Oedipus Tyrannus
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Oedipus
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My children, latest-born wards of old Cadmus, why do you sit before me like this with wreathed branches of suppliants, while the city reeks with incense,
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rings with prayers for health and cries of woe? I thought it unbefitting, my children, to hear these things from the mouths of others, and have come here myself, I, Oedipus renowned by all. Tell me, then, venerable old man—since it is proper that you
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speak for these—in what mood you sit here, one of fear or of desire? Be sure that I will gladly give you all my help. I would be hard-hearted indeed if I did not pity such suppliants as these.
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Priest of Zeus
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Oedipus, ruler of my land, you see the age of those who sit
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on your altars—some, nestlings still too tender for flight, others, bowed with age, priests, like me of Zeus, and some, these here, the chosen youth. The rest of the folk sit
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with wreathed branches in the market-place, and before the shrines of Pallas, and where Ismenus gives answer by fire. For the city, as you yourself see, is now sorely vexed, and can no longer lift her head from beneath the angry waves of death.
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A blight has fallen on the fruitful blossoms of the land, the herds among the pastures, the barren pangs of women. And the flaming god, the malign plague, has swooped upon us, and ravages the town: he lays waste to the house of Cadmus, but enriches Hades with
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groans and tears. It is not because we rank you with the gods that I and these children are suppliants at your hearth, but because we deem you the first among men in life’s common fortunes and in dealings with the divinities:
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when you came to the city of the Cadmeans, you freed us from the tax that we rendered to the hard songstress, and that when you knew no more than anyone else, nor had you been taught, but rather by the assistance of a god, as the story goes, you uplifted our life.
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Now, Oedipus, king glorious in our eyes, we, your suppliants, beseech you to find some defence for us, whether you hear it from some divine omen, or learn of it from some mortal. For I see that the outcome of the councils of experienced men
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most often have effect. On, best of mortals, uplift our state! On, guard your fame, since now this land calls you savior on account of your former zeal. Let us not remember of your reign that
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we were first restored and then cast down: lift this state so that it falls no more! With good omen you provided us that past happiness: show yourself the same now too, since if you are to rule this land just as you do now, it is better to be lord of men than of a wasteland.
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Neither walled town nor ship is anything, if it is empty and no men dwell within.
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Oedipus
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My piteous children, I know quite well the desires with which you have come: I know well that
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you all are sick, and though you are sick I know well that there is not one of you who is as sick as I. Your pain comes on each of you for himself alone, and for no other, but my soul is in pain at once for the city, for myself, and for you.
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Thus you are not awakening me from sleep: no, be sure that I have wept many tears, wandered far and wide in my thought. I have made use of the only remedy which I could find after close consideration: I sent my relative
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Creon, Menoeceus’ son, to Apollo’s Pythian residence to learn what we might do or say to protect this city. And now, when the lapse of days is reckoned, I am troubled about what he is doing, for he has been away an unreasonably long time
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beyond what is fitting. But when he arrives, I would be no true man if did not perform all that the god reveals.
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Priest
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You have spoken opportunely, since at this time these people here indicate that Creon is drawing near.
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Oedipus
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Lord Apollo, may he come to us in the brightness of saving fortune, even as his face is bright!
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Priest
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He seems to bring comfort, since otherwise he would not be coming crowned so thickly with berry-laden bay.
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Oedipus
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We will soon know: he is within hearing-range.
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Prince, my kinsman, child of Menoeceus, what news have you brought us from the god?
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Creon
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Good news. I tell you that even troubles hard to bear will end in perfect peace if they find the right issue.
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Oedipus
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But what is the oracle ? So far, your words
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neither encourage nor frighten me.
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Creon
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If you want to hear in the presence of these people, I am ready to speak: otherwise we can go inside.
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Oedipus
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Speak to all. The sorrow that I bear for these is more than for my own life.
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Creon
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I will tell you what I heard from the god. Phoebus our lord clearly commands us to drive out the defilement which he said was harbored in this land, and not to nourish it so that it cannot be healed.
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Oedipus
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With what sort of purification? What is the manner of the misfortune?
