will lead you away from here against my will.*47
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And if they’ve had the nerve to make dire threats
to dislodge you, they’ll find, I suspect, the sea
between us wide, and not to be crossed.*48
Be confident, then, I tell you, even apart
from my guarantee, since Phoebus has sent you here;
and likewise, even if I’m not at your side,
I know my name will keep you safe from harm.
(Exit Theseus. The Chorus now sing their first ode.)
strophe 1
CHORUS: You have come, stranger, to a land
rich in horses, to the best
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haven on earth, radiant Colonus, where
the nightingale’s shrill warbling
is most at home, in the green
shade of the glens, the wine-dark
of the ivy, the god’s impenetrable
foliage bursting in berries, shielded
from sun, untouched ever by the breath
of storm, where Dionysus
steps in ecstasy amid
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the throng of his immortal nurses.*49
antistrophe 1
And here under the dew
of heaven blooms anew each day
the clustering narcissus, long ago
the garland of the Great Goddesses*50—and the crocus
beams with gold, and never sleep,
never wane the springs
of Cephisus,*51 whose streams day
by day wander over the breast
of the land, quickening the earth
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with taintless moisture,
and the Muses’ choruses have not
disdained this place, nor has
Aphrodite of the golden reins.*52
strophe 2
And there’s a plant whose like I never heard of
in Asia’s land; it has not sprung in the great Dorian
isle of Pelops—
invincible, self-sown,*53 the dread
of enemy spears,*54 that flowers
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here in all its strength: the gray-leaved
olive tree, nurse of children.
No man, young or old,
will blot it out with might of hand
for the ever-seeing eye
of Zeus of the Olive keeps watch
and gray-eyed Athena gazes on it.
antistrophe 2
And I have yet more awesome praise to bestow
on her, my native city, a great god’s gift, earth’s
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proudest boast—
her glory in horses, in colts, and on the sea!
Son of Cronus, lord Poseidon, it was you
who built this boast for her, who
fashioned the bit and curbed the horse*55
for the first time here, upon her roads.
And thanks to you the skillful oar
wafts her ships, marvelous
to see as they skim along, flying beside
the Nereids dancing on a hundred feet!*56
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ANTIGONE: O land, praised beyond all others,
now prove these glowing praises true!
OEDIPUS: What’s happening, my child?
ANTIG.: He’s coming, Father—
Creon, heading for us. He’s not alone.
OEDIPUS: (to the Chorus) Old men, my friends, now I look to you
for safety. My life’s end is in your hands.
CHORUS LEADER: Take heart, you will be safe: for even if
I’m old, my country’s strength has not grown old.
(Enter Creon from the left, with an armed escort.)
CREON: (to the Chorus) Men, noble inhabitants of this land,
the look in your eyes tells me that you’ve taken
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sudden fright at my arrival here. You shouldn’t
feel that way, or let drop a hostile word.
I haven’t come to do something. I’m too old*57
for that and, what’s more, I know yours is a city
great in power, as great as any in Hellas.
I’ve been sent, old as I am, to persuade this man
to come with me to the land of the Cadmeans.*58
I’ve been told to fetch him, by one and all
the Thebans, since it falls to me, as family,
to feel for his sufferings as no others can.
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So, long-enduring Oedipus, listen to me:
come home. All the people in the town of Cadmus
rightly summon you, and I most of all—
I would be deemed the worst man living
not to feel pain at the sight of your afflictions.*59
I see that you, old man, are a sad exile,
a tramp roaming about, stripped of the means of life
and leaning on this girl for support, whom I—
it breaks my heart to say it—would never have thought
could sink so low in degradation as she
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has sunk, tending to you, in your condition,
begging a pittance to live on—still, at her age,
unmarried, ripe for anyone to pluck!
Is it cruel, what I’ve just said, feeling the pain,
the slur on you and me and all our family?
Well, cruel or not, what’s out cannot be hidden.
Listen, then, to me, Oedipus. By the gods
of your ancestors, I beseech you! Return
to your city and your ancestral house; wish
Athens farewell, as she deserves, for even more
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your native city claims your love, your nurse of old.
OEDIPUS: Brazen without limit! Ready to make
a cunning snare out of every just argument—
why come to get me now, why seek
to keep me again, where I would suffer most?
Back then, when I was sick with ills at home
and exile from the land was my desire,
you refused to grant the favor that I sought.
But when I’d had my fill of rage
and life at home looked sweet to me, then
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you cast me off, drove me away. You had
no thought for “family” then, none at all!
And now, seeing this city take my side
and all her people warm to me, you try
to drag me off with soft words and hard designs.
Do you enjoy being kind when it’s unwanted?
