The Greek Plays
Page 33
remember what I did for you, what I went on
to do when I came here? O marriage, marriage
that brought me forth and having brought me forth
sent the same seed up again, and showed the world
fathers who were brothers, sons their fathers’ killers,
brides who were wives and mothers, and whatever
else would bring most shame to humankind!
But since what’s best not done is best not said,
1410
by the gods I beg you, quick as you can
hide me somewhere, or kill me, or hurl me
into the sea, never to be seen again.
Come, do not hesitate to touch me, in my sorrow.
Trust me, and have no fear; these ills of mine
no mortal man, none but I alone, can bear.
(Enter Creon from the side.)
CHORUS LEADER: Here, now, is Creon, coming just in time
to act on your requests, or weigh them, for he
alone is left in charge, as you once were.
OEDIPUS: Creon! oimoi, what shall I say to him?
1420
What trust can I expect, when it’s been proved
I was wrong to him in every way before?
CREON: I haven’t come to mock you, Oedipus,
nor scold you for the wrongs you’ve done.
(to the Chorus) But you here, if you aren’t ashamed
in the sight of men, be ashamed, at least, before
the sun that nurtures all—ashamed to display, like this,
unhidden, such pollution, which neither earth
nor sacred rain nor light of day will bear.
But quickly as you can, bring him inside.
1430
Only one’s kin can decently look on
or listen to the evils done by kin.
OEDIPUS: By the gods, since you’ve put my fears to flight,
coming as best of men to me, the worst,
grant me a wish, not for my sake, but yours.
CREON: What do you have in mind, to ask me like this?
OEDIPUS: Hurl me from the land, right now. Send me
where no man will ever speak to me.
CREON: I would have done so, but first it was my wish
to ask the god what action must be taken.
1440
OEDIPUS: But what he has declared is clear enough:
away with me, the father-killer, the unholy one!
CREON: So it was said, but in this crisis,
it’s better to inquire what must be done.
OEDIPUS: So you’ll ask the god about a wreck like me?
CREON: Maybe this time even you will heed his answer.
OEDIPUS: But it’s you I am entreating now, you
I ask to bury the woman who’s in there
as you see fit—take care, rightly, of your own kin.
As for me, may this, my father’s city,
1450
never be forced to shelter me in life
but let me roam the mountains, the one they call
my own, Cithaeron, which my parents made
a living tomb for me,*112 so I may finally
die at the hands of those who meant to kill me.
And yet this much I know: sickness couldn’t
have killed me then, or anything. I wouldn’t have been saved
from dying except to meet with some great evil.*113
But let fate proceed wherever it will take me.
As for my children,*114 Creon, you needn’t worry
1460
about my sons. They’re men, they’ll never lack
the means of life, wherever they may be;
but my pair of girls, unhappy, pitiful,
who never dined at a table set
apart from mine, but had
their share of everything I touched*115—
them you must care for and, most of all,
let me touch them, let me lament my sorrows.
Come, my lord,*116
come, as you are nobly born. If I held them
1470
I’d seem to have them, as when I could see.
(Enter, from the palace, Antigone and Ismene, daughters of Oedipus.)
What am I saying?
Surely, by the gods, it isn’t my two daughters
that I hear weeping? Has Creon, out of pity,
sent for the dearest of my children?
Am I right?
CREON: Yes, I’m the one who arranged for this, knowing
the pleasure they’d give you now, and gave you then.
OEDIPUS: May you prosper, then, and have the luck to find,
in return, a better god*117 than mine to guard you.
1480
Children, where are you? Come here, here
to these hands of mine, your brother’s hands
that have made your father’s eyes see as they see—
your father’s eyes that once were bright;
your father, children, who, without seeing or knowing
fathered you where I myself was sown.*118
And I weep—I can’t see, but I can weep
for you—the bitterness of the days ahead,
how people will treat you from now on.
What public gatherings will you go to,
1490
what festivals from which you won’t
come home in tears, unable to take part?
And when you’ve come to the threshold of marriage,
who will he be, who will dare, my children,
to take upon himself such taunts, disgraces
heaped on your parents and on you as well?*119
What horrors do we lack? “Your father killed
his father, plowed the same mother from whom
he himself was spawned, and from the same
womb whence he himself was born, got you.”
1500
That’s what they’ll say. And then, who’ll marry you?
No one, my children, but clearly you
are bound to perish barren and unmarried.
Son of Menoeceus, since you alone are left
a father to these girls—for we, their parents,
are both in ruins—do not just look on*120
while they wander, beggared, husbandless—your kin!
Don’t let their sorrows be as great as mine.
Take pity on them, seeing them, so young,
bereft of all, unless you take their part.
1510
Show that you agree, with a touch of your hand!*121
And to you, my children, if you could understand,
I’d offer much advice. But pray for this:
to live where opportunity allows, and have
a better life than the father who begot you.
CREON: Enough of tears for now! Inside with you.*122
OED.: I must obey, however little I like it.
CRE.: All’s well when its time has come.
OED.: Do you know my terms for going?
CRE.: I’ll know them when I’ve heard them.
