Oedipus at Colonus
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Theseus
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Once only do I need hear such words, and no more, old man. I do not want to boast,
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but you may feel sure that your life is safe, while any of the gods preserves mine. Theseus exits.
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Chorus
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Whoever craves the longer length of life, not content to desire a moderate span, him I will judge with no uncertainty: he clings to folly.
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For the long years lay in deposit many things nearer to pain than joy; but as for your delights, you will find them nowhere, when someone’s life has fallen beyond the fitting period.
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The Helper comes at last to all alike, when the fate of Hades is suddenly revealed, without marriage-song, or lyre, or dance: Death at the end.
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Chorus
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Not to be born is, beyond all estimation, best; but when a man has seen the light of day, this is next best by far, that with utmost speed he should go back from where he came. For when he has seen youth go by, with its easy merry-making,
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what hard affliction is foreign to him, what suffering does he not know? Envy, factions, strife, battles,
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and murders. Last of all falls to his lot old age, blamed, weak, unsociable, friendless, wherein dwells every misery among miseries.
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Chorus
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In such years is this poor man here, not I alone.
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Like some cape that fronts the north which is lashed on every side by the waves of winter, so he also is fiercely lashed evermore by the dread disasters that break on him like the surf, some from the region of the setting sun,
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some from that of its rising, some in the realm of its noon-time rays, some from the gloom-wrapped hills of the North.
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Antigone
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Look, the stranger, it seems, is coming here to us.
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Yes, without attendants, father, with tears streaming from his eyes.
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Oedipus
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Who is he?
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Polyneices
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Ah, me, what should I do? Should I weep first
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for my own woes, sisters, or for those of my father here, in his old age? I have found him in a foreign land, here with you two as an exile, clad in such garments as these. Their unfriendly filth has resided with the old man for long,
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wasting his flesh; while above the sightless eyes the unkempt hair flutters in the breeze; and matching with these things, it seems, is the food that he carries, sustenance for his poor stomach. Wretch that I am! I learn all this too late.
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And I bear witness that I have proved the worst of men in all that concerns care for you; from my own lips hear what I am. But seeing that Zeus himself in all his actions has Shame beside him to share his throne, may she come to your aid too, father. For the sins committed can be healed,
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but can never be made worse.Why are you silent? Speak, father. Do not turn away from me. Do you not have any answer at all for me? Will you dismiss me without a word, dishonored, and not tell me why you are angry?
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Seed of this man, my sisters, you at least must try to move our father’s implacable, inexorable silence, so that he may not send me away like this, dishonored and with no word in return, when I am the suppliant of the god.
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Antigone
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Tell him yourself, unhappy man, what you have come to seek. When words flow, you know, they may give joy, or incite anger or pity, and so they may give a voice to the mute.
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Polyneices
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Then I will speak boldly, for you give me excellent guidance,
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first claiming the help of the god himself, from whose altar the king of this land raised me to come to you, with a guarantee to speak and hear, and go my way unharmed. And I wish these pledges, strangers, to be kept with me by you, and by my sisters here, and by my father.
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But now I want to tell you, father, why I came. I have been driven as an exile from my fatherland, because, as eldest-born, I thought it right to sit on your sovereign throne.
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Therefore Eteocles, though the younger, thrust me from the land, when he had neither defeated me by an argument of law, nor made a trial of might and deed. He brought over the city by persuasion. The cause of this, I claim, is most of all the curse on your house;
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I also hear this from soothsayers. For when I came to Dorian Argos, I made Adrastus my father-in-law. And I bound to me by oath all men of the Apian land who are foremost in their renown for war,
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so that with their aid I might collect the seven armies of spearmen against Thebes, and die in a just cause, or drive the doers of this wrong from the land. All right then, why have I come to you now? Bearing prayers of supplication, father, in person to you,
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my own prayers and those of my allies, who now with seven armies behind their seven spears have set their blockade around the plain of Thebes. One such is swift-speared Amphiaraus, a matchless warrior, and a matchless diviner;
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then comes the son of Oeneus, Aetolian Tydeus; Eteoclus is third, of Argive birth; the fourth, Hippomedon, is sent by Talaos, his father; while Capaneus, the fifth, boasts that he will burn Thebes to the ground with fire; and sixth, Arcadian Parthenopaeus rushes to the war.
