and spare the city more pollution—so wary
were they of the family’s doom of old
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that plagued your wretched house.*29
But now foul dissension, sent by some god
and an evil mind, has set the two of them
against each other in a struggle for power,
for kingship. The younger, hot-headed one,*30
has stripped his older brother, Polynices,
of his throne and exiled him from his land.
And he, according to the rumor now abroad,
has fled in exile to Argos and got himself
a new marriage and new allies, intending
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to occupy the Theban plain forthwith
and gain honor there, or else storm the heavens.*31
All this is not mere talk, Father; no,
it’s all too real. But in what way the gods
will take pity on your labors, I can’t say.
OEDIPUS: What? Can you still have hope, that the gods
will care for me, and I’ll be saved one day?
ISMENE: Yes, I can, because of the latest oracles.
OEDIPUS: What are they? What do they predict, my child?
ISMENE: The day will come when you will be a prize
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to the Thebans—salvation, in death and life alike.
OEDIPUS: But who could benefit from such as I?
ISMENE: The power of Thebes, it’s said, resides in you.
OEDIPUS: So then I’m a man, when I’m no more?
ISMENE: The gods, who cast you down, now raise you up.
OEDIPUS: Some favor, to crush the young man, lift up the old!
ISMENE: And yet you may be sure that just for this
Creon’s on his way, and won’t be long in coming.
OEDIPUS: Coming to do what, daughter? Tell me all.
ISMENE: To settle you near Thebes, so they may have you
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in their power, though not within their borders.
OEDIPUS: What do they gain if I lie outside their walls?
ISMENE: Your tomb’s misfortune would be theirs as well.
OEDIPUS: They need no oracle to tell them that.
ISMENE: It’s for the sake of this they want to keep you
nearby, and not where you’d be your own master.
OEDIPUS: They’ll cover my body, then, with Theban dust?*32
ISMENE: The spilling of kindred blood prohibits that.*33
OEDIPUS: Then they’ll never have me in their power!
ISMENE: That will mean disaster for them one day.
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OEDIPUS: At what collision of events, my child?
ISMENE: They’ll feel your anger when they confront your tomb.*34
OEDIPUS: From whom, child, have you heard all this?
ISMENE: From those sent to consult the oracle.
OEDIPUS: And this is what Phoebus*35 said about me?
ISMENE: So they reported, when they returned to Thebes.
OEDIPUS: Has either of my sons heard any of this?
ISMENE: Yes, both of them, and they know what it means.
OEDIPUS: So, then, when those two traitors heard all this,
they chose kingship rather than get me back?
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ISMENE: It hurts to hear it said, but hear it I must.
OEDIPUS: Well, may the gods not quench the strife
those two are in for now! May the end they come to
be mine to determine, in this battle to which
they’ve set their hands, for which they’ve raised the spear.
May he who now holds scepter and throne
not hold them long, and may he who’s gone abroad
not come home again—they who let me, their father,
be driven out so shamefully, and didn’t
come to my defense when I, for all they cared,
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was sent away, cast out, declared an exile!
Perhaps you’ll say the city gave me what
I wished for, with good reason, at the time?
Not so! That day,*36 I tell you, when my heart
was seething, and dying was what
I wanted most, and even death by stoning,
no one came forward to help me in that wish.
But later, when my anguish was abating
and I saw that passion had run away with me
and punished, too severely, the wrongs I’d done,
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that’s when the city chose to force me out
after so long a time, and those sons of mine,
who could have helped their father, didn’t care
to act, but for lack of one small word from them
I fled, cast out, a beggar ever since!
(gesturing toward Antigone and Ismene)
These two saw to it, the best they could
(since they’re but girls), that I’ve had the means of life,
a safe place, and family to fall back on
while the other two, in preference to their father,
chose thrones and scepters and rule over the land!
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Well, they will not have me for an ally.
They will never profit from this Theban
power of theirs; so much I know from hearing
these new prophecies, and from contemplating
the oracles that Phoebus once revealed.
So let them send Creon to root me out—
or anyone else with power in that city!
(turning to the Chorus) For if you strangers choose to stand by me
together with these awesome, guardian goddesses,*37
and help me, you’ll win a mighty savior
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for your city, and troubles for my enemies.
CHORUS LEADER: You’re worthy, Oedipus, of compassion,
you and your daughters here. And since, just now,
you count yourself a savior of this land,
I’d like to offer you some good advice.
OEDIPUS: Protect me now, friend; I’ll do all you say.*38
CHORUS LEADER: Perform a purification to appease
these goddesses, whose ground you’ve trespassed on.
OEDIPUS: Appease them in what way? Teach me, strangers!
CHORUS LEADER: First bring libations from the sacred
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ever-flowing spring, and hold them in pure hands.
OEDIPUS: And when I’ve brought this stream of taintless water?
