Oedipus Tyrannus
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Creon
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Due search we made, of course, though we learned nothing.
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Oedipus
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And how was it that this sage did not tell this story then.
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Creon
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I do not know: where I lack insight it is my custom to be silent.
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Oedipus
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This much, at least, you know, and could declare with insight enough.
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Creon
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What is that? If I know it, I will not deny it.
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Oedipus
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That, if he had not conferred with you, he would not have named me as Laius’ slayer.
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Creon
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If he says this, you know best: but I deem it just
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to learn from you as much as you have from me now.
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Oedipus
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Learn your fill. I will never be found guilty of the bloodshed.
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Creon
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Say, then—have you married my sister?
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Oedipus
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The question allows no denial.
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Creon
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And you rule the land as she does, with equal sway.
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Oedipus
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She obtains from me all that she wishes.
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Creon
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And do I not rank as a third peer of you two?
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Oedipus
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It is just in this that you are seen to be a false friend.
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Creon
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Not so, if you would reason with your heart as I do with mine. Weigh this first—whether you think that anyone would
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choose to rule amid terrors rather than in unruffled peace, granted that he is to have the same powers. Now I, for one, have by nature no yearning to rule as a king rather than to do kingly deeds, and neither does any man I know who has a sound mind.
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For now I attain all everything from you without fear, but, if I were ruler myself, I would have to do much that went against my own pleasure. How, then, could royalty be sweeter to me to have than painless rule and influence? I am not yet so misguided
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that I desire other honors than those which bring profit. Now, every man has a greeting for me; now, all that have a request of you crave to speak with me, since in me lies all their hope of success. Why then should I give up these things and take those others?
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No mind will become false while it is wise. No, I am no lover of such a policy, and if another put it into action, I could never bear to go along with him. And, in proof of this, first go to Pytho, and ask whether I brought a true report of the oracle.
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Then next, if you have found that I have planned anything in concert with the soothsayer, take and slay me, by the sentence not of one mouth, but of two—by my own no less than yours. But do not assume my guilt on unproven inference. It is not just to judge bad men good at random,
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or good men bad. I think that casting off a true friend is for a man like casting away the life in his own bosom, which he most loves. You will surely learn about these affairs in time, since time alone reveals a just man.
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But you can discern a bad man even in one day alone.
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Chorus
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He has spoken well, my king, for one who is taking care not to fall: those who are quick in counsel are not sure.
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Oedipus
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When the stealthy plotter is moving on me quickly, I, too, must be quick in my counterplot.
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If I await him in repose, his ends will have been gained, and mine lost.
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Creon
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What do you want then? To banish me from the land?
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Oedipus
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Hardly. I desire your death, not your exile, so that I might show what a thing envy is.
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Creon
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Are you resolved not to yield or believe?
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Creon
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No, for I see you are not sane.
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Creon
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But you should be so in mine also.
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Creon
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But if you understand nothing?
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Creon
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Not if you rule badly.
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Creon
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The city is mine too, not yours alone.
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Chorus
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Cease, lords. In good time I see Iocasta coming from the house, with whose help you should resolve your present feud.
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Iocasta
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Misguided men, why have you raised
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such a foolish argument? Are you not ashamed, while the land is so sick, to stir up troubles of your own? Come, go into the house—and you, Creon, go to yours—and stop making so much of a petty grief.
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Creon
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Kinswoman, Oedipus, your husband,
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wants to do one of two terrible things to me, either to thrust me from the land of my fathers or to arrest and slay me.
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Oedipus
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Yes indeed, for I have caught him, lady, working evil against my person with his wicked craft.
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Creon
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May I derive no benefit,
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but perish accursed, if I have done any of the things of which you charge me.
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Iocasta
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In the name of the gods, believe it, Oedipus, first for the sake of this awful oath to the gods, then for my sake and for the sake of those who stand before you.
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Chorus
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Consent, reflect, listen, my king, I beg you.
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Oedipus
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What would you have me grant you?
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Chorus
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Respect him who was in the past not foolish, and who now is strong in his oath.
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Oedipus
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Do you understand what you crave?
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Chorus
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I do.
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Oedipus
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Tell me, then, what you mean.
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Chorus
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That you should never use an unproved rumor to cast a dishonoring charge on the friend who has bound himself with a curse.