Suppose that someone, when you asked for something,
gave you nothing and refused to help, but when
you had what you wanted, only then
he gave it—then, when favor wins no favor!
780
Wouldn’t your gratitude be empty then?
Yet such are the favors you offer me, wrapped
in fine words, but rotten underneath.
(indicating the Chorus) I’ll show these men, too, just what sort you are!
You’ve come to get me, not to take me home—
to stow me nearby, so your city may escape
defeat one day, in this land, and go unhurt.
That’s not what’s in store for you. No, it’s this:
my avenging spirit, there, in your land, never
to be cast out; as for my sons, they’ll inherit
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only this: enough dirt to be dead in!
Don’t I know more than you about affairs
in Thebes? Yes, because I’ve learned from better sources—
Phoebus and his father, Zeus himself.
Now comes that tongue of yours, forged
and sharpened to deceive, which all the same
won’t do you any good, still less protect you.
I know you don’t believe me. Go, then!
Leave us here, to live. We won’t live badly,
even as
we are, provided we’re content.
800
CREON: Who do you think suffers more—I
from what you do or you from what you say?
OEDIPUS: Nothing makes me happier than to see
your arguments fall on deaf ears, mine and theirs!
CREON: Ill-fated man! Will you never show any sense
but go on living, a stain upon old age?
OEDIPUS: You have a clever tongue, but I believe
no just man speaks well on all sides of a case.
CREON: Saying much does not mean speaking to the point.
OEDIPUS: As if you speak concisely, and to the point!
810
CREON: I don’t, to anyone who thinks like you.
OEDIPUS: Out of here! I speak for them, too: don’t
hem me in, don’t block my destined harbor!
CREON: I call on them, not you, to witness how
you answer us. But if I ever get my hands—
OEDIPUS: You’d dare lay hands on me, despite these allies?
CREON: No need for that: you’ll suffer soon enough.
OEDIPUS: What have you done, that you make such a threat?
CREON: I’ve seized and sent away, just now, one*60
of your two daughters, and soon I’ll take the other.*61
OEDIPUS: oimoi!
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CRE.: You’ll soon have yet more cause to cry.
OEDIPUS: You have my child?
CRE.: And this one, too, in a moment.
OEDIPUS: (to the Chorus) iō, friends! What will you do? Betray me?
Why don’t you drive this godless man away?
CHORUS LEADER: (to Creon) Off with you, stranger, out, get out!
What you’re doing isn’t right, not then, not now!
CREON: (to one of his men, indicating Antigone) Now would be the time to take her off—
against her will, if she doesn’t want to go.
ANTIGONE: oimoi! Where am I to turn? Who will help?
What god? What man?
CH. LEAD.: What are you doing, stranger?
830
CREON: Him I won’t seize, but her, my own,*62 I will!
OEDIPUS: Lords of the land!
CH. LEAD.: Stranger, that’s a crime!
CREON: No, it’s right!
CH. LEAD.: How is it right?
CRE.: I claim my own.
(Chorus and characters now engage in lyrical dialogue in dochmiac and iambic meters, a sign of high emotion.)
strophe
OEDIPUS: iō, city!
CHORUS: What are you doing, stranger? So—you won’t let her go?
Soon enough you’ll come to the test of blows!
CREON: Back off!
CHOR.: No, not while you’re attempting this.
CREON: It means war with my city, if you hurt me.
OEDIPUS: Did I not foretell this?
CHOR.: Take your hands off
that girl, right now!
CRE.: Don’t give orders you can’t enforce.
CHORUS: Let her go, I tell you!
840
CRE.: And I tell you, leave!
CHORUS: Men of Colonus, come, come here, to our aid!
The city, my city, is being destroyed, by force of arms!
Come, come here, bring help!
ANTIGONE: O friends, my friends, they’re dragging me away!
OEDIPUS: Where are you, my child?
ANTIG.: I’m being forced to go!
OEDIPUS: (groping for her) Stretch out your hands, my child! ANTIG.: But I can’t!
CRE.: Won’t you take her away?
OED.: Lost, I’m lost!
(Exit Antigone, led by Creon’s men.)
CREON (to Oedipus): You’ll never ply your way again, leaning
on these two props. But since you wish to triumph
850
over your country and your family—whose wishes
I myself obey, though I’m a king*63—go on,
triumph! For in time, I know, you’ll understand
you do yourself no good, not now
and not before, when, despite your friends,
you gave way to your temper—ever your ruin.
CHORUS LEADER: Stop right there, stranger!
CRE.: I’m warning you, don’t touch me!
CHORUS LEADER: I won’t let you go, until I have them back!
CREON: You’ll make your city pay still more, then,
for I won’t take just these two.
