{"id":23,"date":"2021-10-21T11:39:50","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T15:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/oedipusatcolonus\/chapter\/sophocles-plays-3\/"},"modified":"2022-02-16T13:29:29","modified_gmt":"2022-02-16T18:29:29","slug":"oedipus-at-colonus","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/oedipusatcolonus\/chapter\/oedipus-at-colonus\/","title":{"raw":"Oedipus at Colonus","rendered":"Oedipus at Colonus"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"pgmonospaced\">\r\n\r\nEnter the blind OEDIPUS led by his daughter, ANTIGONE.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nChild of an old blind sire, Antigone,\r\nWhat region, say, whose city have we reached?\r\nWho will provide today with scanted dole\r\nThis wanderer?\u00a0 'Tis little that he craves,\r\nAnd less obtains\u2014that less enough for me;\r\nFor I am taught by suffering to endure,\r\nAnd the long years that have grown old with me,\r\nAnd last not least, by true nobility.\r\nMy daughter, if thou seest a resting place\r\nOn common ground or by some sacred grove,\r\nStay me and set me down.\u00a0 Let us discover\r\nWhere we have come, for strangers must inquire\r\nOf denizens, and do as they are bid.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nLong-suffering father, Oedipus, the towers\r\nThat fence the city still are faint and far;\r\nBut where we stand is surely holy ground;\r\nA wilderness of laurel, olive, vine;\r\nWithin a choir or songster nightingales\r\nAre warbling.\u00a0 On this native seat of rock\r\nRest; for an old man thou hast traveled far.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nGuide these dark steps and seat me there secure.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nIf time can teach, I need not to be told.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nSay, prithee, if thou knowest, where we are.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nAthens I recognize, but not the spot.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThat much we heard from every wayfarer.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nShall I go on and ask about the place?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nYes, daughter, if it be inhabited.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nSure there are habitations; but no need\r\nTo leave thee; yonder is a man hard by.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhat, moving hitherward and on his way?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nSay rather, here already.\u00a0 Ask him straight\r\nThe needful questions, for the man is here.\r\n\r\n[Enter STRANGER]\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nO stranger, as I learn from her whose eyes\r\nMust serve both her and me, that thou art here\r\nSent by some happy chance to serve our doubts\u2014\r\n\r\nSTRANGER\r\n\r\nFirst quit that seat, then question me at large:\r\nThe spot thou treadest on is holy ground.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhat is the site, to what god dedicate?\r\n\r\nSTRANGER\r\n\r\nInviolable, untrod; goddesses,\r\nDread brood of Earth and Darkness, here abide.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nTell me the awful name I should invoke?\r\n\r\nSTRANGER\r\n\r\nThe Gracious Ones, All-seeing, so our folk\r\nCall them, but elsewhere other names are rife.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThen may they show their suppliant grace, for I\r\nFrom this your sanctuary will ne'er depart.\r\n\r\nSTRANGER\r\n\r\nWhat word is this?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThe watchword of my fate.\r\n\r\nSTRANGER\r\n\r\nNay, 'tis not mine to bid thee hence without\r\nDue warrant and instruction from the State.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nNow in God's name, O stranger, scorn me not\r\nAs a wayfarer; tell me what I crave.\r\n\r\nSTRANGER\r\n\r\nAsk; your request shall not be scorned by me.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nHow call you then the place wherein we bide?\r\n\r\nSTRANGER\r\n\r\nWhate'er I know thou too shalt know; the place\r\nIs all to great Poseidon consecrate.\r\nHard by, the Titan, he who bears the torch,\r\nPrometheus, has his worship; but the spot\r\nThou treadest, the Brass-footed Threshold named,\r\nIs Athens' bastion, and the neighboring lands\r\nClaim as their chief and patron yonder knight\r\nColonus, and in common bear his name.\r\nSuch, stranger, is the spot, to fame unknown,\r\nBut dear to us its native worshipers.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThou sayest there are dwellers in these parts?\r\n\r\nSTRANGER\r\n\r\nSurely; they bear the name of yonder god.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nRuled by a king or by the general voice?\r\n\r\nSTRANGER\r\n\r\nThe lord of Athens is our over-lord.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWho is this monarch, great in word and might?\r\n\r\nSTRANGER\r\n\r\nTheseus, the son of Aegeus our late king.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nMight one be sent from you to summon him?\r\n\r\nSTRANGER\r\n\r\nWherefore?\u00a0 To tell him aught or urge his coming?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nSay a slight service may avail him much.\r\n\r\nSTRANGER\r\n\r\nHow can he profit from a sightless man?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThe blind man's words will be instinct with sight.\r\n\r\nSTRANGER\r\n\r\nHeed then; I fain would see thee out of harm;\r\nFor by the looks, marred though they be by fate,\r\nI judge thee noble; tarry where thou art,\r\nWhile I go seek the burghers\u2014those at hand,\r\nNot in the city.\u00a0 They will soon decide\r\nWhether thou art to rest or go thy way.\r\n\r\n[Exit STRANGER]\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nTell me, my daughter, has the stranger gone?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nYes, he has gone; now we are all alone,\r\nAnd thou may'st speak, dear father, without fear.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nStern-visaged queens, since coming to this land\r\nFirst in your sanctuary I bent the knee,\r\nFrown not on me or Phoebus, who, when erst\r\nHe told me all my miseries to come,\r\nSpake of this respite after many years,\r\nSome haven in a far-off land, a rest\r\nVouchsafed at last by dread divinities.\r\n\"There,\" said he, \"shalt thou round thy weary life,\r\nA blessing to the land wherein thou dwell'st,\r\nBut to the land that cast thee forth, a curse.\"\r\nAnd of my weird he promised signs should come,\r\nEarthquake, or thunderclap, or lightning flash.\r\nAnd now I recognize as yours the sign\r\nThat led my wanderings to this your grove;\r\nElse had I never lighted on you first,\r\nA wineless man on your seat of native rock.\r\nO goddesses, fulfill Apollo's word,\r\nGrant me some consummation of my life,\r\nIf haply I appear not all too vile,\r\nA thrall to sorrow worse than any slave.\r\nHear, gentle daughters of primeval Night,\r\nHear, namesake of great Pallas; Athens, first\r\nOf cities, pity this dishonored shade,\r\nThe ghost of him who once was Oedipus.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nHush! for I see some grey-beards on their way,\r\nTheir errand to spy out our resting-place.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nI will be mute, and thou shalt guide my steps\r\nInto the covert from the public road,\r\nTill I have learned their drift.\u00a0 A prudent man\r\nWill ever shape his course by what he learns.\r\n\r\n[Enter CHORUS]\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\n(Str. 1)\r\nHa!\u00a0 Where is he?\u00a0 Look around!\r\nEvery nook and corner scan!\r\nHe the all-presumptuous man,\r\nWhither vanished? search the ground!\r\nA wayfarer, I ween,\r\nA wayfarer, no countryman of ours,\r\nThat old man must have been;\r\nNever had native dared to tempt the Powers,\r\nOr enter their demesne,\r\nThe Maids in awe of whom each mortal cowers,\r\nWhose name no voice betrays nor cry,\r\nAnd as we pass them with averted eye,\r\nWe move hushed lips in reverent piety.\r\nBut now some godless man,\r\n'Tis rumored, here abides;\r\nThe precincts through I scan,\r\nYet wot not where he hides,\r\nThe wretch profane!\r\nI search and search in vain.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nI am that man; I know you near\r\nEars to the blind, they say, are eyes.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nO dread to see and dread to hear!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nOh sirs, I am no outlaw under ban.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWho can he be\u2014Zeus save us!\u2014this old man?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nNo favorite of fate,\r\nThat ye should envy his estate,\r\nO, Sirs, would any happy mortal, say,\r\nGrope by the light of other eyes his way,\r\nOr face the storm upon so frail a stay?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\n(Ant. 1)\r\nWast thou then sightless from thy birth?\r\nEvil, methinks, and long\r\nThy pilgrimage on earth.\r\nYet add not curse to curse and wrong to wrong.\r\nI warn thee, trespass not\r\nWithin this hallowed spot,\r\nLest thou shouldst find the silent grassy glade\r\nWhere offerings are laid,\r\nBowls of spring water mingled with sweet mead.\r\nThou must not stay,\r\nCome, come away,\r\nTired wanderer, dost thou heed?\r\n(We are far off, but sure our voice can reach.)\r\nIf aught thou wouldst beseech,\r\nSpeak where 'tis right; till then refrain from speech.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nDaughter, what counsel should we now pursue?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nWe must obey and do as here they do.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThy hand then!\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nHere, O father, is my hand,\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nO Sirs, if I come forth at your command,\r\nLet me not suffer for my confidence.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\n(Str. 2)\r\nAgainst thy will no man shall drive thee hence.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nShall I go further?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nAye.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhat further still?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nLead maiden, thou canst guide him where we will.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\n*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *[footnote]The Greek text for the passages marked here and later in the text using ****** have been lost.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\n*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\n*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\r\nFollow with blind steps, father, as I lead.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\n*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nIn a strange land strange thou art;\r\nTo her will incline thy heart;\r\nHonor whatso'er the State\r\nHonors, all she frowns on hate.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nGuide me child, where we may range\r\nSafe within the paths of right;\r\nCounsel freely may exchange\r\nNor with fate and fortune fight.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\n(Ant. 2)\r\nHalt!\u00a0 Go no further than that rocky floor.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nStay where I now am?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nYes, advance no more.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nMay I sit down?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nMove sideways towards the ledge,\r\nAnd sit thee crouching on the scarped edge.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nThis is my office, father, O incline\u2014\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nAh me! ah me!\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nThy steps to my steps, lean thine aged frame on mine.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWoe on my fate unblest!\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWanderer, now thou art at rest,\r\nTell me of thy birth and home,\r\nFrom what far country art thou come,\r\nLed on thy weary way, declare!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nStrangers, I have no country.\u00a0 O forbear\u2014\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWhat is it, old man, that thou wouldst conceal?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nForbear, nor urge me further to reveal\u2014\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWhy this reluctance?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nDread my lineage.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nSay!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhat must I answer, child, ah welladay!\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nSay of what stock thou comest, what man's son\u2014\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nAh me, my daughter, now we are undone!\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nSpeak, for thou standest on the slippery verge.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nI will; no plea for silence can I urge.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWill neither speak?\u00a0 Come, Sir, why dally thus!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nKnow'st one of Laius'\u2014\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nHa?\u00a0 Who!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nSeed of Labdacus\u2014\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nOh Zeus!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThe hapless Oedipus.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nArt he?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhate'er I utter, have no fear of me.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nBegone!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nO wretched me!\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nBegone!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nO daughter, what will hap anon?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nForth from our borders speed ye both!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nHow keep you then your troth?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nHeaven's justice never smites\r\nHim who ill with ill requites.\r\nBut if guile with guile contend,\r\nBane, not blessing, is the end.\r\nArise, begone and take thee hence straightway,\r\nLest on our land a heavier curse thou lay.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nO sirs! ye suffered not my father blind,\r\nAlbeit gracious and to ruth inclined,\r\nKnowing the deeds he wrought, not innocent,\r\nBut with no ill intent;\r\nYet heed a maiden's moan\r\nWho pleads for him alone;\r\nMy eyes, not reft of sight,\r\nPlead with you as a daughter's might\r\nYou are our providence,\r\nO make us not go hence!\r\nO with a gracious nod\r\nGrant us the nigh despaired-of boon we crave?\r\nHear us, O hear,\r\nBut all that ye hold dear,\r\nWife, children, homestead, hearth and God!\r\nWhere will you find one, search ye ne'er so well.\r\nWho 'scapes perdition if a god impel!\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nSurely we pity thee and him alike\r\nDaughter of Oedipus, for your distress;\r\nBut as we reverence the decrees of Heaven\r\nWe cannot say aught other than we said.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nO what avails renown or fair repute?\r\nAre they not vanity?\u00a0 For, look you, now\r\nAthens is held of States the most devout,\r\nAthens alone gives hospitality\r\nAnd shelters the vexed stranger, so men say.\r\nHave I found so?\u00a0 I whom ye dislodged\r\nFirst from my seat of rock and now would drive\r\nForth from your land, dreading my name alone;\r\nFor me you surely dread not, nor my deeds,\r\nDeeds of a man more sinned against than sinning,\r\nAs I might well convince you, were it meet\r\nTo tell my mother's story and my sire's,\r\nThe cause of this your fear.\u00a0 Yet am I then\r\nA villain born because in self-defense,\r\nStriken, I struck the striker back again?\r\nE'en had I known, no villainy 'twould prove:\r\nBut all unwitting whither I went, I went\u2014\r\nTo ruin; my destroyers knew it well,\r\nWherefore, I pray you, sirs, in Heaven's name,\r\nEven as ye bade me quit my seat, defend me.\r\nO pay not a lip service to the gods\r\nAnd wrong them of their dues.\u00a0 Bethink ye well,\r\nThe eye of Heaven beholds the just of men,\r\nAnd the unjust, nor ever in this world\r\nHas one sole godless sinner found escape.\r\nStand then on Heaven's side and never blot\r\nAthens' fair scutcheon by abetting wrong.\r\nI came to you a suppliant, and you pledged\r\nYour honor; O preserve me to the end,\r\nO let not this marred visage do me wrong!\r\nA holy and god-fearing man is here\r\nWhose coming purports comfort for your folk.\r\nAnd when your chief arrives, whoe'er he be,\r\nThen shall ye have my story and know all.\r\nMeanwhile I pray you do me no despite.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nThe plea thou urgest, needs must give us pause,\r\nSet forth in weighty argument, but we\r\nMust leave the issue with the ruling powers.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhere is he, strangers, he who sways the realm?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nIn his ancestral seat; a messenger,\r\nThe same who sent us here, is gone for him.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nAnd think you he will have such care or thought\r\nFor the blind stranger as to come himself?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nAye, that he will, when once he learns thy name.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nBut who will bear him word!\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nThe way is long,\r\nAnd many travelers pass to speed the news.\r\nBe sure he'll hear and hasten, never fear;\r\nSo wide and far thy name is noised abroad,\r\nThat, were he ne'er so spent and loth to move,\r\nHe would bestir him when he hears of thee.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWell, may he come with blessing to his State\r\nAnd me!\u00a0 Who serves his neighbor serves himself. [footnote]To avoid the blessing, still a secret, he resorts to a commonplace; literally, \"For what generous man is not (in befriending others) a friend to himself?\"[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nZeus!\u00a0 What is this?\u00a0 What can I say or think?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhat now, Antigone?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nI see a woman\r\nRiding upon a colt of Aetna's breed;\r\nShe wears for headgear a Thessalian hat\r\nTo shade her from the sun.\u00a0 Who can it be?\r\nShe or a stranger?\u00a0 Do I wake or dream?\r\n'This she; 'tis not\u2014I cannot tell, alack;\r\nIt is no other!\u00a0 Now her bright'ning glance\r\nGreets me with recognition, yes, 'tis she,\r\nHerself, Ismene!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nHa! what say ye, child?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nThat I behold thy daughter and my sister,\r\nAnd thou wilt know her straightway by her voice.\r\n\r\n[Enter ISMENE]\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nFather and sister, names to me most sweet,\r\nHow hardly have I found you, hardly now\r\nWhen found at last can see you through my tears!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nArt come, my child?\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nO father, sad thy plight!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nChild, thou art here?\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nYes, 'twas a weary way.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nTouch me, my child.\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nI give a hand to both.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nO children\u2014sisters!\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nO disastrous plight!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nHer plight and mine?\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nAye, and my own no less.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhat brought thee, daughter?\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nFather, care for thee.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nA daughter's yearning?\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nYes, and I had news\r\nI would myself deliver, so I came\r\nWith the one thrall who yet is true to me.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThy valiant brothers, where are they at need?\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nThey are\u2014enough, 'tis now their darkest hour.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nOut on the twain!\u00a0 The thoughts and actions all\r\nAre framed and modeled on Egyptian ways.\r\nFor there the men sit at the loom indoors\r\nWhile the wives slave abroad for daily bread.\r\nSo you, my children\u2014those whom I behooved\r\nTo bear the burden, stay at home like girls,\r\nWhile in their stead my daughters moil and drudge,\r\nLightening their father's misery.\u00a0 The one\r\nSince first she grew from girlish feebleness\r\nTo womanhood has been the old man's guide\r\nAnd shared my weary wandering, roaming oft\r\nHungry and footsore through wild forest ways,\r\nIn drenching rains and under scorching suns,\r\nCareless herself of home and ease, if so\r\nHer sire might have her tender ministry.\r\nAnd thou, my child, whilom thou wentest forth,\r\nEluding the Cadmeians' vigilance,\r\nTo bring thy father all the oracles\r\nConcerning Oedipus, and didst make thyself\r\nMy faithful lieger, when they banished me.\r\nAnd now what mission summons thee from home,\r\nWhat news, Ismene, hast thou for thy father?\r\nThis much I know, thou com'st not empty-handed,\r\nWithout a warning of some new alarm.\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nThe toil and trouble, father, that I bore\r\nTo find thy lodging-place and how thou faredst,\r\nI spare thee; surely 'twere a double pain\r\nTo suffer, first in act and then in telling;\r\n'Tis the misfortune of thine ill-starred sons\r\nI come to tell thee.\u00a0 At the first they willed\r\nTo leave the throne to Creon, minded well\r\nThus to remove the inveterate curse of old,\r\nA canker that infected all thy race.\r\nBut now some god and an infatuate soul\r\nHave stirred betwixt them a mad rivalry\r\nTo grasp at sovereignty and kingly power.\r\nToday the hot-branded youth, the younger born,\r\nIs keeping Polyneices from the throne,\r\nHis elder, and has thrust him from the land.\r\nThe banished brother (so all Thebes reports)\r\nFled to the vale of Argos, and by help\r\nOf new alliance there and friends in arms,\r\nSwears he will stablish Argos straight as lord\r\nOf the Cadmeian land, or, if he fail,\r\nExalt the victor to the stars of heaven.\r\nThis is no empty tale, but deadly truth,\r\nMy father; and how long thy agony,\r\nEre the gods pity thee, I cannot tell.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nHast thou indeed then entertained a hope\r\nThe gods at last will turn and rescue me?\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nYea, so I read these latest oracles.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhat oracles?\u00a0 What hath been uttered, child?\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nThy country (so it runs) shall yearn in time\r\nTo have thee for their weal alive or dead.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nAnd who could gain by such a one as I?\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nOn thee, 'tis said, their sovereignty depends.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nSo, when I cease to be, my worth begins.\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nThe gods, who once abased, uplift thee now.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nPoor help to raise an old man fallen in youth.\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nHowe'er that be, 'tis for this cause alone\r\nThat Creon comes to thee\u2014and comes anon.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWith what intent, my daughter?\u00a0 Tell me plainly.\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nTo plant thee near the Theban land, and so\r\nKeep thee within their grasp, yet now allow\r\nThy foot to pass beyond their boundaries.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhat gain they, if I lay outside?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThy tomb,\r\nIf disappointed, brings on them a curse.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nIt needs no god to tell what's plain to sense.\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nTherefore they fain would have thee close at hand,\r\nNot where thou wouldst be master of thyself.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nMean they to shroud my bones in Theban dust?\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nNay, father, guilt of kinsman's blood forbids.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThen never shall they be my masters, never!\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nThebes, thou shalt rue this bitterly some day!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhen what conjunction comes to pass, my child?\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nThy angry wraith, when at thy tomb they stand. [footnote]Creon desires to bury Oedipus on the confines of Thebes so as to avoid the pollution and yet offer due rites at his tomb. Ismene tells him of the latest oracle and interprets to him its purport, that some day the Theban invaders of Athens will be routed in a battle near the grave of Oedipus.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nAnd who hath told thee what thou tell'st me, child?\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nEnvoys who visited the Delphic hearth.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nHath Phoebus spoken thus concerning me?\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nSo say the envoys who returned to Thebes.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nAnd can a son of mine have heard of this?\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nYea, both alike, and know its import well.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThey knew it, yet the ignoble greed of rule\r\nOutweighed all longing for their sire's return.\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nGrievous thy words, yet I must own them true.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThen may the gods ne'er quench their fatal feud,\r\nAnd mine be the arbitrament of the fight,\r\nFor which they now are arming, spear to spear;\r\nThat neither he who holds the scepter now\r\nMay keep this throne, nor he who fled the realm\r\nReturn again.