Sophocles

“ But if, being taught by him, thou speakest false,
Then thou hast learnt a lesson far from good,⁠450
And, if thou art self-taught in this deceit,
Then, when thou seek'st to play the part of good,
Thou shalt be seen as evil. Nay, but speak
The truth, the whole truth. No good fate is that,
When one free-born must bear the liar's name.
How can'st thou 'scape detection? There are many
To whom thou said'st it, who will tell it me;
And if thou fearest, thou dost ill to shrink,
For not to learn, that might indeed distress me;
But how can knowledge harm me? ”

“ OEDIPUS
Well, may he come with blessing to his State
And me! Who serves his neighbor serves himself. 5
ANTIGONE
Zeus! What is this? What can I say or think?
OEDIPUS
What now, Antigone?
ANTIGONE
I see a woman
Riding upon a colt of Aetna's breed;
She wears for headgear a Thessalian hat
To shade her from the sun. Who can it be?
She or a stranger? Do I wake or dream?
'This she; 'tis not—I cannot tell, alack;
It is no other! Now her bright'ning glance
Greets me with recognition, yes, 'tis she,
Herself, Ismene!
OEDIPUS
Ha! what say ye, child? ”

“ To find the murderers of Laius,
And slay them or expel them from the land.
Therefore begrudging neither augury
Nor other divination that is thine,
O save thyself, thy country, and thy king,
Save all from this defilement of blood shed.
On thee we rest. This is man's highest end,
To others' service all his powers to lend.
TEIRESIAS
Alas, alas, what misery to be wise
When wisdom profits nothing! This old lore
I had forgotten; else I were not here.
OEDIPUS
What ails thee? Why this melancholy mood?
TEIRESIAS
Let me go home; prevent me not; 'twere best
That thou shouldst bear thy burden and I mine. ”

“ Since I prevailed to gain Achilles' arms;
But, though he were so, being what he was,
I would not put so foul a shame on him,
As not to own I looked upon a man,
The best and bravest of the Argive host,⁠1340
Of all that came to Troïa, saving one,
Achilles' self. Most wrong 'twould therefore be
That he should suffer outrage at thy hands;
Thou would'st not trample upon him alone,
But on the laws of God. It is not right
To harm, though thou should'st chance to hate him sore,
A man of noble nature lying dead.
Agam. Art thou, Odysseus, this man's champion found? ”

“ CREON.
Am I to rule for others, or myself?
HAEMON.
A State for one man is no State at all.
CREON.
The State is his who rules it, so ’tis held.
HAEMON.
As monarch of a desert thou wouldst shine.
CREON.
This boy, methinks, maintains the woman’s cause.
HAEMON.
If thou be’st woman, yes. My thought’s for thee.
CREON.
O reprobate, would’st wrangle with thy sire?
HAEMON.
Because I see thee wrongfully perverse.
CREON.
And am I wrong, if I maintain my rights?
HAEMON.
Talk not of rights; thou spurn’st the due of Heaven
CREON.
O heart corrupt, a woman’s minion thou! ”

“ OEDIPUS
Say a slight service may avail him much.
STRANGER
How can he profit from a sightless man?
OEDIPUS
The blind man's words will be instinct with sight.
STRANGER
Heed then; I fain would see thee out of harm;
For by the looks, marred though they be by fate,
I judge thee noble; tarry where thou art,
While I go seek the burghers—those at hand,
Not in the city. They will soon decide
Whether thou art to rest or go thy way.
[Exit STRANGER]
OEDIPUS
Tell me, my daughter, has the stranger gone?
ANTIGONE
Yes, he has gone; now we are all alone,
And thou may'st speak, dear father, without fear. ”

