Delphi Complete Works of Sophocles

by Sophocles

  That, if thou hast the maidens hereabouts,

  Thou mayest thyself discover them to me;

  But if thy guards outstrip us with their spoil,

  We may draw rein; for others speed, from whom

  They will not ‘scape to thank the gods at home.

  Lead on, I say, the captor’s caught, and fate

  Hath ta’en the fowler in the toils he spread;

  So soon are lost gains gotten by deceit.

  And look not for allies; I know indeed

  Such height of insolence was never reached

  Without abettors or accomplices;

  Thou hast some backer in thy bold essay,

  But I will search this matter home and see

  One man doth not prevail against the State.

  Dost take my drift, or seem these words as vain

  As seemed our warnings when the plot was hatched?

  CREON

  Nothing thou sayest can I here dispute,

  But once at home I too shall act my part.

  THESEUS

  Threaten us and — begone! Thou, Oedipus,

  Stay here assured that nothing save my death

  Will stay my purpose to restore the maids.

  OEDIPUS

  Heaven bless thee, Theseus, for thy nobleness

  And all thy loving care in my behalf.

  [Exeunt THESEUS and CREON]

  CHORUS

  (Str. 1)

  O when the flying foe,

  Turning at last to bay,

  Soon will give blow for blow,

  Might I behold the fray;

  Hear the loud battle roar

  Swell, on the Pythian shore,

  Or by the torch-lit bay,

  Where the dread Queen and Maid

  Cherish the mystic rites,

  Rites they to none betray,

  Ere on his lips is laid

  Secrecy’s golden key

  By their own acolytes,

  Priestly Eumolpidae.

  There I might chance behold

  Theseus our captain bold

  Meet with the robber band,

  Ere they have fled the land,

  Rescue by might and main

  Maidens, the captives twain.

  (Ant. 1)

  Haply on swiftest steed,

  Or in the flying car,

  Now they approach the glen,

  West of white Oea’s scaur.

  They will be vanquished:

  Dread are our warriors, dread

  Theseus our chieftain’s men.

  Flashes each bridle bright,

  Charges each gallant knight,

  All that our Queen adore,

  Pallas their patron, or

  Him whose wide floods enring

  Earth, the great Ocean-king

  Whom Rhea bore.

  (Str. 2)

  Fight they or now prepare

  To fight? a vision rare

  Tells me that soon again

  I shall behold the twain

  Maidens so ill bestead,

  By their kin buffeted.

  Today, today Zeus worketh some great thing

  This day shall victory bring.

  O for the wings, the wings of a dove,

  To be borne with the speed of the gale,

  Up and still upwards to sail

  And gaze on the fray from the clouds above.

  (Ant. 2)

  All-seeing Zeus, O lord of heaven,

  To our guardian host be given

  Might triumphant to surprise

  Flying foes and win their prize.

  Hear us, Zeus, and hear us, child

  Of Zeus, Athene undefiled,

  Hear, Apollo, hunter, hear,

  Huntress, sister of Apollo,

  Who the dappled swift-foot deer

  O’er the wooded glade dost follow;

  Help with your two-fold power

  Athens in danger’s hour!

  O wayfarer, thou wilt not have to tax

  The friends who watch for thee with false presage,

  For lo, an escort with the maids draws near.

  [Enter ANTIGONE and ISMENE with THESEUS]

  OEDIPUS

  Where, where? what sayest thou?

  ANTIGONE

  O father, father,

  Would that some god might grant thee eyes to see

  This best of men who brings us back again.

  OEDIPUS

  My child! and are ye back indeed!

  ANTIGONE

  Yes, saved

  By Theseus and his gallant followers.

  OEDIPUS

  Come to your father’s arms, O let me feel

  A child’s embrace I never hoped for more.

  ANTIGONE

  Thou askest what is doubly sweet to give.

  OEDIPUS

  Where are ye then?

  ANTIGONE

  We come together both.

  OEDIPUS

  My precious nurslings!

  ANTIGONE

  Fathers aye were fond.

  OEDIPUS

  Props of my age!

  ANTIGONE

  So sorrow sorrow props.

  OEDIPUS

  I have my darlings, and if death should come,

  Death were not wholly bitter with you near.

  Cling to me, press me close on either side,

  There rest ye from your dreary wayfaring.

  Now tell me of your ventures, but in brief;

  Brief speech suffices for young maids like you.

  ANTIGONE

  Here is our savior; thou should’st hear the tale

  From his own lips; so shall my part be brief.

  OEDIPUS

  I pray thee do not wonder if the sight

  Of children, given o’er for lost, has made

  My converse somewhat long and tedious.

  Full well I know the joy I have of them

  Is due to thee, to thee and no man else;

  Thou wast their sole deliverer, none else.

  The gods deal with thee after my desire,

  With thee and with this land! for fear of heaven

  I found above all peoples most with you,

  And righteousness and lips that cannot lie.

  I speak in gratitude of what I know,

  For all I have I owe to thee alone.

  Give me thy hand, O Prince, that I may touch it,

  And if thou wilt permit me, kiss thy cheek.

  What say I? Can I wish that thou should’st touch

  One fallen like me to utter wretchedness,

  Corrupt and tainted with a thousand ills?

  Oh no, I would not let thee if thou would’st.

  They only who have known calamity

  Can share it. Let me greet thee where thou art,

  And still befriend me as thou hast till now.