\u00a0 <i>They<\/i> never raised a hand,\r\nWhen I their sire was thrust from hearth and home,\r\nWhen I was banned and banished, what recked they?\r\nSay you 'twas done at my desire, a grace\r\nWhich the state, yielding to my wish, allowed?\r\nNot so; for, mark you, on that very day\r\nWhen in the tempest of my soul I craved\r\nDeath, even death by stoning, none appeared\r\nTo further that wild longing, but anon,\r\nWhen time had numbed my anguish and I felt\r\nMy wrath had all outrun those errors past,\r\nThen, then it was the city went about\r\nBy force to oust me, respited for years;\r\nAnd then my sons, who should as sons have helped,\r\nDid nothing: and, one little word from them\r\nWas all I needed, and they spoke no word,\r\nBut let me wander on for evermore,\r\nA banished man, a beggar.\u00a0 These two maids\r\nTheir sisters, girls, gave all their sex could give,\r\nFood and safe harborage and filial care;\r\nWhile their two brethren sacrificed their sire\r\nFor lust of power and sceptred sovereignty.\r\nNo! me they ne'er shall win for an ally,\r\nNor will this Theban kingship bring them gain;\r\nThat know I from this maiden's oracles,\r\nAnd those old prophecies concerning me,\r\nWhich Phoebus now at length has brought to pass.\r\nCome Creon then, come all the mightiest\r\nIn Thebes to seek me; for if ye my friends,\r\nChampioned by those dread Powers indigenous,\r\nEspouse my cause; then for the State ye gain\r\nA great deliverer, for my foemen bane.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nOur pity, Oedipus, thou needs must move,\r\nThou and these maidens; and the stronger plea\r\nThou urgest, as the savior of our land,\r\nDisposes me to counsel for thy weal.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nAid me, kind sirs; I will do all you bid.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nFirst make atonement to the deities,\r\nWhose grove by trespass thou didst first profane.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nAfter what manner, stranger?\u00a0 Teach me, pray.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nMake a libation first of water fetched\r\nWith undefiled hands from living spring.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nAnd after I have gotten this pure draught?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nBowls thou wilt find, the carver's handiwork;\r\nCrown thou the rims and both the handles crown\u2014\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWith olive shoots or blocks of wool, or how?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWith wool from fleece of yearling freshly shorn.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhat next? how must I end the ritual?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nPour thy libation, turning to the dawn.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nPouring it from the urns whereof ye spake?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nYea, in three streams; and be the last bowl drained\r\nTo the last drop.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nAnd wherewith shall I fill it,\r\nEre in its place I set it?\u00a0 This too tell.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWith water and with honey; add no wine.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nAnd when the embowered earth hath drunk thereof?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nThen lay upon it thrice nine olive sprays\r\nWith both thy hands, and offer up this prayer.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nI fain would hear it; that imports the most.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nThat, as we call them Gracious, they would deign\r\nTo grant the suppliant their saving grace.\r\nSo pray thyself or whoso pray for thee,\r\nIn whispered accents, not with lifted voice;\r\nThen go and look back.\u00a0 Do as I bid,\r\nAnd I shall then be bold to stand thy friend;\r\nElse, stranger, I should have my fears for thee.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nHear ye, my daughters, what these strangers say?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nWe listened, and attend thy bidding, father.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nI cannot go, disabled as I am\r\nDoubly, by lack of strength and lack of sight;\r\nBut one of you may do it in my stead;\r\nFor one, I trow, may pay the sacrifice\r\nOf thousands, if his heart be leal and true.\r\nSo to your work with speed, but leave me not\r\nUntended; for this frame is all too week\r\nTo move without the help of guiding hand.\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nThen I will go perform these rites, but where\r\nTo find the spot, this have I yet to learn.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nBeyond this grove; if thou hast need of aught,\r\nThe guardian of the close will lend his aid.\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nI go, and thou, Antigone, meanwhile\r\nMust guard our father.\u00a0 In a parent's cause\r\nToil, if there be toil, is of no account.\r\n\r\n[Exit ISMENE]\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\n(Str. 1)\r\nIll it is, stranger, to awake\r\nPain that long since has ceased to ache,\r\nAnd yet I fain would hear\u2014\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhat thing?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nThy tale of cruel suffering\r\nFor which no cure was found,\r\nThe fate that held thee bound.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nO bid me not (as guest I claim\r\nThis grace) expose my shame.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nThe tale is bruited far and near,\r\nAnd echoes still from ear to ear.\r\nThe truth, I fain would hear.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nAh me!\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nI prithee yield.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nAh me!\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nGrant my request, I granted all to thee.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\n(Ant. 1)\r\nKnow then I suffered ills most vile, but none\r\n(So help me Heaven!) from acts in malice done.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nSay how.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThe State around\r\nAn all unwitting bridegroom bound\r\nAn impious marriage chain;\r\nThat was my bane.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nDidst thou in sooth then share\r\nA bed incestuous with her that bare\u2014\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nIt stabs me like a sword,\r\nThat two-edged word,\r\nO stranger, but these maids\u2014my own\u2014\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nSay on.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nTwo daughters, curses twain.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nOh God!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nSprang from the wife and mother's travail-pain.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\n(Str. 2)\r\nWhat, then thy offspring are at once\u2014\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nToo true.\r\nTheir father's very sister's too.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nOh horror!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nHorrors from the boundless deep\r\nBack on my soul in refluent surges sweep.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nThou hast endured\u2014\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nIntolerable woe.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nAnd sinned\u2014\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nI sinned not.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nHow so?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nI served the State; would I had never won\r\nThat graceless grace by which I was undone.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\n(Ant. 2)\r\nAnd next, unhappy man, thou hast shed blood?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nMust ye hear more?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nA father's?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nFlood on flood\r\nWhelms me; that word's a second mortal blow.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nMurderer!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nYes, a murderer, but know\u2014\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWhat canst thou plead?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nA plea of justice.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nHow?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nI slew who else would me have slain;\r\nI slew without intent,\r\nA wretch, but innocent\r\nIn the law's eye, I stand, without a stain.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nBehold our sovereign, Theseus, Aegeus' son,\r\nComes at thy summons to perform his part.\r\n\r\n[Enter THESEUS]\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nOft had I heard of thee in times gone by\u2014\r\nThe bloody mutilation of thine eyes\u2014\r\nAnd therefore know thee, son of Laius.\r\nAll that I lately gathered on the way\r\nMade my conjecture doubly sure; and now\r\nThy garb and that marred visage prove to me\r\nThat thou art he.\u00a0 So pitying thine estate,\r\nMost ill-starred Oedipus, I fain would know\r\nWhat is the suit ye urge on me and Athens,\r\nThou and the helpless maiden at thy side.\r\nDeclare it; dire indeed must be the tale\r\nWhereat <i>I<\/i> should recoil.\u00a0 I too was reared,\r\nLike thee, in exile, and in foreign lands\r\nWrestled with many perils, no man more.\r\nWherefore no alien in adversity\r\nShall seek in vain my succor, nor shalt thou;\r\nI know myself a mortal, and my share\r\nIn what the morrow brings no more than thine.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nTheseus, thy words so apt, so generous\r\nSo comfortable, need no long reply\r\nBoth who I am and of what lineage sprung,\r\nAnd from what land I came, thou hast declared.\r\nSo without prologue I may utter now\r\nMy brief petition, and the tale is told.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nSay on, and tell me what I fain would learn.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nI come to offer thee this woe-worn frame,\r\nA gift not fair to look on; yet its worth\r\nMore precious far than any outward show.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWhat profit dost thou proffer to have brought?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nHereafter thou shalt learn, not yet, methinks.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWhen may we hope to reap the benefit?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhen I am dead and thou hast buried me.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nThou cravest life's last service; all before\u2014\r\nIs it forgotten or of no account?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nYea, the last boon is warrant for the rest.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nThe grace thou cravest then is small indeed.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nNay, weigh it well; the issue is not slight.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nThou meanest that betwixt thy sons and me?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nPrince, they would fain convey me back to Thebes.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nIf there be no compulsion, then methinks\r\nTo rest in banishment befits not thee.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nNay, when <i>I<\/i> wished it <i>they<\/i> would not consent.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nFor shame! such temper misbecomes the faller.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nChide if thou wilt, but first attend my plea.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nSay on, I wait full knowledge ere I judge.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nO Theseus, I have suffered wrongs on wrongs.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWouldst tell the old misfortune of thy race?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nNo, that has grown a byword throughout Greece.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWhat then can be this more than mortal grief?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nMy case stands thus; by my own flesh and blood\r\nI was expelled my country, and can ne'er\r\nThither return again, a parricide.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWhy fetch thee home if thou must needs obey.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWhat are they threatened by the oracle?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nDestruction that awaits them in this land.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWhat can beget ill blood 'twixt them and me?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nDear son of Aegeus, to the gods alone\r\nIs given immunity from eld and death;\r\nBut nothing else escapes all-ruinous time.\r\nEarth's might decays, the might of men decays,\r\nHonor grows cold, dishonor flourishes,\r\nThere is no constancy 'twixt friend and friend,\r\nOr city and city; be it soon or late,\r\nSweet turns to bitter, hate once more to love.\r\nIf now 'tis sunshine betwixt Thebes and thee\r\nAnd not a cloud, Time in his endless course\r\nGives birth to endless days and nights, wherein\r\nThe merest nothing shall suffice to cut\r\nWith serried spears your bonds of amity.\r\nThen shall my slumbering and buried corpse\r\nIn its cold grave drink their warm life-blood up,\r\nIf Zeus be Zeus and Phoebus still speak true.\r\nNo more:\u00a0 'tis ill to tear aside the veil\r\nOf mysteries; let me cease as I began:\r\nEnough if thou wilt keep thy plighted troth,\r\nThen shall thou ne'er complain that Oedipus\r\nProved an unprofitable and thankless guest,\r\nExcept the gods themselves shall play me false.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nThe man, my lord, has from the very first\r\nDeclared his power to offer to our land\r\nThese and like benefits.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWho could reject\r\nThe proffered amity of such a friend?\r\nFirst, he can claim the hospitality\r\nTo which by mutual contract we stand pledged:\r\nNext, coming here, a suppliant to the gods,\r\nHe pays full tribute to the State and me;\r\nHis favors therefore never will I spurn,\r\nBut grant him the full rights of citizen;\r\nAnd, if it suits the stranger here to bide,\r\nI place him in your charge, or if he please\r\nRather to come with me\u2014choose, Oedipus,\r\nWhich of the two thou wilt.\u00a0 Thy choice is mine.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nZeus, may the blessing fall on men like these!\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWhat dost thou then decide\u2014to come with me?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nYea, were it lawful\u2014but 'tis rather here\u2014\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWhat wouldst thou here?\u00a0 I shall not thwart thy wish.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nHere shall I vanquish those who cast me forth.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nThen were thy presence here a boon indeed.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nSuch shall it prove, if thou fulfill'st thy pledge.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nFear not for me; I shall not play thee false.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nNo need to back thy promise with an oath.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nAn oath would be no surer than my word.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nHow wilt thou act then?\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWhat is it thou fear'st?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nMy foes will come\u2014\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nOur friends will look to that.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nBut if thou leave me?\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nTeach me not my duty.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\n'Tis fear constrains me.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\n<i>My<\/i> soul knows no fear!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThou knowest not what threats\u2014\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nI know that none\r\nShall hale thee hence in my despite.\u00a0 Such threats\r\nVented in anger oft, are blusterers,\r\nAn idle breath, forgot when sense returns.\r\nAnd for thy foemen, though their words were brave,\r\nBoasting to bring thee back, they are like to find\r\nThe seas between us wide and hard to sail.\r\nSuch my firm purpose, but in any case\r\nTake heart, since Phoebus sent thee here.\u00a0 My name,\r\nThough I be distant, warrants thee from harm.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\n(Str. 1)\r\nThou hast come to a steed-famed land for rest,\r\nO stranger worn with toil,\r\nTo a land of all lands the goodliest\r\nColonus' glistening soil.\r\n'Tis the haunt of the clear-voiced nightingale,\r\nWho hid in her bower, among\r\nThe wine-dark ivy that wreathes the vale,\r\nTrilleth her ceaseless song;\r\nAnd she loves, where the clustering berries nod\r\nO'er a sunless, windless glade,\r\nThe spot by no mortal footstep trod,\r\nThe pleasance kept for the Bacchic god,\r\nWhere he holds each night his revels wild\r\nWith the nymphs who fostered the lusty child.\r\n\r\n(Ant. 1)\r\nAnd fed each morn by the pearly dew\r\nThe starred narcissi shine,\r\nAnd a wreath with the crocus' golden hue\r\nFor the Mother and Daughter twine.\r\nAnd never the sleepless fountains cease\r\nThat feed Cephisus' stream,\r\nBut they swell earth's bosom with quick increase,\r\nAnd their wave hath a crystal gleam.\r\nAnd the Muses' quire will never disdain\r\nTo visit this heaven-favored plain,\r\nNor the Cyprian queen of the golden rein.\r\n\r\n(Str. 2)\r\nAnd here there grows, unpruned, untamed,\r\nTerror to foemen's spear,\r\nA tree in Asian soil unnamed,\r\nBy Pelops' Dorian isle unclaimed,\r\nSelf-nurtured year by year;\r\n'Tis the grey-leaved olive that feeds our boys;\r\nNor youth nor withering age destroys\r\nThe plant that the Olive Planter tends\r\nAnd the Grey-eyed Goddess herself defends.\r\n\r\n(Ant. 2)\r\nYet another gift, of all gifts the most\r\nPrized by our fatherland, we boast\u2014\r\nThe might of the horse, the might of the sea;\r\nOur fame, Poseidon, we owe to thee,\r\nSon of Kronos, our king divine,\r\nWho in these highways first didst fit\r\nFor the mouth of horses the iron bit;\r\nThou too hast taught us to fashion meet\r\nFor the arm of the rower the oar-blade fleet,\r\nSwift as the Nereids' hundred feet\r\nAs they dance along the brine.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nOh land extolled above all lands, 'tis now\r\nFor thee to make these glorious titles good.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhy this appeal, my daughter?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nFather, lo!\r\nCreon approaches with his company.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nFear not, it shall be so; if we are old,\r\nThis country's vigor has no touch of age.\r\n\r\n[Enter CREON with attendants]\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nBurghers, my noble friends, ye take alarm\r\nAt my approach (I read it in your eyes),\r\nFear nothing and refrain from angry words.\r\nI come with no ill purpose; I am old,\r\nAnd know the city whither I am come,\r\nWithout a peer amongst the powers of Greece.\r\nIt was by reason of my years that I\r\nWas chosen to persuade your guest and bring\r\nHim back to Thebes; not the delegate\r\nOf one man, but commissioned by the State,\r\nSince of all Thebans I have most bewailed,\r\nBeing his kinsman, his most grievous woes.\r\nO listen to me, luckless Oedipus,\r\nCome home!\u00a0 The whole Cadmeian people claim\r\nWith right to have thee back, I most of all,\r\nFor most of all (else were I vile indeed)\r\nI mourn for thy misfortunes, seeing thee\r\nAn aged outcast, wandering on and on,\r\nA beggar with one handmaid for thy stay.\r\nAh! who had e'er imagined she could fall\r\nTo such a depth of misery as this,\r\nTo tend in penury thy stricken frame,\r\nA virgin ripe for wedlock, but unwed,\r\nA prey for any wanton ravisher?\r\nSeems it not cruel this reproach I cast\r\nOn thee and on myself and all the race?\r\nAye, but an open shame cannot be hid.\r\nHide it, O hide it, Oedipus, thou canst.\r\nO, by our fathers' gods, consent I pray;\r\nCome back to Thebes, come to thy father's home,\r\nBid Athens, as is meet, a fond farewell;\r\nThebes thy old foster-mother claims thee first.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nO front of brass, thy subtle tongue would twist\r\nTo thy advantage every plea of right\r\nWhy try thy arts on me, why spread again\r\nToils where 'twould gall me sorest to be snared?\r\nIn old days when by self-wrought woes distraught,\r\nI yearned for exile as a glad release,\r\nThy will refused the favor then I craved.\r\nBut when my frenzied grief had spent its force,\r\nAnd I was fain to taste the sweets of home,\r\nThen thou wouldst thrust me from my country, then\r\nThese ties of kindred were by thee ignored;\r\nAnd now again when thou behold'st this State\r\nAnd all its kindly people welcome me,\r\nThou seek'st to part us, wrapping in soft words\r\nHard thoughts.\u00a0 And yet what pleasure canst thou find\r\nIn forcing friendship on unwilling foes?\r\nSuppose a man refused to grant some boon\r\nWhen you importuned him, and afterwards\r\nWhen you had got your heart's desire, consented,\r\nGranting a grace from which all grace had fled,\r\nWould not such favor seem an empty boon?\r\nYet such the boon thou profferest now to me,\r\nFair in appearance, but when tested false.\r\nYea, I will proved thee false, that these may hear;\r\nThou art come to take me, not to take me home,\r\nBut plant me on thy borders, that thy State\r\nMay so escape annoyance from this land.\r\n<i>That<\/i> thou shalt never gain, but <i>this<\/i> instead\u2014\r\nMy ghost to haunt thy country without end;\r\nAnd for my sons, this heritage\u2014no more\u2014\r\nJust room to die in.\u00a0 Have not I more skill\r\nThan thou to draw the horoscope of Thebes?\r\nAre not my teachers surer guides than thine\u2014\r\nGreat Phoebus and the sire of Phoebus, Zeus?\r\nThou art a messenger suborned, thy tongue\r\nIs sharper than a sword's edge, yet thy speech\r\nWill bring thee more defeats than victories.\r\nHowbeit, I know I waste my words\u2014begone,\r\nAnd leave me here; whate'er may be my lot,\r\nHe lives not ill who lives withal content.\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nWhich loses in this parley, I o'erthrown\r\nBy thee, or thou who overthrow'st thyself?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nI shall be well contented if thy suit\r\nFails with these strangers, as it has with me.\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nUnhappy man, will years ne'er make thee wise?\r\nMust thou live on to cast a slur on age?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThou hast a glib tongue, but no honest man,\r\nMethinks, can argue well on any side.\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\n'Tis one thing to speak much, another well.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThy words, forsooth, are few and all well aimed!\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nNot for a man indeed with wits like thine.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nDepart!\u00a0 I bid thee in these burghers' name,\r\nAnd prowl no longer round me to blockade\r\nMy destined harbor.\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nI protest to these,\r\nNot thee, and for thine answer to thy kin,\r\nIf e'er I take thee\u2014\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWho against their will\r\nCould take me?\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nThough untaken thou shalt smart.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhat power hast thou to execute this threat?\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nOne of thy daughters is already seized,\r\nThe other I will carry off anon.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWoe, woe!\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nThis is but prelude to thy woes.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nHast thou my child?\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nAnd soon shall have the other.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nHo, friends! ye will not surely play me false?\r\nChase this ungodly villain from your land.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nHence, stranger, hence avaunt!\u00a0 Thou doest wrong\r\nIn this, and wrong in all that thou hast done.\r\n<p>CREON (to his guards)<\/p>\r\n'Tis time by force to carry off the girl,\r\nIf she refuse of her free will to go.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nAh, woe is me! where shall I fly, where find\r\nSuccor from gods or men?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWhat would'st thou, stranger?\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nI meddle not with him, but her who is mine.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nO princes of the land!\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nSir, thou dost wrong.\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nNay, right.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nHow right?\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nI take but what is mine.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nHelp, Athens!\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWhat means this, sirrah? quick unhand her, or\r\nWe'll fight it out.\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nBack!\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nNot till thou forbear.\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\n'Tis war with Thebes if I am touched or harmed.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nDid I not warn thee?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nQuick, unhand the maid!\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nCommand your minions; I am not your slave.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nDesist, I bid thee.\r\n<p>CREON (to the guard)<\/p>\r\nAnd O bid thee march!\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nTo the rescue, one and all!\r\nRally, neighbors to my call!\r\nSee, the foe is at the gate!\r\nRally to defend the State.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nAh, woe is me, they drag me hence, O friends.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhere art thou, daughter?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nHaled along by force.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThy hands, my child!