The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Oedipus Trilogy, by Sophocles ...

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JOCASTA And yet thy sire's death lights out darkness much. OEDIPUS Much, but my fear is touching her who lives. MESSENGER Who may this woman be whom thus you fear? OEDIPUS Merope, stranger, wife of Polybus. MESSENGER And what of her can cause you any fear? OEDIPUS A heaven-sent oracle of dread import. MESSENGER A mystery, or may a stranger hear it? OEDIPUS Aye, 'tis no secret. Loxias once foretold That I should mate with mine own mother, and shed With my own hands the blood of my own sire. Hence Corinth was for many a year to me A home distant; and I trove abroad, But missed the sweetest sight, my parents' face. MESSENGER Was this the fear that exiled thee from home? OEDIPUS Yea, and the dread of slaying my own sire. MESSENGER Why, since I came to give thee pleasure, King, Have I not rid thee of this second fear? OEDIPUS Well, thou shalt have due guerdon for thy pains. MESSENGER Well, I confess what chiefly made me come Was hope to profit by thy coming home. OEDIPUS Nay, I will ne'er go near my parents more. MESSENGER My son, 'tis plain, thou know'st not what thou doest. OEDIPUS How so, old man? For heaven's sake tell me all. MESSENGER If this is why thou dreadest to return.
OEDIPUS Yea, lest the god's word be fulfilled in me. MESSENGER Lest through thy parents thou shouldst be accursed? OEDIPUS This and none other is my constant dread. MESSENGER Dost thou not know thy fears are baseless all? OEDIPUS How baseless, if I am their very son? MESSENGER Since Polybus was naught to thee in blood. OEDIPUS What say'st thou? was not Polybus my sire? MESSENGER As much thy sire as I am, and no more. OEDIPUS My sire no more to me than one who is naught? MESSENGER Since I begat thee not, no more did he. OEDIPUS What reason had he then to call me son? MESSENGER Know that he took thee from my hands, a gift. OEDIPUS Yet, if no child of his, he loved me well. MESSENGER A childless man till then, he warmed to thee. OEDIPUS A foundling or a purchased slave, this child? MESSENGER I found thee in Cithaeron's wooded glens. OEDIPUS What led thee to explore those upland glades? MESSENGER My business was to tend the mountain flocks. OEDIPUS A vagrant shepherd journeying for hire?
Page 1 and 2: The Project Gutenberg EBook of The
Page 3 and 4: Explain your mood and purport. Is i
Page 5 and 6: King Phoebus bids us straitly extir
Page 7 and 8: If in the days of old when we nigh
Page 9 and 10: But may they waste and pine, as now
Page 11 and 12: TEIRESIAS I will not vex myself nor
Page 13 and 14: The trusty Creon, my familiar frien
Page 15 and 16: That I have missed the mark, hencef
Page 17 and 18: Therein thou judgest rightly, but t
Page 19 and 20: The thing he counts most precious,
Page 21 and 22: CHORUS No, by the leader of the hos
Page 23 and 24: OEDIPUS What memories, what wild tu
Page 25 and 26: My mother and my sire and questione
Page 27 and 28: Then topples o'er and lies in ruin
Page 29: OEDIPUS What? let me have it, stran
Page 33 and 34: Afield or in the city? answer strai
Page 35 and 36: HERDSMAN I was, a thrall, not purch
Page 37 and 38: HERDSMAN Well then--it was a child
Page 39 and 40: SECOND MESSENGER My tale is quickly
Page 41 and 42: The double weight of past and prese
Page 43 and 44: Thy prayer by action or advice, for
Page 45 and 46: Such are the gibes that men will ca
Page 47 and 48: Creon enters with an armed guard wh
Page 49 and 50: Tell me the awful name I should inv
Page 51 and 52: Of cities, pity this dishonored sha
Page 53 and 54: Follow with blind steps, father, as
Page 55 and 56: CHORUS O wretched me! Begone! OEDIP
Page 57 and 58: OEDIPUS Well, may he come with bles
Page 59 and 60: To suffer, first in act and then in
Page 61 and 62: They knew it, yet the ignoble greed
Page 63 and 64: And I shall then be bold to stand t
Page 65 and 66: OEDIPUS Horrors from the boundless
Page 67 and 68: OEDIPUS Yea, the last boon is warra
Page 69 and 70: What wouldst thou here? I shall not
Page 71 and 72: Oh land extolled above all lands, '
Page 73 and 74: Not for a man indeed with wits like
Page 75 and 76: OEDIPUS Where art thou, daughter? A
Page 77 and 78: CHORUS Haste ye princes, sound the
Page 79 and 80: Me then unborn, begotten by no sire
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(Ant. 1) Haply on swiftest steed, O
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What say I? Can I wish that thou sh
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Grievous to me, my child, the boon
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But by his popular acts; and the pr
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To Thebes, O then disown me not, I
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Bristles for fear. Again that flare
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For this way Hermes leads, the spir
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That no man might endure to look up
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ANTIGONE ISMENE Is fain? ANTIGONE I
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Charged me straitly that no moral S
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ANTIGONE Ismene, sister of my blood
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ISMENE My poor, fond sister, how I
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Again, when Oedipus restored our St
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What say'st thou? Who hath dared to
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(Str. 1) Many wonders there be, but
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CREON Speak, girl, with head bent l
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Surely, if good and evil fare alive
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Thy choice with evil-doers to do il
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But who begets unprofitable sons, H
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Am I to rule for others, or myself?
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Straight to folly will fall, at a t
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Are guiltless as concerns this maid
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By Destiny That knows not death nor
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Dost know at whom thou glancest, me
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(Ant. 1) Thee on the two-crested ro
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And ran back to our lord to tell th
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CREON (Ant. 2) Alas! another added
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