CHORUS LEADER: Who, then, is next?
860
CRE.: Him: he goes with me.
CHORUS LEADER: An awful threat!
CRE.: And I’ll make good on it, unless the ruler of this land prevents me.
OEDIPUS: You have the nerve to say that! You’ll lay hands on me?
CREON: Be quiet, you!
OED.: No, I won’t! May the dread
powers of this place no longer keep it back—
my curse on you, traitor, who tore away
my precious eye,*64 lost like those I had before!
For that, may Helios, the Sun
who sees all things, give you and yours
870
a life, an old age, one day, like mine!
CREON: Do you see this, people of this land?
OEDIPUS: They see the two of us, and know that I
have only words to ward off your attacks.
CREON: Though on my own and slow with age, I won’t
restrain my anger. I’ll take this man by force!
antistrophe
OEDIPUS: iō, misery!
CHORUS: What insolence you’ve come with, stranger,
to think you’ll get away with this!
CREON: I will.
CHOR.: If you do, this is no city anymore.
880
CREON: With justice on their side, the few defeat the many.
OEDIPUS: Do you hear what he says?
CHOR.: Yes, what he won’t do,
CRE.: Zeus will know, not you!
CHORUS: This is an outrage!
CRE.: Outrage? Well, you must endure it!
CHORUS: (crying aloud) You people, all of you! Chief men of the land!
Come with speed, come, these men
are going beyond all bounds!
(Theseus enters from the right. His first four lines are in trochaic tetrameter, reflecting his haste and the excitement of the moment.)
THESEUS: Why all this shouting? What has happened? What fear
made you stop me, when I was sacrificing to the god
who guards Colonus? Speak up! I need to know it all—
890
what brings me here, faster than my feet could wish?
OEDIPUS: O best of friends! It’s you—I know your voice.
I’ve suffered outrage, just now, at this man’s hands.
THESEUS: What outrage? Who has hurt you? Tell me!
OEDIPUS: Creon, the man you see here. He’s gone
and torn from me my only pair of children!
THESEUS: What do you mean?
OED.: You’ve heard what I’ve suffered!
THESEUS: Then one of my attendants needs to go
at once, back to the altar, and give orders
that all the host, infantry and cavalry, must leave
900
the rites and rush with loosened reins*66 to where
the roads to Thebes converge, so that the girls
will not pass that point and I become a joke,
worsted by the high-handedness of this stranger!
Go, as I’ve ordered, with haste! And as for him,
if I were as angry at him as I ought to be,
I wouldn’t let him escape my grasp unhurt.
But as it is, I’ll treat him in accordance
with the laws he brought with him—no others!
(turning to Creon)
No, you won’t leave this country, not until
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you’ve brought those girls back here, before my eyes.
What you’ve done disgraces me and your own
ancestors and the land you come from!
You entered a country that lives by justice
and rules by law; still, you ignored all that,
the customs here, and barged right in,
grabbed what you pleased, made it yours by force!
You thought my city had no men in it—to you
she*67 seemed a slave, and I a nobody!
Yet Thebes didn’t raise you to be a criminal.
920
It’s not her way to nurture unjust men
nor would she approve, if she knew you were
plundering what belongs to me and to the gods,
rounding up helpless suppliants. I wouldn’t
act that way in your country, even if I had
as just a cause as any; I wouldn’t seize
and carry off at will, without consulting
the ruler of the land, whoever he was—no, I’d know
how a stranger should behave among citizens.
But you bring shame on your city, shame
930
she doesn’t deserve; and time in its fullness,
at a single blow, has made you old and senseless.
Well, then, I’ve said before, and say again,
have someone bring those children here at once,
unless you’d like to be a guest of this land
under constraint, against your will. I’m telling you
exactly what I mean—no more, no less.
CHORUS LEADER: You see where you are, stranger? You seem just,
being from Thebes, but we’ve caught you doing wrong.
CREON: I don’t say this city has no men, Theseus.
940
And my actions were not, as you say, senseless.
I did what I did in the understanding that
your people wouldn’t care so much for kin of mine
as to take them in against my will.
I knew that Athens wouldn’t open her arms
to a father-killer, a man defiled, who’d been found
living in a marriage most unholy.
Such wisdom, I was sure, dwells in your land,
in the Areopagus,*68 which won’t let vagrants
like these settle here, together with its own.
950
Confident of that, I seized them as my prey.
I wouldn’t have done it, if he hadn’t called
down bitter curses on me and mine. That’s
953
what I endured, that’s how I’ve retaliated!*69
956
Go ahead, then, do as you please, since
the fact that I’m alone makes me count for little,
however just my claims. Make your move.
The Greek Plays Page 49
