Source passages

Sophocles, Oedipus the King, translated by Francis Storr. Loeb Library edition, first published 1912; Project Gutenberg #31, updated 4 March 2022.

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85  DRAMATIS PERSONAE
86  
87  Oedipus.
88  The Priest of Zeus.
89  Creon.
90  Chorus of Theban Elders.
91  Teiresias.
92  Jocasta.
93  Messenger.
94  Herd of Laius.
95  Second Messenger.
96  
97  Scene: Thebes. Before the Palace of Oedipus.
98  

184  Him and none other, but I grieve at once
185  Both for the general and myself and you.
186  Therefore ye rouse no sluggard from day-dreams.
187  Many, my children, are the tears I’ve wept,
188  And threaded many a maze of weary thought.
189  Thus pondering one clue of hope I caught,
190  And tracked it up; I have sent Menoeceus’ son,
191  Creon, my consort’s brother, to inquire
192  Of Pythian Phoebus at his Delphic shrine,
193  How I might save the State by act or word.

233  CREON.
234  If thou wouldst hear my message publicly,
235  I’ll tell thee straight, or with thee pass within.
236  
237  
238  OEDIPUS.
239  Speak before all; the burden that I bear
240  Is more for these my subjects than myself.
241  
242  
243  CREON.
244  Let me report then all the god declared.
245  King Phoebus bids us straitly extirpate
246  A fell pollution that infests the land,
247  And no more harbor an inveterate sore.
248  
249  
250  OEDIPUS.
251  What expiation means he? What’s amiss?
252  
253  
254  CREON.
255  Banishment, or the shedding blood for blood.
256  This stain of blood makes shipwreck of our state.
257  
258  
259  OEDIPUS.
260  Whom can he mean, the miscreant thus denounced?
261  
262  
263  CREON.
264  Before thou didst assume the helm of State,
265  The sovereign of this land was Laius.
266  
267  
268  OEDIPUS.
269  I heard as much, but never saw the man.
270  
271  
272  CREON.
273  He fell; and now the god’s command is plain:
274  Punish his takers-off, whoe’er they be.
275  
276  
277  OEDIPUS.
278  Where are they? Where in the wide world to find
279  The far, faint traces of a bygone crime?
280  
281  
282  CREON.
283  In this land, said the god; “who seeks shall find;
284  Who sits with folded hands or sleeps is blind.”

302  CREON.
303  But one escape, who flying for dear life,
304  Could tell of all he saw but one thing sure.
305  
306  
307  OEDIPUS.
308  And what was that? One clue might lead us far,
309  With but a spark of hope to guide our quest.
310  
311  
312  CREON.
313  Robbers, he told us, not one bandit but
314  A troop of knaves, attacked and murdered him.

337  OEDIPUS.
338  Well, _I_ will start afresh and once again
339  Make dark things clear. Right worthy the concern
340  Of Phoebus, worthy thine too, for the dead;
341  I also, as is meet, will lend my aid
342  To avenge this wrong to Thebes and to the god.
343  Not for some far-off kinsman, but myself,
344  Shall I expel this poison in the blood;
345  For whoso slew that king might have a mind
346  To strike me too with his assassin hand.
347  Therefore in righting him I serve myself.
348  Up, children, haste ye, quit these altar stairs,
349  Take hence your suppliant wands, go summon hither
350  The Theban commons. With the god’s good help
351  Success is sure; ’tis ruin if we fail.

675  TEIRESIAS.
676  Is it so? Then I charge thee to abide
677  By thine own proclamation; from this day
678  Speak not to these or me. Thou art the man,
679  Thou the accursed polluter of this land.
680  
681  
682  OEDIPUS.
683  Vile slanderer, thou blurtest forth these taunts,
684  And think’st forsooth as seer to go scot free.
685  
686  
687  TEIRESIAS.
688  Yea, I am free, strong in the strength of truth.
689  
690  
691  OEDIPUS.
692  Who was thy teacher? not methinks thy art.
693  
694  
695  TEIRESIAS.
696  Thou, goading me against my will to speak.
697  
698  
699  OEDIPUS.
700  What speech? repeat it and resolve my doubt.
701  
702  
703  TEIRESIAS.
704  Didst miss my sense wouldst thou goad me on?
705  
706  
707  OEDIPUS.
708  I but half caught thy meaning; say it again.
709  
710  
711  TEIRESIAS.
712  I say thou art the murderer of the man
713  Whose murderer thou pursuest.
714  
715  
716  OEDIPUS.
717                                Thou shalt rue it
718  Twice to repeat so gross a calumny.
719  
720  
721  TEIRESIAS.
722  Must I say more to aggravate thy rage?
723  
724  
725  OEDIPUS.
726  Say all thou wilt; it will be but waste of breath.
727  
728  
729  TEIRESIAS.
730  I say thou livest with thy nearest kin
731  In infamy, unwitting in thy shame.

