] + +LEADER. + + I tremble too, O King; but till thou hear + From him who saw, oh, let hope conquer fear. + +OEDIPUS. + + One shred of hope I still have, and therefore + Will wait the herdsman's coming. 'Tis no more. + +JOCASTA. + + He shall come. But what further dost thou seek? + +OEDIPUS. + + This. If we mark him close and find him speak + As thou hast, then I am lifted from my dread. + +JOCASTA. + + What mean'st thou? Was there something that I said...? + +OEDIPUS. + + Thou said'st he spoke of robbers, a great band, + That slaughtered Laius' men. If still he stand + To the same tale, the guilt comes not my way. + One cannot be a band. But if he say + One lonely loin-girt man, then visibly + This is God's finger pointing toward me. + +JOCASTA. + + Be sure of this. He told the story so + When first he came. All they that heard him know, + +[Sidenote: vv. 850-870] + + Not only I. He cannot change again + Now. And if change he should, O Lord of men, + No change of his can make the prophecy + Of Laius' death fall true. He was to die + Slain by my son. So Loxias spake.... My son! + He slew no man, that poor deserted one + That died.... And I will no more turn mine eyes + This way nor that for all their prophecies. + +OEDIPUS. + + Woman, thou counsellest well. Yet let it not + Escape thee. Send and have the herdsman brought. + +JOCASTA. + + That will I.--Come. Thou knowest I ne'er would do + Nor think of aught, save thou wouldst have it so. + + [JOCASTA _and_ OEDIPUS _go together into the Palace._ + +CHORUS. + + [_They pray to be free from such great sins as + they have just heard spoken of._ + + [_Strophe._ + + Toward God's great mysteries, oh, let me move + Unstained till I die + In speech or doing; for the Laws thereof + Are holy, walkers upon ways above, + Born in the far blue sky; + + Their father is Olympus uncreate; + No man hath made nor told + Their being; neither shall Oblivion set + +[Sidenote: vv. 870-893] + + Sleep on their eyes, for in them lives a great + Spirit and grows not old. [_Antistrophe._ + + [_They wonder if these sins be all due to pride + and if_ CREON _has guilty ambitions;_ + + 'Tis Pride that breeds the tyrant; drunken deep + With perilous things is she, + Which bring not peace: up, reeling, steep on steep + She climbs, till lo, the rock-edge, and the leap + To that which needs must be, + + The land where the strong foot is no more strong! + Yet is there surely Pride + That saves a city; God preserve it long! + I judge not. Only through all maze of wrong + Be God, not man, my guide. [_Strophe._ + + [_Or if_ TIRESIAS _can really be a lying prophet with + no fear of God; they feel that all faith in + oracles and the things of God is shaken._ + + Is there a priest who moves amid the altars + Ruthless in deed and word, + Fears not the presence of his god, nor falters + Lest Right at last be heard? + If such there be, oh, let some doom be given + Meet for his ill-starred pride, + Who will not gain his gain where Justice is, + Who will not hold his lips from blasphemies, + Who hurls rash hands amid the things of heaven + From man's touch sanctified. + + In a world where such things be, + What spirit hath shield or lance + +[Sidenote: vv. 893-916] + + To ward him secretly + From the arrow that slays askance? + If honour to such things be, + Why should I dance my dance? + + [_Antistrophe._ + + I go no more with prayers and adorations + To Earth's deep Heart of Stone, + Nor yet the Abantes' floor, nor where the nations + Kneel at Olympia's throne, + Till all this dark be lightened, for the finger + Of man to touch and know. + O Thou that rulest--if men rightly call + Thy name on earth--O Zeus, thou Lord of all + And Strength undying, let not these things linger + Unknown, tossed to and fro. + + For faint is the oracle, + And they thrust it aside, away; + And no more visible + Apollo to save or slay; + And the things of God, they fail + As mist on the wind away. + + [JOCASTA _comes out from the Palace followed + by handmaids bearing incense and flowers._ + +JOCASTA. + + Lords of the land, the ways my thought hath trod + Lead me in worship to these shrines of God + With flowers and incense flame. So dire a storm + Doth shake the King, sin, dread and every form + Of grief the world knows. 'Tis the wise man's way + To judge the morrow by the yester day; + +[Sidenote: vv. 917-933] + + Which he doth never, but gives eye and ear + To all who speak, will they but speak of fear. + And seeing no word of mine hath power to heal + His torment, therefore forth to thee I steal, + O Slayer of the Wolf, O Lord of Light, + Apollo: thou art near us, and of right + Dost hold us thine: to thee in prayer I fall. + + [_She kneels at the altar of Apollo Lukeios._ + + Oh, show us still some path that is not all + Unclean; for now our captain's eyes are dim + With dread, and the whole ship must follow him. + + [_While she prays a_ STRANGER _has entered and + begins to accost the Chorus._ + +STRANGER. + + Good masters, is there one of you could bring + My steps to the house of Oedipus, your King? + Or, better, to himself if that may be? + +LEADER. + + This is the house and he within; and she + Thou seest, the mother of his royal seed. + + [JOCASTA _rises, anxious, from her prayer._ + +STRANGER. + + Being wife to such a man, happy indeed + And ringed with happy faces may she live! + +JOCASTA. + + To one so fair of speech may the Gods give + Like blessing, courteous stranger; 'tis thy due. + But say what leads thee hither. Can we do + Thy wish in aught, or hast thou news to bring? + +[Sidenote: vv. 934-947] + +STRANGER. + + Good news, O Queen, for thee and for the King. + +JOCASTA. + + What is it? And from what prince comest thou? + +STRANGER. + + I come from Corinth.