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He is named for that virgin of long ago from whose marriage in later time he was born, the trusty son of Atalanta. Last come I, your son—or if not yours, then the offspring of an evil fate, but yours at least in name—
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leading the fearless army of Argos to Thebes. It is we who implore you, father, every one of us, by your daughters here and by your soul, begging you to forgo your fierce anger against me, as I go forth to punish my brother,
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who has expelled me and robbed me of my fatherland. For if anything trustworthy comes from oracles, they said that whoever you join with in alliance will have victorious strength. Then, by the streams of water and gods of our race, I ask you to listen and to yield.
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I am a beggar and a stranger, as you are yourself; by paying court to others both you and I have a home, obtaining by lot the same fortune. But he is tyrant at home—wretched me!—and in his pride laughs at you and me alike.
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But if you join as ally to my purpose, with little trouble or time I will scatter his strength to the winds, so that I will bring you home and set you in your own house, and set me in mine, when I have cast him out by force. If you are with me, then I can make this boast; but without you
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I cannot even return alive.
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Chorus
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For the sake of him who has sent this man, Oedipus, speak what seems good to you, before you send him away.
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Oedipus
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Guardians of this land, if it were not Theseus who had sent him here to me, thinking it just that he should hear my response,
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then never would he have heard my voice of prophecy. But now he will be graced with it, before he goes, and hear from me such words as never will gladden his life.
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Worst of men, when you had the scepter and the throne, which now your brother has in Thebes, you drove me, your own father, into exile; and by making me an exile you caused me to wear this clothing at whose sight you weep, now that you have come to the same state of misery as I.
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The time for tears is past. I must bear this burden as long as I live, and keep you before my mind as a murderer. For it is you that have made me subject to this anguish; it is you that have thrust me out, and because of you I wander, begging my daily bread from strangers.
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And had these daughters not been born to me to be my comfort, in truth I would be dead, for lack of help from you. But now these girls preserve me; they are my nurses; they are men, not women, in sharing my toil. But you are from another and are no sons of mine.
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Therefore the divinity looks upon you—not yet as he soon will look, if indeed those armies of yours are moving against Thebes. There is no way in which you can ever overthrow that city. Before that you will fall, polluted by bloodshed, and so too your brother.
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Such curses as my heart before now sent up against you both, I now invoke to fight for me, in order that you may think it fit to revere your parents and not to dishonor your father utterly, because he who begot such sons is blind. For my daughters here did not act in this way.
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This supplication of yours, and this throne of yours, will lie in the power of my curses, if indeed Justice, revealed long ago, sits beside Zeus, to share his throne through sanction of primordial laws. But off to damnation with you, abhorred by me and disowned!
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Take these curses which I call down on you, most evil of evil men: may you never defeat your native land, and may you never return to the valley of Argos; I pray that you die by a related hand, and slay him by whom you have been driven out. This is my prayer.
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And I call on the hateful darkness of Tartarus that your father shares, to take you into another home; and I call on the divinities of this place, and I call on the god of war, who has set dreadful hatred in you both. Go with these words in your ear;
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go and announce to all the Cadmeans, and to your own faithful allies, that Oedipus has distributed such portions to his sons.
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Chorus
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Polyneices, in your past travels I take no joy. Now go back with speed.
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Polyneices
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Alas, for my journey and my failed attempt! Alas, for my companions!
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Such is the end of the road on which we set out from Argos—wretched me!—such an end, that I cannot even mention it to any of my companions or turn them back, but must go in silence to meet this fate.
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But you, daughters of this man and my sisters, since you hear these hard curses of a father, do not—if this father’s curses be fulfilled and you find some way of return to Thebes—do not, I beg you by the gods, leave me dishonored,
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but give me burial and due funeral rites. So the praise which you now win from this man here for your labors will be increased by another praise no less, through your care for me.
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Antigone
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Polyneices, I beseech you, hear me in one thing!
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Polyneices
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What is it, dearest Antigone? Speak!
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Antigone
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Turn your force back to Argos as quickly as may be, and do not destroy both yourself and your city.
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Polyneices
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No, it is not possible. For how could I lead the same force again, when once I had shrunk back?
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Antigone
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But why, my brother, must your anger rise again? What profit will come to you from destroying your native land?