OED.: Send me away, into exile.
CRE.: You ask of me what is the god’s to give.
OED.: But the gods despise me!
CRE.: Then you won’t have long to wait.
OED.: So you agree?
1520
CRE.: I don’t waste time saying what I don’t mean.
OED.: Lead me away, now. It’s time.
CRE.: Proceed, then, and let the children go.
OED.: No, don’t take them from me!
CRE.: Cease to desire power in everything;
the power you had in life has not stayed with you to the end.
(The children are escorted away from Oedipus, joining Creon and his attendants. Exit Oedipus, led by attendants, into the palace. Creon and the children exit to the side. While all these are leaving, the Chorus Leader addresses the citizens of Thebes, represented by the rest of the Chorus.)
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CHORUS LEADER: Dwellers in our native Thebes, behold! Here is Oedipus,
who solved the famous riddle and rose to power
(what citizen did not look upon his life with envy?)—
see what he’s come to, what a wave of grim disaster
washed over him, a warning to us all: bide the coming
of that final day, counting no man happy
1530
till he has crossed life’s boundary free of pain.
* * *
*1 Cadmus was the son of Agenor and the legendary founder of Thebes. “Children” is a term of endearment here and in line 6.
*2 Apollo.
*3 Athena, often called Pallas Athena or, as here, simply Pallas.
*4 Ismenus is a river at Thebes, on the banks of which stood a temple of the oracular god Apollo. The phrase “mantic ash” refers to an altar in the temple holding the ashes of sacrificial animals. Seers could foretell the future by observing the sacrifices conducted there.
*5 The plague afflicting the city is personified as the god who sends it.
*6 The Sphinx was sent by Hera to afflict the Thebans for neglecting to punish their king, Laius, for the rape of Chrysippus, son of Pelops. As a result of that sexual crime, Laius was warned by Apollo that if he had a son, that son would kill him. The Sphinx devoured any Theban who could not solve the riddle she posed. When Oedipus succeeded in solving it, she leaped to her death.
*7 Line 43 of the Greek text ends with the two words oistha pou (“you somehow know”), evoking Oedipus’ name, Oidipous. One popular etymology of the name derives its first syllable from oida, meaning “I know.”
*8 Metaphorical: Oedipus’ success in dealing with the Sphinx boded well for the future of his rule in Thebes.
*9 A constant epithet of Apollo and of his oracle at Delphi, which was also known as Pytho, from the serpent Python, slain by Apollo when he took possession of the site.
*10 The most familiar epithet of Apollo, often standing for the god himself. It means “radiant” or “bright.”
*11 The Greek word here translated “kinsman” (kēdeuma) denotes relation by marriage only, not by blood. But the audience knows that the relation between Oedipus and Creon is closer than that.
*12 Perhaps in deference to Oedipus, Creon does not call Laius what he was, and Oedipus (as far as he knows) is not: the hereditary king of Thebes.
*13 I render the emendation suggested in Sophoclea (82–83) and printed by Lloyd-Jones in his Loeb edition.
*14 Oedipus already suspects that more than banditry was involved. The switch from plural to singular is also significant: Laius was in fact killed by a lone individual, Oedipus himself, not by a band of robbers.
*15 Oedipus uses the Greek word tyrannis, whose English equivalent “tyranny” has a pejorative sense not always felt in Greek and felt here, if at all, in a way very different from the way it is felt in English. Laius was a legitimate king who had inherited his power; Oedipus is a “tyrant” who has won his. His reference to the rule of Laius as a “tyranny” does not imply that there was anything “tyrannical” (in our sense of the word) about his reign; it is a way of putting himself on a par with his predecessor, a hint at his own insecurity. See the preface to this play.
*16 Athenian law required that a murdered man’s closest kin prosecute his killer. Oedipus, unaware of his relationship to Laius, gives other reasons for his involvement in the case.
*17 Delphi. See note to line 70.
*18 A healing god, often identified, as here, with Apollo, called “Delian” because he was born on the island of Delos.
*19 Hades. The darkness of the west, into which the sun disappears at evening, is conflated with the darkness of the Underworld.
*20 Not, as often, a joyful hymn, but here an appeal to the healing god Paean.
*21 God of war, personifying the plague afflicting Thebes.
*22 A sea nymph, wife of Poseidon, god of the sea. The epithet “great” indicates that the Atlantic is meant.
*23 The “waves of Thrace” are the Black Sea, known for its storminess and the savagery of the peoples living near it.
*24 Apollo. His weapon is the bow.
*25 Dionysus, also known as Bacchus, was born in Thebes. The city, in consequence of the god’s birth there, is called Bacchic Thebes.
*26 A cry of joy, linguistically meaningless, uttered by the worshippers of Bacchus.
*27 Frenzied female attendants of Dionysus, also called Bacchae or Bacchants.
*28 Ares.
*29 A line seems to be missing between lines 227 and 228. The words between angle brackets translate the supplement proposed by Lloyd-Jones. The phrase “by freeing
*30 Water played an important part in sacrificial ritual. All sacrifices began with the washing of hands by priest and participants. To be denied access to this “holy water” was to be denied membership in the community.