--And my tale, I trow, + Will give thee joy, yet haply also pain. + +JOCASTA. + + What news can have that twofold power? Be plain. + +STRANGER. + + 'Tis spoke in Corinth that the gathering + Of folk will make thy lord our chosen King. + +JOCASTA. + + How? Is old Polybus in power no more? + +STRANGER. + + Death has a greater power. His reign is o'er. + +JOCASTA. + + What say'st thou? Dead?... Oedipus' father dead? + +STRANGER. + + If I speak false, let me die in his stead. + +JOCASTA. + + Ho, maiden! To our master! Hie thee fast + And tell this tale. + + [_The maiden goes._ + + Where stand ye at the last + +[Sidenote: vv. 948-961] + + Ye oracles of God? For many a year + Oedipus fled before that man, in fear + To slay him. And behold we find him thus + Slain by a chance death, not by Oedipus. + + [OEDIPUS _comes out from the Palace._ + +OEDIPUS. + + O wife, O face I love to look upon, + Why call'st thou me from where I sat alone? + +JOCASTA. + + Give ear, and ponder from what this man tells + How end these proud priests and their oracles. + +OEDIPUS. + + Whence comes he? And what word hath he for us? + +JOCASTA. + + From Corinth; bearing news that Polybus + Thy father is no more. He has found his death. + +OEDIPUS. + + How?--Stranger, speak thyself. This that she saith ... + +STRANGER. + + Is sure. If that is the first news ye crave, + I tell thee, Polybus lieth in his grave. + +OEDIPUS. + + Not murdered?... How? Some passing of disease? + +STRANGER. + + A slight thing turns an old life to its peace. + +[Sidenote: vv. 962-978] + +OEDIPUS. + + Poor father!... 'Tis by sickness he is dead? + +STRANGER. + + The growing years lay heavy on his head. + +OEDIPUS. + + O wife, why then should man fear any more + The voice of Pytho's dome, or cower before + These birds that shriek above us? They foretold + Me for my father's murderer; and behold, + He lies in Corinth dead, and here am I + And never touched the sword.... Or did he die + In grief for me who left him? In that way + I may have wrought his death.... But come what may, + He sleepeth in his grave and with him all + This deadly seercraft, of no worth at all. + +JOCASTA. + + Dear Lord, long since did I not show thee clear...? + +OEDIPUS. + + Indeed, yes. I was warped by mine own fear. + +JOCASTA. + + Now thou wilt cast it from thee, and forget. + +OEDIPUS. + + Forget my mother?... It is not over yet. + +JOCASTA. + + What should man do with fear, who hath but Chance + Above him, and no sight nor governance + +[Sidenote: vv. 979-993] + + Of things to be? To live as life may run, + No fear, no fret, were wisest 'neath the sun. + And thou, fear not thy mother. Prophets deem + A deed wrought that is wrought but in a dream. + And he to whom these things are nothing, best + Will bear his burden. + +OEDIPUS. + + All thou counsellest + Were good, save that my mother liveth still. + And, though thy words be wise, for good or ill + Her I still fear. + +JOCASTA. + + Think of thy father's tomb! + Like light across our darkness it hath come. + +OEDIPUS. + + Great light; but while she lives I fly from her. + +STRANGER. + + What woman, Prince, doth fill thee so with fear? + +OEDIPUS. + + Merope, friend, who dwelt with Polybus. + +STRANGER. + + What in Queen Merope should fright thee thus? + +OEDIPUS. + + A voice of God, stranger, of dire import. + +STRANGER. + + Meet for mine ears? Or of some secret sort? + +[Sidenote: vv. 994-1009] + +OEDIPUS. + + Nay, thou must hear, and Corinth. Long ago + Apollo spake a doom, that I should know + My mother's flesh, and with mine own hand spill + My father's blood.--'Tis that, and not my will, + Hath kept me always far from Corinth. So; + Life hath dealt kindly with me, yet men know + On earth no comfort like a mother's face. + +STRANGER. + + 'Tis that, hath kept thee exiled in this place? + +OEDIPUS. + + That, and the fear too of my father's blood. + +STRANGER. + + Then, surely, Lord ... I came but for thy good ... + 'Twere well if from that fear I set thee free. + +OEDIPUS. + + Ah, couldst thou! There were rich reward for thee. + +STRANGER. + + To say truth, I had hoped to lead thee home + Now, and myself to get some good therefrom. + +OEDIPUS. + + Nay; where my parents are I will not go. + +STRANGER. + + My son, 'tis very clear thou dost not know + What road thou goest. + +OEDIPUS. + + How? In God's name, say! + How clear? + +[Sidenote: vv. 1010-1019] + +STRANGER. + + 'Tis this, keeps thee so long away + From Corinth? + +OEDIPUS. + + 'Tis the fear lest that word break + One day upon me true. + +STRANGER. + + Fear lest thou take + Defilement from the two that gave thee birth? + +OEDIPUS. + + 'Tis that, old man, 'tis that doth fill the earth + With terror. + +STRANGER. + + Then thy terror all hath been + For nothing. + +OEDIPUS. + + How? Were not your King and Queen + My parents? + +STRANGER. + + Polybus was naught to thee + In blood. + +OEDIPUS. + + How? He, my father! + +STRANGER. + + That was he + As much as I, but no more. + +OEDIPUS. + + Thou art naught; + 'Twas he begot me. + +[Sidenote: vv. 1020-1028] + +STRANGER. + + 'Twas not I begot + Oedipus, neither was it he. + +OEDIPUS. + + What wild + Fancy, then, made him name me for his child? + +STRANGER. + + Thou wast his child--by gift. Long years ago + Mine own hand brought thee to him. + +OEDIPUS. + + Coming so, + From a strange hand, he gave me that great love? + +STRANGER. + + He had no child, and the desire thereof + Held him. + +OEDIPUS. + + And thou didst find somewhere--or buy-- + A child for him? + +STRANGER. + + I found it in a high + Glen of Kithairon. + + [_Movement of_ JOCASTA, _who stands riveted + with dread, unnoticed by the others._ + +OEDIPUS. + + Yonder? To what end + Wast travelling in these parts? + +STRANGER. + + I came to tend + The flocks here on the mountain. + +[Sidenote: vv. 1029-1037] + +OEDIPUS. + + Thou wast one + That wandered, tending sheep for hire? + +STRANGER. + + My son, + That day I was the saviour of a King. + +OEDIPUS. + + How saviour? Was I