\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nThey will not let me, father.\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nAway with her!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nAh, woe is me, ah woe!\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nSo those two crutches shall no longer serve thee\r\nFor further roaming.\u00a0 Since it pleaseth thee\r\nTo triumph o'er thy country and thy friends\r\nWho mandate, though a prince, I here discharge,\r\nEnjoy thy triumph; soon or late thou'lt find\r\nThou art an enemy to thyself, both now\r\nAnd in time past, when in despite of friends\r\nThou gav'st the rein to passion, still thy bane.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nHold there, sir stranger!\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nHands off, have a care.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nRestore the maidens, else thou goest not.\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nThen Thebes will take a dearer surety soon;\r\nI will lay hands on more than these two maids.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWhat canst thou further?\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nCarry off this man.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nBrave words!\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nAnd deeds forthwith shall make them good.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nUnless perchance our sovereign intervene.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nO shameless voice!\u00a0 Would'st lay an hand on me?\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nSilence, I bid thee!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nGoddesses, allow\r\nThy suppliant to utter yet one curse!\r\nWretch, now my eyes are gone thou hast torn away\r\nThe helpless maiden who was eyes to me;\r\nFor these to thee and all thy cursed race\r\nMay the great Sun, whose eye is everywhere,\r\nGrant length of days and old age like to mine.\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nListen, O men of Athens, mark ye this?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThey mark us both and understand that I\r\nWronged by the deeds defend myself with words.\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nNothing shall curb my will; though I be old\r\nAnd single-handed, I will have this man.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nO woe is me!\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nThou art a bold man, stranger, if thou think'st\r\nTo execute thy purpose.\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nSo I do.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nThen shall I deem this State no more a State.\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nWith a just quarrel weakness conquers might.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nYe hear his words?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nAye words, but not yet deeds,\r\nZeus knoweth!\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nZeus may haply know, not thou.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nInsolence!\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nInsolence that thou must bear.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nHaste ye princes, sound the alarm!\r\nMen of Athens, arm ye, arm!\r\nQuickly to the rescue come\r\nEre the robbers get them home.\r\n\r\n[Enter THESEUS]\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWhy this outcry?\u00a0 What is forward? wherefore was I called away\r\nFrom the altar of Poseidon, lord of your Colonus?\u00a0 Say!\r\nOn what errand have I hurried hither without stop or stay.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nDear friend\u2014those accents tell me who thou art\u2014\r\nYon man but now hath done me a foul wrong.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWhat is this wrong and who hath wrought it?\u00a0 Speak.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nCreon who stands before thee.\u00a0 He it is\r\nHath robbed me of my all, my daughters twain.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWhat means this?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThou hast heard my tale of wrongs.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nHo! hasten to the altars, one of you.\r\nCommand my liegemen leave the sacrifice\r\nAnd hurry, foot and horse, with rein unchecked,\r\nTo where the paths that packmen use diverge,\r\nLest the two maidens slip away, and I\r\nBecome a mockery to this my guest,\r\nAs one despoiled by force.\u00a0 Quick, as I bid.\r\nAs for this stranger, had I let my rage,\r\nJustly provoked, have play, he had not 'scaped\r\nScathless and uncorrected at my hands.\r\nBut now the laws to which himself appealed,\r\nThese and none others shall adjudicate.\r\nThou shalt not quit this land, till thou hast fetched\r\nThe maidens and produced them in my sight.\r\nThou hast offended both against myself\r\nAnd thine own race and country.\u00a0 Having come\r\nUnto a State that champions right and asks\r\nFor every action warranty of law,\r\nThou hast set aside the custom of the land,\r\nAnd like some freebooter art carrying off\r\nWhat plunder pleases thee, as if forsooth\r\nThou thoughtest this a city without men,\r\nOr manned by slaves, and me a thing of naught.\r\nYet not from Thebes this villainy was learnt;\r\nThebes is not wont to breed unrighteous sons,\r\nNor would she praise thee, if she learnt that thou\r\nWert robbing me\u2014aye and the gods to boot,\r\nHaling by force their suppliants, poor maids.\r\nWere I on Theban soil, to prosecute\r\nThe justest claim imaginable, I\r\nWould never wrest by violence my own\r\nWithout sanction of your State or King;\r\nI should behave as fits an outlander\r\nLiving amongst a foreign folk, but thou\r\nShamest a city that deserves it not,\r\nEven thine own, and plentitude of years\r\nHave made of thee an old man and a fool.\r\nTherefore again I charge thee as before,\r\nSee that the maidens are restored at once,\r\nUnless thou would'st continue here by force\r\nAnd not by choice a sojourner; so much\r\nI tell thee home and what I say, I mean.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nThy case is perilous; though by birth and race\r\nThou should'st be just, thou plainly doest wrong.\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nNot deeming this city void of men\r\nOr counsel, son of Aegeus, as thou say'st\r\nI did what I have done; rather I thought\r\nYour people were not like to set such store\r\nby kin of mine and keep them 'gainst my will.\r\nNor would they harbor, so I stood assured,\r\nA godless parricide, a reprobate\r\nConvicted of incestuous marriage ties.\r\nFor on her native hill of Ares here\r\n(I knew your far-famed Areopagus)\r\nSits Justice, and permits not vagrant folk\r\nTo stay within your borders.\u00a0 In that faith\r\nI hunted down my quarry; and e'en then\r\nI had refrained but for the curses dire\r\nWherewith he banned my kinsfolk and myself:\r\nSuch wrong, methought, had warrant for my act.\r\nAnger has no old age but only death;\r\nThe dead alone can feel no touch of spite.\r\nSo thou must work thy will; my cause is just\r\nBut weak without allies; yet will I try,\r\nOld as I am, to answer deeds with deeds.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nO shameless railer, think'st thou this abuse\r\nDefames my grey hairs rather than thine own?\r\nMurder and incest, deeds of horror, all\r\nThou blurtest forth against me, all I have borne,\r\nNo willing sinner; so it pleased the gods\r\nWrath haply with my sinful race of old,\r\nSince thou could'st find no sin in me myself\r\nFor which in retribution I was doomed\r\nTo trespass thus against myself and mine.\r\nAnswer me now, if by some oracle\r\nMy sire was destined to a bloody end\r\nBy a son's hand, can this reflect on me,\r\nMe then unborn, begotten by no sire,\r\nConceived in no mother's womb?\u00a0 And if\r\nWhen born to misery, as born I was,\r\nI met my sire, not knowing whom I met\r\nor what I did, and slew him, how canst thou\r\nWith justice blame the all-unconscious hand?\r\nAnd for my mother, wretch, art not ashamed,\r\nSeeing she was thy sister, to extort\r\nFrom me the story of her marriage, such\r\nA marriage as I straightway will proclaim.\r\nFor I will speak; thy lewd and impious speech\r\nHas broken all the bonds of reticence.\r\nShe was, ah woe is me! she was my mother;\r\nI knew it not, nor she; and she my mother\r\nBare children to the son whom she had borne,\r\nA birth of shame.\u00a0 But this at least I know\r\nWittingly thou aspersest her and me;\r\nBut I unwitting wed, unwilling speak.\r\nNay neither in this marriage or this deed\r\nWhich thou art ever casting in my teeth\u2014\r\nA murdered sire\u2014shall I be held to blame.\r\nCome, answer me one question, if thou canst:\r\nIf one should presently attempt thy life,\r\nWould'st thou, O man of justice, first inquire\r\nIf the assassin was perchance thy sire,\r\nOr turn upon him?\u00a0 As thou lov'st thy life,\r\nOn thy aggressor thou would'st turn, no stay\r\nDebating, if the law would bear thee out.\r\nSuch was my case, and such the pass whereto\r\nThe gods reduced me; and methinks my sire,\r\nCould he come back to life, would not dissent.\r\nYet thou, for just thou art not, but a man\r\nWho sticks at nothing, if it serve his plea,\r\nReproachest me with this before these men.\r\nIt serves thy turn to laud great Theseus' name,\r\nAnd Athens as a wisely governed State;\r\nYet in thy flatteries one thing is to seek:\r\nIf any land knows how to pay the gods\r\nTheir proper rites, 'tis Athens most of all.\r\nThis is the land whence thou wast fain to steal\r\nTheir aged suppliant and hast carried off\r\nMy daughters.\u00a0 Therefore to yon goddesses,\r\nI turn, adjure them and invoke their aid\r\nTo champion my cause, that thou mayest learn\r\nWhat is the breed of men who guard this State.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nAn honest man, my liege, one sore bestead\r\nBy fortune, and so worthy our support.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nEnough of words; the captors speed amain,\r\nWhile we the victims stand debating here.\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nWhat would'st thou?\u00a0 What can I, a feeble man?\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nShow us the trail, and I'll attend thee too,\r\nThat, if thou hast the maidens hereabouts,\r\nThou mayest thyself discover them to me;\r\nBut if thy guards outstrip us with their spoil,\r\nWe may draw rein; for others speed, from whom\r\nThey will not 'scape to thank the gods at home.\r\nLead on, I say, the captor's caught, and fate\r\nHath ta'en the fowler in the toils he spread;\r\nSo soon are lost gains gotten by deceit.\r\nAnd look not for allies; I know indeed\r\nSuch height of insolence was never reached\r\nWithout abettors or accomplices;\r\nThou hast some backer in thy bold essay,\r\nBut I will search this matter home and see\r\nOne man doth not prevail against the State.\r\nDost take my drift, or seem these words as vain\r\nAs seemed our warnings when the plot was hatched?\r\n\r\nCREON\r\n\r\nNothing thou sayest can I here dispute,\r\nBut once at home I too shall act my part.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nThreaten us and\u2014begone!\u00a0 Thou, Oedipus,\r\nStay here assured that nothing save my death\r\nWill stay my purpose to restore the maids.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nHeaven bless thee, Theseus, for thy nobleness\r\nAnd all thy loving care in my behalf.\r\n\r\n[Exeunt THESEUS and CREON]\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\n(Str. 1)\r\nO when the flying foe,\r\nTurning at last to bay,\r\nSoon will give blow for blow,\r\nMight I behold the fray;\r\nHear the loud battle roar\r\nSwell, on the Pythian shore,\r\nOr by the torch-lit bay,\r\nWhere the dread Queen and Maid\r\nCherish the mystic rites,\r\nRites they to none betray,\r\nEre on his lips is laid\r\nSecrecy's golden key\r\nBy their own acolytes,\r\nPriestly Eumolpidae.\r\nThere I might chance behold\r\nTheseus our captain bold\r\nMeet with the robber band,\r\nEre they have fled the land,\r\nRescue by might and main\r\nMaidens, the captives twain.\r\n\r\n(Ant. 1)\r\nHaply on swiftest steed,\r\nOr in the flying car,\r\nNow they approach the glen,\r\nWest of white Oea's scaur.\r\nThey will be vanquished:\r\nDread are our warriors, dread\r\nTheseus our chieftain's men.\r\nFlashes each bridle bright,\r\nCharges each gallant knight,\r\nAll that our Queen adore,\r\nPallas their patron, or\r\nHim whose wide floods enring\r\nEarth, the great Ocean-king\r\nWhom Rhea bore.\r\n\r\n(Str. 2)\r\nFight they or now prepare\r\nTo fight? a vision rare\r\nTells me that soon again\r\nI shall behold the twain\r\nMaidens so ill bestead,\r\nBy their kin buffeted.\r\nToday, today Zeus worketh some great thing\r\nThis day shall victory bring.\r\nO for the wings, the wings of a dove,\r\nTo be borne with the speed of the gale,\r\nUp and still upwards to sail\r\nAnd gaze on the fray from the clouds above.\r\n\r\n(Ant. 2)\r\nAll-seeing Zeus, O lord of heaven,\r\nTo our guardian host be given\r\nMight triumphant to surprise\r\nFlying foes and win their prize.\r\nHear us, Zeus, and hear us, child\r\nOf Zeus, Athene undefiled,\r\nHear, Apollo, hunter, hear,\r\nHuntress, sister of Apollo,\r\nWho the dappled swift-foot deer\r\nO'er the wooded glade dost follow;\r\nHelp with your two-fold power\r\nAthens in danger's hour!\r\nO wayfarer, thou wilt not have to tax\r\nThe friends who watch for thee with false presage,\r\nFor lo, an escort with the maids draws near.\r\n\r\n[Enter ANTIGONE and ISMENE with THESEUS]\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhere, where? what sayest thou?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nO father, father,\r\nWould that some god might grant thee eyes to see\r\nThis best of men who brings us back again.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nMy child! and are ye back indeed!\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nYes, saved\r\nBy Theseus and his gallant followers.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nCome to your father's arms, O let me feel\r\nA child's embrace I never hoped for more.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nThou askest what is doubly sweet to give.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhere are ye then?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nWe come together both.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nMy precious nurslings!\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nFathers aye were fond.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nProps of my age!\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nSo sorrow sorrow props.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nI have my darlings, and if death should come,\r\nDeath were not wholly bitter with you near.\r\nCling to me, press me close on either side,\r\nThere rest ye from your dreary wayfaring.\r\nNow tell me of your ventures, but in brief;\r\nBrief speech suffices for young maids like you.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nHere is our savior; thou should'st hear the tale\r\nFrom his own lips; so shall my part be brief.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nI pray thee do not wonder if the sight\r\nOf children, given o'er for lost, has made\r\nMy converse somewhat long and tedious.\r\nFull well I know the joy I have of them\r\nIs due to thee, to thee and no man else;\r\nThou wast their sole deliverer, none else.\r\nThe gods deal with thee after my desire,\r\nWith thee and with this land! for fear of heaven\r\nI found above all peoples most with you,\r\nAnd righteousness and lips that cannot lie.\r\nI speak in gratitude of what I know,\r\nFor all I have I owe to thee alone.\r\nGive me thy hand, O Prince, that I may touch it,\r\nAnd if thou wilt permit me, kiss thy cheek.\r\nWhat say I?\u00a0 Can I wish that thou should'st touch\r\nOne fallen like me to utter wretchedness,\r\nCorrupt and tainted with a thousand ills?\r\nOh no, I would not let thee if thou would'st.\r\nThey only who have known calamity\r\nCan share it.\u00a0 Let me greet thee where thou art,\r\nAnd still befriend me as thou hast till now.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nI marvel not if thou hast dallied long\r\nIn converse with thy children and preferred\r\nTheir speech to mine; I feel no jealousy,\r\nI would be famous more by deeds than words.\r\nOf this, old friend, thou hast had proof; my oath\r\nI have fulfilled and brought thee back the maids\r\nAlive and nothing harmed for all those threats.\r\nAnd how the fight was won, 'twere waste of words\r\nTo boast\u2014thy daughters here will tell thee all.\r\nBut of a matter that has lately chanced\r\nOn my way hitherward, I fain would have\r\nThy counsel\u2014slight 'twould seem, yet worthy thought.\r\nA wise man heeds all matters great or small.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhat is it, son of Aegeus?\u00a0 Let me hear.\r\nOf what thou askest I myself know naught.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\n'Tis said a man, no countryman of thine,\r\nBut of thy kin, hath taken sanctuary\r\nBeside the altar of Poseidon, where\r\nI was at sacrifice when called away.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhat is his country? what the suitor's prayer?\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nI know but one thing; he implores, I am told,\r\nA word with thee\u2014he will not trouble thee.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWhat seeks he?\u00a0 If a suppliant, something grave.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nHe only waits, they say, to speak with thee,\r\nAnd then unharmed to go upon his way.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nI marvel who is this petitioner.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nThink if there be not any of thy kin\r\nAt Argos who might claim this boon of thee.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nDear friend, forbear, I pray.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWhat ails thee now?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nAsk it not of me.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nAsk not what? explain.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThy words have told me who the suppliant is.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWho can he be that I should frown on him?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nMy son, O king, my hateful son, whose words\r\nOf all men's most would jar upon my ears.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nThou sure mightest listen.\u00a0 If his suit offend,\r\nNo need to grant it.\u00a0 Why so loth to hear him?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThat voice, O king, grates on a father's ears;\r\nI have come to loathe it.\u00a0 Force me not to yield.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nBut he hath found asylum.\u00a0 O beware,\r\nAnd fail not in due reverence to the god.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nO heed me, father, though I am young in years.\r\nLet the prince have his will and pay withal\r\nWhat in his eyes is service to the god;\r\nFor our sake also let our brother come.\r\nIf what he urges tend not to thy good\r\nHe cannot surely wrest perforce thy will.\r\nTo hear him then, what harm?\u00a0 By open words\r\nA scheme of villainy is soon bewrayed.\r\nThou art his father, therefore canst not pay\r\nIn kind a son's most impious outrages.\r\nO listen to him; other men like thee\r\nHave thankless children and are choleric,\r\nBut yielding to persuasion's gentle spell\r\nThey let their savage mood be exorcised.\r\nLook thou to the past, forget the present, think\r\nOn all the woe thy sire and mother brought thee;\r\nThence wilt thou draw this lesson without fail,\r\nOf evil passion evil is the end.\r\nThou hast, alas, to prick thy memory,\r\nStern monitors, these ever-sightless orbs.\r\nO yield to us; just suitors should not need\r\nTo be importunate, nor he that takes\r\nA favor lack the grace to make return.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nGrievous to me, my child, the boon ye win\r\nBy pleading.\u00a0 Let it be then; have your way\r\nOnly if come he must, I beg thee, friend,\r\nLet none have power to dispose of me.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nNo need, Sir, to appeal a second time.\r\nIt likes me not to boast, but be assured\r\nThy life is safe while any god saves mine.\r\n\r\n[Exit THESEUS]\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\n(Str.)\r\nWho craves excess of days,\r\nScorning the common span\r\nOf life, I judge that man\r\nA giddy wight who walks in folly's ways.\r\nFor the long years heap up a grievous load,\r\nScant pleasures, heavier pains,\r\nTill not one joy remains\r\nFor him who lingers on life's weary road\r\nAnd come it slow or fast,\r\nOne doom of fate\r\nDoth all await,\r\nFor dance and marriage bell,\r\nThe dirge and funeral knell.\r\nDeath the deliverer freeth all at last.\r\n\r\n(Ant.)\r\nNot to be born at all\r\nIs best, far best that can befall,\r\nNext best, when born, with least delay\r\nTo trace the backward way.\r\nFor when youth passes with its giddy train,\r\nTroubles on troubles follow, toils on toils,\r\nPain, pain for ever pain;\r\nAnd none escapes life's coils.\r\nEnvy, sedition, strife,\r\nCarnage and war, make up the tale of life.\r\nLast comes the worst and most abhorred stage\r\nOf unregarded age,\r\nJoyless, companionless and slow,\r\nOf woes the crowning woe.\r\n(Epode)\r\nSuch ills not I alone,\r\nHe too our guest hath known,\r\nE'en as some headland on an iron-bound shore,\r\nLashed by the wintry blasts and surge's roar,\r\nSo is he buffeted on every side\r\nBy drear misfortune's whelming tide,\r\nBy every wind of heaven o'erborne\r\nSome from the sunset, some from orient morn,\r\nSome from the noonday glow.\r\nSome from Rhipean gloom of everlasting snow.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nFather, methinks I see the stranger coming,\r\nAlone he comes and weeping plenteous tears.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nWho may he be?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nThe same that we surmised.\r\nFrom the outset\u2014Polyneices.\u00a0 He is here.\r\n\r\n[Enter POLYNEICES]\r\n\r\nPOLYNEICES\r\n\r\nAh me, my sisters, shall I first lament\r\nMy own afflictions, or my aged sire's,\r\nWhom here I find a castaway, with you,\r\nIn a strange land, an ancient beggar clad\r\nIn antic tatters, marring all his frame,\r\nWhile o'er the sightless orbs his unkept locks\r\nFloat in the breeze; and, as it were to match,\r\nHe bears a wallet against hunger's pinch.\r\nAll this too late I learn, wretch that I am,\r\nAlas!\u00a0 I own it, and am proved most vile\r\nIn my neglect of thee:\u00a0 I scorn myself.\r\nBut as almighty Zeus in all he doth\r\nHath Mercy for co-partner of this throne,\r\nLet Mercy, father, also sit enthroned\r\nIn thy heart likewise.\u00a0 For transgressions past\r\nMay be amended, cannot be made worse.\r\nWhy silent?\u00a0 Father, speak, nor turn away,\r\nHast thou no word, wilt thou dismiss me then\r\nIn mute disdain, nor tell me why thou art wrath?\r\nO ye his daughters, sisters mine, do ye\r\nThis sullen, obstinate silence try to move.\r\nLet him not spurn, without a single word\r\nOf answer, me the suppliant of the god.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nTell him thyself, unhappy one, thine errand;\r\nFor large discourse may send a thrill of joy,\r\nOr stir a chord of wrath or tenderness,\r\nAnd to the tongue-tied somehow give a tongue.\r\n\r\nPOLYNEICES\r\n\r\nWell dost thou counsel, and I will speak out.\r\nFirst will I call in aid the god himself,\r\nPoseidon, from whose altar I was raised,\r\nWith warrant from the monarch of this land,\r\nTo parley with you, and depart unscathed.\r\nThese pledges, strangers, I would see observed\r\nBy you and by my sisters and my sire.\r\nNow, father, let me tell thee why I came.\r\nI have been banished from my native land\r\nBecause by right of primogeniture\r\nI claimed possession of thy sovereign throne\r\nWherefrom Etocles, my younger brother,\r\nOusted me, not by weight of precedent,\r\nNor by the last arbitrament of war,\r\nBut by his popular acts; and the prime cause\r\nOf this I deem the curse that rests on thee.\r\nSo likewise hold the soothsayers, for when\r\nI came to Argos in the Dorian land\r\nAnd took the king Adrastus' child to wife,\r\nUnder my standard I enlisted all\r\nThe foremost captains of the Apian isle,\r\nTo levy with their aid that sevenfold host\r\nOf spearmen against Thebes, determining\r\nTo oust my foes or die in a just cause.\r\nWhy then, thou askest, am I here today?\r\nFather, I come a suppliant to thee\r\nBoth for myself and my allies who now\r\nWith squadrons seven beneath their seven spears\r\nBeleaguer all the plain that circles Thebes.\r\nForemost the peerless warrior, peerless seer,\r\nAmphiaraiis with his lightning lance;\r\nNext an Aetolian, Tydeus, Oeneus' son;\r\nEteoclus of Argive birth the third;\r\nThe fourth Hippomedon, sent to the war\r\nBy his sire Talaos; Capaneus, the fifth,\r\nVaunts he will fire and raze the town; the sixth\r\nParthenopaeus, an Arcadian born\r\nNamed of that maid, longtime a maid and late\r\nEspoused, Atalanta's true-born child;\r\nLast I thy son, or thine at least in name,\r\nIf but the bastard of an evil fate,\r\nLead against Thebes the fearless Argive host.\r\nThus by thy children and thy life, my sire,\r\nWe all adjure thee to remit thy wrath\r\nAnd favor one who seeks a just revenge\r\nAgainst a brother who has banned and robbed him.\r\nFor victory, if oracles speak true,\r\nWill fall to those who have thee for ally.\r\nSo, by our fountains and familiar gods\r\nI pray thee, yield and hear; a beggar I\r\nAnd exile, thou an exile likewise; both\r\nInvolved in one misfortune find a home\r\nAs pensioners, while he, the lord of Thebes,\r\nO agony! makes a mock of thee and me.\r\nI'll scatter with a breath the upstart's might,\r\nAnd bring thee home again and stablish thee,\r\nAnd stablish, having cast him out, myself.\r\nThis will thy goodwill I will undertake,\r\nWithout it I can scare return alive.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nFor the king's sake who sent him, Oedipus,\r\nDismiss him not without a meet reply.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nNay, worthy seniors, but for Theseus' sake\r\nWho sent him hither to have word of me.\r\nNever again would he have heard my voice;\r\nBut now he shall obtain this parting grace,\r\nAn answer that will bring him little joy.\r\nO villain, when thou hadst the sovereignty\r\nThat now thy brother holdeth in thy stead,\r\nDidst thou not drive me, thine own father, out,\r\nAn exile, cityless, and make we wear\r\nThis beggar's garb thou weepest to behold,\r\nNow thou art come thyself to my sad plight?