Oedipus Tyrannus
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Oedipus
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See that you send me to dwell outside this land.
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Oedipus
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But to the gods I have become most hateful.
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Oedipus
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So you consent?
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Oedipus
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Then it is time to lead me away.
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Oedipus
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No, do not take them from me!
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Creon
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Do not wish to be master in all things: the mastery which you did attain has not followed you through life.
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Chorus
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Residents of our native Thebes, behold, this is Oedipus,
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who knew the renowned riddle, and was a most mighty man. What citizen did not gaze on his fortune with envy? See into what a stormy sea of troubles he has come! Therefore, while our eyes wait to see the final destined day, we must call no mortal happy until
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he has crossed life’s border free from pain.
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Chorus
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Alas, countless are the sorrows I bear.
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A plague is on all our people, and thought can find no weapon for defense. The fruits of the glorious earth do not grow; by no birth of offspring do women surmount the pangs in which they shriek.
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You can see life after life speed away, like a bird on the wing, swifter than irresistible fire, to the shore of the western god.
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Chorus
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With such deaths, past numbering, the city perishes.
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Unpitied, her children lie on the ground, spreading pestilence, with no one to mourn them. Meanwhile young wives and grey-haired mothers raise a wail at the steps of the altars, some here, some there,
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and groan in supplication for their terrible woes. The prayers to the Healer ring clear, and with them the voice of lamentation. For which things, golden daughter of Zeus, send us the bright face of comfort.
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Chorus
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The wise augur moves me, neither approving nor denying, with dread, with dread indeed.
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I am at a loss what to say. I am flustered in my expectations, seeing neither the present nor the future clearly. Never in past days or in these have I heard how the house of Labdacus or the son of Polybus had any quarrel with one another that
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I could bring as proof in assailing the public reputation of Oedipus, seeking to avenge the line of Labdacus
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for the undiscovered murder.
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Chorus
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Zeus and Apollo indeed are keen of thought and know the affairs of the earth.
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But there is no sure test of whether a mortal seer attains more knowledge than I do, though man may surpass man in wisdom. But until I see the word made good, I will never assent when men blame Oedipus. Before all eyes the winged maiden came against him once upon a time, and he was seen to be wise,
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and bore the test in welcome service to the state. Never, therefore, will he be adjudged guilty of evil.
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Chorus
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No, by the god that stands at the head of all the host of the gods, no, by the sun. Unblest, unbefriended, may I die the worst possible death, if I have this thought!
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But my unhappy soul is worn by the withering of the land, as well as by the thought that our old sorrows should be crowned by new ones arising from the two of you.
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Oedipus
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Then let him go, though I am surely doomed to be killed
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or thrust dishonored from the land. Your words, not his, move me to compassion; but he, wherever he be, shall be hated.
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Creon
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You are truly sullen in yielding, as you are vehement in the excesses of your wrath. But such natures are
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justly most difficult for themselves to bear.
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Oedipus
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Will you not be gone and leave me in peace?
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Creon
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I will go on my way. I have found you undiscerning, but in the view of these men I am just. He exits.
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Chorus
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King, I have said it more than once—
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be sure that I would have proved myself a madman, bankrupt in sane counsel, if I forsook you—you, who gave a true course to my beloved country when it was
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distraught with troubles, and who now are likely to prove our prospering guide.
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Iocasta
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In the name of the gods, tell me, king, the reason that you have conceived this steadfast wrath.
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Chorus
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But if any man walks haughtily in deed or word,
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with no fear of Justice, no reverence for the images of gods, may an evil doom seize him for his ill-starred pride, if he does not gain his advantage fairly,
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or avoid unholy deeds, but seeks to lay profaning hands on sanctities. Where such things occur, what mortal shall boast any more that he can ward off the arrow of the gods from his life?
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No. For if such deeds are held in honor, why should we join in the sacred dance?
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Chorus
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No longer will I go reverently to the earth’s central and inviolate shrine, no more to Abae’s temple or to Olympia,
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if these oracles do not fit the outcome, so that all mortals shall point at them with their fingers.
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No, King—if this you are rightly called—Zeus all ruling, may it not escape you and your deathless power! The old prophecies concerning Laius are fading; already men give them no value, and nowhere is Apollo glorified with honors;
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the worship of the gods is perishing.
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Chorus
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But now whose story is more grievous in men’s ears?
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Who is a more wretched slave to fierce plagues and troubles, with all his life reversed? Alas, renowned Oedipus! The same bounteous harbor was sufficient for you, both as child and as father, to make your nuptial couch in. Oh, how can the soil
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in which your father sowed, unhappy man, have endured you in silence for so long?
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Chorus
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Time the all-seeing has found you out, against your will: he judges the monstrous marriage in which
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parent and child have long been one. Alas, child of Laius, would that I had never seen you. I wail as one who pours a dirge from his lips.
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It was you who gave me new life, to speak directly, and through you darkness has fallen upon my eyes.
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Oedipus
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It was Apollo, friends, Apollo who brought these troubles
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to pass, these terrible, terrible troubles. But the hand that struck my eyes was none other than my own, wretched that I am!
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Why should I see, when sight showed me nothing sweet?
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Chorus
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These things were just as you say.
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Oedipus
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What, my friends, can I behold anymore, what can I love, what greeting can touch my ear with joy? Hurry, friends,
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lead me from the land, lead me from here, the utterly lost,
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the thrice-accursed, the mortal most hateful to the gods!
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Chorus
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Wretched alike for your fortune and for your understanding of it, would that I had never known you!
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Oedipus
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Perish the man, whoever he was, who freed me in the past years from the cruel shackle on my feet—a thankless deed! Had I died then,
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I would not have been so sore a grief to my friends and to my own soul.
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Chorus
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I too would have had it thus.
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Oedipus
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In this way I would not have come to shed my father’s blood, or been known among men as the husband of the woman from whom I was born.
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Now I am forsaken by the gods, son of a defiled mother, successor to the bed of the man who gave me my own wretched being:
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if there is a woe surpassing all woes, it has become Oedipus’ lot.
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Chorus
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Grant that the fierce god of death, who now without the bronze of shields, though among cries like those of battle, wraps me in the flames of his onset, may turn his back in speedy flight from our land, borne by a favorable wind to the great chamber of Amphitrite,
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or to the Thracian waves, those waters where none find haven. For if night leaves anything undone in the working of destruction, day follows to accomplish it. You who wield the
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powers of fiery lightning, Zeus our father, slay him beneath your thunder-bolt.
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Chorus
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Lycean Lord, would that the shafts from your bent bow’s string of woven gold might
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go forth in their might, our champions in the face of the foe, and the flashing fires of Artemis too, with which she darts through the Lycian hills. I call him whose locks are bound with gold,
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who is named with the name of this land, ruddy Bacchus to whom Bacchants cry, to draw near with the blaze of his shining torch,
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our ally against the god unhonored among the gods.
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Oedipus
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No, for you persuade me that you are unworthy of trust.
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Oedipus
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Sane, at least, in my own interest.
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Oedipus
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You are false.
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Oedipus
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Still I must rule.
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Oedipus
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Hear him, city of Thebes!
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Servant
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Yes, my lord.
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Servant
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That I should do away with it.
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Servant
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Yes, from fear of the evil prophecies.
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Servant
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The tale ran that he would slay his father.
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Creon
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Yes, for it is in season that all things are good.
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Creon
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You will tell me, and then I will know when I have heard them.
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Creon
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You ask for what the god must give.
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Creon
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Then you will quickly get your wish.
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Creon
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It is not my way to say idly what I do not mean.
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Creon
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Come, then, but let your children go.