769  OEDIPUS.
770  O wealth and empiry and skill by skill
771  Outwitted in the battlefield of life,
772  What spite and envy follow in your train!
773  See, for this crown the State conferred on me.
774  A gift, a thing I sought not, for this crown
775  The trusty Creon, my familiar friend,
776  Hath lain in wait to oust me and suborned
777  This mountebank, this juggling charlatan,
778  This tricksy beggar-priest, for gain alone
779  Keen-eyed, but in his proper art stone-blind.

1245  CHORUS.
1246  Cease, princes; lo there comes, and none too soon,
1247  Jocasta from the palace. Who so fit
1248  As peacemaker to reconcile your feud?
1249  [Enter JOCASTA.]
1250  
1251  
1252  JOCASTA.
1253  Misguided princes, why have ye upraised
1254  This wordy wrangle? Are ye not ashamed,
1255  While the whole land lies striken, thus to voice
1256  Your private injuries? Go in, my lord;
1257  Go home, my brother, and forebear to make
1258  A public scandal of a petty grief.
1259  
1260  
1261  CREON.
1262  My royal sister, Oedipus, thy lord,
1263  Hath bid me choose (O dread alternative!)
1264  An outlaw’s exile or a felon’s death.

1428  JOCASTA.
1429  Then thou mayest ease thy conscience on that score.
1430  Listen and I’ll convince thee that no man
1431  Hath scot or lot in the prophetic art.
1432  Here is the proof in brief. An oracle
1433  Once came to Laius (I will not say
1434  ’Twas from the Delphic god himself, but from
1435  His ministers) declaring he was doomed
1436  To perish by the hand of his own son,
1437  A child that should be born to him by me.
1438  Now Laius—so at least report affirmed—
1439  Was murdered on a day by highwaymen,
1440  No natives, at a spot where three roads meet.
1441  As for the child, it was but three days old,
1442  When Laius, its ankles pierced and pinned
1443  Together, gave it to be cast away
1444  By others on the trackless mountain side.
1445  So then Apollo brought it not to pass
1446  The child should be his father’s murderer,
1447  Or the dread terror find accomplishment,
1448  And Laius be slain by his own son.
1449  Such was the prophet’s horoscope. O king,
1450  Regard it not. Whate’er the god deems fit
1451  To search, himself unaided will reveal.
1452  
1453  
1454  OEDIPUS.
1455  What memories, what wild tumult of the soul
1456  Came o’er me, lady, as I heard thee speak!
1457  
1458  
1459  JOCASTA.
1460  What mean’st thou? What has shocked and startled thee?
1461  
1462  
1463  OEDIPUS.
1464  Methought I heard thee say that Laius
1465  Was murdered at the meeting of three roads.
1466  
1467  
1468  JOCASTA.
1469  So ran the story that is current still.
1470  
1471  
1472  OEDIPUS.
1473  Where did this happen? Dost thou know the place?
1474  
1475  
1476  JOCASTA.
1477  Phocis the land is called; the spot is where
1478  Branch roads from Delphi and from Daulis meet.