\r\nNothing is here for tears; it must be borne\r\nBy <i>me<\/i> till death, and I shall think of thee\r\nAs of my murderer; thou didst thrust me out;\r\n'Tis thou hast made me conversant with woe,\r\nThrough thee I beg my bread in a strange land;\r\nAnd had not these my daughters tended me\r\nI had been dead for aught of aid from thee.\r\nThey tend me, they preserve me, they are men\r\nNot women in true service to their sire;\r\nBut ye are bastards, and no sons of mine.\r\nTherefore just Heaven hath an eye on thee;\r\nHowbeit not yet with aspect so austere\r\nAs thou shalt soon experience, if indeed\r\nThese banded hosts are moving against Thebes.\r\nThat city thou canst never storm, but first\r\nShall fall, thou and thy brother, blood-imbrued.\r\nSuch curse I lately launched against you twain,\r\nSuch curse I now invoke to fight for me,\r\nThat ye may learn to honor those who bear thee\r\nNor flout a sightless father who begat\r\nDegenerate sons\u2014these maidens did not so.\r\nTherefore my curse is stronger than thy \"throne,\"\r\nThy \"suppliance,\" if by right of laws eterne\r\nPrimeval Justice sits enthroned with Zeus.\r\nBegone, abhorred, disowned, no son of mine,\r\nThou vilest of the vile! and take with thee\r\nThis curse I leave thee as my last bequest:\u2014\r\nNever to win by arms thy native land,\r\nNo, nor return to Argos in the Vale,\r\nBut by a kinsman's hand to die and slay\r\nHim who expelled thee.\u00a0 So I pray and call\r\nOn the ancestral gloom of Tartarus\r\nTo snatch thee hence, on these dread goddesses\r\nI call, and Ares who incensed you both\r\nTo mortal enmity.\u00a0 Go now proclaim\r\nWhat thou hast heard to the Cadmeians all,\r\nThy staunch confederates\u2014this the heritage\r\nthat Oedipus divideth to his sons.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nThy errand, Polyneices, liked me not\r\nFrom the beginning; now go back with speed.\r\n\r\nPOLYNEICES\r\n\r\nWoe worth my journey and my baffled hopes!\r\nWoe worth my comrades!\u00a0 What a desperate end\r\nTo that glad march from Argos!\u00a0 Woe is me!\r\nI dare not whisper it to my allies\r\nOr turn them back, but mute must meet my doom.\r\nMy sisters, ye his daughters, ye have heard\r\nThe prayers of our stern father, if his curse\r\nShould come to pass and ye some day return\r\nTo Thebes, O then disown me not, I pray,\r\nBut grant me burial and due funeral rites.\r\nSo shall the praise your filial care now wins\r\nBe doubled for the service wrought for me.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nOne boon, O Polyneices, let me crave.\r\n\r\nPOLYNEICES\r\n\r\nWhat would'st thou, sweet Antigone?\u00a0 Say on.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nTurn back thy host to Argos with all speed,\r\nAnd ruin not thyself and Thebes as well.\r\n\r\nPOLYNEICES\r\n\r\nThat cannot be.\u00a0 How could I lead again\r\nAn army that had seen their leader quail?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nBut, brother, why shouldst thou be wroth again?\r\nWhat profit from thy country's ruin comes?\r\n\r\nPOLYNEICES\r\n\r\n'Tis shame to live in exile, and shall I\r\nThe elder bear a younger brother's flouts?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nWilt thou then bring to pass his prophecies\r\nWho threatens mutual slaughter to you both?\r\n\r\nPOLYNEICES\r\n\r\nAye, so he wishes:\u2014but I must not yield.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nO woe is me! but say, will any dare,\r\nHearing his prophecy, to follow thee?\r\n\r\nPOLYNEICES\r\n\r\nI shall not tell it; a good general\r\nReports successes and conceals mishaps.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nMisguided youth, thy purpose then stands fast!\r\n\r\nPOLYNEICES\r\n\r\n'Tis so, and stay me not.\u00a0 The road I choose,\r\nDogged by my sire and his avenging spirit,\r\nLeads me to ruin; but for you may Zeus\r\nMake your path bright if ye fulfill my hest\r\nWhen dead; in life ye cannot serve me more.\r\nNow let me go, farewell, a long farewell!\r\nYe ne'er shall see my living face again.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nAh me!\r\n\r\nPOLYNEICES\r\n\r\nBewail me not.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nWho would not mourn\r\nThee, brother, hurrying to an open pit!\r\n\r\nPOLYNEICES\r\n\r\nIf I must die, I must.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nNay, hear me plead.\r\n\r\nPOLYNEICES\r\n\r\nIt may not be; forbear.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nThen woe is me,\r\nIf I must lose thee.\r\n\r\nPOLYNEICES\r\n\r\nNay, that rests with fate,\r\nWhether I live or die; but for you both\r\nI pray to heaven ye may escape all ill;\r\nFor ye are blameless in the eyes of all.\r\n\r\n[Exit POLYNEICES]\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\n(Str. 1)\r\nIlls on ills! no pause or rest!\r\nCome they from our sightless guest?\r\nOr haply now we see fulfilled\r\nWhat fate long time hath willed?\r\nFor ne'er have I proved vain\r\nAught that the heavenly powers ordain.\r\nTime with never sleeping eye\r\nWatches what is writ on high,\r\nOverthrowing now the great,\r\nRaising now from low estate.\r\nHark!\u00a0 How the thunder rumbles!\u00a0 Zeus defend us!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nChildren, my children! will no messenger\r\nGo summon hither Theseus my best friend?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nAnd wherefore, father, dost thou summon him?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThis winged thunder of the god must bear me\r\nAnon to Hades.\u00a0 Send and tarry not.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\n(Ant. 1)\r\nHark! with louder, nearer roar\r\nThe bolt of Zeus descends once more.\r\nMy spirit quails and cowers:\u00a0 my hair\r\nBristles for fear.\u00a0 Again that flare!\r\nWhat doth the lightning-flash portend?\r\nEver it points to issues grave.\r\nDread powers of air!\u00a0 Save, Zeus, O save!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nDaughters, upon me the predestined end\r\nHas come; no turning from it any more.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nHow knowest thou?\u00a0 What sign convinces thee?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nI know full well.\u00a0 Let some one with all speed\r\nGo summon hither the Athenian prince.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\n(Str. 2)\r\nHa! once more the deafening sound\r\nPeals yet louder all around\r\nIf thou darkenest our land,\r\nLightly, lightly lay thy hand;\r\nGrace, not anger, let me win,\r\nIf upon a man of sin\r\nI have looked with pitying eye,\r\nZeus, our king, to thee I cry!\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nIs the prince coming?\u00a0 Will he when he comes\r\nFind me yet living and my senses clear!\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nWhat solemn charge would'st thou impress on him?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nFor all his benefits I would perform\r\nThe promise made when I received them first.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\n(Ant. 2)\r\nHither haste, my son, arise,\r\nAltar leave and sacrifice,\r\nIf haply to Poseidon now\r\nIn the far glade thou pay'st thy vow.\r\nFor our guest to thee would bring\r\nAnd thy folk and offering,\r\nThy due guerdon.\u00a0 Haste, O King!\r\n\r\n[Enter THESEUS]\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWherefore again this general din? at once\r\nMy people call me and the stranger calls.\r\nIs it a thunderbolt of Zeus or sleet\r\nOf arrowy hail? a storm so fierce as this\r\nWould warrant all surmises of mischance.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThou com'st much wished for, Prince, and sure some god\r\nHath bid good luck attend thee on thy way.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWhat, son of Laius, hath chanced of new?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nMy life hath turned the scale.\u00a0 I would do all\r\nI promised thee and thine before I die.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWhat sign assures thee that thine end is near?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThe gods themselves are heralds of my fate;\r\nOf their appointed warnings nothing fails.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nHow sayest thou they signify their will?\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nThis thunder, peal on peal, this lightning hurled\r\nFlash upon flash, from the unconquered hand.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nI must believe thee, having found thee oft\r\nA prophet true; then speak what must be done.\r\n\r\nOEDIPUS\r\n\r\nO son of Aegeus, for this state will I\r\nUnfold a treasure age cannot corrupt.\r\nMyself anon without a guiding hand\r\nWill take thee to the spot where I must end.\r\nThis secret ne'er reveal to mortal man,\r\nNeither the spot nor whereabouts it lies,\r\nSo shall it ever serve thee for defense\r\nBetter than native shields and near allies.\r\nBut those dread mysteries speech may not profane\r\nThyself shalt gather coming there alone;\r\nSince not to any of thy subjects,\u00a0 nor\r\nTo my own children, though I love them dearly,\r\nCan I reveal what thou must guard alone,\r\nAnd whisper to thy chosen heir alone,\r\nSo to be handed down from heir to heir.\r\nThus shalt thou hold this land inviolate\r\nFrom the dread Dragon's brood.[footnote]The Thebans sprung from the Dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus.[\/footnote] \u00a0The justest State\r\nBy countless wanton neighbors may be wronged,\r\nFor the gods, though they tarry, mark for doom\r\nThe godless sinner in his mad career.\r\nFar from thee, son of Aegeus, be such fate!\r\nBut to the spot\u2014the god within me goads\u2014\r\nLet us set forth no longer hesitate.\r\nFollow me, daughters, this way.\u00a0 Strange that I\r\nWhom you have led so long should lead you now.\r\nOh, touch me not, but let me all alone\r\nFind out the sepulcher that destiny\r\nAppoints me in this land.\u00a0 Hither, this way,\r\nFor this way Hermes leads, the spirit guide,\r\nAnd Persephassa, empress of the dead.\r\nO light, no light to me, but mine erewhile,\r\nNow the last time I feel thee palpable,\r\nFor I am drawing near the final gloom\r\nOf Hades.\u00a0 Blessing on thee, dearest friend,\r\nOn thee and on thy land and followers!\r\nLive prosperous and in your happy state\r\nStill for your welfare think on me, the dead.\r\n\r\n[Exit THESEUS followed by ANTIGONE and ISMENE]\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\n(Str.)\r\nIf mortal prayers are heard in hell,\r\nHear, Goddess dread, invisible!\r\nMonarch of the regions drear,\r\nAidoneus, hear, O hear!\r\nBy a gentle, tearless doom\r\nSpeed this stranger to the gloom,\r\nLet him enter without pain\r\nThe all-shrouding Stygian plain.\r\nWrongfully in life oppressed,\r\nBe he now by Justice blessed.\r\n\r\n(Ant.)\r\nQueen infernal, and thou fell\r\nWatch-dog of the gates of hell,\r\nWho, as legends tell, dost glare,\r\nGnarling in thy cavernous lair\r\nAt all comers, let him go\r\nScathless to the fields below.\r\nFor thy master orders thus,\r\nThe son of earth and Tartarus;\r\nIn his den the monster keep,\r\nGiver of eternal sleep.\r\n\r\n[Enter MESSENGER]\r\n\r\nMESSENGER\r\n\r\nFriends, countrymen, my tidings are in sum\r\nThat Oedipus is gone, but the event\r\nWas not so brief, nor can the tale be brief.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWhat, has he gone, the unhappy man?\r\n\r\nMESSENGER\r\n\r\nKnow well\r\nThat he has passed away from life to death.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nHow?\u00a0 By a god-sent, painless doom, poor soul?\r\n\r\nMESSENGER\r\n\r\nThy question hits the marvel of the tale.\r\nHow he moved hence, you saw him and must know;\r\nWithout a friend to lead the way, himself\r\nGuiding us all.\u00a0 So having reached the abrupt\r\nEarth-rooted Threshold with its brazen stairs,\r\nHe paused at one of the converging paths,\r\nHard by the rocky basin which records\r\nThe pact of Theseus and Peirithous.\r\nBetwixt that rift and the Thorician rock,\r\nThe hollow pear-tree and the marble tomb,\r\nMidway he sat and loosed his beggar's weeds;\r\nThen calling to his daughters bade them fetch\r\nOf running water, both to wash withal\r\nAnd make libation; so they clomb the steep;\r\nAnd in brief space brought what their father bade,\r\nThen laved and dressed him with observance due.\r\nBut when he had his will in everything,\r\nAnd no desire was left unsatisfied,\r\nIt thundered from the netherworld; the maids\r\nShivered, and crouching at their father's knees\r\nWept, beat their breast and uttered a long wail.\r\nHe, as he heard their sudden bitter cry,\r\nFolded his arms about them both and said,\r\n\"My children, ye will lose your sire today,\r\nFor all of me has perished, and no more\r\nHave ye to bear your long, long ministry;\r\nA heavy load, I know, and yet one word\r\nWipes out all score of tribulations\u2014<i>love<\/i>.\r\nAnd love from me ye had\u2014from no man more;\r\nBut now must live without me all your days.\"\r\nSo clinging to each other sobbed and wept\r\nFather and daughters both, but when at last\r\nTheir mourning had an end and no wail rose,\r\nA moment there was silence; suddenly\r\nA voice that summoned him; with sudden dread\r\nThe hair of all stood up and all were 'mazed;\r\nFor the call came, now loud, now low, and oft.\r\n\"Oedipus, Oedipus, why tarry we?\r\nToo long, too long thy passing is delayed.\"\r\nBut when he heard the summons of the god,\r\nHe prayed that Theseus might be brought, and when\r\nThe Prince came nearer:\u00a0 \"O my friend,\" he cried,\r\n\"Pledge ye my daughters, giving thy right hand\u2014\r\nAnd, daughters, give him yours\u2014and promise me\r\nThou never wilt forsake them, but do all\r\nThat time and friendship prompt in their behoof.\"\r\nAnd he of his nobility repressed\r\nHis tears and swore to be their constant friend.\r\nThis promise given, Oedipus put forth\r\nBlind hands and laid them on his children, saying,\r\n\"O children, prove your true nobility\r\nAnd hence depart nor seek to witness sights\r\nUnlawful or to hear unlawful words.\r\nNay, go with speed; let none but Theseus stay,\r\nOur ruler, to behold what next shall hap.\"\r\nSo we all heard him speak, and weeping sore\r\nWe companied the maidens on their way.\r\nAfter brief space we looked again, and lo\r\nThe man was gone, evanished from our eyes;\r\nOnly the king we saw with upraised hand\r\nShading his eyes as from some awful sight,\r\nThat no man might endure to look upon.\r\nA moment later, and we saw him bend\r\nIn prayer to Earth and prayer to Heaven at once.\r\nBut by what doom the stranger met his end\r\nNo man save Theseus knoweth.\u00a0 For there fell\r\nNo fiery bold that reft him in that hour,\r\nNor whirlwind from the sea, but he was taken.\r\nIt was a messenger from heaven, or else\r\nSome gentle, painless cleaving of earth's base;\r\nFor without wailing or disease or pain\r\nHe passed away\u2014and end most marvelous.\r\nAnd if to some my tale seems foolishness\r\nI am content that such could count me fool.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWhere are the maids and their attendant friends?\r\n\r\nMESSENGER\r\n\r\nThey cannot be far off; the approaching sound\r\nOf lamentation tells they come this way.\r\n\r\n[Enter ANTIGONE and ISMENE]\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\n(Str. 1)\r\nWoe, woe! on this sad day\r\nWe sisters of one blasted stock\r\nmust bow beneath the shock,\r\nMust weep and weep the curse that lay\r\nOn him our sire, for whom\r\nIn life, a life-long world of care\r\n'Twas ours to bear,\r\nIn death must face the gloom\r\nThat wraps his tomb.\r\nWhat tongue can tell\r\nThat sight ineffable?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWhat mean ye, maidens?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nAll is but surmise.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nIs he then gone?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nGone as ye most might wish.\r\nNot in battle or sea storm,\r\nBut reft from sight,\r\nBy hands invisible borne\r\nTo viewless fields of night.\r\nAh me! on us too night has come,\r\nThe night of mourning.\u00a0 Wither roam\r\nO'er land or sea in our distress\r\nEating the bread of bitterness?\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nI know not.\u00a0 O that Death\r\nMight nip my breath,\r\nAnd let me share my aged father's fate.\r\nI cannot live a life thus desolate.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nBest of daughters, worthy pair,\r\nWhat heaven brings ye needs must bear,\r\nFret no more 'gainst Heaven's will;\r\nFate hath dealt with you not ill.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\n(Ant. 1)\r\nLove can turn past pain to bliss,\r\nWhat seemed bitter now is sweet.\r\nAh me! that happy toil is sweet.\r\nThe guidance of those dear blind feet.\r\nDear father, wrapt for aye in nether gloom,\r\nE'en in the tomb\r\nNever shalt thou lack of love repine,\r\nHer love and mine.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nHis fate\u2014\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nIs even as he planned.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nHow so?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nHe died, so willed he, in a foreign land.\r\nLapped in kind earth he sleeps his long last sleep,\r\nAnd o'er his grave friends weep.\r\nHow great our lost these streaming eyes can tell,\r\nThis sorrow naught can quell.\r\nThou hadst thy wish 'mid strangers thus to die,\r\nBut I, ah me, not by.\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nAlas, my sister, what new fate\r\n*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\r\n*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\r\nBefalls us orphans desolate?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nHis end was blessed; therefore, children, stay\r\nYour sorrow.\u00a0 Man is born to fate a prey.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\n(Str. 2)\r\nSister, let us back again.\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nWhy return?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nMy soul is fain\u2014\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nIs fain?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nTo see the earthy bed.\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nSayest thou?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nWhere our sire is laid.\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nNay, thou can'st not, dost not see\u2014\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nSister, wherefore wroth with me?\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nKnow'st not\u2014beside\u2014\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nMore must I hear?\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nTombless he died, none near.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nLead me thither; slay me there.\r\n\r\nISMENE\r\n\r\nHow shall I unhappy fare,\r\nFriendless, helpless, how drag on\r\nA life of misery alone?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\n(Ant. 2)\r\nFear not, maids\u2014\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nAh, whither flee?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nRefuge hath been found.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nFor me?\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWhere thou shalt be safe from harm.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nI know it.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWhy then this alarm?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nHow again to get us home\r\nI know not.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWhy then this roam?\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nTroubles whelm us\u2014\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nAs of yore.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nWorse than what was worse before.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nSure ye are driven on the breakers' surge.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nAlas! we are.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nAlas! 'tis so.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nAh whither turn, O Zeus?\u00a0 No ray\r\nOf hope to cheer the way\r\nWhereon the fates our desperate voyage urge.\r\n\r\n[Enter THESEUS]\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nDry your tears; when grace is shed\r\nOn the quick and on the dead\r\nBy dark Powers beneficent,\r\nOver-grief they would resent.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nAegeus' child, to thee we pray.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nWhat the boon, my children, say.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nWith our own eyes we fain would see\r\nOur father's tomb.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nThat may not be.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nWhat say'st thou, King?\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nMy children, he\r\nCharged me straitly that no moral\r\nShould approach the sacred portal,\r\nOr greet with funeral litanies\r\nThe hidden tomb wherein he lies;\r\nSaying, \"If thou keep'st my hest\r\nThou shalt hold thy realm at rest.\"\r\nThe God of Oaths this promise heard,\r\nAnd to Zeus I pledged my word.\r\n\r\nANTIGONE\r\n\r\nWell, if he would have it so,\r\nWe must yield.\u00a0 Then let us go\r\nBack to Thebes, if yet we may\r\nHeal this mortal feud and stay\r\nThe self-wrought doom\r\nThat drives our brothers to their tomb.\r\n\r\nTHESEUS\r\n\r\nGo in peace; nor will I spare\r\nOught of toil and zealous care,\r\nBut on all your needs attend,\r\nGladdening in his grave my friend.\r\n\r\nCHORUS\r\n\r\nWail no more, let sorrow rest,\r\nAll is ordered for the best.\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"pgmonospaced\">\n<p>Enter the blind OEDIPUS led by his daughter, ANTIGONE.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Child of an old blind sire, Antigone,<br \/>\nWhat region, say, whose city have we reached?<br \/>\nWho will provide today with scanted dole<br \/>\nThis wanderer?\u00a0 &#8216;Tis little that he craves,<br \/>\nAnd less obtains\u2014that less enough for me;<br \/>\nFor I am taught by suffering to endure,<br \/>\nAnd the long years that have grown old with me,<br \/>\nAnd last not least, by true nobility.<br \/>\nMy daughter, if thou seest a resting place<br \/>\nOn common ground or by some sacred grove,<br \/>\nStay me and set me down.\u00a0 Let us discover<br \/>\nWhere we have come, for strangers must inquire<br \/>\nOf denizens, and do as they are bid.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Long-suffering father, Oedipus, the towers<br \/>\nThat fence the city still are faint and far;<br \/>\nBut where we stand is surely holy ground;<br \/>\nA wilderness of laurel, olive, vine;<br \/>\nWithin a choir or songster nightingales<br \/>\nAre warbling.\u00a0 On this native seat of rock<br \/>\nRest; for an old man thou hast traveled far.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Guide these dark steps and seat me there secure.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>If time can teach, I need not to be told.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Say, prithee, if thou knowest, where we are.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Athens I recognize, but not the spot.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>That much we heard from every wayfarer.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Shall I go on and ask about the place?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Yes, daughter, if it be inhabited.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Sure there are habitations; but no need<br \/>\nTo leave thee; yonder is a man hard by.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>What, moving hitherward and on his way?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Say rather, here already.\u00a0 Ask him straight<br \/>\nThe needful questions, for the man is here.<\/p>\n<p>[Enter STRANGER]<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>O stranger, as I learn from her whose eyes<br \/>\nMust serve both her and me, that thou art here<br \/>\nSent by some happy chance to serve our doubts\u2014<\/p>\n<p>STRANGER<\/p>\n<p>First quit that seat, then question me at large:<br \/>\nThe spot thou treadest on is holy ground.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>What is the site, to what god dedicate?<\/p>\n<p>STRANGER<\/p>\n<p>Inviolable, untrod; goddesses,<br \/>\nDread brood of Earth and Darkness, here abide.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Tell me the awful name I should invoke?<\/p>\n<p>STRANGER<\/p>\n<p>The Gracious Ones, All-seeing, so our folk<br \/>\nCall them, but elsewhere other names are rife.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Then may they show their suppliant grace, for I<br \/>\nFrom this your sanctuary will ne&#8217;er depart.<\/p>\n<p>STRANGER<\/p>\n<p>What word is this?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>The watchword of my fate.<\/p>\n<p>STRANGER<\/p>\n<p>Nay, &#8217;tis not mine to bid thee hence without<br \/>\nDue warrant and instruction from the State.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Now in God&#8217;s name, O stranger, scorn me not<br \/>\nAs a wayfarer; tell me what I crave.<\/p>\n<p>STRANGER<\/p>\n<p>Ask; your request shall not be scorned by me.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>How call you then the place wherein we bide?<\/p>\n<p>STRANGER<\/p>\n<p>Whate&#8217;er I know thou too shalt know; the place<br \/>\nIs all to great Poseidon consecrate.<br \/>\nHard by, the Titan, he who bears the torch,<br \/>\nPrometheus, has his worship; but the spot<br \/>\nThou treadest, the Brass-footed Threshold named,<br \/>\nIs Athens&#8217; bastion, and the neighboring lands<br \/>\nClaim as their chief and patron yonder knight<br \/>\nColonus, and in common bear his name.<br \/>\nSuch, stranger, is the spot, to fame unknown,<br \/>\nBut dear to us its native worshipers.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Thou sayest there are dwellers in these parts?<\/p>\n<p>STRANGER<\/p>\n<p>Surely; they bear the name of yonder god.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Ruled by a king or by the general voice?<\/p>\n<p>STRANGER<\/p>\n<p>The lord of Athens is our over-lord.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Who is this monarch, great in word and might?<\/p>\n<p>STRANGER<\/p>\n<p>Theseus, the son of Aegeus our late king.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Might one be sent from you to summon him?<\/p>\n<p>STRANGER<\/p>\n<p>Wherefore?\u00a0 To tell him aught or urge his coming?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Say a slight service may avail him much.<\/p>\n<p>STRANGER<\/p>\n<p>How can he profit from a sightless man?