in some suffering + Or peril? + +STRANGER. + + Thine own feet a tale could speak. + +OEDIPUS. + + Ah me! What ancient pain stirs half awake + Within me! + +STRANGER. + + 'Twas a spike through both thy feet. + I set thee free. + +OEDIPUS. + + A strange scorn that, to greet + A babe new on the earth! + +STRANGER. + + From that they fain + Must call thee Oedipus, "_Who-walks-in-pain_." + +OEDIPUS. + + Who called me so--father or mother? Oh, + In God's name, speak! + +[Sidenote: vv. 1038-1046] + +STRANGER. + + I know not. He should know + Who brought thee. + +OEDIPUS. + + So: I was not found by thee. + Thou hadst me from another? + +STRANGER. + + Aye; to me + One of the shepherds gave the babe, to bear + Far off. + +OEDIPUS. + + What shepherd? Know'st thou not? Declare + All that thou knowest. + +STRANGER. + + By my memory, then, + I think they called him one of Laius' men. + +OEDIPUS. + + That Laius who was king in Thebes of old? + +STRANGER. + + The same. My man did herding in his fold. + +OEDIPUS. + + Is he yet living? Can I see his face? + +STRANGER. + + [_Turning to the Chorus._ + + Ye will know that, being natives to the place. + +[Sidenote: vv. 1047-1062] + +OEDIPUS. + + How?--Is there one of you within my pale + Standing, that knows the shepherd of his tale? + Ye have seen him on the hills? Or in this town? + Speak! For the hour is come that all be known. + +LEADER. + + I think 'twill be the Peasant Man, the same, + Thou hast sought long time to see.--His place and name + Our mistress, if she will, can tell most clear. + + [JOCASTA _remains as if she heard nothing._ + +OEDIPUS. + + Thou hear'st him, wife. The herd whose presence here + We craved for, is it he this man would say? + +JOCASTA. + + He saith ... What of it? Ask not; only pray + Not to remember.... Tales are vainly told. + +OEDIPUS. + + 'Tis mine own birth. How can I, when I hold + Such clues as these, refrain from knowing all? + +JOCASTA. + + For God's love, no! Not if thou car'st at all + For thine own life.... My anguish is enough. + +OEDIPUS (_bitterly_). + + Fear not!... Though I be thrice of slavish stuff + From my third grand-dam down, it shames not thee. + +[Sidenote: vv. 1063-1075] + +JOCASTA. + + Ask no more. I beseech thee.... Promise me! + +OEDIPUS. + + To leave the Truth half-found? 'Tis not my mood. + +JOCASTA. + + I understand; and tell thee what is good. + +OEDIPUS. + + Thy good doth weary me. + +JOCASTA. + + O child of woe, + I pray God, I pray God, thou never know! + +OEDIPUS (_turning from her_). + + Go, fetch the herdsman straight!--This Queen of mine + May walk alone to boast her royal line. + +JOCASTA. + + [_She twice draws in her breath through her + teeth, as if in some sharp pain._ + + Unhappy one, goodbye! Goodbye before + I go: this once, and never never more! + + [_She comes towards him as though to take a last + farewell, then stops suddenly, turns, and + rushes into the Palace._ + +LEADER. + + King, what was that? She passed like one who flies + In very anguish. Dread is o'er mine eyes + Lest from this silence break some storm of wrong. + +[Sidenote: vv. 1076-1097] + +OEDIPUS. + + Break what break will! My mind abideth strong + To know the roots, how low soe'er they be, + Which grew to Oedipus. This woman, she + Is proud, methinks, and fears my birth and name + Will mar her nobleness. But I, no shame + Can ever touch me. I am Fortune's child, + Not man's; her mother face hath ever smiled + Above me, and my brethren of the sky, + The changing Moons, have changed me low and high. + There is my lineage true, which none shall wrest + From me; who then am I to fear this quest? + +CHORUS. + + [_They sing_ OEDIPUS _as the foundling of their + own Theban mountain, Kithairon, and + doubtless of divine birth._ + + [_Strophe._ + + If I, O Kithairon, some vision can borrow + From seercraft, if still there is wit in the old, + Long, long, through the deep-orbed Moon of the morrow-- + So hear me, Olympus!--thy tale shall be told. + O mountain of Thebes, a new Theban shall praise thee, + One born of thy bosom, one nursed at thy springs; + And the old men shall dance to thy glory, and raise thee + To worship, O bearer of joy to my kings. + And thou, we pray, + Look down in peace, O Apollo; I-e, I-e! + +[Sidenote: vv. 1098-1120] + + [_Antistrophe._ + + What Oread mother, unaging, unweeping, + Did bear thee, O Babe, to the Crag-walker Pan; + Or perchance to Apollo? He loveth the leaping + Of herds on the rock-ways unhaunted of man. + Or was it the lord of Cyllene, who found thee, + Or glad Dionysus, whose home is the height, + Who knew thee his own on the mountain, as round thee + The White Brides of Helicon laughed for delight? + 'Tis there, 'tis there, + The joy most liveth of all his dance and prayer. + + +OEDIPUS. + + If I may judge, ye Elders, who have ne'er + Seen him, methinks I see the shepherd there + Whom we have sought so long. His weight of years + Fits well with our Corinthian messenger's; + And, more, I know the men who guide his way, + Bondsmen of mine own house. + Thou, friend, wilt say + Most surely, who hast known the man of old. + +LEADER. + + I know him well. A shepherd of the fold + Of Laius, one he trusted more than all. + + [_The_ SHEPHERD _comes in, led by two thralls. + He is an old man and seems terrified._ + +OEDIPUS. + + Thou first, our guest from Corinth: say withal + Is this the man? + +[Sidenote: vv. 1120-1130] + +STRANGER. + + This is the man, O King. + +OEDIPUS. + + [_Addressing the_ SHEPHERD. + + Old man! Look up, and answer everything + I ask thee.--Thou wast Laius' man of old? + +SHEPHERD. + + Born in his house I was, not bought with gold. + +OEDIPUS. + + What kind of work, what way of life, was thine? + +SHEPHERD. + + Most of my days I tended sheep or kine. + +OEDIPUS. + + What was thy camping ground at midsummer? + +SHEPHERD. + + Sometimes Kithairon, sometimes mountains near. + +OEDIPUS. + + Saw'st ever there this man thou seest now? + +SHEPHERD. + + There, Lord? What doing?