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Creon
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By banishing the man, or by paying back bloodshed with bloodshed, since it is this blood which brings the tempest on our city.
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Oedipus
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And who is the man whose fate he thus reveals?
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Creon
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Laius, my lord, was the leader of our land before you assumed control of this state.
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Oedipus
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I know it well—by hearsay, for I never saw him.
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Creon
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He was slain, and the god now bids us to take vengeance on his murderers, whoever they are.
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Oedipus
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Where on earth are they? Where shall the dim track of this old crime be found?
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Creon
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In this land, the god said. What is sought for can be caught; only that which is not watched escapes.
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Oedipus
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Was it in the house, or in the field, or on foreign soil that Laius met his bloody end?
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Creon
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He left our land, as he said, on a mission to Delphi.
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And once he had set forth, he never again returned.
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Oedipus
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And was there none to tell? Was there no travelling companion who saw the deed, from whom tidings might have been gained, and used?
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Creon
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All perished, save one who fled in fear, and he could tell with assurance only one thing of all that he saw.
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Oedipus
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And what was that? One thing might hold the clue to many, if we could only get a small beginning for hope.
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Creon
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He said that robbers fell upon them, not one man alone, but with a great force.
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Oedipus
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How then, unless some intrigue had been worked with bribes
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from here in Thebes, would the robbers have been so bold?
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Creon
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Such things were surmised. But once Laius was slain no avenger arose in the midst of our troubles.
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Oedipus
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But when royalty had fallen in this way, what trouble prevented a full search?
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Creon
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The riddling Sphinx had forced us to let things that were obscure go, and to investigate the pressing trouble.
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Oedipus
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I will start afresh, and once more make dark things plain. Worthily has Phoebus Apollo—and worthily have you—bestowed this care on behalf of the dead. And so, as is fitting, you will find me allied with you
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in seeking vengeance for this land, and for the god as well. I will dispel this taint not on behalf of far-off friends, but for my own benefit. For whoever killed Laius
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might wish to take vengeance on me also with a hand as fierce. Avenging Laius, therefore, I serve myself. Come, my children, as quickly as possible rise from the altar-steps, and lift these suppliant boughs. Let someone summon here Cadmus’ people, warning them that I will leave nothing untried.
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For with the god’s help our good fortune—or our ruin—will be made certain.
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Priest
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My children, let us rise. What we came to seek, this man promises of his own accord. And may Phoebus, who sent these oracles,
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come to us as savior and deliverer from the pestilence.
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Chorus
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O sweetly-speaking message of Zeus, in what spirit have you come to glorious Thebes from golden Pytho? I am on the rack, terror shakes my soul, O Delian healer to whom wild cries rise,
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in holy fear of you, wondering what debt you will extract from me, perhaps unknown before, perhaps renewed with the revolving years. Tell me, immortal Voice, child of golden Hope.
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Chorus
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First I call on you, daughter of Zeus, immortal Athena,
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and on your sister, Artemis, guardian of our earth, who sits on her glorious throne above the circle of our market-place, and on far-shooting Apollo: oh shine forth for me, my three-fold help against death!
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If ever before you drove a fiery pest from our borders to stop ruin rushing upon our city, come now also!
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Oedipus
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You pray. And in answer to your prayer, if you will give a loyal reception to my words and minister to your own disease, you may hope to find help and relief from woes. These words I will speak publicly, as one who was a stranger to the report,
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a stranger to the deed. I would not go far on the trail if I were tracing it alone, without a clue. But as it is—since it was only after the event that I was counted a Theban among Thebans—to you, Cadmeans all, I do thus proclaim: Whoever knows
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by whom Laius son of Labdacus was slain, I order him to declare all to me. And if he is afraid, I order him to remove the danger of indictment from his path by denouncing himself: he will suffer no other punishment, but will only leave this land, unhurt.
