we have heard proclaimed just now.
And may Phoebus, who sent these prophecies,
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come, save, and deliver us from plague!
(Priest and suppliants leave. The Chorus of elders, representing “the people of Cadmus” referred to by Oedipus in line 144, enter the orchestra, singing the parodos or entry song.)
strophe 1
Oracle of Zeus, coming from Pytho*17 steeped in gold
to radiant Thebes, what, what do you mean
by this welcome message? I am prostrate with dread,
my fearful heart beating—O Delian Paean!*18—
in awe of you. What is the debt you will exact of me?
Is it new, or come back again
with the seasons coming round?
Answer me, O child of golden Hope, immortal Voice!
antistrophe 1
Calling first on you, immortal Athena,
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daughter of Zeus, and on your sister
Artemis, our land’s guardian,
throned in glory in the market place,
and on Apollo who strikes from afar:
appear to me now, O triple averters of doom!
If ever before, when ruin towered above our city,
you put the flame of pain to flight, come to us now!
strophe 2
Ah, numberless are the pains
I bear—my people sick, sick
to the core, and in my mind
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I find no sword to ward it off.
The glorious earth
puts forth no fruit, the pangs
of women do not end in birth.
You may see now one,
now another, like a bird
on the wing, faster than resistless fire, speed
to the shore of the western god.*19
antistrophe 2
The city, perishing, loses count
of her dead—her sons, unpitied,
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no one to lament them,
strew the ground
to breed yet still more death. Here
and there young wives and gray-haired
mothers huddle at the altars,
groaning, crying to be freed of pain.
The paean*20 blazes to the sound of voices
keening. O against all this, golden
daughter of Zeus, send us protection!
strophe 3
And may savage Ares*21
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armed in no armor but with cries
clashing around him, charging,
scorching me—turn in retreat and run
far from my country, sped
on the breeze, off to the great
chamber of Amphitrite*22
or the waves of Thrace
that brook no anchorings,*23
for what the night fails to kill
falls by his hand next day.
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Him, O father Zeus, master
of fiery lightning, destroy
with your thunderbolt!
antistrophe 3
How gladly would I see shot
from your bow strung with gold,
Lycian lord,*24 arrows invincible
in our defense, and the fiery
torches of Artemis with which she scours
the mountains of Lycia,
and I call on the god who binds
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his hair in gold and gives his name to our land,*25
Bacchus, to whom they cry euoi*26
when, wreathed in clusters, he leads
the maenads:*27 come, ablaze
with torches of pine, against
the god who has no honor among the gods!*28
(Enter Oedipus from the palace.)
OEDIPUS: You’ve made your prayer, and what you pray for,
protection, relief from these ills, you will obtain
if you listen to me and so give the disease
the care it requires. I speak to you as stranger
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to the tale and stranger to the deed. For I
could not get far on the track of it without
a clue. But as it is, and since I became
your fellow citizen after the crime, I say
to all the people of Cadmus: whoever knows
by whose hand Laius, Labdacus’ son, was killed,
I order him to tell me everything.
227
And if he is afraid that, by freeing
of the charge,
228
down> on himself, he needn’t fear; he’ll suffer
no worse than exile, and go away unhurt.
230
But if anyone knows that some other Theban
or foreigner is the killer, let him speak;
I’ll make it worth his while, and show thanks, too.
But if you hold back, and any of you, afraid
for a friend or himself, spurns this command,
hear from me now what I’ll do next: I forbid
anyone in this land—the land whose power
and throne I possess—either to welcome
or talk to him, whoever he is, or join him
in prayers to the gods, or share with him
240
in sacrifice, or in the lustral water.*30 No,
but all must drive him from their houses—he’s
our pollution, as the oracle of the god
in Delphi has just now disclosed to me.
This, then, is the role I take upon myself—
245
ally of the god and the man who died.*31
252
All this I charge you to accomplish,
for my sake and Apollo’s, and this land
so blighted—barren and hated by the gods.
For even if the god weren’t forcing this on you
you shouldn’t leave it festering so, and this
the case of a noble man, your murdered king.*32
No, you’d have to search it out! But now,
since I enjoy the power that was his, and have
260
his bed and the woman he embraced in it,
who would have borne him children, siblings
to my own, had not his hopes of offspring
foundered and bad luck swooped upon him—
for all these reasons, I will fight for him
as for my own father, go to every length
in my determination to catch the killer
of the son of Labdacus, son of Polydorus,
son of Cadmus before and of ancient Agenor.
For those who do not do as I command, I pray
270
the gods send them no harvest from the earth,
no children from their wives. Let them be destroyed
by the very fate upon us now, and by one
worse still. But all you other Thebans, to whom
my commands are welcome, may Justice fight
for you, and the gods favor you forever!