--What man meanest thou? + +OEDIPUS. + + [_Pointing to the_ STRANGER. + + Look! Hath he ever crossed thy path before? + +[Sidenote: vv. 1131-1146] + +SHEPHERD. + + I call him not to mind, I must think more. + +STRANGER. + + Small wonder that, O King! But I will throw + Light on his memories.--Right well I know + He knows the time when, all Kithairon through, + I with one wandering herd and he with two, + Three times we neighboured one another, clear + From spring to autumn stars, a good half-year. + At winter's fall we parted; he drove down + To his master's fold, and I back to mine own.... + Dost call it back, friend? Was it as I say? + +SHEPHERD. + + It was. It was.... 'Tis all so far away. + +STRANGER. + + Say then: thou gavest me once, there in the wild, + A babe to rear far off as mine own child? + +SHEPHERD. + + [_His terror returning._ + + What does this mean? To what end askest thou? + +STRANGER. + + [_Pointing to_ OEDIPUS. + + That babe has grown, friend. 'Tis our master now. + +SHEPHERD. + + [_He slowly understands, then stands for a moment horror-struck._ + + No, in the name of death!... Fool, hold thy peace. + + [_He lifts his staff at the_ STRANGER. + +[Sidenote: vv. 1147-1157] + +OEDIPUS. + + Ha, greybeard! Wouldst thou strike him?--'Tis not his + Offences, 'tis thine own we need to mend. + +SHEPHERD. + + Most gentle master, how do I offend? + +OEDIPUS. + + Whence came that babe whereof he questioneth? + +SHEPHERD. + + He doth not know ... 'tis folly ... what he saith. + +OEDIPUS. + + Thou wilt not speak for love; but pain maybe ... + +SHEPHERD. + + I am very old. Ye would not torture me. + +OEDIPUS. + + Back with his arms, ye bondmen! Hold him so. + + [_The thralls drag back the_ SHEPHERD'S + _arms, ready for torture._ + +SHEPHERD. + + Woe's me! What have I done?... What wouldst thou know? + +OEDIPUS. + + Didst give this man the child, as he doth say? + +SHEPHERD. + + I did.... Would God that I had died this day! + +[Sidenote: vv. 1158-1167] + +OEDIPUS. + + 'Fore heaven, thou shalt yet, if thou speak not true. + +SHEPHERD. + + 'Tis more than death and darker, if I do. + +OEDIPUS. + + This dog, it seems, will keep us waiting. + +SHEPHERD. + + Nay, + I said at first I gave it. + +OEDIPUS. + + In what way + Came it to thee? Was it thine own child, or + Another's? + +SHEPHERD. + + Nay, it never crossed my door: + Another's. + +OEDIPUS. + + Whose? What man, what house, of these + About thee? + +SHEPHERD. + + In the name of God who sees, + Ask me no more! + +OEDIPUS. + + If once I ask again, + Thou diest. + +SHEPHERD. + + From the folk of Laius, then, + It came. + +[Sidenote: vv. 1168-1176] + +OEDIPUS. + + A slave, or born of Laius' blood? + +SHEPHERD. + + There comes the word I dread to speak, O God! + +OEDIPUS. + + And I to hear: yet heard it needs must be. + +SHEPHERD. + + Know then, they said 'twas Laius' child. But she + Within, thy wife, best knows its fathering. + +OEDIPUS. + + 'Twas she that gave it? + +SHEPHERD. + + It was she, O King. + +OEDIPUS. + + And bade you ... what? + +SHEPHERD. + + Destroy it. + +OEDIPUS. + Her own child?... + Cruel! + +SHEPHERD. + + Dark words of God had made her wild. + +OEDIPUS. + + What words? + +[Sidenote: vv. 1176-1192] + +SHEPHERD. + + The babe must slay his father; so + 'Twas written. + +OEDIPUS. + + Why didst thou, then, let him go + With this old man? + +SHEPHERD. + + O King, I pitied him. + I thought the man would save him to some dim + And distant land, beyond all fear.... And he, + To worse than death, did save him!... Verily, + If thou art he whom this man telleth of, + To sore affliction thou art born. + +OEDIPUS. + + Enough! + All, all, shall be fulfilled.... Oh, on these eyes + Shed light no more, ye everlasting skies + That know my sin! I have sinned in birth and breath. + I have sinned with Woman. I have sinned with Death. + + [_He rushes into the Palace. The_ SHEPHERD + _is led away by the thralls._ + +CHORUS. + + [_Strophe._ + + Nothingness, nothingness, + Ye Children of Man, and less + I count you, waking or dreaming! + And none among mortals, none, + Seeking to live, hath won + More than to seem, and to cease + Again from his seeming. + +[Sidenote: vv. 1193-1212] + + While ever before mine eyes + One fate, one ensample, lies-- + Thine, thine, O Oedipus, sore + Of God oppressed-- + What thing that is human more + Dare I call blessed? + + [_Antistrophe._ + + Straight his archery flew + To the heart of living; he knew + Joy and the fulness of power, + O Zeus, when the riddling breath + Was stayed and the Maid of Death + Slain, and we saw him through + The death-cloud, a tower! + + For that he was called my king; + Yea, every precious thing + Wherewith men are honoured, down + We cast before him, + And great Thebes brought her crown + And kneeled to adore him. + + [_Strophe._ + + But now, what man's story is such bitterness to speak? + What life hath Delusion so visited, and Pain, + And swiftness of Disaster? + O great King, our master, + How oped the one haven to the slayer and the slain? + And the furrows of thy father, did they turn not nor shriek, + Did they bear so long silent thy casting of the grain? + +[Sidenote: vv. 1213-1235] + + [_Antistrophe._ + + 'Tis Time, Time, desireless, hath shown thee what thou art; + The long monstrous mating, it is judged and all its race. + O child of him that sleepeth, + Thy land weepeth, weepeth, + Unfathered.... Would God, I had never seen thy face! + From thee in great peril fell peace upon my heart, + In thee mine eye clouded and the dark is come apace. + + [_A_ MESSENGER _rushes out from the Palace._ + +MESSENGER. + + O ye above this land in honour old + Exalted, what a tale shall ye be told, + What sights shall see, and tears of horror shed, + If still your hearts be true to them that led + Your sires! There runs no river, well I ween, + Not Phasis nor great Ister, shall wash clean + This house of all within that hideth--nay, + Nor all that creepeth forth to front the day, + Of purposed horror. And in misery + That woundeth most which men have willed to be. + +LEADER. + + No lack there was in what we knew before + Of food for heaviness. What bring'st thou more? + +MESSENGER. + + One thing I bring thee first.... 