1579  OEDIPUS.
1580  And thou shalt not be frustrate of thy wish.
1581  Now my imaginings have gone so far.
1582  Who has a higher claim that thou to hear
1583  My tale of dire adventures? Listen then.
1584  My sire was Polybus of Corinth, and
1585  My mother Merope, a Dorian;
1586  And I was held the foremost citizen,
1587  Till a strange thing befell me, strange indeed,
1588  Yet scarce deserving all the heat it stirred.
1589  A roisterer at some banquet, flown with wine,
1590  Shouted “Thou art not true son of thy sire.”
1591  It irked me, but I stomached for the nonce
1592  The insult; on the morrow I sought out
1593  My mother and my sire and questioned them.
1594  They were indignant at the random slur
1595  Cast on my parentage and did their best
1596  To comfort me, but still the venomed barb
1597  Rankled, for still the scandal spread and grew.
1598  So privily without their leave I went
1599  To Delphi, and Apollo sent me back
1600  Baulked of the knowledge that I came to seek.
1601  But other grievous things he prophesied,
1602  Woes, lamentations, mourning, portents dire;
1603  To wit I should defile my mother’s bed
1604  And raise up seed too loathsome to behold,
1605  And slay the father from whose loins I sprang.
1606  Then, lady,—thou shalt hear the very truth—
1607  As I drew near the triple-branching roads,
1608  A herald met me and a man who sat
1609  In a car drawn by colts—as in thy tale—
1610  The man in front and the old man himself
1611  Threatened to thrust me rudely from the path,
1612  Then jostled by the charioteer in wrath
1613  I struck him, and the old man, seeing this,
1614  Watched till I passed and from his car brought down
1615  Full on my head the double-pointed goad.
1616       Yet was I quits with him and more; one stroke
1617  Of my good staff sufficed to fling him clean
1618  Out of the chariot seat and laid him prone.
1619  And so I slew them every one. But if
1620  Betwixt this stranger there was aught in common
1621  With Laius, who more miserable than I,
1622  What mortal could you find more god-abhorred?
1623  Wretch whom no sojourner, no citizen
1624  May harbor or address, whom all are bound
1625  To harry from their homes. And this same curse
1626  Was laid on me, and laid by none but me.
1627  Yea with these hands all gory I pollute
1628  The bed of him I slew. Say, am I vile?
1629  Am I not utterly unclean, a wretch
1630  Doomed to be banished, and in banishment
1631  Forgo the sight of all my dearest ones,
1632  And never tread again my native earth;
1633  Or else to wed my mother and slay my sire,
1634  Polybus, who begat me and upreared?
1635  If one should say, this is the handiwork
1636  Of some inhuman power, who could blame
1637  His judgment? But, ye pure and awful gods,
1638  Forbid, forbid that I should see that day!
1639  May I be blotted out from living men
1640  Ere such a plague spot set on me its brand!

1689  OEDIPUS.
1690  Thou reasonest well. Still I would have thee send
1691  And fetch the bondsman hither. See to it.
1692  
1693  
1694  JOCASTA.
1695  That will I straightway. Come, let us within.
1696  I would do nothing that my lord mislikes.
1697  [Exeunt OEDIPUS and JOCASTA]

1830  OEDIPUS.
1831  My wife, my queen, Jocasta, why hast thou
1832  Summoned me from my palace?
1833  
1834  
1835  JOCASTA.
1836                                Hear this man,
1837  And as thou hearest judge what has become
1838  Of all those awe-inspiring oracles.
1839  
1840  
1841  OEDIPUS.
1842  Who is this man, and what his news for me?
1843  
1844  
1845  JOCASTA.
1846  He comes from Corinth and his message this:
1847  Thy father Polybus hath passed away.
1848  
1849  
1850  OEDIPUS.
1851  What? let me have it, stranger, from thy mouth.
1852  
1853  
1854  MESSENGER.
1855  If I must first make plain beyond a doubt
1856  My message, know that Polybus is dead.
1857  
1858  
1859  OEDIPUS.
1860  By treachery, or by sickness visited?
1861  
1862  
1863  MESSENGER.
1864  One touch will send an old man to his rest.
1865  
1866  
1867  OEDIPUS.
1868  So of some malady he died, poor man.
1869  
1870  
1871  MESSENGER.
1872  Yes, having measured the full span of years.
1873  
1874  
1875  OEDIPUS.
1876  Out on it, lady! why should one regard
1877  The Pythian hearth or birds that scream i’ the air?
1878  Did they not point at me as doomed to slay
1879  My father? but he’s dead and in his grave
1880  And here am I who ne’er unsheathed a sword;
1881  Unless the longing for his absent son
1882  Killed him and so _I_ slew him in a sense.
1883  But, as they stand, the oracles are dead—
1884  Dust, ashes, nothing, dead as Polybus.