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>The blind man&#8217;s words will be instinct with sight.<\/p>\n<p>STRANGER<\/p>\n<p>Heed then; I fain would see thee out of harm;<br \/>\nFor by the looks, marred though they be by fate,<br \/>\nI judge thee noble; tarry where thou art,<br \/>\nWhile I go seek the burghers\u2014those at hand,<br \/>\nNot in the city.\u00a0 They will soon decide<br \/>\nWhether thou art to rest or go thy way.<\/p>\n<p>[Exit STRANGER]<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Tell me, my daughter, has the stranger gone?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Yes, he has gone; now we are all alone,<br \/>\nAnd thou may&#8217;st speak, dear father, without fear.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Stern-visaged queens, since coming to this land<br \/>\nFirst in your sanctuary I bent the knee,<br \/>\nFrown not on me or Phoebus, who, when erst<br \/>\nHe told me all my miseries to come,<br \/>\nSpake of this respite after many years,<br \/>\nSome haven in a far-off land, a rest<br \/>\nVouchsafed at last by dread divinities.<br \/>\n&#8220;There,&#8221; said he, &#8220;shalt thou round thy weary life,<br \/>\nA blessing to the land wherein thou dwell&#8217;st,<br \/>\nBut to the land that cast thee forth, a curse.&#8221;<br \/>\nAnd of my weird he promised signs should come,<br \/>\nEarthquake, or thunderclap, or lightning flash.<br \/>\nAnd now I recognize as yours the sign<br \/>\nThat led my wanderings to this your grove;<br \/>\nElse had I never lighted on you first,<br \/>\nA wineless man on your seat of native rock.<br \/>\nO goddesses, fulfill Apollo&#8217;s word,<br \/>\nGrant me some consummation of my life,<br \/>\nIf haply I appear not all too vile,<br \/>\nA thrall to sorrow worse than any slave.<br \/>\nHear, gentle daughters of primeval Night,<br \/>\nHear, namesake of great Pallas; Athens, first<br \/>\nOf cities, pity this dishonored shade,<br \/>\nThe ghost of him who once was Oedipus.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Hush! for I see some grey-beards on their way,<br \/>\nTheir errand to spy out our resting-place.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>I will be mute, and thou shalt guide my steps<br \/>\nInto the covert from the public road,<br \/>\nTill I have learned their drift.\u00a0 A prudent man<br \/>\nWill ever shape his course by what he learns.<\/p>\n<p>[Enter CHORUS]<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>(Str. 1)<br \/>\nHa!\u00a0 Where is he?\u00a0 Look around!<br \/>\nEvery nook and corner scan!<br \/>\nHe the all-presumptuous man,<br \/>\nWhither vanished? search the ground!<br \/>\nA wayfarer, I ween,<br \/>\nA wayfarer, no countryman of ours,<br \/>\nThat old man must have been;<br \/>\nNever had native dared to tempt the Powers,<br \/>\nOr enter their demesne,<br \/>\nThe Maids in awe of whom each mortal cowers,<br \/>\nWhose name no voice betrays nor cry,<br \/>\nAnd as we pass them with averted eye,<br \/>\nWe move hushed lips in reverent piety.<br \/>\nBut now some godless man,<br \/>\n&#8216;Tis rumored, here abides;<br \/>\nThe precincts through I scan,<br \/>\nYet wot not where he hides,<br \/>\nThe wretch profane!<br \/>\nI search and search in vain.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>I am that man; I know you near<br \/>\nEars to the blind, they say, are eyes.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>O dread to see and dread to hear!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Oh sirs, I am no outlaw under ban.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Who can he be\u2014Zeus save us!\u2014this old man?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>No favorite of fate,<br \/>\nThat ye should envy his estate,<br \/>\nO, Sirs, would any happy mortal, say,<br \/>\nGrope by the light of other eyes his way,<br \/>\nOr face the storm upon so frail a stay?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>(Ant. 1)<br \/>\nWast thou then sightless from thy birth?<br \/>\nEvil, methinks, and long<br \/>\nThy pilgrimage on earth.<br \/>\nYet add not curse to curse and wrong to wrong.<br \/>\nI warn thee, trespass not<br \/>\nWithin this hallowed spot,<br \/>\nLest thou shouldst find the silent grassy glade<br \/>\nWhere offerings are laid,<br \/>\nBowls of spring water mingled with sweet mead.<br \/>\nThou must not stay,<br \/>\nCome, come away,<br \/>\nTired wanderer, dost thou heed?<br \/>\n(We are far off, but sure our voice can reach.)<br \/>\nIf aught thou wouldst beseech,<br \/>\nSpeak where &#8217;tis right; till then refrain from speech.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Daughter, what counsel should we now pursue?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>We must obey and do as here they do.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Thy hand then!<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Here, O father, is my hand,<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>O Sirs, if I come forth at your command,<br \/>\nLet me not suffer for my confidence.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>(Str. 2)<br \/>\nAgainst thy will no man shall drive thee hence.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Shall I go further?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Aye.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>What further still?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Lead maiden, thou canst guide him where we will.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"The Greek text for the passages marked here and later in the text using ****** have been lost.\" id=\"return-footnote-23-1\" href=\"#footnote-23-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<br \/>\nFollow with blind steps, father, as I lead.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>In a strange land strange thou art;<br \/>\nTo her will incline thy heart;<br \/>\nHonor whatso&#8217;er the State<br \/>\nHonors, all she frowns on hate.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Guide me child, where we may range<br \/>\nSafe within the paths of right;<br \/>\nCounsel freely may exchange<br \/>\nNor with fate and fortune fight.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>(Ant. 2)<br \/>\nHalt!\u00a0 Go no further than that rocky floor.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Stay where I now am?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Yes, advance no more.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>May I sit down?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Move sideways towards the ledge,<br \/>\nAnd sit thee crouching on the scarped edge.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>This is my office, father, O incline\u2014<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Ah me! ah me!<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Thy steps to my steps, lean thine aged frame on mine.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Woe on my fate unblest!<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Wanderer, now thou art at rest,<br \/>\nTell me of thy birth and home,<br \/>\nFrom what far country art thou come,<br \/>\nLed on thy weary way, declare!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Strangers, I have no country.\u00a0 O forbear\u2014<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>What is it, old man, that thou wouldst conceal?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Forbear, nor urge me further to reveal\u2014<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Why this reluctance?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Dread my lineage.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Say!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>What must I answer, child, ah welladay!<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Say of what stock thou comest, what man&#8217;s son\u2014<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Ah me, my daughter, now we are undone!<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Speak, for thou standest on the slippery verge.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>I will; no plea for silence can I urge.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Will neither speak?\u00a0 Come, Sir, why dally thus!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Know&#8217;st one of Laius&#8217;\u2014<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Ha?\u00a0 Who!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Seed of Labdacus\u2014<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Oh Zeus!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>The hapless Oedipus.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Art he?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Whate&#8217;er I utter, have no fear of me.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Begone!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>O wretched me!<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Begone!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>O daughter, what will hap anon?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Forth from our borders speed ye both!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>How keep you then your troth?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Heaven&#8217;s justice never smites<br \/>\nHim who ill with ill requites.<br \/>\nBut if guile with guile contend,<br \/>\nBane, not blessing, is the end.<br \/>\nArise, begone and take thee hence straightway,<br \/>\nLest on our land a heavier curse thou lay.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>O sirs! ye suffered not my father blind,<br \/>\nAlbeit gracious and to ruth inclined,<br \/>\nKnowing the deeds he wrought, not innocent,<br \/>\nBut with no ill intent;<br \/>\nYet heed a maiden&#8217;s moan<br \/>\nWho pleads for him alone;<br \/>\nMy eyes, not reft of sight,<br \/>\nPlead with you as a daughter&#8217;s might<br \/>\nYou are our providence,<br \/>\nO make us not go hence!<br \/>\nO with a gracious nod<br \/>\nGrant us the nigh despaired-of boon we crave?<br \/>\nHear us, O hear,<br \/>\nBut all that ye hold dear,<br \/>\nWife, children, homestead, hearth and God!<br \/>\nWhere will you find one, search ye ne&#8217;er so well.<br \/>\nWho &#8216;scapes perdition if a god impel!<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Surely we pity thee and him alike<br \/>\nDaughter of Oedipus, for your distress;<br \/>\nBut as we reverence the decrees of Heaven<br \/>\nWe cannot say aught other than we said.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>O what avails renown or fair repute?<br \/>\nAre they not vanity?\u00a0 For, look you, now<br \/>\nAthens is held of States the most devout,<br \/>\nAthens alone gives hospitality<br \/>\nAnd shelters the vexed stranger, so men say.<br \/>\nHave I found so?\u00a0 I whom ye dislodged<br \/>\nFirst from my seat of rock and now would drive<br \/>\nForth from your land, dreading my name alone;<br \/>\nFor me you surely dread not, nor my deeds,<br \/>\nDeeds of a man more sinned against than sinning,<br \/>\nAs I might well convince you, were it meet<br \/>\nTo tell my mother&#8217;s story and my sire&#8217;s,<br \/>\nThe cause of this your fear.\u00a0 Yet am I then<br \/>\nA villain born because in self-defense,<br \/>\nStriken, I struck the striker back again?<br \/>\nE&#8217;en had I known, no villainy &#8216;twould prove:<br \/>\nBut all unwitting whither I went, I went\u2014<br \/>\nTo ruin; my destroyers knew it well,<br \/>\nWherefore, I pray you, sirs, in Heaven&#8217;s name,<br \/>\nEven as ye bade me quit my seat, defend me.<br \/>\nO pay not a lip service to the gods<br \/>\nAnd wrong them of their dues.\u00a0 Bethink ye well,<br \/>\nThe eye of Heaven beholds the just of men,<br \/>\nAnd the unjust, nor ever in this world<br \/>\nHas one sole godless sinner found escape.<br \/>\nStand then on Heaven&#8217;s side and never blot<br \/>\nAthens&#8217; fair scutcheon by abetting wrong.<br \/>\nI came to you a suppliant, and you pledged<br \/>\nYour honor; O preserve me to the end,<br \/>\nO let not this marred visage do me wrong!<br \/>\nA holy and god-fearing man is here<br \/>\nWhose coming purports comfort for your folk.<br \/>\nAnd when your chief arrives, whoe&#8217;er he be,<br \/>\nThen shall ye have my story and know all.<br \/>\nMeanwhile I pray you do me no despite.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>The plea thou urgest, needs must give us pause,<br \/>\nSet forth in weighty argument, but we<br \/>\nMust leave the issue with the ruling powers.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Where is he, strangers, he who sways the realm?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>In his ancestral seat; a messenger,<br \/>\nThe same who sent us here, is gone for him.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>And think you he will have such care or thought<br \/>\nFor the blind stranger as to come himself?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Aye, that he will, when once he learns thy name.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>But who will bear him word!<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>The way is long,<br \/>\nAnd many travelers pass to speed the news.<br \/>\nBe sure he&#8217;ll hear and hasten, never fear;<br \/>\nSo wide and far thy name is noised abroad,<br \/>\nThat, were he ne&#8217;er so spent and loth to move,<br \/>\nHe would bestir him when he hears of thee.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Well, may he come with blessing to his State<br \/>\nAnd me!\u00a0 Who serves his neighbor serves himself. <a class=\"footnote\" title=\"To avoid the blessing, still a secret, he resorts to a commonplace; literally, &quot;For what generous man is not (in befriending others) a friend to himself?&quot;\" id=\"return-footnote-23-2\" href=\"#footnote-23-2\" aria-label=\"Footnote 2\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Zeus!\u00a0 What is this?\u00a0 What can I say or think?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>What now, Antigone?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>I see a woman<br \/>\nRiding upon a colt of Aetna&#8217;s breed;<br \/>\nShe wears for headgear a Thessalian hat<br \/>\nTo shade her from the sun.\u00a0 Who can it be?<br \/>\nShe or a stranger?\u00a0 Do I wake or dream?<br \/>\n&#8216;This she; &#8217;tis not\u2014I cannot tell, alack;<br \/>\nIt is no other!\u00a0 Now her bright&#8217;ning glance<br \/>\nGreets me with recognition, yes, &#8217;tis she,<br \/>\nHerself, Ismene!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Ha! what say ye, child?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>That I behold thy daughter and my sister,<br \/>\nAnd thou wilt know her straightway by her voice.<\/p>\n<p>[Enter ISMENE]<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Father and sister, names to me most sweet,<br \/>\nHow hardly have I found you, hardly now<br \/>\nWhen found at last can see you through my tears!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Art come, my child?<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>O father, sad thy plight!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Child, thou art here?<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Yes, &#8217;twas a weary way.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Touch me, my child.<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>I give a hand to both.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>O children\u2014sisters!<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>O disastrous plight!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Her plight and mine?<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Aye, and my own no less.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>What brought thee, daughter?<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Father, care for thee.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>A daughter&#8217;s yearning?<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Yes, and I had news<br \/>\nI would myself deliver, so I came<br \/>\nWith the one thrall who yet is true to me.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Thy valiant brothers, where are they at need?<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>They are\u2014enough, &#8217;tis now their darkest hour.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Out on the twain!\u00a0 The thoughts and actions all<br \/>\nAre framed and modeled on Egyptian ways.<br \/>\nFor there the men sit at the loom indoors<br \/>\nWhile the wives slave abroad for daily bread.<br \/>\nSo you, my children\u2014those whom I behooved<br \/>\nTo bear the burden, stay at home like girls,<br \/>\nWhile in their stead my daughters moil and drudge,<br \/>\nLightening their father&#8217;s misery.\u00a0 The one<br \/>\nSince first she grew from girlish feebleness<br \/>\nTo womanhood has been the old man&#8217;s guide<br \/>\nAnd shared my weary wandering, roaming oft<br \/>\nHungry and footsore through wild forest ways,<br \/>\nIn drenching rains and under scorching suns,<br \/>\nCareless herself of home and ease, if so<br \/>\nHer sire might have her tender ministry.<br \/>\nAnd thou, my child, whilom thou wentest forth,<br \/>\nEluding the Cadmeians&#8217; vigilance,<br \/>\nTo bring thy father all the oracles<br \/>\nConcerning Oedipus, and didst make thyself<br \/>\nMy faithful lieger, when they banished me.<br \/>\nAnd now what mission summons thee from home,<br \/>\nWhat news, Ismene, hast thou for thy father?<br \/>\nThis much I know, thou com&#8217;st not empty-handed,<br \/>\nWithout a warning of some new alarm.<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>The toil and trouble, father, that I bore<br \/>\nTo find thy lodging-place and how thou faredst,<br \/>\nI spare thee; surely &#8217;twere a double pain<br \/>\nTo suffer, first in act and then in telling;<br \/>\n&#8216;Tis the misfortune of thine ill-starred sons<br \/>\nI come to tell thee.\u00a0 At the first they willed<br \/>\nTo leave the throne to Creon, minded well<br \/>\nThus to remove the inveterate curse of old,<br \/>\nA canker that infected all thy race.<br \/>\nBut now some god and an infatuate soul<br \/>\nHave stirred betwixt them a mad rivalry<br \/>\nTo grasp at sovereignty and kingly power.<br \/>\nToday the hot-branded youth, the younger born,<br \/>\nIs keeping Polyneices from the throne,<br \/>\nHis elder, and has thrust him from the land.<br \/>\nThe banished brother (so all Thebes reports)<br \/>\nFled to the vale of Argos, and by help<br \/>\nOf new alliance there and friends in arms,<br \/>\nSwears he will stablish Argos straight as lord<br \/>\nOf the Cadmeian land, or, if he fail,<br \/>\nExalt the victor to the stars of heaven.<br \/>\nThis is no empty tale, but deadly truth,<br \/>\nMy father; and how long thy agony,<br \/>\nEre the gods pity thee, I cannot tell.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Hast thou indeed then entertained a hope<br \/>\nThe gods at last will turn and rescue me?<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Yea, so I read these latest oracles.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>What oracles?\u00a0 What hath been uttered, child?<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Thy country (so it runs) shall yearn in time<br \/>\nTo have thee for their weal alive or dead.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>And who could gain by such a one as I?<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>On thee, &#8217;tis said, their sovereignty depends.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>So, when I cease to be, my worth begins.<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>The gods, who once abased, uplift thee now.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Poor help to raise an old man fallen in youth.<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Howe&#8217;er that be, &#8217;tis for this cause alone<br \/>\nThat Creon comes to thee\u2014and comes anon.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>With what intent, my daughter?\u00a0 Tell me plainly.<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>To plant thee near the Theban land, and so<br \/>\nKeep thee within their grasp, yet now allow<br \/>\nThy foot to pass beyond their boundaries.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>What gain they, if I lay outside?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Thy tomb,<br \/>\nIf disappointed, brings on them a curse.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>It needs no god to tell what&#8217;s plain to sense.<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Therefore they fain would have thee close at hand,<br \/>\nNot where thou wouldst be master of thyself.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Mean they to shroud my bones in Theban dust?<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Nay, father, guilt of kinsman&#8217;s blood forbids.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Then never shall they be my masters, never!<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Thebes, thou shalt rue this bitterly some day!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>When what conjunction comes to pass, my child?<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Thy angry wraith, when at thy tomb they stand. <a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Creon desires to bury Oedipus on the confines of Thebes so as to avoid the pollution and yet offer due rites at his tomb. Ismene tells him of the latest oracle and interprets to him its purport, that some day the Theban invaders of Athens will be routed in a battle near the grave of Oedipus.\" id=\"return-footnote-23-3\" href=\"#footnote-23-3\" aria-label=\"Footnote 3\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[3]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>And who hath told thee what thou tell&#8217;st me, child?<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Envoys who visited the Delphic hearth.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Hath Phoebus spoken thus concerning me?<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>So say the envoys who returned to Thebes.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>And can a son of mine have heard of this?<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Yea, both alike, and know its import well.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>They knew it, yet the ignoble greed of rule<br \/>\nOutweighed all longing for their sire&#8217;s return.<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Grievous thy words, yet I must own them true.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Then may the gods ne&#8217;er quench their fatal feud,<br \/>\nAnd mine be the arbitrament of the fight,<br \/>\nFor which they now are arming, spear to spear;<br \/>\nThat neither he who holds the scepter now<br \/>\nMay keep this throne, nor he who fled the realm<br \/>\nReturn again.\u00a0 <i>They<\/i> never raised a hand,<br \/>\nWhen I their sire was thrust from hearth and home,<br \/>\nWhen I was banned and banished, what recked they?<br \/>\nSay you &#8217;twas done at my desire, a grace<br \/>\nWhich the state, yielding to my wish, allowed?<br \/>\nNot so; for, mark you, on that very day<br \/>\nWhen in the tempest of my soul I craved<br \/>\nDeath, even death by stoning, none appeared<br \/>\nTo further that wild longing, but anon,<br \/>\nWhen time had numbed my anguish and I felt<br \/>\nMy wrath had all outrun those errors past,<br \/>\nThen, then it was the city went about<br \/>\nBy force to oust me, respited for years;<br \/>\nAnd then my sons, who should as sons have helped,<br \/>\nDid nothing: and, one little word from them<br \/>\nWas all I needed, and they spoke no word,<br \/>\nBut let me wander on for evermore,<br \/>\nA banished man, a beggar.\u00a0 These two maids<br \/>\nTheir sisters, girls, gave all their sex could give,<br \/>\nFood and safe harborage and filial care;<br \/>\nWhile their two brethren sacrificed their sire<br \/>\nFor lust of power and sceptred sovereignty.<br \/>\nNo! me they ne&#8217;er shall win for an ally,<br \/>\nNor will this Theban kingship bring them gain;<br \/>\nThat know I from this maiden&#8217;s oracles,<br \/>\nAnd those old prophecies concerning me,<br \/>\nWhich Phoebus now at length has brought to pass.<br \/>\nCome Creon then, come all the mightiest<br \/>\nIn Thebes to seek me; for if ye my friends,<br \/>\nChampioned by those dread Powers indigenous,<br \/>\nEspouse my cause; then for the State ye gain<br \/>\nA great deliverer, for my foemen bane.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Our pity, Oedipus, thou needs must move,<br \/>\nThou and these maidens; and the stronger plea<br \/>\nThou urgest, as the savior of our land,<br \/>\nDisposes me to counsel for thy weal.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Aid me, kind sirs; I will do all you bid.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>First make atonement to the deities,<br \/>\nWhose grove by trespass thou didst first profane.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>After what manner, stranger?\u00a0 Teach me, pray.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Make a libation first of water fetched<br \/>\nWith undefiled hands from living spring.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>And after I have gotten this pure draught?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Bowls thou wilt find, the carver&#8217;s handiwork;<br \/>\nCrown thou the rims and both the handles crown\u2014<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>With olive shoots or blocks of wool, or how?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>With wool from fleece of yearling freshly shorn.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>What next? how must I end the ritual?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Pour thy libation, turning to the dawn.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Pouring it from the urns whereof ye spake?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Yea, in three streams; and be the last bowl drained<br \/>\nTo the last drop.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>And wherewith shall I fill it,<br \/>\nEre in its place I set it?\u00a0 This too tell.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>With water and with honey; add no wine.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>And when the embowered earth hath drunk thereof?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Then lay upon it thrice nine olive sprays<br \/>\nWith both thy hands, and offer up this prayer.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>I fain would hear it; that imports the most.