'Tis quickly said. + Jocasta, our anointed queen, is dead. + +[Sidenote: vv. 1236-1260] + +LEADER. + + Unhappy woman! How came death to her? + +MESSENGER. + + By her own hand.... Oh, of what passed in there + Ye have been spared the worst. Ye cannot see. + Howbeit, with that which still is left in me + Of mind and memory, ye shall hear her fate. + Like one entranced with passion, through the gate + She passed, the white hands flashing o'er her head, + Like blades that tear, and fled, unswerving fled, + Toward her old bridal room, and disappeared + And the doors crashed behind her. But we heard + Her voice within, crying to him of old, + Her Laius, long dead; and things untold + Of the old kiss unforgotten, that should bring + The lover's death and leave the loved a thing + Of horror, yea, a field beneath the plough + For sire and son: then wailing bitter-low + Across that bed of births unreconciled, + Husband from husband born and child from child. + And, after that, I know not how her death + Found her. For sudden, with a roar of wrath, + Burst Oedipus upon us. Then, I ween, + We marked no more what passion held the Queen, + But him, as in the fury of his stride, + "A sword! A sword! And show me here," he cried, + "That wife, no wife, that field of bloodstained earth + Where husband, father, sin on sin, had birth, + Polluted generations!" While he thus + Raged on, some god--for sure 'twas none of us-- + Showed where she was; and with a shout away, + As though some hand had pointed to the prey, + +[Sidenote: vv. 1261-1286] + + He dashed him on the chamber door. The straight + Door-bar of oak, it bent beneath his weight, + Shook from its sockets free, and in he burst + To the dark chamber. + There we saw her first + Hanged, swinging from a noose, like a dead bird. + He fell back when he saw her. Then we heard + A miserable groan, and straight he found + And loosed the strangling knot, and on the ground + Laid her.--Ah, then the sight of horror came! + The pin of gold, broad-beaten like a flame, + He tore from off her breast, and, left and right, + Down on the shuddering orbits of his sight + Dashed it: "Out! Out! Ye never more shall see + Me nor the anguish nor the sins of me. + Ye looked on lives whose like earth never bore, + Ye knew not those my spirit thirsted for: + Therefore be dark for ever!" + Like a song + His voice rose, and again, again, the strong + And stabbing hand fell, and the massacred + And bleeding eyeballs streamed upon his beard, + Wild rain, and gouts of hail amid the rain. + Behold affliction, yea, afflictions twain + From man and woman broken, now made one + In downfall. All the riches yester sun + Saw in this house were rich in verity. + What call ye now our riches? Agony, + Delusion, Death, Shame, all that eye or ear + Hath ever dreamed of misery, is here. + +LEADER. + + And now how fares he? Doth the storm abate? + +[Sidenote: vv. 1287-1308] + +MESSENGER. + + He shouts for one to open wide the gate + And lead him forth, and to all Thebes display + His father's murderer, his mother's.... Nay, + Such words I will not speak. And his intent + Is set, to cast himself in banishment + Out to the wild, not walk 'mid human breed + Bearing the curse he bears. Yet sore his need + Of strength and of some guiding hand. For sure + He hath more burden now than man may endure. + But see, the gates fall back, and that appears + Which he who loathes shall pity--yea, with tears. + + [OEDIPUS _is led in, blinded and bleeding. The + Old Men bow down and hide their faces; + some of them weep._ + +CHORUS. + + Oh, terrible! Oh, sight of all + This life hath crossed, most terrible! + Thou man more wronged than tongue can tell, + What madness took thee? Do there crawl + Live Things of Evil from the deep + To leap on man? Oh, what a leap + Was His that flung thee to thy fall! + +LEADER. + + O fallen, fallen in ghastly case, + I dare not raise mine eyes to thee; + Fain would I look and ask and see, + But shudder sickened from thy face. + +OEDIPUS. + + Oh, pain; pain and woe! + Whither? Whither? + +[Sidenote: vv. 1308-1328] + + They lead me and I go; + And my voice drifts on the air + Far away. + Where, Thing of Evil, where + Endeth thy leaping hither? + +LEADER. + + In fearful ends, which none may hear nor say. + +OEDIPUS. + + [_Strophe._ + + Cloud of the dark, mine own + For ever, horrible, + Stealing, stealing, silent, unconquerable, + Cloud that no wind, no summer can dispel! + Again, again I groan, + As through my heart together crawl the strong + Stabs of this pain and memories of old wrong. + +LEADER. + + Yea, twofold hosts of torment hast thou there, + The stain to think on and the pain to bear. + +OEDIPUS. + + [_Antistrophe._ + + O Friend, thou mine own + Still faithful, minister + Steadfast abiding alone of them that were, + Dost bear with me and give the blind man care? + Ah me! Not all unknown + Nor hid thou art. Deep in this dark a call + Comes and I know thy voice in spite of all. + +LEADER. + + O fearful sufferer, and could'st thou kill + Thy living orbs? What God made blind thy will? + +[Sidenote: vv. 1329-1351] + +OEDIPUS. + + [_Strophe._ + + 'Tis Apollo; all is Apollo, + O ye that love me, 'tis he long time hath planned + These things upon me evilly, evilly, + Dark things and full of blood. + I knew not; I did but follow + His way; but mine the hand + And mine the anguish. What were mine eyes to me + When naught to