CHORUS LEADER: Since you’ve put me on oath, so, lord, I’ll speak:
I did not kill, nor can I reveal the killer.
It lies with Phoebus, who launched this search,
to say who did the deed, so long ago.
280
OEDIPUS: Right, but to compel the gods to act
against their will—that no one can do.
CHORUS LEADER: May I suggest, then, what seems second best?
OEDIPUS: And third best, too: leave nothing out.
CHORUS LEADER: The lord Tiresias, I know, sees with the eyes
of Phoebus, his lord: from him, my lord, would a man
tracking all this learn of it most clearly.
OEDIPUS: Here, too, I haven’t been remiss. I’ve sent, twice now,
at Creon’s suggestion, escorts to bring him here.
I’ve long been wondering why he hasn’t come yet.
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CHORUS LEADER: Apart from him, all we have is ancient gossip.
OEDIPUS: Gossip? What sort? I’ll leave no stone unturned.
CHORUS LEADER: They say it was some highwaymen that killed him.
OEDIPUS: I’ve heard that, too, but no one sees the doer.*33
CHORUS LEADER: If he has a trace of dread in him, he won’t
stay hidden—such are the curses you have uttered.
OEDIPUS: A man not afraid to strike won’t fear a threat.
CHORUS LEADER: (glancing offstage) No matter; here’s the one who will convict him.
For here I see them, bringing the godlike prophet;
in him, alone among men, truth is inborn.
(Enter Tiresias, a blind prophet, accompanied by Oedipus’ attendants. A boy guides his steps.)
300
OEDIPUS: Tiresias, master of all that can or can’t
be taught or said, in heaven, or treading the earth—
you know, though you don’t see, what sort of disease
feeds on our city; against it, lord, we find
no champion, no savior but you alone!
For Phoebus—if you haven’t heard already—
has given us an answer to our question:
deliverance from this plague will come to us
only if we kill the killers of Laius
or banish them, once we know who they are.
310
Do not, then, begrudge us what you know
by augury, or other mantic means.
Save yourself, save the city, and save me—
drive out all taint that comes from that dead man!
We are in your hands. To help, with all you have
and all you can do, is the noblest task.
TIRESIAS: There’s nothing to be said for understanding
if you have it and gain nothing. I knew that well,
and forgot it. Else I wouldn’t be here now.
OEDIPUS: What’s wrong? You’ve just arrived, and yet so downcast!
320
TIRESIAS: Send me home. You’ll bear your part most easily
and I will mine, if you take my advice.
OEDIPUS: What you say is surprising, without regard for the city
that reared you. Don’t deny us this response.*34
TIRESIAS: I see that what you say is off the mark.
That’s why, so as not to err like you—
OEDIPUS: By the gods! If you know, don’t turn away.
We beg you, all of us, as suppliants.
TIRESIAS: Yes, for all of you don’t know! But I will never
reveal my troubles—not to speak of yours.
330
OEDIPUS: What are you saying? You know, and will not speak?
Will you betray us, and destroy the city?
TIRESIAS: I’ll vex neither myself nor you. Why probe
these things in vain? You won’t find out from me.
OEDIPUS: No? You traitor! Or worse: you’d move
a stone to rage! So you’ll never speak out,
just stay stubborn, and avoid the point?
TIRESIAS: You fault my temper but refuse to see
the temper in yourself. No, you blame me.
OEDIPUS: Who wouldn’t be enraged when he hears words
340
like yours, that show this city no respect?
TIRESIAS: Things will out, whether I speak or not.
OEDIPUS: Shouldn’t you tell me, then, just what will out?
TIRESIAS: I’ll say no more. Rage at that, if you want to,
with all the anger, all the savagery you can.
OEDIPUS: Anger, you say? Yes, I’ll let fly, I’ll lay out
all I see going on here. It’s plain to me
you hatched the scheme and did the deed, just short
of killing him yourself, with your own hands. And if
you weren’t blind I’d say you did that, too, unaided!
350
TIRESIAS: Is that so? Then I insist that you abide
by your own proclamation, and from this day
speak neither to these men here nor to me.
For you are the unholy polluter of our land.
OEDIPUS: So shameless, to stir up a tale like that?
Where can you run to, where find an escape?
TIRESIAS: I have escaped. The truth within me is my strength.
OEDIPUS: Who taught this “truth” to you? Not your art!
TIRESIAS: It came from you—you made me speak.
OEDIPUS: Made you speak what? Repeat it, make it clearer.
360
TIRESIAS: You didn’t understand it the first time? […]*35
OEDIPUS: Not so as to be sure. Say it again.
TIRESIAS: You are the killer you are looking for.