1947  OEDIPUS.
1948  Aye, ’tis no secret. Loxias once foretold
1949  That I should mate with mine own mother, and shed
1950  With my own hands the blood of my own sire.
1951  Hence Corinth was for many a year to me
1952  A home distant; and I trove abroad,
1953  But missed the sweetest sight, my parents’ face.

2006  MESSENGER.
2007  Dost thou not know thy fears are baseless all?
2008  
2009  
2010  OEDIPUS.
2011  How baseless, if I am their very son?
2012  
2013  
2014  MESSENGER.
2015  Since Polybus was naught to thee in blood.
2016  
2017  
2018  OEDIPUS.
2019  What say’st thou? was not Polybus my sire?
2020  
2021  
2022  MESSENGER.
2023  As much thy sire as I am, and no more.
2024  
2025  
2026  OEDIPUS.
2027  My sire no more to me than one who is naught?
2028  
2029  
2030  MESSENGER.
2031  Since I begat thee not, no more did he.
2032  
2033  
2034  OEDIPUS.
2035  What reason had he then to call me son?
2036  
2037  
2038  MESSENGER.
2039  Know that he took thee from my hands, a gift.
2040  
2041  
2042  OEDIPUS.
2043  Yet, if no child of his, he loved me well.
2044  
2045  
2046  MESSENGER.
2047  A childless man till then, he warmed to thee.

2074  OEDIPUS.
2075  My savior? from what harm? what ailed me then?
2076  
2077  
2078  MESSENGER.
2079  Those ankle joints are evidence enow.
2080  
2081  
2082  OEDIPUS.
2083  Ah, why remind me of that ancient sore?
2084  
2085  
2086  MESSENGER.
2087  I loosed the pin that riveted thy feet.
2088  
2089  
2090  OEDIPUS.
2091  Yes, from my cradle that dread brand I bore.
2092  
2093  
2094  MESSENGER.
2095  Whence thou deriv’st the name that still is thine.
2096  
2097  
2098  OEDIPUS.
2099  Who did it? I adjure thee, tell me who
2100  Say, was it father, mother?
2101  
2102  
2103  MESSENGER.
2104                                I know not.
2105  The man from whom I had thee may know more.
2106  
2107  
2108  OEDIPUS.
2109  What, did another find me, not thyself?
2110  
2111  
2112  MESSENGER.
2113  Not I; another shepherd gave thee me.

2116  OEDIPUS.
2117  Who was he? Would’st thou know again the man?
2118  
2119  
2120  MESSENGER.
2121  He passed indeed for one of Laius’ house.
2122  
2123  
2124  OEDIPUS.
2125  The king who ruled the country long ago?
2126  
2127  
2128  MESSENGER.
2129  The same: he was a herdsman of the king.
2130  
2131  
2132  OEDIPUS.
2133  And is he living still for me to see him?
2134  
2135  
2136  MESSENGER.
2137  His fellow-countrymen should best know that.
2138  
2139  
2140  OEDIPUS.
2141  Doth any bystander among you know
2142  The herd he speaks of, or by seeing him
2143  Afield or in the city? answer straight!
2144  The hour hath come to clear this business up.
2145  
2146  
2147  CHORUS.
2148  Methinks he means none other than the hind
2149  Whom thou anon wert fain to see; but that
2150  Our queen Jocasta best of all could tell.
2151  
2152  
2153  OEDIPUS.
2154  Madam, dost know the man we sent to fetch?
2155  Is the same of whom the stranger speaks?