be seen was good? + +LEADER. + + 'Tis even so; and Truth doth speak in thee. + +OEDIPUS. + + To see, to endure, to hear words kindly spoken, + Should I have joy in such? + Out, if ye love your breath, + Cast me swift unto solitude, unbroken + By word or touch. + Am I not charged with death, + Most charged and filled to the brim + With curses? And what man saith + God hath so hated him? + +LEADER. + + Thy bitter will, thy hard calamity, + Would I had never known nor looked on thee! + +OEDIPUS. + + [_Antistrophe._ + + My curse, my curse upon him, + That man whom pity held in the wilderness, + Who saved the feet alive from the blood-fetter + And loosed the barb thereof! + +[Sidenote: vv. 1351-1377] + + That babe--what grace was done him, + Had he died shelterless, + He had not laid on himself this grief to bear, + And all who gave him love. + +LEADER. + + I, too, O Friend, I had been happier. + +OEDIPUS. + + Found not the way to his father's blood, nor shaken + The world's scorn on his mother, + The child and the groom withal; + But now, of murderers born, of God forsaken, + Mine own sons' brother; + All this, and if aught can fall + Upon man more perilous + And elder in sin, lo, all + Is the portion of Oedipus. + +LEADER. + + How shall I hold this counsel of thy mind + True? Thou wert better dead than living blind. + +OEDIPUS. + + That this deed is not well and wisely wrought + Thou shalt not show me; therefore school me not. + Think, with what eyes hereafter in the place + Of shadows could I see my father's face, + Or my poor mother's? Both of whom this hand + Hath wronged too deep for man to understand. + Or children--born as mine were born, to see + Their shapes should bring me joy? Great God! + To me + +[Sidenote: vv. 1378-1403] + + There is no joy in city nor in tower + Nor temple, from all whom, in this mine hour, + I that was chief in Thebes alone, and ate + The King's bread, I have made me separate + For ever. Mine own lips have bid the land + Cast from it one so evil, one whose hand + To sin was dedicate, whom God hath shown + Birth-branded ... and my blood the dead King's own! + All this myself have proved. And can I then + Look with straight eyes into the eyes of men? + I trow not. Nay, if any stop there were + To dam this fount that welleth in mine ear + For hearing, I had never blenched nor stayed + Till this vile shell were all one dungeon made, + Dark, without sound. 'Tis thus the mind would fain + Find peace, self-prisoned from a world of pain. + O wild Kithairon, why was it thy will + To save me? Why not take me quick and kill, + Kill, before ever I could make men know + The thing I am, the thing from which I grow? + Thou dead King, Polybus, thou city wall + Of Corinth, thou old castle I did call + My father's, what a life did ye begin, + What splendour rotted by the worm within, + When ye bred me! O Crossing of the Roads, + O secret glen and dusk of crowding woods, + O narrow footpath creeping to the brink + Where meet the Three! I gave you blood to drink. + Do ye remember? 'Twas my life-blood, hot + From mine own father's heart. Have ye forgot + What deed I did among you, and what new + And direr deed I fled from you to do? + O flesh, horror of flesh!... + +[Sidenote: vv. 1409-1431] + + But what is shame + To do should not be spoken. In God's name, + Take me somewhere far off and cover me + From sight, or slay, or cast me to the sea + Where never eye may see me any more. + What? Do ye fear to touch a man so sore + Stricken? Nay, tremble not. My misery + Is mine, and shall be borne by none but me. + +LEADER. + + Lo, yonder comes for answer to thy prayer + Creon, to do and to decree. The care + Of all our land is his, now thou art weak. + +OEDIPUS. + + Alas, what word to Creon can I speak, + How make him trust me more? He hath seen of late + So vile a heart in me, so full of hate. + +_Enter_ CREON. + +CREON. + + Not to make laughter, Oedipus, nor cast + Against thee any evil of the past + I seek thee, but ... Ah God! ye ministers, + Have ye no hearts? Or if for man there stirs + No pity in you, fear at least to call + Stain on our Lord the Sun, who feedeth all; + Nor show in nakedness a horror such + As this, which never mother Earth may touch, + Nor God's clean rain nor sunlight. Quick within! + Guide him.--The ills that in a house have been + They of the house alone should know or hear. + +[Sidenote: vv. 1432-1447] + +OEDIPUS. + + In God's name, since thou hast undone the fear + Within me, coming thus, all nobleness, + To one so vile, grant me one only grace. + For thy sake more I crave it than mine own. + +CREON. + + Let me first hear what grace thou wouldst be shown. + +OEDIPUS. + + Cast me from Thebes ... now, quick ... where none may see + My visage more, nor mingle words with me. + +CREON. + + That had I done, for sure, save that I still + Tremble, and fain would ask Apollo's will. + +OEDIPUS. + + His will was clear enough, to stamp the unclean + Thing out, the bloody hand, the heart of sin. + +CREON. + + 'Twas thus he seemed to speak; but in this sore + Strait we must needs learn surer than before. + +OEDIPUS. + + Thou needs must trouble God for one so low? + +CREON. + + Surely; thyself will trust his answer now. + +OEDIPUS. + + I charge thee more ... and, if thou fail, my sin + Shall cleave to thee.... For her who lies within, + +[Sidenote: vv. 1448-1472] + + Make as thou wilt her burial. 