CHORUS LEADER: There are bowls, the work of a skilled craftsman—
wreathe their rims and handles on both sides.
OEDIPUS: With olive shoots or wool, or in what way?
CHORUS LEADER: With the newly shorn fleece of a young lamb.
OEDIPUS: What must I do next, to complete the rite?
CHORUS LEADER: Pour the libations, looking toward the east.
OEDIPUS: Pour them from the bowls that you describe?
CHORUS LEADER: Yes, three streams from each, the last one all the way.
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OEDIPUS: Having filled it with what? Tell me that, too.
CHORUS LEADER: With water and with honey, but add no wine!*39
OEDIPUS: And when the dark-leaved earth has drunk it down?
CHORUS LEADER: With both hands, lay three times nine shoots of olive
upon the ground, and pray; make this appeal—
OEDIPUS: I’m eager to hear it, for it matters most.
CHORUS LEADER: —that they, the ones we call Eumenides,
will take you and protect you with kind*40 hearts.
Beseech them, you yourself or one who acts
in your behalf, in silent prayer, not in a loud voice.
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And then depart; do not turn back. Do all this
and I’ll stand by you in full confidence;
if you do not, I’d be afraid on your account.
OEDIPUS: Child
ren, do you hear these men, who live nearby?
ISMENE: We’ve heard. Now bid us do what must be done.
OEDIPUS: I can’t go myself, for lack of strength
and lack of sight—my two afflictions.
Let one of you two go tend to these matters.
A single soul will be as good as many
to pay down this debt, with pure intentions.
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See that it’s done, both of you, quickly. And yet,
don’t leave me by myself, for this body of mine,
alone, without a guide, couldn’t take a step.
ISMENE: I’ll see this done—but first I need to know
the place where I’m to perform these duties.
CHORUS LEADER: The other side of this grove. And if you need
something, the man who lives there*41 will show you.
ISMENE: I’m off now, to perform the rite. Antigone,
keep watch on our father here. Trouble taken
on behalf of parents shouldn’t count as trouble.
(Exit Ismene into the grove.)
strophe 1
510
CHORUS: A terrible thing it is, to awaken, stranger, an evil put
to sleep long ago,
and yet I yearn to inquire—
OEDIPUS: What is it now?
CHORUS: —into your suffering, intractable the moment
it appeared—the misery you grappled with.
OEDIPUS: By the hospitality you have shown me, do not
cruelly lay bare what I’ve endured!
CHORUS: The great, the never-fading tale
that is yours—as it was, I long to hear it told.
OEDIPUS: ōmoi!
CHORUS: Do as I ask—I implore you.
OEDIPUS: pheu, pheu!
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CHORUS: Be persuaded: grant my wish, as I have yours.
antistrophe 1
OEDIPUS: I endured evil,*42 endured it willingly—
the god*43 be my witness!—
but none of that was of my own choosing.
CHORUS: Meaning what?
OEDIPUS: That I knew nothing when the city bound me
in an evil union, to a marriage accursed.
CHORUS: With your mother, as I hear,
you filled your bed, and made it infamous?
OEDIPUS: ōmoi, it is death, stranger, to hear
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these things; and then, from me, these two—
CHORUS: What are you saying now?
OEDIPUS: —my daughters, a pair of curses—
CHORUS: O Zeus!
OEDIPUS: —bloomed from the pangs of our shared mother!
strophe 2
CHORUS: So, they are both your daughters and—
OEDIPUS: my sisters, yes, the pair of them!
CHORUS: iō!
OED.: iō, yes! Evils beyond count wheel around, and strike again!
CHORUS: You suffered—
OED.: sufferings insufferable!
CHORUS: You committed—
OED.: No, not committed!
CHOR.: Well, what, then?
OEDIPUS: I was given
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a gift I never should have accepted—I,
unhappy I, who came to the city’s aid.*44
antistrophe 2
CHORUS: And then, ill-starred man? Did you kill—
OEDIPUS: What now? What do you want to know?
CHORUS: —your father?
OED.: Ah, there’s a second blow you’ve struck, affliction after affliction!
CHORUS: You slew—
OED.: Yes, but not without—
CHORUS: Not without what?
OED.: —a measure of justice.
CHOR.: How so?
OEDIPUS: I’ll tell you:
Gripped by a curse, I killed him, and destroyed him—
but did not break the law. I did not know.
CHORUS LEADER: Here now is our lord, Aegeus’ son
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Theseus, summoned at your behest.
(Enter Theseus, from the right.)
THESEUS: I knew it was you, son of Laius. I’d heard
from many, in the past, of the bloody
destruction of your eyes. And now that I’ve come
and seen for myself, I’m all the more sure of it.
Your clothes and the look of sorrow on your face
show me who you are, and out of pity
I want to ask, poor Oedipus, with what appeal
to my city and to me you’ve taken your stand
here—you and she (indicating Antigone), your companion in misfortune.