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Oedipus
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Then be quite aware that when you seek this you are seeking death or exile from this land for me.
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Chorus
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Lady, why do you hesitate to take this man into the house?
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Iocasta
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I will, when I have learned what has happened.
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Chorus
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Blind suspicion, bred of talk, arose, and injustice inflicts wounds.
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Iocasta
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On both sides?
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Chorus
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Yes.
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Iocasta
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And what was the story?
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Chorus
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It is enough, I think, enough, when our land is already vexed, that the matter should rest where it stopped.
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Oedipus
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Do you see to what you have come, for all your noble intent, in seeking to slacken and blunt my zeal?
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Oedipus
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That I will do, for I honor you, lady, above these men. Creon is the cause, and the plots he has laid against me.
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Iocasta
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Come, tell me how the argument began.
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Oedipus
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He says that I stand guilty of Laius’ blood.
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Iocasta
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On his own knowledge or on hearsay from another?
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Oedipus
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He has made a rascal seer his mouth piece: as for himself, he keeps his lips wholly pure.
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Iocasta
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Then absolve yourself of the things about which you are speaking. Listen to me, and take comfort in learning that nothing of mortal birth shares in the science of the seer.
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I will give you a pithy proof of this. An oracle came to Laius once—I will not say from Phoebus himself, but from his ministers—saying that he would suffer his doom at the hands of the child to be born to him and me.
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And Laius—as, at least, the rumor goes—was murdered one day by foreign robbers at a place where the three highways meet. And the child’s birth was not yet three days past, when Laius pinned his ankles together and had him thrown, by others’ hands, on a remote mountain.
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So, in that case, Apollo did not bring it to pass that the child should become the slayer of his father, or that Laius should suffer that which he feared, death at the hands of his child: thus the messages of the seer’s art had mapped out the future. Pay them no regard. Whatever necessary event
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the god seeks, he himself will easily bring to light.
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Oedipus
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What restlessness of soul, lady, what tumult has come upon me since I heard you speak!
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Iocasta
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What anxiety has startled you, that you say this?
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Oedipus
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I thought that I heard this from you—that Laius
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was slain where the three roads meet.
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Icasta
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Yes, that was the report, and so it is still thought.
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Oedipus
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And where is the place where this occurred?
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Iocasta
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The land is called Phocis; the branching forks lead to the same spot from Delphi and from Daulia.
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Oedipus
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And how much time has passed since these events took place?
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Iocasta
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The news was announced to the town shortly before you first attained power over this land.
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Oedipus
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O Zeus, what have you decreed for me?
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Iocasta
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Why, Oedipus, does this matter weigh upon your heart?
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Oedipus
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Do not ask me yet. Tell me rather what stature Laius had, and how ripe his manhood was.
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Iocasta
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He was tall—the silver just lightly strewn among his hair—and his form was not greatly unlike your own.
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Oedipus
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Unhappy that I am! I think that I have
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laid myself under a terrible curse without realizing it.
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Iocasta
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How do you mean? I tremble when I look at you, my lord.
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Oedipus
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I have dread fears that the seer can see. But you will reveal the matter better if you tell me one thing more.
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Iocasta
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Indeed, though I tremble, I will hear and answer all that you ask.
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Oedipus
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Did he go with a small force, or like a chieftain, with many armed followers?
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Iocasta
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Five they were in all—a herald among them—and there was one carriage which bore Laius.
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Oedipus
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Alas! It is all clear now! Who gave you this information, lady?
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Iocasta
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A servant, the only survivor who returned home.
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Oedipus
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Is he by any chance in the house now?
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Iocasta
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No. Soon after he returned and found you ruling in Laius’ stead,
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he pled with me, with hand laid on mine, to send him to the fields, to the pastures of the flocks, that he might be far from the sight of this town. And I sent him; he was worthy, for a slave, to win even a larger favor than that.
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Oedipus
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Would, then, that he return to us without delay!
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Iocasta
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That is easy. But why do you enjoin this?
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Oedipus
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I fear, lady, that my words have been rash, and therefore I wish to see him.
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Iocasta
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He will come. But I think that
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I too have a claim to learn what lies heavy on your heart, my king.
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Oedipus
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It will not be kept from you, now that my forebodings have advanced so far. To whom more than to you would I speak in suffering such a fortune as this? My father was Polybus of Corinth,