'Tis thy task + To tend thine own. But me: let no man ask + This ancient city of my sires to give + Harbour in life to me. Set me to live + On the wild hills and leave my name to those + Deeps of Kithairon which my father chose, + And mother, for my vast and living tomb. + As they, my murderers, willed it, let my doom + Find me. For this my very heart doth know, + No sickness now, nor any mortal blow, + Shall slay this body. Never had my breath + Been thus kept burning in the midst of death, + Save for some frightful end. So, let my way + Go where it listeth. + But my children--Nay, + Creon, my sons will ask thee for no care. + Men are they, and can find them everywhere + What life needs. But my two poor desolate + Maidens.... There was no table ever set + Apart for them, but whatso royal fare + I tasted, they were with me and had share + In all.... Creon, I pray, forget them not. + And if it may be, go, bid them be brought, + + [CREON _goes and presently returns with the + two princesses._ OEDIPUS _thinks he is + there all the time._ + + That I may touch their faces, and so weep.... + Go, Prince. Go, noble heart!... + If I might touch them, I should seem to keep + And not to have lost them, now mine eyes are gone.... + What say I? + In God's name, can it be I hear mine own + +[Sidenote: vv. 1473-1505] + + Beloved ones sobbing? Creon of his grace + Hath brought my two, my dearest, to this place. + Is it true? + +CREON. + + 'Tis true. I brought them, for in them I know + Thy joy is, the same now as long ago. + +OEDIPUS. + + God bless thee, and in this hard journey give + Some better guide than mine to help thee live. + Children! Where are ye? Hither; come to these + Arms of your ... brother, whose wild offices + Have brought much darkness on the once bright eyes + Of him who grew your garden; who, nowise + Seeing nor understanding, digged a ground + The world shall shudder at. Children, my wound + Is yours too, and I cannot meet your gaze + Now, as I think me what remaining days + Of bitter living the world hath for you. + What dance of damsels shall ye gather to, + What feast of Thebes, but quick ye shall turn home, + All tears, or ere the feast or dancers come? + And, children, when ye reach the years of love, + Who shall dare wed you, whose heart rise above + The peril, to take on him all the shame + That cleaves to my name and my children's name? + God knows, it is enough!... + My flowers, ye needs must die, waste things, bereft + And fruitless. + Creon, thou alone art left + Their father now, since both of us are gone + Who cared for them. Oh, leave them not alone + +[Sidenote: vv. 1505-1518] + + To wander masterless, these thine own kin, + And beggared. Neither think of them such sin + As ye all know in me, but let their fate + Touch thee. So young they are, so desolate-- + Of all save thee. True man, give me thine hand, + And promise. + + [OEDIPUS _and_ CREON _clasp hands._ + + If your age could understand, + Children, full many counsels I could give. + But now I leave this one word: Pray to live + As life may suffer you, and find a road + To travel easier than your father trod. + +CREON. + + Enough thy heart hath poured its tears; now back into + thine house repair. + +OEDIPUS. + +I dread the house, yet go I must. + +CREON. + + Fair season maketh all things fair. + +OEDIPUS. + + One oath then give me, and I go. + +CREON. + + Name it, and I will answer thee. + +OEDIPUS. + + To cast me from this land. + +[Sidenote: vv. 1519-1523] + +CREON. + + A gift not mine but God's thou askest me. + +OEDIPUS. + + I am a thing of God abhorred. + +CREON. + + The more, then, will he grant thy prayer. + +OEDIPUS. + + Thou givest thine oath? + +CREON. + + I see no light; and, seeing not, I may not swear. + +OEDIPUS. + + Then take me hence. I care not. + +CREON. + + Go in peace, and give these children o'er. + +OEDIPUS. + + Ah no! Take not away my daughters! + + [_They are taken from him._ + +CREON. + + Seek not to be master more. Did not thy + masteries of old forsake thee when the end was near? + +[Sidenote: vv. 1524-1530] + +CHORUS. + + Ye citizens of Thebes, behold; 'tis Oedipus that passeth here, + Who read the riddle-word of Death, and mightiest stood of mortal + men, + And Fortune loved him, and the folk that saw him turned and looked + again. + Lo, he is fallen, and around great storms and the outreaching sea! + Therefore, O Man, beware, and look toward the end of things that be, + The last of sights, the last of days; and no man's life account as gain + Ere the full tale be finished and the darkness find him without pain. + + [OEDIPUS _is led into the house and the doors + close on him._ + + + + + NOTES TO + + OEDIPUS, KING OF THEBES + + +P. 4, l. 21: Dry Ash of Ismenus.]--Divination by burnt offerings was +practised at an altar of Apollo by the river Ismenus in Thebes. + +Observe how many traits Oedipus retains of the primitive king, who was +at once chief and medicine-man and god. The Priest thinks it necessary +to state explicitly that he does not regard Oedipus as a god, but he is +clearly not quite like other men. And it seems as if Oedipus himself +realised in this scene that the oracle from Delphi might well demand the +king's life. Cf. p. 6, "what deed of mine, what bitter task, May save my +city"; p. 7, "any fear for mine own death." This thought, present +probably in more minds than his, greatly increases the tension of the +scene. Cf. _Anthropology and the Classics_, pp. 74-79.] + +P. 7, l. 87, Message of joy.]--Creon says this for the sake of the omen. +The first words uttered at such a crisis would be ominous and tend to +fulfil themselves.] + +Pp. 13-16, ll. 216-275. The long cursing speech of Oedipus.]--Observe +that this speech is broken into several divisions, Oedipus at each point +expecting an answer and receiving none. Thus it is not mere declamation; +it involves action and reaction between a speaker and a crowd.--Every +reader will notice how full it is of "tragic irony." Almost every +paragraph carries with it some sinister meaning of which the speaker is +unconscious. Cf. such phrases as "if he tread my hearth," "had but his +issue been more fortunate," "as I would for mine own father," and of +course the whole situation. + +P. 25, l. 437, Who were they?]