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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

And heed them and apply the remedy, Ye might perchance find comfort and relief. Mind you, I speak as one who comes a stranger To this report, no less than to the crime; For how unaided could I track it far Without a clue? Which lacking (for too late Was I enrolled a citizen of Thebes) This proclamation I address to all:-- Thebans, if any knows the man by whom Laius, son of Labdacus, was slain, I summon him to make clean shrift to me. And if he shrinks, let him reflect that thus Confessing he shall 'scape the capital charge; For the worst penalty that shall befall him Is banishment--unscathed he shall depart. But if an alien from a foreign land Be known to any as the murderer, Let him who knows speak out, and he shall have Due recompense from me and thanks to boot. But if ye still keep silence, if through fear For self or friends ye disregard my hest, Hear what I then resolve; I lay my ban On the assassin whosoe'er he be. Let no man in this land, whereof I hold The sovereign rule, harbor or speak to him; Give him no part in prayer or sacrifice Or lustral rites, but hound him from your homes. For this is our defilement, so the god Hath lately shown to me by oracles. Thus as their champion I maintain the cause Both of the god and of the murdered King. And on the murderer this curse I lay (On him and all the partners in his guilt):-- Wretch, may he pine in utter wretchedness! And for myself, if with my privity He gain admittance to my hearth, I pray The curse I laid on others fall on me. See that ye give effect to all my hest, For my sake and the god's and for our land, A desert blasted by the wrath of heaven. For, let alone the god's express command, It were a scandal ye should leave unpurged The murder of a great man and your king, Nor track it home. And now that I am lord, Successor to his throne, his bed, his wife, (And had he not been frustrate in the hope Of issue, common children of one womb Had forced a closer bond twixt him and me, But Fate swooped down upon him), therefore I His blood-avenger will maintain his cause As though he were my sire, and leave no stone Unturned to track the assassin or avenge The son of Labdacus, of Polydore, Of Cadmus, and Agenor first of the race. And for the disobedient thus I pray: May the gods send them neither timely fruits Of earth, nor teeming increase of the womb,
But may they waste and pine, as now they waste, Aye and worse stricken; but to all of you, My loyal subjects who approve my acts, May Justice, our ally, and all the gods Be gracious and attend you evermore. CHORUS The oath thou profferest, sire, I take and swear. I slew him not myself, nor can I name The slayer. For the quest, 'twere well, methinks That Phoebus, who proposed the riddle, himself Should give the answer--who the murderer was. OEDIPUS Well argued; but no living man can hope To force the gods to speak against their will. CHORUS May I then say what seems next best to me? OEDIPUS Aye, if there be a third best, tell it too. CHORUS My liege, if any man sees eye to eye With our lord Phoebus, 'tis our prophet, lord Teiresias; he of all men best might guide A searcher of this matter to the light. OEDIPUS Here too my zeal has nothing lagged, for twice At Creon's instance have I sent to fetch him, And long I marvel why he is not here. CHORUS I mind me too of rumors long ago-- Mere gossip. OEDIPUS Tell them, I would fain know all. CHORUS 'Twas said he fell by travelers. OEDIPUS So I heard, But none has seen the man who saw him fall. CHORUS Well, if he knows what fear is, he will quail And flee before the terror of thy curse. OEDIPUS Words scare not him who blenches not at deeds. CHORUS But here is one to arraign him. Lo, at length
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: If in the days of old when we nigh
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 and 30: OEDIPUS What? let me have it, stran
Page 31 and 32: OEDIPUS Yea, lest the god's word be
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
Page 81 and 82:
(Ant. 1) Haply on swiftest steed, O
Page 83 and 84:
What say I? Can I wish that thou sh
Page 85 and 86:
Grievous to me, my child, the boon
Page 87 and 88:
But by his popular acts; and the pr
Page 89 and 90:
To Thebes, O then disown me not, I
Page 91 and 92:
Bristles for fear. Again that flare
Page 93 and 94:
For this way Hermes leads, the spir
Page 95 and 96:
That no man might endure to look up
Page 97 and 98:
ANTIGONE ISMENE Is fain? ANTIGONE I
Page 99 and 100:
Charged me straitly that no moral S
Page 101 and 102:
ANTIGONE Ismene, sister of my blood
Page 103 and 104:
ISMENE My poor, fond sister, how I
Page 105 and 106:
Again, when Oedipus restored our St
Page 107 and 108:
What say'st thou? Who hath dared to
Page 109 and 110:
(Str. 1) Many wonders there be, but
Page 111 and 112:
CREON Speak, girl, with head bent l
Page 113 and 114:
Surely, if good and evil fare alive
Page 115 and 116:
Thy choice with evil-doers to do il
Page 117 and 118:
But who begets unprofitable sons, H
Page 119 and 120:
Am I to rule for others, or myself?
Page 121 and 122:
Straight to folly will fall, at a t
Page 123 and 124:
Are guiltless as concerns this maid
Page 125 and 126:
By Destiny That knows not death nor
Page 127 and 128:
Dost know at whom thou glancest, me
Page 129 and 130:
(Ant. 1) Thee on the two-crested ro
Page 131 and 132:
And ran back to our lord to tell th
Page 133 and 134:
CREON (Ant. 2) Alas! another added
Page 135 and 136:
subject to the trademark license, e
Page 137 and 138:
"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other form
Page 139 and 140:
Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c)
show all

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

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?