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If anyone knows the assassin to be an alien, from another land, let him not keep silent. I will reward him, and my thanks shall rest with him besides. But if he keeps silent, if anyone, through fear, seeks to screen himself or a friend from my orders,
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then hear what I shall do: I charge you that no resident of this land, which I rule, give shelter to or address that murderer, whoever he is, or make him a partner in prayer or sacrifice,
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or give him a share of the lustral rite. Ban him from your houses, all of you, knowing that this is the defilement, as the oracle of the Pythian god has recently shown to me. In this way
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I am an ally both to the god and to the dead man. And I pray solemnly that the slayer, whoever he is, whether he alone is guilty or he has partners, may, in the horrible way he deserves, wear out his unblest life. And for myself I pray that if he should,
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with my knowledge, become a resident of my house, I may suffer the same things which I have just called down on others. And I order you to make all these words good, for my sake, for the sake of the god, and for the sake of our land, thus rendered unfruitful and ungodly.
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For even if the matter had not been urged upon us by a god, it still would not have been fit that you should leave the guilt unpunished as it is, when one so noble—and he your king—had perished. You should have searched it out. But now, since I hold the powers which he once held,
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possessing his bed and the wife who bore his children, and since, had his hope of offspring not been unsuccessful, children born of one mother would have tied us with a common bond—as it was, fate swooped upon his head—I will uphold this cause, as though it were that of my own father,
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and will leave no stone unturned in my search for the one who shed the blood, for the honor of the son of Labdacus and of Polydorus and the elder Cadmus and Agenor of old. And for those who do not obey me, I pray that the gods
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send them neither harvest of the earth nor fruit of the womb, but that they perish with the present fate, or one still worse. But to all you, the loyal Cadmeans who are satisfied by these things, may justice, our ally,
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and all the gods be gracious always.
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Chorus
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As you have put me under oath, on my oath, my king, I will speak. I am not the slayer, nor can I reveal him. As for the investigation, it was for Phoebus, who enjoined it, to tell us who did the deed.
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Oedipus
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Justly said. But no man on earth can force the gods to do what they do not want.
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Chorus
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I would like to say what seems to me the next best course.
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Oedipus
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And if there is a third course, do not hesitate to reveal it too.
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Chorus
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I know that our lord Teiresias is the seer most like our
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lord Apollo: from him, my king, an investigator might learn most clearly about these affairs.
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Oedipus
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Not even this have I neglected. On Creon’s suggestion, I sent a man twice to bring him. And I have been wondering for some time why he is not here.
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Chorus
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Indeed—his skill apart—the rumors are but faint and old.
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Oedipus
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What are the rumors? I am investigating every tale.
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Chorus
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He was said to have been killed by some wayfarers.
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Oedipus
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I too have heard that. But no one sees the one who saw it.
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Chorus
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If he knows what fear is, he will not hesitate to come forward when he
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hears your curses, so dire are they.
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Oedipus
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When a man does not shrink from a deed, he is not scared by a word.
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Chorus
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But there is one to convict him. But here they bring at last the godlike prophet, the only man in whom truth lives.
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Oedipus
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Teiresias, whose soul grasps all things, both that which may be told and that which is unspeakable, the Olympian secrets and the affairs of the earth, you feel, though you cannot see, what a huge plague haunts our state. From which, great prophet, we find you to be our protector and only savior.
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Now, Phoebus—if indeed you have not already heard the news—sent answer to our question that the only way to rid ourselves of this pest that afflicts us is to discover the slayers of Laius, and then to slay them or banish them from our land.
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So do not begrudge us the voice of the birds or any other path of prophecy, but save yourself and your state, save me, save all that is defiled by the dead. We are in your hands, and man’s noblest task is to help others
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to the best of his means and powers.
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Teiresias
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Alas, how terrible it is to have wisdom when it does not benefit those who have it. I knew this well, but let it slip from my mind: otherwise I would not have come here.
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Oedipus
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What now? How disheartened you have come!
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Teiresias
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Let me go home. For you will bear your own burden to the end, and I will bear mine, if you consent.
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Oedipus
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Your words are strange and unkind to the state which nurtured you, since you withhold this response.
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Teiresias
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I see that you, for your part, speak inappropriately.
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Therefore do not speak, so I will not suffer the same.
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Oedipus
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For the love of the gods, do not turn away, if you have knowledge: all we suppliants implore you on our knees.
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Teiresias
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For all of you are without knowledge. But never will I reveal my troubles—not to call them yours.