THE BOOK WAS DRENCHED - OUDL Home

[1167-1191] Oedipus at Colonus 653
THESEUS
Look if ye have any kinsman at Argos, who might crave this boon of
thee.
OEDIPUS
O friend! Say no word more!
What ails thee?
Ask it not of me—
Ask what?—Speak!
THESEUS
OEDIPUS
THESEUS
OEDIPUS
By those words I know who is the suppliant.
THESEUS
And who can he be, against whom I should have a grief?
OEDIPUS
My son, O king,—the hated son whose words would vex mine ear as
the words of no man beside.
THESEUS
What? Canst thou not listen, without doing what thou wouldst not?
Why should it pain thee to hear him?
OEDIPUS
Most hateful, king, hath that voice become to his sire:—lay me not
under constraint to yield in this.
THESEUS
But think whether his suppliant state constrains thee: what if thou
hast a duty of respect for the god?
ANTIGONE
Father, hearken to me, though I be young who counsel. Allow the king
to gratify his own heart, and to gratify the god as he wishes; and, for thy
daughter's sake, allow our brother to come. For he will not pluck thee
perforce from thy resolve,—never fear,—by such words as shall not be
spoken for thy good. But to hear him speak,—what harm can be in that?
Ill-devised deeds, thou knowest, are bewrayed by speech. Thou art his
sire; so that, e'en if he were to wrong thee with the most impious of foul
wrongs, my father, it is not lawful for thee to wrong him again.