1 Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus Introduced and Translated by ...

I forbid any citizen of this land over which I rule
to let this man into your house,
or to speak to him,
or to let him pray,
or sacrifice to the gods with you,
or touch holy water. 240
Instead you must drive him from your homes
because he is the sickness described by Apollo.
I decree this and so become the ally of the god
and the dead man.
I pray that he who has done this,
whether a single man or several,
that he may scratch out his life in total misery.
I pray that if he lives in my own house
with my own knowledge, 250
that I be cursed in the same way.
I order you to do this, for myself, for Apollo,
and for this land now infertile, godless, and destroyed.
Even if the gods had not forced you,
you should have investigated the murder
of this noble man who was your king.
Now I rule in his place,
and sleep in his bed with his wife. 260
If he had been as lucky as I was in having children,
we would both have had them from the same mother,
but as it was, fate cut him short.
That’s why I’ll fight for him as if he were my own father,
and discover his murderer.
He was the son of Labdacus, whose father was Polydorus,
who came from Cadmus and, before that, Agenor.
For those who do not do what I ask,
I pray the gods make their fields and their women barren, 270
and that they die from what they suffer now, and even worse.
But you who agree with what I’ve said,
I pray that justice be your ally,
and that all the gods walk at your side and favor you forever.
CHORUS
Since you press me, sir, I’ll speak.
I didn’t kill him, and I don’t know who did.
Apollo laid this command on us:
HE should find the killer.
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