“ Prays oftentimes thou may’st return alive—
O’er awe thee. Yea, and pity thine own son,
Unsheltered in his boyhood, lorn of thee,
With bitter foes to tend his orphanhood,
Think, O my lord, what sorrow in thy death
Thou send’st on him and me. For I have nought
To lean to but thy life. My fatherland
Thy spear hath ruined. Fate—not thou—hath sent
My sire and mother to the home of death
What wealth have I to comfort me for thee?
What land of refuge? Thou art all my stay
Oh, of me too take thought! Shall men have joy,
And not remember? Or shall kindness fade? ”

“ My father? but he's dead and in his grave
And here am I who ne'er unsheathed a sword;
Unless the longing for his absent son
Killed him and so I slew him in a sense.
But, as they stand, the oracles are dead—
Dust, ashes, nothing, dead as Polybus.
JOCASTA
Say, did not I foretell this long ago?
OEDIPUS
Thou didst: but I was misled by my fear.
JOCASTA
Then let I no more weigh upon thy soul.
OEDIPUS
Must I not fear my mother's marriage bed.
JOCASTA
Why should a mortal man, the sport of chance,
With no assured foreknowledge, be afraid?
Best live a careless life from hand to mouth. ”

“ Perchance thou hast heard Gods talking in the shade Of night, or eke some man: to him that knows, Men say, each chance that falls, each wind that blows Hath life, when he seeks counsel. Up, O chief Of men, and lift thy city from its grief; Face thine own peril! All our land doth hold Thee still our saviour, for that help of old: Shall they that tell of thee hereafter tell "By him was Thebes raised up, and after fell!" Nay, lift us till we slip no more. Oh, let That bird of old that made us fortunate Wing back; be thou our Oedipus again. And let thy kingdom be a land of men, Not emptiness. ”

“ Daughter of Boreas in her sire’s vast caves
Reared, where the tempest raves,
Swift as his horses o’er the hills she sped;
A child of gods; yet she, my child, like thee,
By Destiny
That knows not death nor age—she too was vanquished.
[Enter TEIRESIAS and BOY]
TEIRESIAS.
Princes of Thebes, two wayfarers as one,
Having betwixt us eyes for one, we are here.
The blind man cannot move without a guide.
CREON.
Why tidings, old Teiresias?
TEIRESIAS.
I will tell thee;
And when thou hearest thou must heed the seer.
CREON.
Thus far I ne’er have disobeyed thy rede. ”

“ This and whate’er of mine
May stead thee, ’tis thy privilege to enjoy.
NEO. In very truth I long for it, but so,
That longing waits on leave. Am I permitted?
PHI. Thou art, my son,—and well thou speakest,—thou art.
Thou, that hast given me light and life, the joy
Of seeing Mount Oeta and my father’s home,
With all I love there, and his aged head,—
Thou that hast raised me far above my foes
Who triumphed! Thou may’st take it in thine hand,
And,—when thou hast given it back to me,—may’st vaunt
Alone of mortals for thine excellence
To have held this in thy touch. ”

“ Gazing on thine eyes, as a maiden might,
⁠Who common kindred claimed,
That at your hands this old man, woe-begone,
May find the pity that is born of awe.
On you, as on a god, we rest our fate;
But grant, oh, grant me this unlooked-for boon.
By all that is most dear, I supplicate,⁠250
Thy child, thy wife, thy treasure, or thy God;
Search where thou wilt, thou ne'er wilt find a man
With strength to 'scape when God shall lead him on.
⁠Chor. Know, child of Œdipus, we pity thee,
And him too, for your sad calamity ”

“ Wretch, now my eyes are gone thou hast torn away
The helpless maiden who was eyes to me;
For these to thee and all thy cursed race
May the great Sun, whose eye is everywhere,
Grant length of days and old age like to mine.
CREON:
Listen, O men of Athens, mark ye this?
OEDIPUS:
They mark us both and understand that I
Wronged by the deeds defend myself with words.
CREON:
Nothing shall curb my will; though I be old
And single-handed, I will have this man.
OEDIPUS:
O woe is me!
CHORUS:
Thou art a bold man, stranger, if thou think'st
To execute thy purpose. ”