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Polyneices
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It is shameful to be in exile, and to be mocked in this way by my brother, when I am eldest-born.
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Antigone
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Do you see to what sure fulfillment the prophecies of this man are leading,
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who declares mutual death for you two?
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Polyneices
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Yes, for he wishes it. But I must not yield.
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Antigone
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Ah, wretched me! But who will dare follow you, when he hears what prophecies this man has uttered?
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Polyneices
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I will not report ill-tidings; a good leader should tell the better news, and not the worse.
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Antigone
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Is this then your fixed decision, my brother?
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Polyneices
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Yes, and do not detain me. This path now will be my destiny, ill-fated and evil, because of my father here and his Furies. But as for you two,
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may Zeus grant you good things, if you bring these things to completion for me when I am dead, since in life you will see me no more.
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Now release me, and farewell; for nevermore will you behold me living.
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Polyneices
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Do not mourn for me.
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to a death foreseen?
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Polyneices
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If it is fated, then I must die.
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Polyneices
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Do not plead for what must not be.
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I pray to the gods that you may never meet with evil; for in all men’s eyes you do not deserve to suffer. Polyneices exits.
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Chorus
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Behold, new ills of heavy fate have newly come from the blind stranger,
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unless, perhaps, fate is finding its goal. I cannot say that a purpose of the divinities is ever vain. Time sees all things forever, and raises up some things,
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then on the next day raises others back up again. The sky resounds! Zeus!
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Oedipus
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Children, children! If there is any man still here, send him forth to bring back Theseus, excellent in all respects.
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Antigone
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And what, father, is the purpose of your summons?
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Oedipus
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This winged thunder of Zeus will soon lead me to Hades. So send someone with speed.
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Chorus
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Listen! With a louder noise this one crashes down unspeakably,
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hurled by Zeus! The hair of my head stands up for fear, my soul is dismayed; for again the lightning flashes in the sky. What end will it release?
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I fear it, for never does it fly forth in vain, or without serious results. O great Sky! O Zeus!
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Oedipus
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Children, the appointed end of life has reached this man; he can turn from it no more.
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Antigone
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How do you know? By what means do you understand this?
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Oedipus
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I know it well. But let some one go, I pray you, as quickly as he can, and bring back the lord of this land.
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Theseus
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What din is this that once more rings forth from you all, from my people as clearly as from the stranger? Can a thunderbolt from Zeus be the cause, or rushing hail in its fierce onset? When the god sends such a storm, forebodings of every sort may find a place.
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Oedipus
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Lord, you have appeared at my desire, and to you some god granted noble fortune at this coming.
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Theseus
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And what new thing has now occurred, son of Laius?
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Oedipus
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My life hangs in the balance; and I wish to die without cheating you and this city of the promises I made.
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Theseus
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And what is the proof of your fate that you depend on?
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Oedipus
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The gods themselves herald the news to me, nor do they cheat me of any of the appointed signs.
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Theseus
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What makes these things clear? Tell me, old man.
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Oedipus
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The thunder, crash after crash; the lightning, flash after flash,
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hurled from the unconquered hand.
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Theseus
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I am persuaded, for in much I find you a prophet whose voice is not false. Then say what must be done.
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Oedipus
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I will expound myself, son of Aegeus, the treasures which will be laid up for this city, such as age can never hurt.
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Immediately, with no hand to guide me, I will lead to the place where I must die. But as to that place, never reveal it to another man, neither where it is hidden, nor in what region it lies, so that it may be an eternal defence for you, better than many shields, better than the spear of neighbors which brings relief.
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But as for mysteries which speech may not profane, you will learn them yourself when you come to that place alone, since I cannot declare them either to any of these people, or even to my own children, though I love them.
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Reserve them always to yourself, and when you reach the end of life, reveal them to your eldest son alone, and let him reveal them to his successor in turn forever. In this way you will keep this city unscathed by the men born of the Dragon’s teeth. Countless cities commit outrage
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even though their neighbor commits no sin. For the gods are slow to punish, yet they are sure, when men scorn holiness and turn to frenzy. Do not desire this, son of Aegeus! But you know such things as these without my teaching.
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Let us now set forth to that place—the divine summons urges me—and hesitate no longer.