First Episode

Oedipus.Thou prayest: and in answer to thy prayer, — if thou wilt give a loyal welcome to my words and minister to thine own disease, — thou mayest hope to find succour and relief from woes. These words will I speak publicly, as one who has been a stranger to this report, a stranger to the deed;.for I should not be far on the track, if I were tracing it alone, without a clue. But as it is, — since it was only after the time of the deed that I was numbered a Theban among Thebans, — to you, the Cadmeans all, I do thus proclaim. Whosoever of you knows by whom Laïus son of Labdacus was slain, I bid him to declare all to me. And if he is afraid, I tell him to remove the danger of the charge from his path by denouncing himself; for he shall suffer nothing else unlovely, but only leave the land, unhurt. Or if any one knows an alien, from another land, as the assassin, let him not keep silence; for I will pay his guerdon, and my thanks shall rest with him besides. But if ye keep silence — if any one, through fear, shall seek to screen friend or self from my behest — hear ye what I then shall do. I charge you that no one of this land, whereof I hold the empire and the throne, give shelter or speak word unto that murderer, whosoever he be, — make him partner of his prayer or sacrifice, or serve him with the lustral rite; but that all ban him their homes, knowing that this is our defiling thing, as the oracle of the Pythian god hath newly shown me. I then am on this wise the ally of the god and of the slain. And I pray solemnly that the slayer, whoso he be, whether his hidden guilt is lonely or hath partners, evilly, as he is evil, may wear out his unblest life. And for myself I pray that if, with my privity, he should become an inmate of my house, I may suffer the same things which even now I called down upon others. And on you I lay it to make all these words good, for my sake, and for the sake of the god, and for our land’s, thus blasted with barrenness by angry heaven. For even if the matter had not been urged on us by a god, it was not meet that ye should leave the guilt thus unpurged, when one so noble, and he your king, had perished; rather were ye bound to search it out. And now, since ’tis I who hold the powers which once he held, who possess his bed and the wife who bare seed to him; and since, had his hope of issue not been frustrate, children born of one mother would have made ties betwixt him and me — but, as it was, fate swooped upon his head; by reason of these things will I uphold this cause, even as the cause of mine own sire, and will leave nought untried in seeking to find him whose hand shed that blood, for the honour of the son of Labdacus and of Polydorus and elder Cadmus and Agenor who was of old. And for those who obey me not, I pray that the gods send them neither harvest of the earth nor fruit of the womb, but that they be wasted by their lot that now is, or by one yet more dire. But for all you, the loyal folk of Cadmus to whom these things seem good, may Justice, our ally, and all the gods be with you graciously for ever.

Chorus.As thou hast put me on my oath, on my oath, O king, I will speak. I am not the slayer, nor can I point to him who slew. As for the question, it was for Phoebus, who sent it, to tell us this thing — who can have wrought the deed.

Oedipus.Justly said; but no man on the earth can force the gods to what they will not

Chorus.I would fain say what seems to me next best after this.

Oedipus.If there is yet a third course, spare not to show it.

Chorus.I know that our lord Teiresias is the seer most like to our lord Phoebus; from whom, O king, a searcher of these things might learn them most clearly.

Oedipus.Not even this have I left out of my cares. On the hint of Creon, I have twice sent a man to bring him; and this long while I marvel why he is not here.

Chorus.Indeed (his skill apart) the rumours are but faint and old.

Oedipus.What rumours are they? I look to every story.

Chorus.Certain wayfarers were said to have killed him.

Oedipus.I, too, have heard it, but none sees him who saw it.

Chorus.Nay, if he knows what fear is, he will not stay when he hears thy curses, so dire as they are.

Oedipus.When a man shrinks not from a deed, neither is he scared by a word.

Chorus.But there is one to convict him. For here they bring at last the godlike prophet, in whom alone of men doth live the truth. Enter Teiresias, led by a Boy.