“ All men now give me God-speed, All smile to greet me. If a man hath need Of thee, 'tis me he calleth to the gate, As knowing that on my word hangs the fate Of half he craves. Is life like mine a thing To cast aside and plot to be a King? Doth a sane man turn villain in an hour? For me, I never lusted thus for power Nor bore with any man who turned such lust To doing.—But enough. I claim but just Question. Go first to Pytho; find if well And true I did report God's oracle. Next, seek in Thebes for any plots entwined Between this seer and me; which if ye find, Then seize and strike me dead. ”

“ JOCASTA
What may it be? Whose messenger art thou?
MESSENGER
The Isthmian commons have resolved to make
Thy husband king—so 'twas reported there.
JOCASTA
What! is not aged Polybus still king?
MESSENGER
No, verily; he's dead and in his grave.
JOCASTA
What! is he dead, the sire of Oedipus?
MESSENGER
If I speak falsely, may I die myself.
JOCASTA
Quick, maiden, bear these tidings to my lord.
Ye god-sent oracles, where stand ye now!
This is the man whom Oedipus long shunned,
In dread to prove his murderer; and now
He dies in nature's course, not by his hand. ”

“ CREON.
Aye, let him raise him seed from other fields.
ISMENE.
No new espousal can be like the old.
CREON.
A plague on trulls who court and woo our sons.
ANTIGONE.
O Haemon, how thy sire dishonors thee!
CREON.
A plague on thee and thy accursed bride!
CHORUS.
What, wilt thou rob thine own son of his bride?
CREON.
’Tis death that bars this marriage, not his sire.
CHORUS.
So her death-warrant, it would seem, is sealed.
CREON.
By you, as first by me; off with them, guards,
And keep them close. Henceforward let them learn
To live as women use, not roam at large. ”

“ To weep and mourn with wailings and with sighs,
While yet I see the bright stars in the skies,
⁠Or watch the daylight glad,—
⁠No, no, I will not fail,
⁠Like sorrowing nightingale,
Before the gate to pour my sorrows free,
⁠My woe and sorrow at my father's doom.
Ο house of Hades and Persephone,
⁠Ο Hermes, guide of dwellers in the gloom,
⁠Thou, awful Curse, and ye,
Erinnyes, daughters of the Gods, most dread,
⁠Whose eyes for ever see
Men foully slain, and those whose marriage bed
⁠The lust of evil guile
⁠Doth stealthily defile,
Come, come, avengers of my father's fate! ”

“ MESS. Look hither, man. Who is’t to whom thou speakest?
LICH. Why such a question? What is thine intent?
MESS. Nay, start not, but make answer if thou knowest.
LICH. To Dêanira, Oeneus’ queenly child,
Heracles’ wife,—if these mine eyes be true,—
My mistress.
MESS. Ay, that is the very word
I longed to hear thee speak. Thy mistress, sayest?
LICH. To whom I am bound.
MESS. Hold there! What punishment
Wilt thou accept, if thou art found to be
Faithless to her?
LICH. I faithless! What dark speech
Hast thou contrived?
MESS. Not I at all. ’Tis thou
Dost wrap thy thoughts i’ the dark. ”

“ All-seeing Zeus, O lord of heaven,
To our guardian host be given
Might triumphant to surprise
Flying foes and win their prize.
Hear us, Zeus, and hear us, child
Of Zeus, Athene undefiled,
Hear, Apollo, hunter, hear,
Huntress, sister of Apollo,
Who the dappled swift-foot deer
O'er the wooded glade dost follow;
Help with your two-fold power
Athens in danger's hour!
O wayfarer, thou wilt not have to tax
The friends who watch for thee with false presage,
For lo, an escort with the maids draws near.
[Enter ANTIGONE and ISMENE with THESEUS]
OEDIPUS:
Where, where? what sayest thou? ”