OEDIPUS: You’ll live to regret saying that—twice now.
TIRESIAS: Shall I say more, to make you even madder?
OEDIPUS: Yes, all you like. Your words will come to nothing.
TIRESIAS: You don’t know that you live in deepest shame with those
most near to you*36—you’re sunk in evils you don’t see.
OEDIPUS: You think you’ll go on like this, and get away?
TIRESIAS: Yes, if there’s any power in the truth.
370
OEDIPUS: There is, but not in your case. For you it fails,
because you’re blind—in ears and mind and eyes.
TIRESIAS: What a sad case you are, taunting me
as all these here will soon be taunting you!
OEDIPUS: Wrapped as you are in endless dark, you can’t
hurt me or anyone who sees the light.
TIRESIAS: True—I’m not the one to cause your fall.
Apollo, who wants to see it, will suffice.
OEDIPUS: Whose revelations are these? Creon’s?
TIRESIAS: Creon’s not your problem. It’s you yourself.
380
OEDIPUS: O wealth and tyranny*37 and skill
surpassing skill in the ambitious life!
How great is the envy you have in store
if, for this power, that the city handed to me—
a gift, a thing I never asked to have—
Creon, my confidant, my friend from the start,
sneaks up on me and wants to cast me out;
he bribes this fortune-teller, this conniver,
a slick impostor with an eye for gain
but blind when it comes to prophecy!
390
(to Tiresias) So, tell us now: what makes you a real prophet?
Why, when that rhapsodic hound*38 was here,
did you say nothing to save these people?
Yet hers was a riddle*39 not just anyone
might solve. It required skill in mantic art,
skill you didn’t seem to have, from birds
or from the gods. And then I came along,
Oedipus the know-nothing.*40 I stopped her,
using my brains, not what the birds told me—
and I’m the one you’re forcing out? You think
400
one day you’ll stand by Creon’s throne. Well, I think
that you and he will rue the day you plotted
to purify this land! If you didn’t look so old,
you’d know by now what plans like yours deserve.
CHORUS LEADER: It seems to me, Oedipus, his words before
and yours just now have been said in anger.
We don’t need that, but rather to consider
how best to unravel the god’s prophecies.
TIRESIAS: Though you are tyrant here, others still have
the right to answer you at equal length.
410
I claim it, too, for I’m no slave of yours
but of Loxias*41—he’s my sponsor here, not Creon.
And since you mock my blindness, I say
you see all right, but not the evil you’re in,
or where you live, or
whom you live with. Do you know
your origins? You don’t even know that you
are loathsome to your kin, both those beneath
and those upon the earth. Your mother’s and father’s
double curse will hound*42 you from this land
one day, in terror—sighted now, but seeing
420
darkness then. What refuge for your cries?
What Cithaeron*43 will not echo them,
when you’ve seen it for what it was—that wedding
in the palace, that port no port at all, into which
you sailed so smoothly! Nor do you see
what evils will make you equal to yourself
and to your children.*44 Go on, then, trample Creon
and my predictions in the mud. No mortal man
will ever be crushed more cruelly than you!
OEDIPUS: (to the Chorus) Must I hear all this from him?
430
(rounding on Tiresias) To hell with you! Show us your back—
hurry, leave this house, be gone!
TIRESIAS: I wouldn’t have come if you hadn’t called me.
OEDIPUS: Had I any idea you’d utter such drivel,
I’d never have summoned you to my house.
TIRESIAS: A driveller I seem to you, but your parents,
the ones who gave you life, thought I made sense.
OEDIPUS: What parents? Wait! Who brought me forth?
TIRESIAS: This day will bring you forth, and will destroy you.
OEDIPUS: More of the same—words too puzzling, too dark.
440
TIRESIAS: Aren’t you our champion riddle solver?
OEDIPUS: That’s right—revile me where you’ll find me great.
TIRESIAS: And yet success in this has been your ruin.
OEDIPUS: I don’t care, if I’ve saved this city by it.
TIRESIAS: I’m going now. Boy, help me on my way.
OEDIPUS: Yes, go, get out! You’re nothing here
but trouble: leave, and cease to cause me pain.
TIRESIAS: I’ll go. I’ve said what I came here to say,
no fear of you—for you cannot destroy me.
And I tell you: this man, the one you’ve long
450
been looking for, with threats and proclamations
about the death of Laius—he’s here, a guest
from abroad, so they say, but soon to emerge
a native Theban, though he’ll take no pleasure
in that discovery! Blind instead of seeing,
beggar instead of rich, he’ll make his way
to a foreign land, feeling the ground with a stick.
And he’ll be found to be both brother and father
to his children, son and husband to
his mother—breeding where his father bred,
The Greek Plays Page 29