Oedipus.Teiresias, whose soul grasps all things, the lore that may be told and the unspeakable, the secrets of heaven and the low things of earth, — thou feelest, though thou canst not see, what a plague doth haunt our State, — from which, great prophet, we find in thee our protector and only saviour. Now, Phoebus — if indeed thou knowest it not from the messengers — sent answer to our question that the only riddance from this pest which could come was if we should learn aright the slayers of Laïus, and slay them, or send them into exile from our land. Do thou, then, grudge neither voice of birds nor any other way of seer-lore that thou hast, but rescue thyself and the State, rescue me, rescue all that is defiled by the dead. For we are in thy hand; and man’s noblest task is to help others by his best means and powers.

Teiresias.Alas, how dreadful to have wisdom where it profits not the wise! Aye, I knew this well, but let it slip out of mind; else would I never have come here.

Oedipus.What now? How sad thou hast come in!

Teiresias.Let me go home; most easily wilt thou bear thine own burden to the end, and I mine, if thou wilt consent.

Oedipus.Thy words are strange, nor kindly to this State which nurtured thee, when thou withholdest this response.

Teiresias.Nay, I see that thou, on thy part, openest not thy lips in season: therefore I speak not, that neither may I have thy mishap.

Oedipus.For the love of the gods, turn not away, if thou hast knowledge: all we suppliants implore thee on our knees.

Teiresias.Aye, for ye are all without knowledge; but never will I reveal my griefs — that I say not thine.

Oedipus.How sayest thou? Thou knowest the secret, and wilt not tell it, but art minded to betray us and to destroy the State?

Teiresias.I will pain neither myself nor thee. Why vainly ask these things? Thou wilt not learn them from me.

Oedipus.What, basest of the base, — for thou wouldest anger a very stone, — wilt thou never speak out? Can nothing touch thee? Wilt thou never make an end?

Teiresias.Thou blamest my temper, but seest not that to which thou thyself art wedded: no, thou findest fault with me.

Oedipus.And who would not be angry to hear the words with which thou now dost slight this city?

Teiresias.The future will come of itself, though I shroud it in silence.

Oedipus.Then, seeing that it must come, thou on thy part shouldst tell me thereof.

Teiresias.I will speak no further; rage, then, if thou wilt, with the fiercest wrath thy heart doth know.

Oedipus.Aye, verily, I will not spare — so wroth I am — to speak all my thought. Know that thou seemest to me e’en to have helped in plotting the deed, and to have done it, short of slaying with thy hands. Hadst thou eyesight, I would have said that the doing, also, of this thing was thine alone.

Teiresias.In sooth? — I charge thee that thou abide by the decree of thine own mouth, and from this day speak neither to these nor to me: thou art the accursed defiler of this land.

Oedipus.So brazen with thy blustering taunt? And wherein dost thou trust to escape thy due?

Teiresias.I have escaped: in my truth is my strength.

Oedipus.Who taught thee this? It was not, at least, thine art. ‘

Teiresias.Thou: for thou didst spur me into speech against my will.

Oedipus.What speech? Speak again that I may learn it better.

Teiresias.Didst thou not take my sense before? Or art thou tempting me in talk?

Oedipus.No, I took it not so that I can call it known: — speak again.

Teiresias.I say that thou art the slayer of the man whose slayer thou seekest.

Oedipus.Now thou shalt rue that thou hast twice said words so dire.

Teiresias.Wouldst thou have me say more, that thou mayest be more wroth?

Oedipus.What thou wilt; it will be said in vain.

Teiresias.I say that thou hast been living in unguessed shame with thy nearest kin, and seest not to what woe thou hast come.

Oedipus.Dost thou indeed think that thou shalt always speak thus without smarting?

Teiresias.Yes, if there is any strength in truth.

Oedipus.Nay, there is, — for all save thee; for thee that strength is not, since thou art maimed in ear, and in wit, and in eye.

Teiresias.Aye, and thou art a poor wretch to utter taunts which every man here will soon hurl at thee.

Oedipus.Night, endless night hath thee in her keeping, so that thou canst never hurt me,or any man who sees the sun.

Teiresias.No, thy doom is not to fall by me: Apollo is enough, whose care it is to work that out.

Oedipus.Are these Creon’s devices, or thine?

Teiresias.Nay, Creon is no plague to thee; thou art thine own.