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>That, as we call them Gracious, they would deign<br \/>\nTo grant the suppliant their saving grace.<br \/>\nSo pray thyself or whoso pray for thee,<br \/>\nIn whispered accents, not with lifted voice;<br \/>\nThen go and look back.\u00a0 Do as I bid,<br \/>\nAnd I shall then be bold to stand thy friend;<br \/>\nElse, stranger, I should have my fears for thee.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Hear ye, my daughters, what these strangers say?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>We listened, and attend thy bidding, father.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>I cannot go, disabled as I am<br \/>\nDoubly, by lack of strength and lack of sight;<br \/>\nBut one of you may do it in my stead;<br \/>\nFor one, I trow, may pay the sacrifice<br \/>\nOf thousands, if his heart be leal and true.<br \/>\nSo to your work with speed, but leave me not<br \/>\nUntended; for this frame is all too week<br \/>\nTo move without the help of guiding hand.<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Then I will go perform these rites, but where<br \/>\nTo find the spot, this have I yet to learn.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Beyond this grove; if thou hast need of aught,<br \/>\nThe guardian of the close will lend his aid.<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>I go, and thou, Antigone, meanwhile<br \/>\nMust guard our father.\u00a0 In a parent&#8217;s cause<br \/>\nToil, if there be toil, is of no account.<\/p>\n<p>[Exit ISMENE]<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>(Str. 1)<br \/>\nIll it is, stranger, to awake<br \/>\nPain that long since has ceased to ache,<br \/>\nAnd yet I fain would hear\u2014<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>What thing?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Thy tale of cruel suffering<br \/>\nFor which no cure was found,<br \/>\nThe fate that held thee bound.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>O bid me not (as guest I claim<br \/>\nThis grace) expose my shame.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>The tale is bruited far and near,<br \/>\nAnd echoes still from ear to ear.<br \/>\nThe truth, I fain would hear.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Ah me!<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>I prithee yield.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Ah me!<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Grant my request, I granted all to thee.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>(Ant. 1)<br \/>\nKnow then I suffered ills most vile, but none<br \/>\n(So help me Heaven!) from acts in malice done.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Say how.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>The State around<br \/>\nAn all unwitting bridegroom bound<br \/>\nAn impious marriage chain;<br \/>\nThat was my bane.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Didst thou in sooth then share<br \/>\nA bed incestuous with her that bare\u2014<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>It stabs me like a sword,<br \/>\nThat two-edged word,<br \/>\nO stranger, but these maids\u2014my own\u2014<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Say on.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Two daughters, curses twain.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Oh God!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Sprang from the wife and mother&#8217;s travail-pain.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>(Str. 2)<br \/>\nWhat, then thy offspring are at once\u2014<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Too true.<br \/>\nTheir father&#8217;s very sister&#8217;s too.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Oh horror!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Horrors from the boundless deep<br \/>\nBack on my soul in refluent surges sweep.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Thou hast endured\u2014<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Intolerable woe.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>And sinned\u2014<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>I sinned not.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>How so?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>I served the State; would I had never won<br \/>\nThat graceless grace by which I was undone.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>(Ant. 2)<br \/>\nAnd next, unhappy man, thou hast shed blood?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Must ye hear more?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>A father&#8217;s?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Flood on flood<br \/>\nWhelms me; that word&#8217;s a second mortal blow.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Murderer!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Yes, a murderer, but know\u2014<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>What canst thou plead?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>A plea of justice.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>How?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>I slew who else would me have slain;<br \/>\nI slew without intent,<br \/>\nA wretch, but innocent<br \/>\nIn the law&#8217;s eye, I stand, without a stain.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Behold our sovereign, Theseus, Aegeus&#8217; son,<br \/>\nComes at thy summons to perform his part.<\/p>\n<p>[Enter THESEUS]<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Oft had I heard of thee in times gone by\u2014<br \/>\nThe bloody mutilation of thine eyes\u2014<br \/>\nAnd therefore know thee, son of Laius.<br \/>\nAll that I lately gathered on the way<br \/>\nMade my conjecture doubly sure; and now<br \/>\nThy garb and that marred visage prove to me<br \/>\nThat thou art he.\u00a0 So pitying thine estate,<br \/>\nMost ill-starred Oedipus, I fain would know<br \/>\nWhat is the suit ye urge on me and Athens,<br \/>\nThou and the helpless maiden at thy side.<br \/>\nDeclare it; dire indeed must be the tale<br \/>\nWhereat <i>I<\/i> should recoil.\u00a0 I too was reared,<br \/>\nLike thee, in exile, and in foreign lands<br \/>\nWrestled with many perils, no man more.<br \/>\nWherefore no alien in adversity<br \/>\nShall seek in vain my succor, nor shalt thou;<br \/>\nI know myself a mortal, and my share<br \/>\nIn what the morrow brings no more than thine.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Theseus, thy words so apt, so generous<br \/>\nSo comfortable, need no long reply<br \/>\nBoth who I am and of what lineage sprung,<br \/>\nAnd from what land I came, thou hast declared.<br \/>\nSo without prologue I may utter now<br \/>\nMy brief petition, and the tale is told.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Say on, and tell me what I fain would learn.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>I come to offer thee this woe-worn frame,<br \/>\nA gift not fair to look on; yet its worth<br \/>\nMore precious far than any outward show.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>What profit dost thou proffer to have brought?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Hereafter thou shalt learn, not yet, methinks.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>When may we hope to reap the benefit?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>When I am dead and thou hast buried me.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Thou cravest life&#8217;s last service; all before\u2014<br \/>\nIs it forgotten or of no account?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Yea, the last boon is warrant for the rest.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>The grace thou cravest then is small indeed.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Nay, weigh it well; the issue is not slight.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Thou meanest that betwixt thy sons and me?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Prince, they would fain convey me back to Thebes.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>If there be no compulsion, then methinks<br \/>\nTo rest in banishment befits not thee.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Nay, when <i>I<\/i> wished it <i>they<\/i> would not consent.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>For shame! such temper misbecomes the faller.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Chide if thou wilt, but first attend my plea.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Say on, I wait full knowledge ere I judge.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>O Theseus, I have suffered wrongs on wrongs.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Wouldst tell the old misfortune of thy race?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>No, that has grown a byword throughout Greece.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>What then can be this more than mortal grief?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>My case stands thus; by my own flesh and blood<br \/>\nI was expelled my country, and can ne&#8217;er<br \/>\nThither return again, a parricide.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Why fetch thee home if thou must needs obey.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>What are they threatened by the oracle?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Destruction that awaits them in this land.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>What can beget ill blood &#8216;twixt them and me?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Dear son of Aegeus, to the gods alone<br \/>\nIs given immunity from eld and death;<br \/>\nBut nothing else escapes all-ruinous time.<br \/>\nEarth&#8217;s might decays, the might of men decays,<br \/>\nHonor grows cold, dishonor flourishes,<br \/>\nThere is no constancy &#8216;twixt friend and friend,<br \/>\nOr city and city; be it soon or late,<br \/>\nSweet turns to bitter, hate once more to love.<br \/>\nIf now &#8217;tis sunshine betwixt Thebes and thee<br \/>\nAnd not a cloud, Time in his endless course<br \/>\nGives birth to endless days and nights, wherein<br \/>\nThe merest nothing shall suffice to cut<br \/>\nWith serried spears your bonds of amity.<br \/>\nThen shall my slumbering and buried corpse<br \/>\nIn its cold grave drink their warm life-blood up,<br \/>\nIf Zeus be Zeus and Phoebus still speak true.<br \/>\nNo more:\u00a0 &#8217;tis ill to tear aside the veil<br \/>\nOf mysteries; let me cease as I began:<br \/>\nEnough if thou wilt keep thy plighted troth,<br \/>\nThen shall thou ne&#8217;er complain that Oedipus<br \/>\nProved an unprofitable and thankless guest,<br \/>\nExcept the gods themselves shall play me false.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>The man, my lord, has from the very first<br \/>\nDeclared his power to offer to our land<br \/>\nThese and like benefits.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Who could reject<br \/>\nThe proffered amity of such a friend?<br \/>\nFirst, he can claim the hospitality<br \/>\nTo which by mutual contract we stand pledged:<br \/>\nNext, coming here, a suppliant to the gods,<br \/>\nHe pays full tribute to the State and me;<br \/>\nHis favors therefore never will I spurn,<br \/>\nBut grant him the full rights of citizen;<br \/>\nAnd, if it suits the stranger here to bide,<br \/>\nI place him in your charge, or if he please<br \/>\nRather to come with me\u2014choose, Oedipus,<br \/>\nWhich of the two thou wilt.\u00a0 Thy choice is mine.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Zeus, may the blessing fall on men like these!<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>What dost thou then decide\u2014to come with me?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Yea, were it lawful\u2014but &#8217;tis rather here\u2014<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>What wouldst thou here?\u00a0 I shall not thwart thy wish.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Here shall I vanquish those who cast me forth.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Then were thy presence here a boon indeed.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Such shall it prove, if thou fulfill&#8217;st thy pledge.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Fear not for me; I shall not play thee false.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>No need to back thy promise with an oath.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>An oath would be no surer than my word.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>How wilt thou act then?<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>What is it thou fear&#8217;st?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>My foes will come\u2014<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Our friends will look to that.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>But if thou leave me?<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Teach me not my duty.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Tis fear constrains me.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p><i>My<\/i> soul knows no fear!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Thou knowest not what threats\u2014<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>I know that none<br \/>\nShall hale thee hence in my despite.\u00a0 Such threats<br \/>\nVented in anger oft, are blusterers,<br \/>\nAn idle breath, forgot when sense returns.<br \/>\nAnd for thy foemen, though their words were brave,<br \/>\nBoasting to bring thee back, they are like to find<br \/>\nThe seas between us wide and hard to sail.<br \/>\nSuch my firm purpose, but in any case<br \/>\nTake heart, since Phoebus sent thee here.\u00a0 My name,<br \/>\nThough I be distant, warrants thee from harm.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>(Str. 1)<br \/>\nThou hast come to a steed-famed land for rest,<br \/>\nO stranger worn with toil,<br \/>\nTo a land of all lands the goodliest<br \/>\nColonus&#8217; glistening soil.<br \/>\n&#8216;Tis the haunt of the clear-voiced nightingale,<br \/>\nWho hid in her bower, among<br \/>\nThe wine-dark ivy that wreathes the vale,<br \/>\nTrilleth her ceaseless song;<br \/>\nAnd she loves, where the clustering berries nod<br \/>\nO&#8217;er a sunless, windless glade,<br \/>\nThe spot by no mortal footstep trod,<br \/>\nThe pleasance kept for the Bacchic god,<br \/>\nWhere he holds each night his revels wild<br \/>\nWith the nymphs who fostered the lusty child.<\/p>\n<p>(Ant. 1)<br \/>\nAnd fed each morn by the pearly dew<br \/>\nThe starred narcissi shine,<br \/>\nAnd a wreath with the crocus&#8217; golden hue<br \/>\nFor the Mother and Daughter twine.<br \/>\nAnd never the sleepless fountains cease<br \/>\nThat feed Cephisus&#8217; stream,<br \/>\nBut they swell earth&#8217;s bosom with quick increase,<br \/>\nAnd their wave hath a crystal gleam.<br \/>\nAnd the Muses&#8217; quire will never disdain<br \/>\nTo visit this heaven-favored plain,<br \/>\nNor the Cyprian queen of the golden rein.<\/p>\n<p>(Str. 2)<br \/>\nAnd here there grows, unpruned, untamed,<br \/>\nTerror to foemen&#8217;s spear,<br \/>\nA tree in Asian soil unnamed,<br \/>\nBy Pelops&#8217; Dorian isle unclaimed,<br \/>\nSelf-nurtured year by year;<br \/>\n&#8216;Tis the grey-leaved olive that feeds our boys;<br \/>\nNor youth nor withering age destroys<br \/>\nThe plant that the Olive Planter tends<br \/>\nAnd the Grey-eyed Goddess herself defends.<\/p>\n<p>(Ant. 2)<br \/>\nYet another gift, of all gifts the most<br \/>\nPrized by our fatherland, we boast\u2014<br \/>\nThe might of the horse, the might of the sea;<br \/>\nOur fame, Poseidon, we owe to thee,<br \/>\nSon of Kronos, our king divine,<br \/>\nWho in these highways first didst fit<br \/>\nFor the mouth of horses the iron bit;<br \/>\nThou too hast taught us to fashion meet<br \/>\nFor the arm of the rower the oar-blade fleet,<br \/>\nSwift as the Nereids&#8217; hundred feet<br \/>\nAs they dance along the brine.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Oh land extolled above all lands, &#8217;tis now<br \/>\nFor thee to make these glorious titles good.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Why this appeal, my daughter?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Father, lo!<br \/>\nCreon approaches with his company.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Fear not, it shall be so; if we are old,<br \/>\nThis country&#8217;s vigor has no touch of age.<\/p>\n<p>[Enter CREON with attendants]<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Burghers, my noble friends, ye take alarm<br \/>\nAt my approach (I read it in your eyes),<br \/>\nFear nothing and refrain from angry words.<br \/>\nI come with no ill purpose; I am old,<br \/>\nAnd know the city whither I am come,<br \/>\nWithout a peer amongst the powers of Greece.<br \/>\nIt was by reason of my years that I<br \/>\nWas chosen to persuade your guest and bring<br \/>\nHim back to Thebes; not the delegate<br \/>\nOf one man, but commissioned by the State,<br \/>\nSince of all Thebans I have most bewailed,<br \/>\nBeing his kinsman, his most grievous woes.<br \/>\nO listen to me, luckless Oedipus,<br \/>\nCome home!\u00a0 The whole Cadmeian people claim<br \/>\nWith right to have thee back, I most of all,<br \/>\nFor most of all (else were I vile indeed)<br \/>\nI mourn for thy misfortunes, seeing thee<br \/>\nAn aged outcast, wandering on and on,<br \/>\nA beggar with one handmaid for thy stay.<br \/>\nAh! who had e&#8217;er imagined she could fall<br \/>\nTo such a depth of misery as this,<br \/>\nTo tend in penury thy stricken frame,<br \/>\nA virgin ripe for wedlock, but unwed,<br \/>\nA prey for any wanton ravisher?<br \/>\nSeems it not cruel this reproach I cast<br \/>\nOn thee and on myself and all the race?<br \/>\nAye, but an open shame cannot be hid.<br \/>\nHide it, O hide it, Oedipus, thou canst.<br \/>\nO, by our fathers&#8217; gods, consent I pray;<br \/>\nCome back to Thebes, come to thy father&#8217;s home,<br \/>\nBid Athens, as is meet, a fond farewell;<br \/>\nThebes thy old foster-mother claims thee first.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>O front of brass, thy subtle tongue would twist<br \/>\nTo thy advantage every plea of right<br \/>\nWhy try thy arts on me, why spread again<br \/>\nToils where &#8216;twould gall me sorest to be snared?<br \/>\nIn old days when by self-wrought woes distraught,<br \/>\nI yearned for exile as a glad release,<br \/>\nThy will refused the favor then I craved.<br \/>\nBut when my frenzied grief had spent its force,<br \/>\nAnd I was fain to taste the sweets of home,<br \/>\nThen thou wouldst thrust me from my country, then<br \/>\nThese ties of kindred were by thee ignored;<br \/>\nAnd now again when thou behold&#8217;st this State<br \/>\nAnd all its kindly people welcome me,<br \/>\nThou seek&#8217;st to part us, wrapping in soft words<br \/>\nHard thoughts.\u00a0 And yet what pleasure canst thou find<br \/>\nIn forcing friendship on unwilling foes?<br \/>\nSuppose a man refused to grant some boon<br \/>\nWhen you importuned him, and afterwards<br \/>\nWhen you had got your heart&#8217;s desire, consented,<br \/>\nGranting a grace from which all grace had fled,<br \/>\nWould not such favor seem an empty boon?<br \/>\nYet such the boon thou profferest now to me,<br \/>\nFair in appearance, but when tested false.<br \/>\nYea, I will proved thee false, that these may hear;<br \/>\nThou art come to take me, not to take me home,<br \/>\nBut plant me on thy borders, that thy State<br \/>\nMay so escape annoyance from this land.<br \/>\n<i>That<\/i> thou shalt never gain, but <i>this<\/i> instead\u2014<br \/>\nMy ghost to haunt thy country without end;<br \/>\nAnd for my sons, this heritage\u2014no more\u2014<br \/>\nJust room to die in.\u00a0 Have not I more skill<br \/>\nThan thou to draw the horoscope of Thebes?<br \/>\nAre not my teachers surer guides than thine\u2014<br \/>\nGreat Phoebus and the sire of Phoebus, Zeus?<br \/>\nThou art a messenger suborned, thy tongue<br \/>\nIs sharper than a sword&#8217;s edge, yet thy speech<br \/>\nWill bring thee more defeats than victories.<br \/>\nHowbeit, I know I waste my words\u2014begone,<br \/>\nAnd leave me here; whate&#8217;er may be my lot,<br \/>\nHe lives not ill who lives withal content.<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Which loses in this parley, I o&#8217;erthrown<br \/>\nBy thee, or thou who overthrow&#8217;st thyself?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>I shall be well contented if thy suit<br \/>\nFails with these strangers, as it has with me.<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Unhappy man, will years ne&#8217;er make thee wise?<br \/>\nMust thou live on to cast a slur on age?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Thou hast a glib tongue, but no honest man,<br \/>\nMethinks, can argue well on any side.<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Tis one thing to speak much, another well.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Thy words, forsooth, are few and all well aimed!<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Not for a man indeed with wits like thine.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Depart!\u00a0 I bid thee in these burghers&#8217; name,<br \/>\nAnd prowl no longer round me to blockade<br \/>\nMy destined harbor.<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>I protest to these,<br \/>\nNot thee, and for thine answer to thy kin,<br \/>\nIf e&#8217;er I take thee\u2014<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Who against their will<br \/>\nCould take me?<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Though untaken thou shalt smart.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>What power hast thou to execute this threat?<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>One of thy daughters is already seized,<br \/>\nThe other I will carry off anon.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Woe, woe!<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>This is but prelude to thy woes.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Hast thou my child?<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>And soon shall have the other.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Ho, friends! ye will not surely play me false?<br \/>\nChase this ungodly villain from your land.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Hence, stranger, hence avaunt!\u00a0 Thou doest wrong<br \/>\nIn this, and wrong in all that thou hast done.<\/p>\n<p>CREON (to his guards)<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Tis time by force to carry off the girl,<br \/>\nIf she refuse of her free will to go.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Ah, woe is me! where shall I fly, where find<br \/>\nSuccor from gods or men?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>What would&#8217;st thou, stranger?<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>I meddle not with him, but her who is mine.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>O princes of the land!<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Sir, thou dost wrong.<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Nay, right.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>How right?<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>I take but what is mine.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Help, Athens!<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>What means this, sirrah? quick unhand her, or<br \/>\nWe&#8217;ll fight it out.<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Back!<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Not till thou forbear.<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Tis war with Thebes if I am touched or harmed.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Did I not warn thee?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Quick, unhand the maid!<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Command your minions; I am not your slave.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Desist, I bid thee.<\/p>\n<p>CREON (to the guard)<\/p>\n<p>And O bid thee march!<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>To the rescue, one and all!<br \/>\nRally, neighbors to my call!<br \/>\nSee, the foe is at the gate!<br \/>\nRally to defend the State.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Ah, woe is me, they drag me hence, O friends.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Where art thou, daughter?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Haled along by force.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Thy hands, my child!<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>They will not let me, father.<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Away with her!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Ah, woe is me, ah woe!<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>So those two crutches shall no longer serve thee<br \/>\nFor further roaming.\u00a0 Since it pleaseth thee<br \/>\nTo triumph o&#8217;er thy country and thy friends<br \/>\nWho mandate, though a prince, I here discharge,<br \/>\nEnjoy thy triumph; soon or late thou&#8217;lt find<br \/>\nThou art an enemy to thyself, both now<br \/>\nAnd in time past, when in despite of friends<br \/>\nThou gav&#8217;st the rein to passion, still thy bane.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Hold there, sir stranger!<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Hands off, have a care.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Restore the maidens, else thou goest not.<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Then Thebes will take a dearer surety soon;<br \/>\nI will lay hands on more than these two maids.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>What canst thou further?<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Carry off this man.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Brave words!<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>And deeds forthwith shall make them good.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Unless perchance our sovereign intervene.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>O shameless voice!\u00a0 Would&#8217;st lay an hand on me?<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Silence, I bid thee!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Goddesses, allow<br \/>\nThy suppliant to utter yet one curse!<br \/>\nWretch, now my eyes are gone thou hast torn away<br \/>\nThe helpless maiden who was eyes to me;<br \/>\nFor these to thee and all thy cursed race<br \/>\nMay the great Sun, whose eye is everywhere,<br \/>\nGrant length of days and old age like to mine.<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Listen, O men of Athens, mark ye this?