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Read Ebook: Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone by Sophocles BCE BCE Storr Francis Translator
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Ebook has 1258 lines and 45880 words, and 26 pages
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 They bring the god-inspired seer in whom Above all other men is truth inborn.
OEDIPUS. Teiresias, seer who comprehendest all, Lore of the wise and hidden mysteries, High things of heaven and low things of the earth, Thou knowest, though thy blinded eyes see naught, What plague infects our city; and we turn To thee, O seer, our one defense and shield. The purport of the answer that the God Returned to us who sought his oracle, The messengers have doubtless told thee--how One course alone could rid us of the pest, To find the murderers of Laius, And slay them or expel them from the land. Therefore begrudging neither augury Nor other divination that is thine, O save thyself, thy country, and thy king, Save all from this defilement of blood shed. On thee we rest. This is man's highest end, To others' service all his powers to lend.
TEIRESIAS. Alas, alas, what misery to be wise When wisdom profits nothing! This old lore I had forgotten; else I were not here.
OEDIPUS. What ails thee? Why this melancholy mood?
TEIRESIAS. Let me go home; prevent me not; 'twere best That thou shouldst bear thy burden and I mine.
OEDIPUS. For shame! no true-born Theban patriot Would thus withhold the word of prophecy.
OEDIPUS. Oh speak, Withhold not, I adjure thee, if thou know'st, Thy knowledge. We are all thy suppliants.
TEIRESIAS. Aye, for ye all are witless, but my voice Will ne'er reveal my miseries--or thine.2
OEDIPUS. What then, thou knowest, and yet willst not speak! Wouldst thou betray us and destroy the State?
TEIRESIAS. I will not vex myself nor thee. Why ask Thus idly what from me thou shalt not learn?
OEDIPUS. Monster! thy silence would incense a flint. Will nothing loose thy tongue? Can nothing melt thee, Or shake thy dogged taciturnity?
TEIRESIAS. Thou blam'st my mood and seest not thine own Wherewith thou art mated; no, thou taxest me.
OEDIPUS. And who could stay his choler when he heard How insolently thou dost flout the State?
TEIRESIAS. Well, it will come what will, though I be mute.
OEDIPUS. Since come it must, thy duty is to tell me.
TEIRESIAS. I have no more to say; storm as thou willst, And give the rein to all thy pent-up rage.
OEDIPUS. Yea, I am wroth, and will not stint my words, But speak my whole mind. Thou methinks thou art he, Who planned the crime, aye, and performed it too, All save the assassination; and if thou Hadst not been blind, I had been sworn to boot That thou alone didst do the bloody deed.
OEDIPUS. Vile slanderer, thou blurtest forth these taunts, And think'st forsooth as seer to go scot free.
TEIRESIAS. Yea, I am free, strong in the strength of truth.
OEDIPUS. Who was thy teacher? not methinks thy art.
TEIRESIAS. Thou, goading me against my will to speak.
OEDIPUS. What speech? repeat it and resolve my doubt.
TEIRESIAS. Didst miss my sense wouldst thou goad me on?
OEDIPUS. I but half caught thy meaning; say it again.
TEIRESIAS. I say thou art the murderer of the man Whose murderer thou pursuest.
OEDIPUS. Thou shalt rue it Twice to repeat so gross a calumny.
TEIRESIAS. Must I say more to aggravate thy rage?
OEDIPUS. Say all thou wilt; it will be but waste of breath.
TEIRESIAS. I say thou livest with thy nearest kin In infamy, unwitting in thy shame.
OEDIPUS. Think'st thou for aye unscathed to wag thy tongue?
TEIRESIAS. Yea, if the might of truth can aught prevail.
OEDIPUS. With other men, but not with thee, for thou In ear, wit, eye, in everything art blind.
TEIRESIAS. Poor fool to utter gibes at me which all Here present will cast back on thee ere long.
OEDIPUS. Offspring of endless Night, thou hast no power O'er me or any man who sees the sun.
TEIRESIAS. No, for thy weird is not to fall by me. I leave to Apollo what concerns the god.
OEDIPUS. Is this a plot of Creon, or thine own?
TEIRESIAS. Not Creon, thou thyself art thine own bane.
CHORUS. To us it seems that both the seer and thou, O Oedipus, have spoken angry words. This is no time to wrangle but consult How best we may fulfill the oracle.
TEIRESIAS. King as thou art, free speech at least is mine To make reply; in this I am thy peer. I own no lord but Loxias; him I serve And ne'er can stand enrolled as Creon's man. Thus then I answer: since thou hast not spared To twit me with my blindness--thou hast eyes, Yet see'st not in what misery thou art fallen, Nor where thou dwellest nor with whom for mate. Dost know thy lineage? Nay, thou know'st it not, And all unwitting art a double foe To thine own kin, the living and the dead; Aye and the dogging curse of mother and sire One day shall drive thee, like a two-edged sword, Beyond our borders, and the eyes that now See clear shall henceforward endless night. Ah whither shall thy bitter cry not reach, What crag in all Cithaeron but shall then Reverberate thy wail, when thou hast found With what a hymeneal thou wast borne Home, but to no fair haven, on the gale! Aye, and a flood of ills thou guessest not Shall set thyself and children in one line. Flout then both Creon and my words, for none Of mortals shall be striken worse than thou.
OEDIPUS. Must I endure this fellow's insolence? A murrain on thee! Get thee hence! Begone Avaunt! and never cross my threshold more.
TEIRESIAS. I ne'er had come hadst thou not bidden me.
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