*31 Lines 246–51 are interpolated. They read:
And I pray that he who did it, whether he’s
escaped detection alone or with others,
wear out his life in doom, evil in evil.
I pray, too, that if I shelter him
in my own house, and do it knowingly,
I feel the curses I have just pronounced.
*32 Oedipus here calls Laius by his legitimate title, that of king, though he had referred to his rule as a “tyranny” before (line 128). He reverts to calling him a “tyrant” at lines 799 and 1043.
*33 Again, as at line 124, Oedipus answers his interlocutor’s plural (“highwaymen”) with a singular (“the doer”). The manuscripts have “the one who saw” (ton d’idont’) as object of the verb here. I’ve translated the text of Lloyd-Jones and Wilson, which prints the anonymous eighteenth-century emendation ton de dront’, “the one doing,” i.e. the killer. The three lines immediately following this one, especially 296, make it certain that the reference here is to the killer, not the witness.
*34 The word has a formal, religious meaning here: what Tiresias says in answer to the question asked indirectly at lines 308–10 would have the authority of an oracle.
*35 The end of this line is corrupt. It is clear from the remains of it that Tiresias asks a second question, but what it was cannot be made out. Oedipus, in response, answers only the first one.
*36 The Greek word here rendered “live…with” may also have the meaning “live in intimacy with,” “be married to.” Likewise, “those most near to you” may refer simply to the members of the family but is more likely to be an allusive plural, a euphemism for Jocasta alone.
*37 See note to line 128. The word, again, is not pejorative. Oedipus is thinking of supreme power in the city as a prize to be gained by ambition. He has that power, but he goes on to insist that he didn’t aim to achieve it.
*38 Alluding to the Sphinx, called “rhapsodic” because her riddle was posed in dactylic hexameter, the meter of the Homeric poems, which were recited by professional “rhapsodes.”
*39 The first of two direct references to the riddle in the play (the other occurs at line 1525). It is preserved in its most complete form as follows: “There is upon earth a thing two-footed and four-footed and three-footed, which has one voice, and which, alone of things that make their way on earth or up in the sky or down in the sea, changes its nature, and when it goes supported on most feet, then is the speed of its limbs most feeble.” The answer is “man,” who crawls on all fours in infancy, walks on two feet in maturity, and needs the support of a staff, a third foot, in old age.
*40 Alluding again (see note to line 43) to the popular etymology of Oedipus’ name.
*41 An epithet of Apollo, from loxos, “slanted, crooked,” presumably because his oracles were obscure, indirect.
*42 Curses uttered by parents against children who have offended or harmed them were carried out by the Erinyes, or Furies, often imagined as hounds in pursuit of pr
ey.
*43 Mount Cithaeron, south of Thebes, where the infant Oedipus was put out to die. Here Tiresias makes it stand for any mountain that will echo to the cries of the man Oedipus as Cithaeron had echoed to those of the baby. Oedipus knows nothing of this as yet.
*44 I retain the reading of the manuscripts and take the line as Jebb takes it: “you” is Oedipus as he sees himself now; “yourself” is Oedipus as he really is. He will be “equal to” his children when he realizes that he is their brother as well as their father.
*45 Apollo, speaking through his oracle at Delphi.
*46 Keres, often identified with the Erinyes, or Furies.
*47 A mountain of the Pindus range, north of the Corinthian Gulf. The oracle of Delphi is located on its southern slope.
*48 A hint, perhaps, at Oedipus’ lameness, referred to later in the play (lines 1031–36).
*49 Delphi, seat of Apollo’s oracle, here, as often, thought to be the center of the earth.
*50 Descendants of Labdacus, who was father of Laius and (unbeknownst to the Chorus) grandfather of Oedipus.
*51 Polybus was king of Corinth and supposed father of Oedipus, having reared him after Laius had put him out to die.
*52 The meter indicates that a word is missing from line 494. The words enclosed in angle brackets translate the supplement of G. Wolff as reported by Lloyd-Jones.
*53 The prosecutor of a murderer acted in defense of the victim.
*54 The Greek Sphinx, unlike the Egyptian, had wings.
*55 Perhaps the phrase (repeated at line 925) that suggested the title given to the play in the manuscript tradition, Oedipus the Tyrant, the Latin translation of which, Oedipus Rex, gives us Oedipus the King. Creon uses the word as if it is the normal way of referring to Oedipus, but the latter’s suspicion of his closest associate is typical of a tyrant. The nuance may have been picked up by the audience, if not by the characters onstage.
*56 The next line (531) is probably interpolated:
But here he is, come from the house just now.
*57 See note to line 380.
*58 Historical tyrants (Pisistratus in Athens, for example) seized and maintained power by using their wealth to curry favor with the people.
*59 The word used here (suggenēs) may mean “of the same blood” as well as “of the same family” (e.g. an in-law). Oedipus has the latter in mind, but the audience, knowing that Creon is in fact his uncle, may think of the former, too.
*60 I.e. to supplant Oedipus as “tyrant” in Thebes. Lines 587–99 refute the charge made at 540–42. The next line (600) is interpolated: