THE BOOK WAS DRENCHED - OUDL Home

[ 1542-1584] Oedipus at Colonus 663
onward,) My children, follow me,—thus,—for I now have in strange wise
been made your guide, as ye were your sire's. On,—touch me not,—nay,
suffer me unaided to find out that sacred tomb where 'tis my portion to be
buried in this land.
This way,—hither,—this way!—for this way doth Guiding Hermes
lead me, and the goddess of the dead!
O light,—no light to me,—mine once thou wast, I ween,—but now my
body feels thee for the last time! For now go I to hide the close of my
life with Hades.—Truest of friends! blessed be thou, and this land, and
thy lieges; and, when your days are blest, think on me the dead, for your
welfare evermore.
(He passes from the stage on the spectators' left, followed by his daughters,
THESEUS, and attendants.)
CHORUS (singing)
strophe
If with prayer I may adore the Unseen Goddess, and thee, lord
of the children of night, O hear me, Aidoneus, Aidoneus! Not in pain,
not by a doom that wakes sore lament, may the stranger pass to the
fields of the dead below, the all-enshrouding, and to the Stygian
house. Many were the sorrows that came to him without cause; but
in requital a just god will lift him up.
antistrophe
Goddesses Infernal! And thou, dread form of the unconquered
hound, thou who hast thy lair in those gates of many guests, thou
untameable Watcher of Hell, gnarling from the cavern's jaws, as
rumour from the beginning tells of thee!
Hear me, 0 Death, son of Earth and Tartarus! May that Watcher
leave a clear path for the stranger on his way to the nether fields of
the dead! To thee I call, giver of the eternal sleep.
(A MESSENGER enters from the left.)
MESSENGER
Countrymen, my tidings might most shortly be summed thus: Oedipus
is gone. But the story of the hap may not be told in brief words, as the
deeds yonder were not briefly done.
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
He is gone, hapless one?
MESSENGER
Be sure that he hath passed from life.