“ Do ye fear to touch a man so sore Stricken? Nay, tremble not. My misery Is mine, and shall be borne by none but me. Leader. Lo, yonder comes for answer to thy prayer Creon, to do and to decree. The care Of all our land is his, now thou art weak. Oedipus. Alas, what word to Creon can I speak, How make him trust me more? He hath seen of late So vile a heart in me, so full of hate. Enter Creon. Creon. Not to make laughter, Oedipus, nor cast Against thee any evil of the past I seek thee, but ... Ah God! ye ministers, Have ye no hearts? ”

“ For thee, my brother. Never did she love,
Thy mother, as I loved thee; nor did they
Who dwell within there nurse thee, but 'twas I,
And I was ever called thy sister true;
But now all this has vanished in a day
In this thy death; for, like a whirlwind, thou⁠1150
Hast passed, and swept off all. My father falls;
I perish; thou thyself hast gone from sight;
Our foes exult. My mother, wrongly named,
For mother she is none, is mad with joy,
Of whom thou oft did'st send word secretly
That thou would'st come and one day show thyself
A true avenger. ”

“ Witness, thou Sun, such thought was never mine,
Unblest, unfriended may I perish,
If ever I such wish did cherish!
But O my heart is desolate
Musing on our striken State,
Doubly fall’n should discord grow
Twixt you twain, to crown our woe.
OEDIPUS.
Well, let him go, no matter what it cost me,
Or certain death or shameful banishment,
For your sake I relent, not his; and him,
Where’er he be, my heart shall still abhor.
CREON.
Thou art as sullen in thy yielding mood
As in thine anger thou wast truculent.
Such tempers justly plague themselves the most. ”

“ Came to my father through the oracle
That he should die by his son’s hand,—what right
Hast thou to fasten that reproach on me,
The child not yet begotten of my sire,
An unborn nothing, unconceived? Or if,
Born as I was to misery, I encountered
And killed my father in an angry fray,
Nought knowing of what I did or whom I slew,
What reason is’t to blame the unwitting deed?
And, oh, thou wretch! art not ashamed to force me
To speak that of my mother, thine own sister,
Which I will speak, for I will not keep silence,
Since thou hast been thus impious with thy tongue. ”

“ Till Cadmus' house grows empty, hour by hour, And Hell's house rich with steam of tears and blood. O King, not God indeed nor peer to God We deem thee, that we kneel before thine hearth, Children and old men, praying; but of earth A thing consummate by thy star confessed Thou walkest and by converse with the blest; Who came to Thebes so swift, and swept away The Sphinx's song, the tribute of dismay, That all were bowed beneath, and made us free. A stranger, thou, naught knowing more than we, Nor taught of any man, but by God's breath Filled, thou didst raise our life. ”

“ CREON.
Ask this of the gods, not me.
OEDIPUS.
But I am the gods’ abhorrence.
CREON.
Then they soon will grant thy plea.
OEDIPUS.
Lead me hence, then, I am willing.
CREON.
Come, but let thy children go.
OEDIPUS.
Rob me not of these my children!
CREON.
Crave not mastery in all,
For the mastery that raised thee was thy bane and wrought thy fall.
CHORUS.
Look ye, countrymen and Thebans, this is Oedipus the great,
He who knew the Sphinx’s riddle and was mightiest in our state.
Who of all our townsmen gazed not on his fame with envious eyes? ”

“ CH. Well, if the man be capable of fear,
He’ll not remain when he hath heard thy curse.
OED. Words have no terror for the soul that dares
Such doings.
CH. Yet lives one who shall convict him.
For look where now they lead the holy seer,
Whom sacred Truth inspires alone of men.
Enter TIRESIAS.
OED. O thou whose universal thought commands
All knowledge and all mysteries, in Heaven
And on the earth beneath, thy mind perceives,
Tirésias, though thine outward eye be dark,
What plague is wasting Thebè, who in thee,
Great Sir, finds her one saviour, her sole guide. ”