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>They mark us both and understand that I<br \/>\nWronged by the deeds defend myself with words.<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Nothing shall curb my will; though I be old<br \/>\nAnd single-handed, I will have this man.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>O woe is me!<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Thou art a bold man, stranger, if thou think&#8217;st<br \/>\nTo execute thy purpose.<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>So I do.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Then shall I deem this State no more a State.<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>With a just quarrel weakness conquers might.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Ye hear his words?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Aye words, but not yet deeds,<br \/>\nZeus knoweth!<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Zeus may haply know, not thou.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Insolence!<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Insolence that thou must bear.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Haste ye princes, sound the alarm!<br \/>\nMen of Athens, arm ye, arm!<br \/>\nQuickly to the rescue come<br \/>\nEre the robbers get them home.<\/p>\n<p>[Enter THESEUS]<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Why this outcry?\u00a0 What is forward? wherefore was I called away<br \/>\nFrom the altar of Poseidon, lord of your Colonus?\u00a0 Say!<br \/>\nOn what errand have I hurried hither without stop or stay.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Dear friend\u2014those accents tell me who thou art\u2014<br \/>\nYon man but now hath done me a foul wrong.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>What is this wrong and who hath wrought it?\u00a0 Speak.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Creon who stands before thee.\u00a0 He it is<br \/>\nHath robbed me of my all, my daughters twain.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>What means this?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Thou hast heard my tale of wrongs.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Ho! hasten to the altars, one of you.<br \/>\nCommand my liegemen leave the sacrifice<br \/>\nAnd hurry, foot and horse, with rein unchecked,<br \/>\nTo where the paths that packmen use diverge,<br \/>\nLest the two maidens slip away, and I<br \/>\nBecome a mockery to this my guest,<br \/>\nAs one despoiled by force.\u00a0 Quick, as I bid.<br \/>\nAs for this stranger, had I let my rage,<br \/>\nJustly provoked, have play, he had not &#8216;scaped<br \/>\nScathless and uncorrected at my hands.<br \/>\nBut now the laws to which himself appealed,<br \/>\nThese and none others shall adjudicate.<br \/>\nThou shalt not quit this land, till thou hast fetched<br \/>\nThe maidens and produced them in my sight.<br \/>\nThou hast offended both against myself<br \/>\nAnd thine own race and country.\u00a0 Having come<br \/>\nUnto a State that champions right and asks<br \/>\nFor every action warranty of law,<br \/>\nThou hast set aside the custom of the land,<br \/>\nAnd like some freebooter art carrying off<br \/>\nWhat plunder pleases thee, as if forsooth<br \/>\nThou thoughtest this a city without men,<br \/>\nOr manned by slaves, and me a thing of naught.<br \/>\nYet not from Thebes this villainy was learnt;<br \/>\nThebes is not wont to breed unrighteous sons,<br \/>\nNor would she praise thee, if she learnt that thou<br \/>\nWert robbing me\u2014aye and the gods to boot,<br \/>\nHaling by force their suppliants, poor maids.<br \/>\nWere I on Theban soil, to prosecute<br \/>\nThe justest claim imaginable, I<br \/>\nWould never wrest by violence my own<br \/>\nWithout sanction of your State or King;<br \/>\nI should behave as fits an outlander<br \/>\nLiving amongst a foreign folk, but thou<br \/>\nShamest a city that deserves it not,<br \/>\nEven thine own, and plentitude of years<br \/>\nHave made of thee an old man and a fool.<br \/>\nTherefore again I charge thee as before,<br \/>\nSee that the maidens are restored at once,<br \/>\nUnless thou would&#8217;st continue here by force<br \/>\nAnd not by choice a sojourner; so much<br \/>\nI tell thee home and what I say, I mean.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Thy case is perilous; though by birth and race<br \/>\nThou should&#8217;st be just, thou plainly doest wrong.<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Not deeming this city void of men<br \/>\nOr counsel, son of Aegeus, as thou say&#8217;st<br \/>\nI did what I have done; rather I thought<br \/>\nYour people were not like to set such store<br \/>\nby kin of mine and keep them &#8216;gainst my will.<br \/>\nNor would they harbor, so I stood assured,<br \/>\nA godless parricide, a reprobate<br \/>\nConvicted of incestuous marriage ties.<br \/>\nFor on her native hill of Ares here<br \/>\n(I knew your far-famed Areopagus)<br \/>\nSits Justice, and permits not vagrant folk<br \/>\nTo stay within your borders.\u00a0 In that faith<br \/>\nI hunted down my quarry; and e&#8217;en then<br \/>\nI had refrained but for the curses dire<br \/>\nWherewith he banned my kinsfolk and myself:<br \/>\nSuch wrong, methought, had warrant for my act.<br \/>\nAnger has no old age but only death;<br \/>\nThe dead alone can feel no touch of spite.<br \/>\nSo thou must work thy will; my cause is just<br \/>\nBut weak without allies; yet will I try,<br \/>\nOld as I am, to answer deeds with deeds.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>O shameless railer, think&#8217;st thou this abuse<br \/>\nDefames my grey hairs rather than thine own?<br \/>\nMurder and incest, deeds of horror, all<br \/>\nThou blurtest forth against me, all I have borne,<br \/>\nNo willing sinner; so it pleased the gods<br \/>\nWrath haply with my sinful race of old,<br \/>\nSince thou could&#8217;st find no sin in me myself<br \/>\nFor which in retribution I was doomed<br \/>\nTo trespass thus against myself and mine.<br \/>\nAnswer me now, if by some oracle<br \/>\nMy sire was destined to a bloody end<br \/>\nBy a son&#8217;s hand, can this reflect on me,<br \/>\nMe then unborn, begotten by no sire,<br \/>\nConceived in no mother&#8217;s womb?\u00a0 And if<br \/>\nWhen born to misery, as born I was,<br \/>\nI met my sire, not knowing whom I met<br \/>\nor what I did, and slew him, how canst thou<br \/>\nWith justice blame the all-unconscious hand?<br \/>\nAnd for my mother, wretch, art not ashamed,<br \/>\nSeeing she was thy sister, to extort<br \/>\nFrom me the story of her marriage, such<br \/>\nA marriage as I straightway will proclaim.<br \/>\nFor I will speak; thy lewd and impious speech<br \/>\nHas broken all the bonds of reticence.<br \/>\nShe was, ah woe is me! she was my mother;<br \/>\nI knew it not, nor she; and she my mother<br \/>\nBare children to the son whom she had borne,<br \/>\nA birth of shame.\u00a0 But this at least I know<br \/>\nWittingly thou aspersest her and me;<br \/>\nBut I unwitting wed, unwilling speak.<br \/>\nNay neither in this marriage or this deed<br \/>\nWhich thou art ever casting in my teeth\u2014<br \/>\nA murdered sire\u2014shall I be held to blame.<br \/>\nCome, answer me one question, if thou canst:<br \/>\nIf one should presently attempt thy life,<br \/>\nWould&#8217;st thou, O man of justice, first inquire<br \/>\nIf the assassin was perchance thy sire,<br \/>\nOr turn upon him?\u00a0 As thou lov&#8217;st thy life,<br \/>\nOn thy aggressor thou would&#8217;st turn, no stay<br \/>\nDebating, if the law would bear thee out.<br \/>\nSuch was my case, and such the pass whereto<br \/>\nThe gods reduced me; and methinks my sire,<br \/>\nCould he come back to life, would not dissent.<br \/>\nYet thou, for just thou art not, but a man<br \/>\nWho sticks at nothing, if it serve his plea,<br \/>\nReproachest me with this before these men.<br \/>\nIt serves thy turn to laud great Theseus&#8217; name,<br \/>\nAnd Athens as a wisely governed State;<br \/>\nYet in thy flatteries one thing is to seek:<br \/>\nIf any land knows how to pay the gods<br \/>\nTheir proper rites, &#8217;tis Athens most of all.<br \/>\nThis is the land whence thou wast fain to steal<br \/>\nTheir aged suppliant and hast carried off<br \/>\nMy daughters.\u00a0 Therefore to yon goddesses,<br \/>\nI turn, adjure them and invoke their aid<br \/>\nTo champion my cause, that thou mayest learn<br \/>\nWhat is the breed of men who guard this State.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>An honest man, my liege, one sore bestead<br \/>\nBy fortune, and so worthy our support.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Enough of words; the captors speed amain,<br \/>\nWhile we the victims stand debating here.<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>What would&#8217;st thou?\u00a0 What can I, a feeble man?<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Show us the trail, and I&#8217;ll attend thee too,<br \/>\nThat, if thou hast the maidens hereabouts,<br \/>\nThou mayest thyself discover them to me;<br \/>\nBut if thy guards outstrip us with their spoil,<br \/>\nWe may draw rein; for others speed, from whom<br \/>\nThey will not &#8216;scape to thank the gods at home.<br \/>\nLead on, I say, the captor&#8217;s caught, and fate<br \/>\nHath ta&#8217;en the fowler in the toils he spread;<br \/>\nSo soon are lost gains gotten by deceit.<br \/>\nAnd look not for allies; I know indeed<br \/>\nSuch height of insolence was never reached<br \/>\nWithout abettors or accomplices;<br \/>\nThou hast some backer in thy bold essay,<br \/>\nBut I will search this matter home and see<br \/>\nOne man doth not prevail against the State.<br \/>\nDost take my drift, or seem these words as vain<br \/>\nAs seemed our warnings when the plot was hatched?<\/p>\n<p>CREON<\/p>\n<p>Nothing thou sayest can I here dispute,<br \/>\nBut once at home I too shall act my part.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Threaten us and\u2014begone!\u00a0 Thou, Oedipus,<br \/>\nStay here assured that nothing save my death<br \/>\nWill stay my purpose to restore the maids.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Heaven bless thee, Theseus, for thy nobleness<br \/>\nAnd all thy loving care in my behalf.<\/p>\n<p>[Exeunt THESEUS and CREON]<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>(Str. 1)<br \/>\nO when the flying foe,<br \/>\nTurning at last to bay,<br \/>\nSoon will give blow for blow,<br \/>\nMight I behold the fray;<br \/>\nHear the loud battle roar<br \/>\nSwell, on the Pythian shore,<br \/>\nOr by the torch-lit bay,<br \/>\nWhere the dread Queen and Maid<br \/>\nCherish the mystic rites,<br \/>\nRites they to none betray,<br \/>\nEre on his lips is laid<br \/>\nSecrecy&#8217;s golden key<br \/>\nBy their own acolytes,<br \/>\nPriestly Eumolpidae.<br \/>\nThere I might chance behold<br \/>\nTheseus our captain bold<br \/>\nMeet with the robber band,<br \/>\nEre they have fled the land,<br \/>\nRescue by might and main<br \/>\nMaidens, the captives twain.<\/p>\n<p>(Ant. 1)<br \/>\nHaply on swiftest steed,<br \/>\nOr in the flying car,<br \/>\nNow they approach the glen,<br \/>\nWest of white Oea&#8217;s scaur.<br \/>\nThey will be vanquished:<br \/>\nDread are our warriors, dread<br \/>\nTheseus our chieftain&#8217;s men.<br \/>\nFlashes each bridle bright,<br \/>\nCharges each gallant knight,<br \/>\nAll that our Queen adore,<br \/>\nPallas their patron, or<br \/>\nHim whose wide floods enring<br \/>\nEarth, the great Ocean-king<br \/>\nWhom Rhea bore.<\/p>\n<p>(Str. 2)<br \/>\nFight they or now prepare<br \/>\nTo fight? a vision rare<br \/>\nTells me that soon again<br \/>\nI shall behold the twain<br \/>\nMaidens so ill bestead,<br \/>\nBy their kin buffeted.<br \/>\nToday, today Zeus worketh some great thing<br \/>\nThis day shall victory bring.<br \/>\nO for the wings, the wings of a dove,<br \/>\nTo be borne with the speed of the gale,<br \/>\nUp and still upwards to sail<br \/>\nAnd gaze on the fray from the clouds above.<\/p>\n<p>(Ant. 2)<br \/>\nAll-seeing Zeus, O lord of heaven,<br \/>\nTo our guardian host be given<br \/>\nMight triumphant to surprise<br \/>\nFlying foes and win their prize.<br \/>\nHear us, Zeus, and hear us, child<br \/>\nOf Zeus, Athene undefiled,<br \/>\nHear, Apollo, hunter, hear,<br \/>\nHuntress, sister of Apollo,<br \/>\nWho the dappled swift-foot deer<br \/>\nO&#8217;er the wooded glade dost follow;<br \/>\nHelp with your two-fold power<br \/>\nAthens in danger&#8217;s hour!<br \/>\nO wayfarer, thou wilt not have to tax<br \/>\nThe friends who watch for thee with false presage,<br \/>\nFor lo, an escort with the maids draws near.<\/p>\n<p>[Enter ANTIGONE and ISMENE with THESEUS]<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Where, where? what sayest thou?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>O father, father,<br \/>\nWould that some god might grant thee eyes to see<br \/>\nThis best of men who brings us back again.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>My child! and are ye back indeed!<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Yes, saved<br \/>\nBy Theseus and his gallant followers.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Come to your father&#8217;s arms, O let me feel<br \/>\nA child&#8217;s embrace I never hoped for more.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Thou askest what is doubly sweet to give.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Where are ye then?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>We come together both.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>My precious nurslings!<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Fathers aye were fond.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Props of my age!<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>So sorrow sorrow props.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>I have my darlings, and if death should come,<br \/>\nDeath were not wholly bitter with you near.<br \/>\nCling to me, press me close on either side,<br \/>\nThere rest ye from your dreary wayfaring.<br \/>\nNow tell me of your ventures, but in brief;<br \/>\nBrief speech suffices for young maids like you.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Here is our savior; thou should&#8217;st hear the tale<br \/>\nFrom his own lips; so shall my part be brief.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>I pray thee do not wonder if the sight<br \/>\nOf children, given o&#8217;er for lost, has made<br \/>\nMy converse somewhat long and tedious.<br \/>\nFull well I know the joy I have of them<br \/>\nIs due to thee, to thee and no man else;<br \/>\nThou wast their sole deliverer, none else.<br \/>\nThe gods deal with thee after my desire,<br \/>\nWith thee and with this land! for fear of heaven<br \/>\nI found above all peoples most with you,<br \/>\nAnd righteousness and lips that cannot lie.<br \/>\nI speak in gratitude of what I know,<br \/>\nFor all I have I owe to thee alone.<br \/>\nGive me thy hand, O Prince, that I may touch it,<br \/>\nAnd if thou wilt permit me, kiss thy cheek.<br \/>\nWhat say I?\u00a0 Can I wish that thou should&#8217;st touch<br \/>\nOne fallen like me to utter wretchedness,<br \/>\nCorrupt and tainted with a thousand ills?<br \/>\nOh no, I would not let thee if thou would&#8217;st.<br \/>\nThey only who have known calamity<br \/>\nCan share it.\u00a0 Let me greet thee where thou art,<br \/>\nAnd still befriend me as thou hast till now.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>I marvel not if thou hast dallied long<br \/>\nIn converse with thy children and preferred<br \/>\nTheir speech to mine; I feel no jealousy,<br \/>\nI would be famous more by deeds than words.<br \/>\nOf this, old friend, thou hast had proof; my oath<br \/>\nI have fulfilled and brought thee back the maids<br \/>\nAlive and nothing harmed for all those threats.<br \/>\nAnd how the fight was won, &#8217;twere waste of words<br \/>\nTo boast\u2014thy daughters here will tell thee all.<br \/>\nBut of a matter that has lately chanced<br \/>\nOn my way hitherward, I fain would have<br \/>\nThy counsel\u2014slight &#8216;twould seem, yet worthy thought.<br \/>\nA wise man heeds all matters great or small.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>What is it, son of Aegeus?\u00a0 Let me hear.<br \/>\nOf what thou askest I myself know naught.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Tis said a man, no countryman of thine,<br \/>\nBut of thy kin, hath taken sanctuary<br \/>\nBeside the altar of Poseidon, where<br \/>\nI was at sacrifice when called away.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>What is his country? what the suitor&#8217;s prayer?<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>I know but one thing; he implores, I am told,<br \/>\nA word with thee\u2014he will not trouble thee.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>What seeks he?\u00a0 If a suppliant, something grave.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>He only waits, they say, to speak with thee,<br \/>\nAnd then unharmed to go upon his way.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>I marvel who is this petitioner.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Think if there be not any of thy kin<br \/>\nAt Argos who might claim this boon of thee.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Dear friend, forbear, I pray.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>What ails thee now?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Ask it not of me.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Ask not what? explain.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Thy words have told me who the suppliant is.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Who can he be that I should frown on him?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>My son, O king, my hateful son, whose words<br \/>\nOf all men&#8217;s most would jar upon my ears.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Thou sure mightest listen.\u00a0 If his suit offend,<br \/>\nNo need to grant it.\u00a0 Why so loth to hear him?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>That voice, O king, grates on a father&#8217;s ears;<br \/>\nI have come to loathe it.\u00a0 Force me not to yield.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>But he hath found asylum.\u00a0 O beware,<br \/>\nAnd fail not in due reverence to the god.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>O heed me, father, though I am young in years.<br \/>\nLet the prince have his will and pay withal<br \/>\nWhat in his eyes is service to the god;<br \/>\nFor our sake also let our brother come.<br \/>\nIf what he urges tend not to thy good<br \/>\nHe cannot surely wrest perforce thy will.<br \/>\nTo hear him then, what harm?\u00a0 By open words<br \/>\nA scheme of villainy is soon bewrayed.<br \/>\nThou art his father, therefore canst not pay<br \/>\nIn kind a son&#8217;s most impious outrages.<br \/>\nO listen to him; other men like thee<br \/>\nHave thankless children and are choleric,<br \/>\nBut yielding to persuasion&#8217;s gentle spell<br \/>\nThey let their savage mood be exorcised.<br \/>\nLook thou to the past, forget the present, think<br \/>\nOn all the woe thy sire and mother brought thee;<br \/>\nThence wilt thou draw this lesson without fail,<br \/>\nOf evil passion evil is the end.<br \/>\nThou hast, alas, to prick thy memory,<br \/>\nStern monitors, these ever-sightless orbs.<br \/>\nO yield to us; just suitors should not need<br \/>\nTo be importunate, nor he that takes<br \/>\nA favor lack the grace to make return.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Grievous to me, my child, the boon ye win<br \/>\nBy pleading.\u00a0 Let it be then; have your way<br \/>\nOnly if come he must, I beg thee, friend,<br \/>\nLet none have power to dispose of me.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>No need, Sir, to appeal a second time.<br \/>\nIt likes me not to boast, but be assured<br \/>\nThy life is safe while any god saves mine.<\/p>\n<p>[Exit THESEUS]<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>(Str.)<br \/>\nWho craves excess of days,<br \/>\nScorning the common span<br \/>\nOf life, I judge that man<br \/>\nA giddy wight who walks in folly&#8217;s ways.<br \/>\nFor the long years heap up a grievous load,<br \/>\nScant pleasures, heavier pains,<br \/>\nTill not one joy remains<br \/>\nFor him who lingers on life&#8217;s weary road<br \/>\nAnd come it slow or fast,<br \/>\nOne doom of fate<br \/>\nDoth all await,<br \/>\nFor dance and marriage bell,<br \/>\nThe dirge and funeral knell.<br \/>\nDeath the deliverer freeth all at last.<\/p>\n<p>(Ant.)<br \/>\nNot to be born at all<br \/>\nIs best, far best that can befall,<br \/>\nNext best, when born, with least delay<br \/>\nTo trace the backward way.<br \/>\nFor when youth passes with its giddy train,<br \/>\nTroubles on troubles follow, toils on toils,<br \/>\nPain, pain for ever pain;<br \/>\nAnd none escapes life&#8217;s coils.<br \/>\nEnvy, sedition, strife,<br \/>\nCarnage and war, make up the tale of life.<br \/>\nLast comes the worst and most abhorred stage<br \/>\nOf unregarded age,<br \/>\nJoyless, companionless and slow,<br \/>\nOf woes the crowning woe.<br \/>\n(Epode)<br \/>\nSuch ills not I alone,<br \/>\nHe too our guest hath known,<br \/>\nE&#8217;en as some headland on an iron-bound shore,<br \/>\nLashed by the wintry blasts and surge&#8217;s roar,<br \/>\nSo is he buffeted on every side<br \/>\nBy drear misfortune&#8217;s whelming tide,<br \/>\nBy every wind of heaven o&#8217;erborne<br \/>\nSome from the sunset, some from orient morn,<br \/>\nSome from the noonday glow.<br \/>\nSome from Rhipean gloom of everlasting snow.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Father, methinks I see the stranger coming,<br \/>\nAlone he comes and weeping plenteous tears.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Who may he be?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>The same that we surmised.<br \/>\nFrom the outset\u2014Polyneices.\u00a0 He is here.<\/p>\n<p>[Enter POLYNEICES]<\/p>\n<p>POLYNEICES<\/p>\n<p>Ah me, my sisters, shall I first lament<br \/>\nMy own afflictions, or my aged sire&#8217;s,<br \/>\nWhom here I find a castaway, with you,<br \/>\nIn a strange land, an ancient beggar clad<br \/>\nIn antic tatters, marring all his frame,<br \/>\nWhile o&#8217;er the sightless orbs his unkept locks<br \/>\nFloat in the breeze; and, as it were to match,<br \/>\nHe bears a wallet against hunger&#8217;s pinch.<br \/>\nAll this too late I learn, wretch that I am,<br \/>\nAlas!\u00a0 I own it, and am proved most vile<br \/>\nIn my neglect of thee:\u00a0 I scorn myself.<br \/>\nBut as almighty Zeus in all he doth<br \/>\nHath Mercy for co-partner of this throne,<br \/>\nLet Mercy, father, also sit enthroned<br \/>\nIn thy heart likewise.\u00a0 For transgressions past<br \/>\nMay be amended, cannot be made worse.<br \/>\nWhy silent?\u00a0 Father, speak, nor turn away,<br \/>\nHast thou no word, wilt thou dismiss me then<br \/>\nIn mute disdain, nor tell me why thou art wrath?<br \/>\nO ye his daughters, sisters mine, do ye<br \/>\nThis sullen, obstinate silence try to move.<br \/>\nLet him not spurn, without a single word<br \/>\nOf answer, me the suppliant of the god.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Tell him thyself, unhappy one, thine errand;<br \/>\nFor large discourse may send a thrill of joy,<br \/>\nOr stir a chord of wrath or tenderness,<br \/>\nAnd to the tongue-tied somehow give a tongue.<\/p>\n<p>POLYNEICES<\/p>\n<p>Well dost thou counsel, and I will speak out.<br \/>\nFirst will I call in aid the god himself,<br \/>\nPoseidon, from whose altar I was raised,<br \/>\nWith warrant from the monarch of this land,<br \/>\nTo parley with you, and depart unscathed.<br \/>\nThese pledges, strangers, I would see observed<br \/>\nBy you and by my sisters and my sire.<br \/>\nNow, father, let me tell thee why I came.<br \/>\nI have been banished from my native land<br \/>\nBecause by right of primogeniture<br \/>\nI claimed possession of thy sovereign throne<br \/>\nWherefrom Etocles, my younger brother,<br \/>\nOusted me, not by weight of precedent,<br \/>\nNor by the last arbitrament of war,<br \/>\nBut by his popular acts; and the prime cause<br \/>\nOf this I deem the curse that rests on thee.<br \/>\nSo likewise hold the soothsayers, for when<br \/>\nI came to Argos in the Dorian land<br \/>\nAnd took the king Adrastus&#8217; child to wife,<br \/>\nUnder my standard I enlisted all<br \/>\nThe foremost captains of the Apian isle,<br \/>\nTo levy with their aid that sevenfold host<br \/>\nOf spearmen against Thebes, determining<br \/>\nTo oust my foes or die in a just cause.<br \/>\nWhy then, thou askest, am I here today?<br \/>\nFather, I come a suppliant to thee<br \/>\nBoth for myself and my allies who now<br \/>\nWith squadrons seven beneath their seven spears<br \/>\nBeleaguer all the plain that circles Thebes.<br \/>\nForemost the peerless warrior, peerless seer,<br \/>\nAmphiaraiis with his lightning lance;<br \/>\nNext an Aetolian, Tydeus, Oeneus&#8217; son;<br \/>\nEteoclus of Argive birth the third;<br \/>\nThe fourth Hippomedon, sent to the war<br \/>\nBy his sire Talaos; Capaneus, the fifth,<br \/>\nVaunts he will fire and raze the town; the sixth<br \/>\nParthenopaeus, an Arcadian born<br \/>\nNamed of that maid, longtime a maid and late<br \/>\nEspoused, Atalanta&#8217;s true-born child;<br \/>\nLast I thy son, or thine at least in name,<br \/>\nIf but the bastard of an evil fate,<br \/>\nLead against Thebes the fearless Argive host.<br \/>\nThus by thy children and thy life, my sire,<br \/>\nWe all adjure thee to remit thy wrath<br \/>\nAnd favor one who seeks a just revenge<br \/>\nAgainst a brother who has banned and robbed him.<br \/>\nFor victory, if oracles speak true,<br \/>\nWill fall to those who have thee for ally.<br \/>\nSo, by our fountains and familiar gods<br \/>\nI pray thee, yield and hear; a beggar I<br \/>\nAnd exile, thou an exile likewise; both<br \/>\nInvolved in one misfortune find a home<br \/>\nAs pensioners, while he, the lord of Thebes,<br \/>\nO agony! makes a mock of thee and me.<br \/>\nI&#8217;ll scatter with a breath the upstart&#8217;s might,<br \/>\nAnd bring thee home again and stablish thee,<br \/>\nAnd stablish, having cast him out, myself.<br \/>\nThis will thy goodwill I will undertake,<br \/>\nWithout it I can scare return alive.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>For the king&#8217;s sake who sent him, Oedipus,<br \/>\nDismiss him not without a meet reply.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Nay, worthy seniors, but for Theseus&#8217; sake<br \/>\nWho sent him hither to have word of me.