--This momentary doubt of Oedipus, who of +course regarded himself as the son of Polybus, King of Corinth, is +explained later (p. 46, l. 780). + +Pp. 29 ff. The Creon scene.]--The only part of the play which could +possibly be said to flag. Creon's defence, p. 34, "from probabilities," +as the rhetoricians would have called it, seems less interesting to us +than it probably did to the poet's contemporaries. It is remarkably like +Hippolytus's defence (pp. 52 f. of my translation), and probably one was +suggested by the other. We cannot be sure which was the earlier play. + +The scene serves at least to quicken the pace of the drama, to bring out +the impetuous and somewhat tyrannical nature of Oedipus, and to prepare +the magnificent entrance of Jocasta. + +P. 36, l. 630, Thebes is my country.]--It must be remembered that to the +Chorus Creon is a real Theban, Oedipus a stranger from Corinth. + +P. 41, Conversation of Oedipus and Jocasta.]--The technique of this +wonderful scene, an intimate self-revealing conversation between husband +and wife about the past, forming the pivot of the play, will remind a +modern reader of Ibsen. + +P. 42, l. 718.]--Observe that Jocasta does not tell the whole truth. It +was she herself who gave the child to be killed (p. 70, l. 1173). + +P. 42, l. 730, Crossing of Three Ways.]--Cross roads always had dark +associations. This particular spot was well known to tradition and is +still pointed out. "A bare isolated hillock of grey stone stands at the +point where our road from Daulia meets the road to Delphi and a third +road that stretches to the south.... The road runs up a frowning pass +between Parnassus on the right hand and the spurs of the Helicon range +on the left. Away to the south a wild and desolate valley opens, running +up among the waste places of Helicon, a scene of inexpressible grandeur +and desolation" (Jebb, abridged). + +P. 44, l. 754, Who could bring, &c.]--Oedipus of course thought he had +killed them all. See his next speech. + +P. 51.]--Observe the tragic effect of this prayer. Apollo means to +destroy Jocasta, not to save her; her prayer is broken across by the +entry of the Corinthian Stranger, which seems like a deliverance but is +really a link in the chain of destruction. There is a very similar +effect in Sophocles' _Electra_, 636-659, Clytaemnestra's prayer; compare +also the prayers to Cypris in Euripides' _Hippolytus_. + +P. 51, l. 899.]--Abae was an ancient oracular shrine in Boeotia; Olympia +in Elis was the seat of the Olympian Games and of a great Temple of +Zeus. + +P. 52, l. 918, O Slayer of the Wolf, O Lord of Light.]--The names +Lykeios, Lykios, &c., seem to have two roots, one meaning "Wolf" and the +other "Light." + +P. 56, l. 987, Thy father's tomb Like light across our darkness.]--This +ghastly line does not show hardness of heart, it shows only the terrible +position in which Oedipus and Jocasta are. Naturally Oedipus would give +thanks if his father was dead. Compare his question above, p. 54, l. +960, "Not murdered?"--He cannot get the thought of the fated murder out +of his mind. + +P. 57, l. 994.]--Why does Oedipus tell the Corinthian this oracle, which +he has kept a secret even from his wife till to-day?--Perhaps because, +if there is any thought of his going back to Corinth, his long voluntary +exile must be explained. Perhaps, too, the secret possesses his mind so +overpoweringly that it can hardly help coming out. + +Pp. 57, 58, ll. 1000-1020.]--It is natural that the Corinthian hesitates +before telling a king that he is really not of royal birth. + +Pp. 64, 65, ll. 1086-1109.]--This joyous Chorus strikes a curious note. +Of course it forms a good contrast with what succeeds, but how can the +Elders take such a serenely happy view of the discovery that Oedipus is +a foundling just after they have been alarmed at the exit of Jocasta? It +seems as if the last triumphant speech of Oedipus, "fey" and almost +touched with megalomania as it was, had carried the feeling of the +Chorus with it. + +P. 66, l. 1122.]--Is there any part in any tragedy so short and yet so +effective as that of this Shepherd? + +P. 75, l. 1264, Like a dead bird.]--The curious word, [Greek: +empeplegmenen], seems to be taken from Odyssey xxii. 469, where it is +applied to birds caught in a snare. As to the motives of Oedipus, his +first blind instinct to kill Jocasta as a thing that polluted the earth; +when he saw her already dead, a revulsion came. + +P. 76, ll. 1305 ff.]--Observe how a climax of physical horror is +immediately veiled and made beautiful by lyrical poetry. Sophocles does +not, however, carry this plan of simply flooding the scene with sudden +beauty nearly so far as Euripides does. See _Hipp._, p. 39; _Trojan +Women_, p. 51. + +P. 83, ll. 1450 ff., Set me to live on the wild hills.]--These lines +serve to explain the conception, existing in the poet's own time, of +Oedipus as a daemon or ghost haunting Mount Kithairon. + +P. 86, l. 1520, Creon.]--Amid all Creon's whole-hearted forgiveness of +Oedipus and his ready kindness there are one or two lines of his which +strike a modern reader as tactless if not harsh. Yet I do not think that +Sophocles meant to produce that effect. At the present day it is not in +the best manners to moralise over a man who is down, any more than it is +the part of a comforter to expound and insist upon his friend's +misfortunes. But it looks as if ancient manners expected, and even +demanded, both. Cf. the attitude of Theseus to Adrastus in Eur., +_Suppliants_. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Oedipus King of Thebes, by Sophocles + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OEDIPUS KING OF THEBES *** + +***** This file should be named 27673.txt or 27673.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/6/7/27673/ + +Produced by Sigal Alon, Turgut Dincer, R. Cedron and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |