Oedipus Tyrannus
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Messenger
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Just as much, and no more, than he who speaks to you.
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Oedipus
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And how can my father be equal to him who is as though nothing to me?
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Messenger
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But he did not father you, any more than I did.
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Oedipus
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How, then, did he call me his son?
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Messenger
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Long ago he received you as a gift from my hands.
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Oedipus
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And yet he loved me so dearly, who came from another’s hand?
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Messenger
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His former childlessness won him over.
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Oedipus
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And had you bought me or found me by chance, when you gave me to him?
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Messenger
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I found you in Cithaeron’s winding glens.
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Oedipus
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And why were you roaming those regions?
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Messenger
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I was in charge of mountain flocks.
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Oedipus
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What, you were a shepherd—a vagrant hireling?
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Messenger
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But your savior, my son, in that hour.
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Oedipus
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And what was my pain when you took me in your arms?
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Messenger
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The ankles of your feet might bear witness.
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Oedipus
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Ah me, why do you speak of that old trouble?
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Messenger
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I freed you when you had your ankles pinned together.
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Oedipus
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It was a dread brand of shame that I took from my cradle.
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Messenger
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So much so that from that fortune you were called by that name which you still bear.
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Oedipus
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Oh, in the name of the gods, was the deed my mother’s or father’s? Speak!
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Messenger
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I know not. He who gave you to me knows better of that than I.
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Oedipus
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What, you got me from another? You did not find me yourself?
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Messenger
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No. Another shepherd gave you to me.
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Oedipus
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Who was he? Can you tell clearly?
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Messenger
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I think he was said to be one of the household of Laius.
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Oedipus
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The king who ruled this country long ago?
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Messenger
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The same. The man was a herdsman in his service.
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Oedipus
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Is he still alive, that I might see him?
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Messenger
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You natives of this country should know best.
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Oedipus
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Is there any of you here present that knows the herdsman of whom he speaks, having seen him either in the pastures or here in town? Answer!
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The hour has come for these things to be revealed finally.
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Chorus
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I think he speaks of no other than the peasant you already wanted to see. But our lady Iocasta might best tell you that.
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Oedipus
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Lady, do you know the one whom we summoned just now?
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Is it of him that this man speaks?
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Iocasta
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Why ask of whom he spoke? Regard it not; waste not a thought on what he said; it would be vain.
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Oedipus
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It must not happen that, with such clues in my grasp, I fail to bring my birth to light.
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Iocasta
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For the gods’ sake, if you have any care for your own life, do not continue this search! My anguish is enough.
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Oedipus
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Be of good courage. Even if I should be found the son of a servile mother—a slave by three descents—you will not be proven baseborn.
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Iocasta
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Hear me, I implore you: do not do this.
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Oedipus
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I will not hear of not discovering the whole truth.
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Iocasta
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Yet I wish you well—I counsel you for the best.
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Oedipus
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These best counsels, then, vex my patience.
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Iocasta
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Oh ill-fated man, may you never know who you are!
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Oedipus
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Go, some one, fetch me the herdsman.
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Leave this woman to glory in her princely stock.
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Iocasta
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Alas, alas, miserable man—that word alone can I say to you—and no other word ever again. She rushes into the palace.
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Chorus
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Why has this woman gone, Oedipus, rushing off in wild grief? I fear
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a storm of sorrow will soon break forth from this silence.
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Oedipus
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Break forth what will! Be my race ever so lowly, I crave to learn it. That woman perhaps—for she is proud with more than a woman’s pride—feels ashamed of my lowly origin. But I, who hold myself son of Fortune
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that gives good, will not be dishonored. She is the mother from whom I spring, and the months, my kinsmen, have marked me sometimes lowly, sometimes great. Such being my heritage, never more can I prove
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false to it, or keep from searching out the secret of my birth.
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Chorus
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If I am a seer or wise of heart,
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Cithaeron, you will not fail—by heaven, you will not—to know at tomorrow’s full moon that Oedipus honors you as native to him, as his nurse, and his mother, and that you are celebrated in our dance and song,
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because you are well-pleasing to our prince. O Phoebus to whom we cry, may these things find favor in your sight!
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Chorus
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Who was it, my son, who of the race whose years are many, that bore you in wedlock with
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Pan, the mountain-roaming father? Or was it a bride of Loxias that bore you? For dear to him are all the upland pastures.
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Or perhaps it was Cyllene’s lord, or the Bacchants’ god, dweller on the hill-tops, that received you, a new-born joy, from one of the nymphs of Helicon, with whom he most often sports.
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Oedipus
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Elders, if it is right for me, who have never met the man, to guess, I think I see the herdsman we have been looking for for a lone time. In his venerable old age he tallies with this stranger’s years, and moreover I recognize those who bring him, I think, as servants of mine.
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But perhaps you have an advantage in knowledge over me, if you have seen the herdsman before.
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Chorus
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Yes, I know him, be sure. He was in the service of Laius—trusty as any shepherd.
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Oedipus
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I ask you first, Corinthian stranger, if this is the man you mean.
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Messenger
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He is, the one you are looking at.
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Oedipus
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You, old man—look this way and answer all that I ask—were you once in the service of Laius?
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Servant
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I was—not a bought slave, but reared in his house.
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Oedipus
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Employed in what labor, or what way of life?
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Servant
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For the better part of my life I tended the flocks.
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Oedipus
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And what regions did you most frequently haunt?
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Servant
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Sometimes Cithaeron, sometimes the neighboring ground.
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Oedipus
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Are you aware of ever having seen this man in these parts?
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Servant
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Doing what? What man do you mean?
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Oedipus
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This man here. Have you ever met him before?
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Servant
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Not so that I could speak at once from memory.
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Messenger
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And no wonder, master. But I will bring clear recollection to his ignorance. I am sure he knows well of the time we dwelled in the region of Cithaeron
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for six month periods, from spring to Arcturus, he with two flocks, and I, his comrade, with one. And then for the winter I used to drive my flock to my own fold, and he took his to the fold of Laius.
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Did any of this happen as I tell it, or did it not?
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Servant
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You speak the truth, though it was long ago.
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Messenger
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Come, tell me now: do you remember having given me a boy in those days, to be reared as my own foster-son?
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Servant
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What now? Why do you ask the question?
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Messenger
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This man, my friend, is he who then was young.
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Servant
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Damn you! Be silent once and for all!
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Oedipus
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Do not rebuke him, old man. Your words need rebuking more than his.
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Servant
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And in what way, most noble master, do I offend?
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Oedipus
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In not telling of the boy about whom he asks.
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Servant
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He speaks without knowledge, but is busy to no purpose.
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Oedipus
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You will not speak with good grace, but will in pain.
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Servant
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No, in the name of the gods, do not mistreat an old man.
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Oedipus
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Someone, quick—tie his hands him this instant!
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Servant
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Alas, why? What do you want to learn?
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Oedipus
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Did you give this man the child about whom he asks?
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Servant
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I did. Would that I had perished that day!
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Oedipus
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Well, you will come to that, unless you tell the honest truth.
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Servant
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But if I speak I will be destroyed all the more.
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Oedipus
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This man is bent, I think, on more delays.
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Servant
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No, no! I said before that I gave it to him.
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Oedipus
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Where did you get it from? From your own house, or from another?
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Servant
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It was not my own: I received it from another.
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Oedipus
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From whom of the citizens here? From what home?
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Servant
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For the love of the gods, master, ask no more!
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Oedipus
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You are dead if I have to question you again.
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Servant
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It was a child, then, of the house of Laius.