<br \/>\nNever again would he have heard my voice;<br \/>\nBut now he shall obtain this parting grace,<br \/>\nAn answer that will bring him little joy.<br \/>\nO villain, when thou hadst the sovereignty<br \/>\nThat now thy brother holdeth in thy stead,<br \/>\nDidst thou not drive me, thine own father, out,<br \/>\nAn exile, cityless, and make we wear<br \/>\nThis beggar&#8217;s garb thou weepest to behold,<br \/>\nNow thou art come thyself to my sad plight?<br \/>\nNothing is here for tears; it must be borne<br \/>\nBy <i>me<\/i> till death, and I shall think of thee<br \/>\nAs of my murderer; thou didst thrust me out;<br \/>\n&#8216;Tis thou hast made me conversant with woe,<br \/>\nThrough thee I beg my bread in a strange land;<br \/>\nAnd had not these my daughters tended me<br \/>\nI had been dead for aught of aid from thee.<br \/>\nThey tend me, they preserve me, they are men<br \/>\nNot women in true service to their sire;<br \/>\nBut ye are bastards, and no sons of mine.<br \/>\nTherefore just Heaven hath an eye on thee;<br \/>\nHowbeit not yet with aspect so austere<br \/>\nAs thou shalt soon experience, if indeed<br \/>\nThese banded hosts are moving against Thebes.<br \/>\nThat city thou canst never storm, but first<br \/>\nShall fall, thou and thy brother, blood-imbrued.<br \/>\nSuch curse I lately launched against you twain,<br \/>\nSuch curse I now invoke to fight for me,<br \/>\nThat ye may learn to honor those who bear thee<br \/>\nNor flout a sightless father who begat<br \/>\nDegenerate sons\u2014these maidens did not so.<br \/>\nTherefore my curse is stronger than thy &#8220;throne,&#8221;<br \/>\nThy &#8220;suppliance,&#8221; if by right of laws eterne<br \/>\nPrimeval Justice sits enthroned with Zeus.<br \/>\nBegone, abhorred, disowned, no son of mine,<br \/>\nThou vilest of the vile! and take with thee<br \/>\nThis curse I leave thee as my last bequest:\u2014<br \/>\nNever to win by arms thy native land,<br \/>\nNo, nor return to Argos in the Vale,<br \/>\nBut by a kinsman&#8217;s hand to die and slay<br \/>\nHim who expelled thee.\u00a0 So I pray and call<br \/>\nOn the ancestral gloom of Tartarus<br \/>\nTo snatch thee hence, on these dread goddesses<br \/>\nI call, and Ares who incensed you both<br \/>\nTo mortal enmity.\u00a0 Go now proclaim<br \/>\nWhat thou hast heard to the Cadmeians all,<br \/>\nThy staunch confederates\u2014this the heritage<br \/>\nthat Oedipus divideth to his sons.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Thy errand, Polyneices, liked me not<br \/>\nFrom the beginning; now go back with speed.<\/p>\n<p>POLYNEICES<\/p>\n<p>Woe worth my journey and my baffled hopes!<br \/>\nWoe worth my comrades!\u00a0 What a desperate end<br \/>\nTo that glad march from Argos!\u00a0 Woe is me!<br \/>\nI dare not whisper it to my allies<br \/>\nOr turn them back, but mute must meet my doom.<br \/>\nMy sisters, ye his daughters, ye have heard<br \/>\nThe prayers of our stern father, if his curse<br \/>\nShould come to pass and ye some day return<br \/>\nTo Thebes, O then disown me not, I pray,<br \/>\nBut grant me burial and due funeral rites.<br \/>\nSo shall the praise your filial care now wins<br \/>\nBe doubled for the service wrought for me.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>One boon, O Polyneices, let me crave.<\/p>\n<p>POLYNEICES<\/p>\n<p>What would&#8217;st thou, sweet Antigone?\u00a0 Say on.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Turn back thy host to Argos with all speed,<br \/>\nAnd ruin not thyself and Thebes as well.<\/p>\n<p>POLYNEICES<\/p>\n<p>That cannot be.\u00a0 How could I lead again<br \/>\nAn army that had seen their leader quail?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>But, brother, why shouldst thou be wroth again?<br \/>\nWhat profit from thy country&#8217;s ruin comes?<\/p>\n<p>POLYNEICES<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Tis shame to live in exile, and shall I<br \/>\nThe elder bear a younger brother&#8217;s flouts?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Wilt thou then bring to pass his prophecies<br \/>\nWho threatens mutual slaughter to you both?<\/p>\n<p>POLYNEICES<\/p>\n<p>Aye, so he wishes:\u2014but I must not yield.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>O woe is me! but say, will any dare,<br \/>\nHearing his prophecy, to follow thee?<\/p>\n<p>POLYNEICES<\/p>\n<p>I shall not tell it; a good general<br \/>\nReports successes and conceals mishaps.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Misguided youth, thy purpose then stands fast!<\/p>\n<p>POLYNEICES<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Tis so, and stay me not.\u00a0 The road I choose,<br \/>\nDogged by my sire and his avenging spirit,<br \/>\nLeads me to ruin; but for you may Zeus<br \/>\nMake your path bright if ye fulfill my hest<br \/>\nWhen dead; in life ye cannot serve me more.<br \/>\nNow let me go, farewell, a long farewell!<br \/>\nYe ne&#8217;er shall see my living face again.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Ah me!<\/p>\n<p>POLYNEICES<\/p>\n<p>Bewail me not.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Who would not mourn<br \/>\nThee, brother, hurrying to an open pit!<\/p>\n<p>POLYNEICES<\/p>\n<p>If I must die, I must.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Nay, hear me plead.<\/p>\n<p>POLYNEICES<\/p>\n<p>It may not be; forbear.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Then woe is me,<br \/>\nIf I must lose thee.<\/p>\n<p>POLYNEICES<\/p>\n<p>Nay, that rests with fate,<br \/>\nWhether I live or die; but for you both<br \/>\nI pray to heaven ye may escape all ill;<br \/>\nFor ye are blameless in the eyes of all.<\/p>\n<p>[Exit POLYNEICES]<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>(Str. 1)<br \/>\nIlls on ills! no pause or rest!<br \/>\nCome they from our sightless guest?<br \/>\nOr haply now we see fulfilled<br \/>\nWhat fate long time hath willed?<br \/>\nFor ne&#8217;er have I proved vain<br \/>\nAught that the heavenly powers ordain.<br \/>\nTime with never sleeping eye<br \/>\nWatches what is writ on high,<br \/>\nOverthrowing now the great,<br \/>\nRaising now from low estate.<br \/>\nHark!\u00a0 How the thunder rumbles!\u00a0 Zeus defend us!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Children, my children! will no messenger<br \/>\nGo summon hither Theseus my best friend?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>And wherefore, father, dost thou summon him?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>This winged thunder of the god must bear me<br \/>\nAnon to Hades.\u00a0 Send and tarry not.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>(Ant. 1)<br \/>\nHark! with louder, nearer roar<br \/>\nThe bolt of Zeus descends once more.<br \/>\nMy spirit quails and cowers:\u00a0 my hair<br \/>\nBristles for fear.\u00a0 Again that flare!<br \/>\nWhat doth the lightning-flash portend?<br \/>\nEver it points to issues grave.<br \/>\nDread powers of air!\u00a0 Save, Zeus, O save!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Daughters, upon me the predestined end<br \/>\nHas come; no turning from it any more.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>How knowest thou?\u00a0 What sign convinces thee?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>I know full well.\u00a0 Let some one with all speed<br \/>\nGo summon hither the Athenian prince.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>(Str. 2)<br \/>\nHa! once more the deafening sound<br \/>\nPeals yet louder all around<br \/>\nIf thou darkenest our land,<br \/>\nLightly, lightly lay thy hand;<br \/>\nGrace, not anger, let me win,<br \/>\nIf upon a man of sin<br \/>\nI have looked with pitying eye,<br \/>\nZeus, our king, to thee I cry!<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Is the prince coming?\u00a0 Will he when he comes<br \/>\nFind me yet living and my senses clear!<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>What solemn charge would&#8217;st thou impress on him?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>For all his benefits I would perform<br \/>\nThe promise made when I received them first.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>(Ant. 2)<br \/>\nHither haste, my son, arise,<br \/>\nAltar leave and sacrifice,<br \/>\nIf haply to Poseidon now<br \/>\nIn the far glade thou pay&#8217;st thy vow.<br \/>\nFor our guest to thee would bring<br \/>\nAnd thy folk and offering,<br \/>\nThy due guerdon.\u00a0 Haste, O King!<\/p>\n<p>[Enter THESEUS]<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Wherefore again this general din? at once<br \/>\nMy people call me and the stranger calls.<br \/>\nIs it a thunderbolt of Zeus or sleet<br \/>\nOf arrowy hail? a storm so fierce as this<br \/>\nWould warrant all surmises of mischance.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>Thou com&#8217;st much wished for, Prince, and sure some god<br \/>\nHath bid good luck attend thee on thy way.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>What, son of Laius, hath chanced of new?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>My life hath turned the scale.\u00a0 I would do all<br \/>\nI promised thee and thine before I die.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>What sign assures thee that thine end is near?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>The gods themselves are heralds of my fate;<br \/>\nOf their appointed warnings nothing fails.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>How sayest thou they signify their will?<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>This thunder, peal on peal, this lightning hurled<br \/>\nFlash upon flash, from the unconquered hand.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>I must believe thee, having found thee oft<br \/>\nA prophet true; then speak what must be done.<\/p>\n<p>OEDIPUS<\/p>\n<p>O son of Aegeus, for this state will I<br \/>\nUnfold a treasure age cannot corrupt.<br \/>\nMyself anon without a guiding hand<br \/>\nWill take thee to the spot where I must end.<br \/>\nThis secret ne&#8217;er reveal to mortal man,<br \/>\nNeither the spot nor whereabouts it lies,<br \/>\nSo shall it ever serve thee for defense<br \/>\nBetter than native shields and near allies.<br \/>\nBut those dread mysteries speech may not profane<br \/>\nThyself shalt gather coming there alone;<br \/>\nSince not to any of thy subjects,\u00a0 nor<br \/>\nTo my own children, though I love them dearly,<br \/>\nCan I reveal what thou must guard alone,<br \/>\nAnd whisper to thy chosen heir alone,<br \/>\nSo to be handed down from heir to heir.<br \/>\nThus shalt thou hold this land inviolate<br \/>\nFrom the dread Dragon&#8217;s brood.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"The Thebans sprung from the Dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus.\" id=\"return-footnote-23-4\" href=\"#footnote-23-4\" aria-label=\"Footnote 4\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[4]<\/sup><\/a> \u00a0The justest State<br \/>\nBy countless wanton neighbors may be wronged,<br \/>\nFor the gods, though they tarry, mark for doom<br \/>\nThe godless sinner in his mad career.<br \/>\nFar from thee, son of Aegeus, be such fate!<br \/>\nBut to the spot\u2014the god within me goads\u2014<br \/>\nLet us set forth no longer hesitate.<br \/>\nFollow me, daughters, this way.\u00a0 Strange that I<br \/>\nWhom you have led so long should lead you now.<br \/>\nOh, touch me not, but let me all alone<br \/>\nFind out the sepulcher that destiny<br \/>\nAppoints me in this land.\u00a0 Hither, this way,<br \/>\nFor this way Hermes leads, the spirit guide,<br \/>\nAnd Persephassa, empress of the dead.<br \/>\nO light, no light to me, but mine erewhile,<br \/>\nNow the last time I feel thee palpable,<br \/>\nFor I am drawing near the final gloom<br \/>\nOf Hades.\u00a0 Blessing on thee, dearest friend,<br \/>\nOn thee and on thy land and followers!<br \/>\nLive prosperous and in your happy state<br \/>\nStill for your welfare think on me, the dead.<\/p>\n<p>[Exit THESEUS followed by ANTIGONE and ISMENE]<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>(Str.)<br \/>\nIf mortal prayers are heard in hell,<br \/>\nHear, Goddess dread, invisible!<br \/>\nMonarch of the regions drear,<br \/>\nAidoneus, hear, O hear!<br \/>\nBy a gentle, tearless doom<br \/>\nSpeed this stranger to the gloom,<br \/>\nLet him enter without pain<br \/>\nThe all-shrouding Stygian plain.<br \/>\nWrongfully in life oppressed,<br \/>\nBe he now by Justice blessed.<\/p>\n<p>(Ant.)<br \/>\nQueen infernal, and thou fell<br \/>\nWatch-dog of the gates of hell,<br \/>\nWho, as legends tell, dost glare,<br \/>\nGnarling in thy cavernous lair<br \/>\nAt all comers, let him go<br \/>\nScathless to the fields below.<br \/>\nFor thy master orders thus,<br \/>\nThe son of earth and Tartarus;<br \/>\nIn his den the monster keep,<br \/>\nGiver of eternal sleep.<\/p>\n<p>[Enter MESSENGER]<\/p>\n<p>MESSENGER<\/p>\n<p>Friends, countrymen, my tidings are in sum<br \/>\nThat Oedipus is gone, but the event<br \/>\nWas not so brief, nor can the tale be brief.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>What, has he gone, the unhappy man?<\/p>\n<p>MESSENGER<\/p>\n<p>Know well<br \/>\nThat he has passed away from life to death.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>How?\u00a0 By a god-sent, painless doom, poor soul?<\/p>\n<p>MESSENGER<\/p>\n<p>Thy question hits the marvel of the tale.<br \/>\nHow he moved hence, you saw him and must know;<br \/>\nWithout a friend to lead the way, himself<br \/>\nGuiding us all.\u00a0 So having reached the abrupt<br \/>\nEarth-rooted Threshold with its brazen stairs,<br \/>\nHe paused at one of the converging paths,<br \/>\nHard by the rocky basin which records<br \/>\nThe pact of Theseus and Peirithous.<br \/>\nBetwixt that rift and the Thorician rock,<br \/>\nThe hollow pear-tree and the marble tomb,<br \/>\nMidway he sat and loosed his beggar&#8217;s weeds;<br \/>\nThen calling to his daughters bade them fetch<br \/>\nOf running water, both to wash withal<br \/>\nAnd make libation; so they clomb the steep;<br \/>\nAnd in brief space brought what their father bade,<br \/>\nThen laved and dressed him with observance due.<br \/>\nBut when he had his will in everything,<br \/>\nAnd no desire was left unsatisfied,<br \/>\nIt thundered from the netherworld; the maids<br \/>\nShivered, and crouching at their father&#8217;s knees<br \/>\nWept, beat their breast and uttered a long wail.<br \/>\nHe, as he heard their sudden bitter cry,<br \/>\nFolded his arms about them both and said,<br \/>\n&#8220;My children, ye will lose your sire today,<br \/>\nFor all of me has perished, and no more<br \/>\nHave ye to bear your long, long ministry;<br \/>\nA heavy load, I know, and yet one word<br \/>\nWipes out all score of tribulations\u2014<i>love<\/i>.<br \/>\nAnd love from me ye had\u2014from no man more;<br \/>\nBut now must live without me all your days.&#8221;<br \/>\nSo clinging to each other sobbed and wept<br \/>\nFather and daughters both, but when at last<br \/>\nTheir mourning had an end and no wail rose,<br \/>\nA moment there was silence; suddenly<br \/>\nA voice that summoned him; with sudden dread<br \/>\nThe hair of all stood up and all were &#8216;mazed;<br \/>\nFor the call came, now loud, now low, and oft.<br \/>\n&#8220;Oedipus, Oedipus, why tarry we?<br \/>\nToo long, too long thy passing is delayed.&#8221;<br \/>\nBut when he heard the summons of the god,<br \/>\nHe prayed that Theseus might be brought, and when<br \/>\nThe Prince came nearer:\u00a0 &#8220;O my friend,&#8221; he cried,<br \/>\n&#8220;Pledge ye my daughters, giving thy right hand\u2014<br \/>\nAnd, daughters, give him yours\u2014and promise me<br \/>\nThou never wilt forsake them, but do all<br \/>\nThat time and friendship prompt in their behoof.&#8221;<br \/>\nAnd he of his nobility repressed<br \/>\nHis tears and swore to be their constant friend.<br \/>\nThis promise given, Oedipus put forth<br \/>\nBlind hands and laid them on his children, saying,<br \/>\n&#8220;O children, prove your true nobility<br \/>\nAnd hence depart nor seek to witness sights<br \/>\nUnlawful or to hear unlawful words.<br \/>\nNay, go with speed; let none but Theseus stay,<br \/>\nOur ruler, to behold what next shall hap.&#8221;<br \/>\nSo we all heard him speak, and weeping sore<br \/>\nWe companied the maidens on their way.<br \/>\nAfter brief space we looked again, and lo<br \/>\nThe man was gone, evanished from our eyes;<br \/>\nOnly the king we saw with upraised hand<br \/>\nShading his eyes as from some awful sight,<br \/>\nThat no man might endure to look upon.<br \/>\nA moment later, and we saw him bend<br \/>\nIn prayer to Earth and prayer to Heaven at once.<br \/>\nBut by what doom the stranger met his end<br \/>\nNo man save Theseus knoweth.\u00a0 For there fell<br \/>\nNo fiery bold that reft him in that hour,<br \/>\nNor whirlwind from the sea, but he was taken.<br \/>\nIt was a messenger from heaven, or else<br \/>\nSome gentle, painless cleaving of earth&#8217;s base;<br \/>\nFor without wailing or disease or pain<br \/>\nHe passed away\u2014and end most marvelous.<br \/>\nAnd if to some my tale seems foolishness<br \/>\nI am content that such could count me fool.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Where are the maids and their attendant friends?<\/p>\n<p>MESSENGER<\/p>\n<p>They cannot be far off; the approaching sound<br \/>\nOf lamentation tells they come this way.<\/p>\n<p>[Enter ANTIGONE and ISMENE]<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>(Str. 1)<br \/>\nWoe, woe! on this sad day<br \/>\nWe sisters of one blasted stock<br \/>\nmust bow beneath the shock,<br \/>\nMust weep and weep the curse that lay<br \/>\nOn him our sire, for whom<br \/>\nIn life, a life-long world of care<br \/>\n&#8216;Twas ours to bear,<br \/>\nIn death must face the gloom<br \/>\nThat wraps his tomb.<br \/>\nWhat tongue can tell<br \/>\nThat sight ineffable?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>What mean ye, maidens?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>All is but surmise.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Is he then gone?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Gone as ye most might wish.<br \/>\nNot in battle or sea storm,<br \/>\nBut reft from sight,<br \/>\nBy hands invisible borne<br \/>\nTo viewless fields of night.<br \/>\nAh me! on us too night has come,<br \/>\nThe night of mourning.\u00a0 Wither roam<br \/>\nO&#8217;er land or sea in our distress<br \/>\nEating the bread of bitterness?<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>I know not.\u00a0 O that Death<br \/>\nMight nip my breath,<br \/>\nAnd let me share my aged father&#8217;s fate.<br \/>\nI cannot live a life thus desolate.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Best of daughters, worthy pair,<br \/>\nWhat heaven brings ye needs must bear,<br \/>\nFret no more &#8216;gainst Heaven&#8217;s will;<br \/>\nFate hath dealt with you not ill.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>(Ant. 1)<br \/>\nLove can turn past pain to bliss,<br \/>\nWhat seemed bitter now is sweet.<br \/>\nAh me! that happy toil is sweet.<br \/>\nThe guidance of those dear blind feet.<br \/>\nDear father, wrapt for aye in nether gloom,<br \/>\nE&#8217;en in the tomb<br \/>\nNever shalt thou lack of love repine,<br \/>\nHer love and mine.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>His fate\u2014<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Is even as he planned.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>How so?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>He died, so willed he, in a foreign land.<br \/>\nLapped in kind earth he sleeps his long last sleep,<br \/>\nAnd o&#8217;er his grave friends weep.<br \/>\nHow great our lost these streaming eyes can tell,<br \/>\nThis sorrow naught can quell.<br \/>\nThou hadst thy wish &#8216;mid strangers thus to die,<br \/>\nBut I, ah me, not by.<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Alas, my sister, what new fate<br \/>\n*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<br \/>\n*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<br \/>\nBefalls us orphans desolate?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>His end was blessed; therefore, children, stay<br \/>\nYour sorrow.\u00a0 Man is born to fate a prey.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>(Str. 2)<br \/>\nSister, let us back again.<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Why return?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>My soul is fain\u2014<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Is fain?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>To see the earthy bed.<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Sayest thou?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Where our sire is laid.<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Nay, thou can&#8217;st not, dost not see\u2014<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Sister, wherefore wroth with me?<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Know&#8217;st not\u2014beside\u2014<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>More must I hear?<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>Tombless he died, none near.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Lead me thither; slay me there.<\/p>\n<p>ISMENE<\/p>\n<p>How shall I unhappy fare,<br \/>\nFriendless, helpless, how drag on<br \/>\nA life of misery alone?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>(Ant. 2)<br \/>\nFear not, maids\u2014<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Ah, whither flee?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Refuge hath been found.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>For me?<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Where thou shalt be safe from harm.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>I know it.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Why then this alarm?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>How again to get us home<br \/>\nI know not.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Why then this roam?<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Troubles whelm us\u2014<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>As of yore.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Worse than what was worse before.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Sure ye are driven on the breakers&#8217; surge.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Alas! we are.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Alas! &#8217;tis so.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Ah whither turn, O Zeus?\u00a0 No ray<br \/>\nOf hope to cheer the way<br \/>\nWhereon the fates our desperate voyage urge.<\/p>\n<p>[Enter THESEUS]<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Dry your tears; when grace is shed<br \/>\nOn the quick and on the dead<br \/>\nBy dark Powers beneficent,<br \/>\nOver-grief they would resent.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Aegeus&#8217; child, to thee we pray.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>What the boon, my children, say.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>With our own eyes we fain would see<br \/>\nOur father&#8217;s tomb.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>That may not be.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>What say&#8217;st thou, King?<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>My children, he<br \/>\nCharged me straitly that no moral<br \/>\nShould approach the sacred portal,<br \/>\nOr greet with funeral litanies<br \/>\nThe hidden tomb wherein he lies;<br \/>\nSaying, &#8220;If thou keep&#8217;st my hest<br \/>\nThou shalt hold thy realm at rest.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe God of Oaths this promise heard,<br \/>\nAnd to Zeus I pledged my word.<\/p>\n<p>ANTIGONE<\/p>\n<p>Well, if he would have it so,<br \/>\nWe must yield.\u00a0 Then let us go<br \/>\nBack to Thebes, if yet we may<br \/>\nHeal this mortal feud and stay<br \/>\nThe self-wrought doom<br \/>\nThat drives our brothers to their tomb.<\/p>\n<p>THESEUS<\/p>\n<p>Go in peace; nor will I spare<br \/>\nOught of toil and zealous care,<br \/>\nBut on all your needs attend,<br \/>\nGladdening in his grave my friend.<\/p>\n<p>CHORUS<\/p>\n<p>Wail no more, let sorrow rest,<br \/>\nAll is ordered for the best.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-23-1\">The Greek text for the passages marked here and later in the text using ****** have been lost. <a href=\"#return-footnote-23-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-23-2\">To avoid the blessing, still a secret, he resorts to a commonplace; literally, \"For what generous man is not (in befriending others) a friend to himself?\" <a href=\"#return-footnote-23-2\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 2\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-23-3\">Creon desires to bury Oedipus on the confines of Thebes so as to avoid the pollution and yet offer due rites at his tomb. Ismene tells him of the latest oracle and interprets to him its purport, that some day the Theban invaders of Athens will be routed in a battle near the grave of Oedipus. <a href=\"#return-footnote-23-3\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 3\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-23-4\">The Thebans sprung from the Dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus. <a href=\"#return-footnote-23-4\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 4\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":251,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[49],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-23","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/oedipusatcolonus\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/oedipusatcolonus\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/oedipusatcolonus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/oedipusatcolonus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/oedipusatcolonus\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/oedipusatcolonus\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/23\/revisions\/84"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/oedipusatcolonus\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/oedipusatcolonus\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/23\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/oedipusatcolonus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/oedipusatcolonus\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=23"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/oedipusatcolonus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=23"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/oedipusatcolonus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}