Oedipus.O wealth, and empire, and skill surpassing skill in life’s keen rivalries, how great is the envy that cleaves to you, if for the sake, yea, of this power which the city hath put into my hands, a gift unsought, Creon the trusty, Creon mine old friend, hath crept on me by stealth, yearning to thrust me out of it, and hath suborned such a scheming juggler as this, a tricky quack, who hath eyes only for his gains, but in his art is blind! Come, now, tell me, where hast thou proved thyself a seer? Why, when the Watcher was here who wove dark song, didst thou say nothing that could free this folk? Yet the riddle, at least, was not for the first comer to read; there was need of a seer’s skill; and none such thou wast found to have, either by help of birds, or as known from any god: no, I came, I, Oedipus the ignorant, and made her mute, when I had seized the answer by my wit, untaught of birds. And it is I whom thou art trying to oust, thinking to stand close to Creon’s throne. Methinks thou and the plotter of these things will rue your zeal to purge the land. Nay, didst thou not seem to be an old man, thou shouldst have learned to thy cost how bold thou art.

Chorus.To our thinking, both this man’s words and thine, Oedipus, have been said in anger. Not for such words is our need, but to seek how we shall best discharge the mandates of the god.

Teiresias.King though thou art, the right of reply, at least, must be deemed the same for both; of that I too am lord. Not to thee do I live servant, but to Loxias; and so I shall not stand enrolled under Creon for my patron. And I tell thee — since thou hast taunted me even with blindness — that thou hast sight, yet seest not in what misery thou art, nor where thou dwellest, nor with whom. Dost thou know of what stock thou art? And thou hast been an unwitting foe to thine own kin, in the shades, and on the earth above; and the double lash of thy mother’s and thy father’s curse shall one day drive thee from this land in dreadful haste, with darkness then on the eyes that now see true. And what place shall not be harbour to thy shriek, what of all Cithaeron shall not ring with it soon, when thou hast learnt the meaning of the nuptials in which, within that house, thou didst find a fatal haven, after a voyage so fair? And a throng of other ills thou guessest not, which shall make thee level with thy true self and with thine own brood. Therefore heap thy scorns on Creon and on my message: for no one among men shall ever be crushed more miserably than thou.

Oedipus.Are these taunts to be indeed borne from him? — Hence, ruin take thee! Hence, this instant! Back! — away! — avaunt thee from these doors!

Teiresias.I had never come, not I, hadst thou not called me.

Oedipus.I knew not that thou wast about to speak folly, or it had been long ere I had sent for thee to my house.

Teiresias.Such am I, — as thou thinkest, a fool; but for the parents who begat thee, sane.

Oedipus.What parents? Stay... and who of men is my sire?

Teiresias.This day shall show thy birth and shall bring thy ruin.

Oedipus.What riddles, what dark words thou always speakest!

Teiresias.Nay, art not thou most skilled to unravel dark speech?

Oedipus.Make that my reproach in which thou shalt find me great.

Teiresias.Yet ’twas just that fortune that undid thee.

Oedipus.Nay, if I delivered this town, I care not.

Teiresias.Then I will go: so do thou, boy, take me hence.

Oedipus.Aye, let him take thee: while here, thou art a hindrance, thou, a trouble: when thou hast vanished, thou wilt not vex me more.

Teiresias.I will go when I have done mine errand, fearless of thy frown: for thou canst never destroy me. And I tell thee — the man of whom thou hast this long while been in quest, uttering threats, and proclaiming a search into the murder of Lai’us — that man is here, — in seeming, an alien sojourner, but anon he shall be found a native Theban, and shall not be glad of his fortune. A blind man, he who now hath sight, a beggar, who now is rich, he shall make his way to a strange land, feeling the ground before him with his staff. And he shall be found at once brother and father of the children with whom he consorts; son and husband of the woman who bore him; heir to his father’s bed, shedder of his father’s blood. So go thou in and think on that; and if thou find that I have been at fault, say thenceforth that I have no wit in prophecy. [Teiresias is led out by the Boy.— Oedipus enters the palace.