2158  JOCASTA.
2159  Who is the man? What matter? Let it be.
2160  ’Twere waste of thought to weigh such idle words.
2161  
2162  
2163  OEDIPUS.
2164  No, with such guiding clues I cannot fail
2165  To bring to light the secret of my birth.
2166  
2167  
2168  JOCASTA.
2169  Oh, as thou carest for thy life, give o’er
2170  This quest. Enough the anguish _I_ endure.
2171  
2172  
2173  OEDIPUS.
2174  Be of good cheer; though I be proved the son
2175  Of a bondwoman, aye, through three descents
2176  Triply a slave, thy honor is unsmirched.
2177  
2178  
2179  JOCASTA.
2180  Yet humor me, I pray thee; do not this.
2181  
2182  
2183  OEDIPUS.
2184  I cannot; I must probe this matter home.
2185  
2186  
2187  JOCASTA.
2188  ’Tis for thy sake I advise thee for the best.
2189  
2190  
2191  OEDIPUS.
2192  I grow impatient of this best advice.
2193  
2194  
2195  JOCASTA.
2196  Ah mayst thou ne’er discover who thou art!
2197  
2198  
2199  OEDIPUS.
2200  Go, fetch me here the herd, and leave yon woman
2201  To glory in her pride of ancestry.
2202  
2203  
2204  JOCASTA.
2205  O woe is thee, poor wretch! With that last word
2206  I leave thee, henceforth silent evermore.
2207  [Exit JOCASTA]
2208  
2209  
2210  CHORUS.
2211  Why, Oedipus, why stung with passionate grief
2212  Hath the queen thus departed? Much I fear
2213  From this dead calm will burst a storm of woes.
2214  
2215  
2216  OEDIPUS.
2217  Let the storm burst, my fixed resolve still holds,
2218  To learn my lineage, be it ne’er so low.
2219  It may be she with all a woman’s pride
2220  Thinks scorn of my base parentage. But I
2221  Who rank myself as Fortune’s favorite child,
2222  The giver of good gifts, shall not be shamed.
2223  She is my mother and the changing moons
2224  My brethren, and with them I wax and wane.
2225  Thus sprung why should I fear to trace my birth?
2226  Nothing can make me other than I am.

2248  OEDIPUS.
2249  Elders, if I, who never yet before
2250  Have met the man, may make a guess, methinks
2251  I see the herdsman who we long have sought;
2252  His time-worn aspect matches with the years
2253  Of yonder aged messenger; besides
2254  I seem to recognize the men who bring him
2255  As servants of my own. But you, perchance,
2256  Having in past days known or seen the herd,
2257  May better by sure knowledge my surmise.
2258  
2259  
2260  CHORUS.
2261  I recognize him; one of Laius’ house;
2262  A simple hind, but true as any man.
2263  [Enter HERDSMAN.]
2264  
2265  
2266  OEDIPUS.
2267  Corinthian, stranger, I address thee first,
2268  Is this the man thou meanest!
2269  
2270  
2271  MESSENGER.
2272                                This is he.
2273  
2274  
2275  OEDIPUS.
2276  And now old man, look up and answer all
2277  I ask thee. Wast thou once of Laius’ house?
2278  
2279  
2280  HERDSMAN.
2281  I was, a thrall, not purchased but home-bred.
2282  
2283  
2284  OEDIPUS.
2285  What was thy business? how wast thou employed?
2286  
2287  
2288  HERDSMAN.
2289  The best part of my life I tended sheep.
2290  
2291  
2292  OEDIPUS.
2293  What were the pastures thou didst most frequent?
2294  
2295  
2296  HERDSMAN.
2297  Cithaeron and the neighboring alps.
2298  
2299  
2300  OEDIPUS.
2301                                     Then there
2302  Thou must have known yon man, at least by fame?
2303  
2304  
2305  HERDSMAN.
2306  Yon man? in what way? what man dost thou mean?
2307  
2308  
2309  OEDIPUS.
2310  The man here, having met him in past times...
2311  
2312  
2313  HERDSMAN.
2314  Off-hand I cannot call him well to mind.
2315  
2316  
2317  MESSENGER.
2318  No wonder, master. But I will revive
2319  His blunted memories. Sure he can recall
2320  What time together both we drove our flocks,
2321  He two, I one, on the Cithaeron range,
2322  For three long summers; I his mate from spring
2323  Till rose Arcturus; then in winter time
2324  I led mine home, he his to Laius’ folds.
2325  Did these things happen as I say, or no?
2326  
2327  
2328  HERDSMAN.
2329  ’Tis long ago, but all thou say’st is true.
2330  
2331  
2332  MESSENGER.
2333  Well, thou mast then remember giving me
2334  A child to rear as my own foster-son?
2335  
2336  
2337  HERDSMAN.
2338  Why dost thou ask this question? What of that?
2339  
2340  
2341  MESSENGER.
2342  Friend, he that stands before thee was that child.
2343  
2344  
2345  HERDSMAN.
2346  A plague upon thee! Hold thy wanton tongue!