“ Olympian Zeus, the father of us all,
Sent him forth sold in bondage, spared him not,
Because he slew this man, alone of men,
With base deceit; for, had he come on him
In open fight, then Zeus had pardoned him
With justice conquering; for wanton wrong
Not even Gods can bear with. Those that waxed⁠280
Too haughty in the pride of evil speech
Are dwellers now in Hades, all of them,
Their city captured. These thou look'st upon,
Falling from high estate to piteous life,
Now come to thee: for so thy husband charged,
And I, his faithful servant, do his will. ”

“ Thou bring’st a tongue suborned with false pretence,
Sharpened with insolence;—but in shrewd speech
Thou shalt find less of profit than of bane.
This thou wilt ne’er believe. Therefore begone!
Let me live here. For even such life as mine
Were not amiss, might I but have my will.
CR. Which of us twain, believ’st thou, in this talk
Hath more profoundly sinned against thy peace?
OED. If thou prevail’st with these men present here
Even as with me, I shall be well content.
CR. Unhappy man, will not even Time bring forth
One spark of wisdom to redeem thine age?
OED. Thou art a clever talker. ”

“ Which slew him with all shame of foulest crime.
Antistrophe.
And so with many a foot and many a hand,
⁠Lurking in ambush dread,
⁠Shall come with brazen tread,
⁠Erinnys terrible;
For lo! the clasp of blood-stained marriage-bed
⁠Came in foul wedlock's band
⁠On those who might not wed;
And now, in face of these things, I must deem
⁠That those who did or shared the deed of guilt
Shall have good reason to mislike their dream:
⁠Yea, oracles are vain,
⁠In dreams or prophet's strain,
Unless this shadowy phantom of the night
Shall reach its goal, victorious in the right. ”

“ ISMENE.
The gods, who once abased, uplift thee now.
OEDIPUS.
Poor help to raise an old man fallen in youth.
ISMENE.
Howe’er that be, ’tis for this cause alone
That Creon comes to thee—and comes anon.
OEDIPUS.
With what intent, my daughter? Tell me plainly.
ISMENE.
To plant thee near the Theban land, and so
Keep thee within their grasp, yet now allow
Thy foot to pass beyond their boundaries.
OEDIPUS.
What gain they, if I lay outside?
OEDIPUS.
Thy tomb,
If disappointed, brings on them a curse.
OEDIPUS.
It needs no god to tell what’s plain to sense. ”

“ But if the sin is theirs, O may they suffer
No worse ills than the wrongs they do to me.
CHORUS.
The same ungovernable will
Drives like a gale the maiden still.
CREON.
Therefore, my guards who let her stay
Shall smart full sore for their delay.
ANTIGONE.
Ah, woe is me! This word I hear
Brings death most near.
CHORUS.
I have no comfort. What he saith,
Portends no other thing than death.
ANTIGONE.
My fatherland, city of Thebes divine,
Ye gods of Thebes whence sprang my line,
Look, puissant lords of Thebes, on me;
The last of all your royal house ye see. ”

“ Dark-fated Oedipus, I fain would hear
What prayer or supplication thou preferrest
To me and to my city, thou and this
Poor maid who moves beside thee. Full of dread
Must be that fortune thou canst name, which I
Would shrink from, since I know of mine own youth,
How in strange lands a stranger as thou art
I bore the brunt of perilous circumstance
Beyond all others; nor shall any man,
Like thee an alien from his native home,
Find me to turn my face from succouring him.
I am a man and know it. To-morrow’s good
Is no more mine than thine or any man’s. ”

“ The fate of her who should have been his bride,
⁠The maid Antigone,
⁠Grieving o'er vanished joys?⁠630
Enter Hæmon.
⁠Creon. Soon we shall know much more than seers can tell.
Surely thou dost not come, my son, to rage
Against thy father, hearing his decree,
Fixing her doom who should have been thy bride;
Or dost thou love us still, whatever we do?
Hæmon. My father, I am thine; and thou dost guide
With thy wise counsels, which I gladly follow.
No marriage weighs one moment in the scales
With me, while thou dost guide my steps aright. ”