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Tell me. Your request would need to be
fearful indeed, if I refused to grant it.
I know that I myself, like you, grew up
a foreigner,*45 risked my life as no man has,
enduring dangers in a foreign land.
I wouldn’t walk away, refuse to help
a stranger such as you are now, for I
know well that I’m a man, and that my claim
upon tomorrow is no more than yours.
OEDIPUS: Theseus, your nobility has, in few words,
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permitted me to use but few in answer.
For who I am and who my father was
and from what land I’ve come—all that
you’ve told, leaving me no more to say
than what I need, and then my speech is done.
THESEUS: Tell me that now, so I may know it all.
OEDIPUS: I’m here to give to you my wretched body—
not a gift to delight the eye, but the profit
to come of it is greater than good looks.
THESEUS: What sort of profit do you claim for it?
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OEDIPUS: You’ll learn in time—but not, I think, just now.
THESEUS: When, then, will your gift see the light of day?
OEDIPUS: When I die, and you have buried me.
THESEUS: Your thoughts look to life’s end. What lies between
now and then you forget, or count as nothing.
OEDIPUS: I do, for then the rest falls into place.
THESEUS: But it’s a small favor you ask of me.
OEDIPUS: Take care. It isn’t small, no—not this conflict.
THESEUS: Are you referring to your sons, or what?
OEDIPUS: They will compel me to go back there.
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THESEUS: You don’t want to go? You prefer exile?
OEDIPUS: When I wanted to stay there, they refused!
THESEUS: Foolish man, in troubles anger is no help.
OEDIPUS: Advise me when you’ve heard me, not before!
THESEUS: Tell me, then; I won’t blame before I know.
OEDIPUS: I’ve suffered cruelly—evils heaped on evils.
THESEUS: You mean the ruin of your family long ago?
OEDIPUS: No—everyone in Greece talks about that.
THESEUS: How, then, did you suffer more than a man could bear?
OEDIPUS: The gist of it is, that I was driven out
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of my country by my own seed, forbidden
ever to return—father-killer, they call me.
THESEUS: And yet they’ll summon you to live apart from them?
OEDIPUS: The god’s utterance will bring them to it.
THESEUS: For fear of what—what does the oracle threaten?
OEDIPUS: They’re doomed to be defeated, here, in this land.
THESEUS: And how will they become my enemies?
OEDIPUS: O beloved son of Aegeus, for the gods alone
there is no growing old, no dying ever.
Everything else all-powerful Time destroys.
610
Earth’s strength fails, the body’s strength fails,
trust dies, distrust blooms in its place
and the same spirit of friendliness never stays
between one man and another, or city and city.
<
br /> For some men now, for others later, sweet
turns bitter, and then affection
comes round again. And if, right now, the sun shines
between you and Thebes, endless time coursing on
brings forth endless days and nights, in which
they’ll scatter with their spears the harmony
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reigning now, all for a trivial reason,
and then, one day, my corpse, lying cold and hidden,
will drink their warm blood—if Zeus
is still Zeus and Phoebus, his son, speaks true!
But since there is no joy in uttering words
not to be uttered, leave me where I began.
Stay true to what you’ve promised, and you’ll never
say that you made Oedipus a useless tenant
of this ground—unless the gods play me false.
CHORUS LEADER: My lord, for a long while now this man has shown
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he means these and like blessings on this land.
THESEUS: Who would reject this man’s good will?
He is, in the first instance, an ally of our spear,*46
and as such always welcome at our hearth.
And then, he is a suppliant, and pays
this land and me no mean recompense.
Moved by all this, I’ll never reject his favor
but welcome him, a fellow citizen.
(to the Chorus) If he, our guest, prefers to stay right here,
protect him; or he may choose to go with me.
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Oedipus, I leave the choice to you.
Whatever you decide, I will support.
OEDIPUS: O Zeus, hear the prayers of men like this!
THESEUS: What do you want? To come home with me?
OEDIPUS: I would, if it were right; but this is the place—
THESEUS: Where you’ll do what? I’ll not stand in the way.
OEDIPUS: —where I will conquer those who cast me out.
THESEUS: Great, then, is the benefit, of staying here.
OEDIPUS: Yes, if you stand by what you say, and do it.
THESEUS: You may be sure I will. I won’t betray you.
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OEDIPUS: And I won’t make you swear, as if I couldn’t trust you.
THESEUS: You’d gain no more than by my word alone.
OEDIPUS: How, then, will you act?
THES.: What do you fear most?
OEDIPUS: Men will come—
THES.: These men here will tend to that.
OEDIPUS: Take care, when you leave—
THES.: Don’t tell me my duty!
OEDIPUS: A man afraid must—
THES.: My heart is not afraid.
OEDIPUS: You don’t know the threats—
THES.: I know that no one
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The Greek Plays Page 48