2383  OEDIPUS.
2384  Didst give this man the child of whom he asks?
2385  
2386  
2387  HERDSMAN.
2388  I did; and would that I had died that day!
2389  
2390  
2391  OEDIPUS.
2392  And die thou shalt unless thou tell the truth.
2393  
2394  
2395  HERDSMAN.
2396  But, if I tell it, I am doubly lost.
2397  
2398  
2399  OEDIPUS.
2400  The knave methinks will still prevaricate.
2401  
2402  
2403  HERDSMAN.
2404  Nay, I confessed I gave it long ago.
2405  
2406  
2407  OEDIPUS.
2408  Whence came it? was it thine, or given to thee?
2409  
2410  
2411  HERDSMAN.
2412  I had it from another, ’twas not mine.
2413  
2414  
2415  OEDIPUS.
2416  From whom of these our townsmen, and what house?
2417  
2418  
2419  HERDSMAN.
2420  Forbear for God’s sake, master, ask no more.
2421  
2422  
2423  OEDIPUS.
2424  If I must question thee again, thou’rt lost.
2425  
2426  
2427  HERDSMAN.
2428  Well then—it was a child of Laius’ house.
2429  
2430  
2431  OEDIPUS.
2432  Slave-born or one of Laius’ own race?
2433  
2434  
2435  HERDSMAN.
2436  Ah me!
2437  I stand upon the perilous edge of speech.
2438  
2439  
2440  OEDIPUS.
2441  And I of hearing, but I still must hear.
2442  
2443  
2444  HERDSMAN.
2445  Know then the child was by repute his own,
2446  But she within, thy consort best could tell.
2447  
2448  
2449  OEDIPUS.
2450  What! she, she gave it thee?
2451  
2452  
2453  HERDSMAN.
2454                                ’Tis so, my king.
2455  
2456  
2457  OEDIPUS.
2458  With what intent?
2459  
2460  
2461  HERDSMAN.
2462                      To make away with it.
2463  
2464  
2465  OEDIPUS.
2466  What, she its mother.
2467  
2468  
2469  HERDSMAN.
2470                      Fearing a dread weird.
2471  
2472  
2473  OEDIPUS.
2474  What weird?
2475  
2476  
2477  HERDSMAN.
2478            ’Twas told that he should slay his sire.
2479  
2480  
2481  OEDIPUS.
2482  What didst thou give it then to this old man?
2483  
2484  
2485  HERDSMAN.
2486  Through pity, master, for the babe. I thought
2487  He’d take it to the country whence he came;
2488  But he preserved it for the worst of woes.
2489  For if thou art in sooth what this man saith,
2490  God pity thee! thou wast to misery born.

2493  OEDIPUS.
2494  Ah me! ah me! all brought to pass, all true!
2495  O light, may I behold thee nevermore!
2496  I stand a wretch, in birth, in wedlock cursed,
2497  A parricide, incestuously, triply cursed!
2498  [Exit OEDIPUS]

2561  SECOND MESSENGER.
2562  My tale is quickly told and quickly heard.
2563  Our sovereign lady queen Jocasta’s dead.
2564  
2565  
2566  CHORUS.
2567  Alas, poor queen! how came she by her death?
2568  
2569  
2570  SECOND MESSENGER.
2571  By her own hand. And all the horror of it,
2572  Not having seen, yet cannot comprehend.
2573  Nathless, as far as my poor memory serves,
2574  I will relate the unhappy lady’s woe.
2575  When in her frenzy she had passed inside
2576  The vestibule, she hurried straight to win
2577  The bridal-chamber, clutching at her hair
2578  With both her hands, and, once within the room,
2579  She shut the doors behind her with a crash.
2580  “Laius,” she cried, and called her husband dead
2581  Long, long ago; her thought was of that child
2582  By him begot, the son by whom the sire
2583  Was murdered and the mother left to breed
2584  With her own seed, a monstrous progeny.
2585  Then she bewailed the marriage bed whereon
2586  Poor wretch, she had conceived a double brood,
2587  Husband by husband, children by her child.
2588  What happened after that I cannot tell,
2589  Nor how the end befell, for with a shriek
2590  Burst on us Oedipus; all eyes were fixed
2591  On Oedipus, as up and down he strode,
2592  Nor could we mark her agony to the end.
2593  For stalking to and fro “A sword!” he cried,
2594  “Where is the wife, no wife, the teeming womb
2595  That bore a double harvest, me and mine?”
2596  And in his frenzy some supernal power
2597  (No mortal, surely, none of us who watched him)
2598  Guided his footsteps; with a terrible shriek,
2599  As though one beckoned him, he crashed against
2600  The folding doors, and from their staples forced
2601  The wrenched bolts and hurled himself within.
2602  Then we beheld the woman hanging there,
2603  A running noose entwined about her neck.
2604  But when he saw her, with a maddened roar
2605  He loosed the cord; and when her wretched corpse
2606  Lay stretched on earth, what followed—O ’twas dread!
2607  He tore the golden brooches that upheld
2608  Her queenly robes, upraised them high and smote
2609  Full on his eye-balls, uttering words like these:
2610  “No more shall ye behold such sights of woe,
2611  Deeds I have suffered and myself have wrought;
2612  Henceforward quenched in darkness shall ye see
2613  Those ye should ne’er have seen; now blind to those
2614  Whom, when I saw, I vainly yearned to know.”
2615       Such was the burden of his moan, whereto,
2616  Not once but oft, he struck with his hand uplift
2617  His eyes, and at each stroke the ensanguined orbs
2618  Bedewed his beard, not oozing drop by drop,
2619  But one black gory downpour, thick as hail.
2620  Such evils, issuing from the double source,
2621  Have whelmed them both, confounding man and wife.
2622  Till now the storied fortune of this house
2623  Was fortunate indeed; but from this day
2624  Woe, lamentation, ruin, death, disgrace,
2625  All ills that can be named, all, all are theirs.
2626  
2627  
2628  CHORUS.
2629  But hath he still no respite from his pain?
2630  
2631  
2632  SECOND MESSENGER.
2633  He cries, “Unbar the doors and let all Thebes
2634  Behold the slayer of his sire, his mother’s—”
2635  That shameful word my lips may not repeat.
2636  He vows to fly self-banished from the land,
2637  Nor stay to bring upon his house the curse
2638  Himself had uttered; but he has no strength
2639  Nor one to guide him, and his torture’s more
2640  Than man can suffer, as yourselves will see.
2641  For lo, the palace portals are unbarred,
2642  And soon ye shall behold a sight so sad
2643  That he who must abhorred would pity it.
2644  [Enter OEDIPUS blinded.]

2952  CREON.
2953  Thou hast had enough of weeping; pass within.
2954  
2955  
2956  OEDIPUS.
2957                                               I must obey,
2958  Though ’tis grievous.
2959  
2960  
2961  CREON.
2962                           Weep not, everything must have its day.
2963  
2964  
2965  OEDIPUS.
2966  Well I go, but on conditions.
2967  
2968  
2969  CREON.
2970                                What thy terms for going, say.
2971  
2972  
2973  OEDIPUS.
2974  Send me from the land an exile.
2975  
2976  
2977  CREON.
2978                                Ask this of the gods, not me.
2979  
2980  
2981  OEDIPUS.
2982  But I am the gods’ abhorrence.
2983  
2984  
2985  CREON.
2986                                Then they soon will grant thy plea.
2987  
2988  
2989  OEDIPUS.
2990  Lead me hence, then, I am willing.
2991  
2992  
2993  CREON.
2994                                     Come, but let thy children go.
2995  
2996  
2997  OEDIPUS.
2998  Rob me not of these my children!
2999  
3000  
3001  CREON.
3002                                     Crave not mastery in all,
3003  For the mastery that raised thee was thy bane and wrought thy fall.
3004  
3005  
3006  CHORUS.
3007  Look ye, countrymen and Thebans, this is Oedipus the great,
3008  He who knew the Sphinx’s riddle and was mightiest in our state.
3009  Who of all our townsmen gazed not on his fame with envious eyes?
3010  Now, in what a sea of troubles sunk and overwhelmed he lies!
3011  Therefore wait to see life’s ending ere thou count one mortal blest;
3012  Wait till free from pain and sorrow he has gained his final rest.