  THESEUS

  I marvel not if thou hast dallied long

  In converse with thy children and preferred

  Their speech to mine; I feel no jealousy,

  I would be famous more by deeds than words.

  Of this, old friend, thou hast had proof; my oath

  I have fulfilled and brought thee back the maids

  Alive and nothing harmed for all those threats.

  And how the fight was won, ‘twere waste of words

  To boast — thy daughters here will tell thee all.

  But of a matter that has lately chanced

  On my way hitherward, I fain would have

  Thy counsel — slight ‘twould seem, yet worthy thought.

  A wise man heeds all matters great or small.

  OEDIPUS

  What is it, son of Aegeus? Let me hear.

  Of what thou askest I myself know naught.

  THESEUS

  ’Tis said a man, no countryman of thine,

  But of thy kin, hath taken sanctuary

  Beside the altar of Poseidon, where

  I was at sacrifice when called away.

 
OEDIPUS

  What is his country? what the suitor’s prayer?

  THESEUS

  I know but one thing; he implores, I am told,

  A word with thee — he will not trouble thee.

  OEDIPUS

  What seeks he? If a suppliant, something grave.

  THESEUS

  He only waits, they say, to speak with thee,

  And then unharmed to go upon his way.

  OEDIPUS

  I marvel who is this petitioner.

  THESEUS

  Think if there be not any of thy kin

  At Argos who might claim this boon of thee.

  OEDIPUS

  Dear friend, forbear, I pray.

  THESEUS

  What ails thee now?

  OEDIPUS

  Ask it not of me.

  THESEUS

  Ask not what? explain.

  OEDIPUS

  Thy words have told me who the suppliant is.

  THESEUS

  Who can he be that I should frown on him?

  OEDIPUS

  My son, O king, my hateful son, whose words

  Of all men’s most would jar upon my ears.

  THESEUS

  Thou sure mightest listen. If his suit offend,

  No need to grant it. Why so loth to hear him?

  OEDIPUS

  That voice, O king, grates on a father’s ears;

  I have come to loathe it. Force me not to yield.

  THESEUS

  But he hath found asylum. O beware,

  And fail not in due reverence to the god.

  ANTIGONE

  O heed me, father, though I am young in years.

  Let the prince have his will and pay withal

  What in his eyes is service to the god;

  For our sake also let our brother come.

  If what he urges tend not to thy good

  He cannot surely wrest perforce thy will.

  To hear him then, what harm? By open words

  A scheme of villainy is soon bewrayed.

  Thou art his father, therefore canst not pay

  In kind a son’s most impious outrages.

  O listen to him; other men like thee

  Have thankless children and are choleric,

  But yielding to persuasion’s gentle spell

  They let their savage mood be exorcised.

  Look thou to the past, forget the present, think

  On all the woe thy sire and mother brought thee;

  Thence wilt thou draw this lesson without fail,

  Of evil passion evil is the end.

  Thou hast, alas, to prick thy memory,

  Stern monitors, these ever-sightless orbs.

  O yield to us; just suitors should not need

  To be importunate, nor he that takes

  A favor lack the grace to make return.

  OEDIPUS

  Grievous to me, my child, the boon ye win

  By pleading. Let it be then; have your way

  Only if come he must, I beg thee, friend,

  Let none have power to dispose of me.

  THESEUS

  No need, Sir, to appeal a second time.

  It likes me not to boast, but be assured

  Thy life is safe while any god saves mine.

  [Exit THESEUS]

  CHORUS

  (Str.)

  Who craves excess of days,

  Scorning the common span

  Of life, I judge that man

  A giddy wight who walks in folly’s ways.

  For the long years heap up a grievous load,

  Scant pleasures, heavier pains,

  Till not one joy remains

  For him who lingers on life’s weary road

  And come it slow or fast,

  One doom of fate

  Doth all await,

  For dance and marriage bell,

  The dirge and funeral knell.

  Death the deliverer freeth all at last.

  (Ant.)

  Not to be born at all

  Is best, far best that can befall,

  Next best, when born, with least delay

  To trace the backward way.

  For when youth passes with its giddy train,

  Troubles on troubles follow, toils on toils,

  Pain, pain for ever pain;

  And none escapes life’s coils.

  Envy, sedition, strife,

  Carnage and war, make up the tale of life.

  Last comes the worst and most abhorred stage

  Of unregarded age,

  Joyless, companionless and slow,

  Of woes the crowning woe.

  (Epode)

  Such ills not I alone,

  He too our guest hath known,

  E’en as some headland on an iron-bound shore,

  Lashed by the wintry blasts and surge’s roar,

  So is he buffeted on every side

  By drear misfortune’s whelming tide,

  By every wind of heaven o’erborne

  Some from the sunset, some from orient morn,

  Some from the noonday glow.

  Some from Rhipean gloom of everlasting snow.

  ANTIGONE

  Father, methinks I see the stranger coming,

  Alone he comes and weeping plenteous tears.

  OEDIPUS

  Who may he be?

  ANTIGONE

  The same that we surmised.

  From the outset — Polyneices. He is here.

  [Enter POLYNEICES]

  POLYNEICES

  Ah me, my sisters, shall I first lament

  My own afflictions, or my aged sire’s,

  Whom here I find a castaway, with you,

  In a strange land, an ancient beggar clad

  In antic tatters, marring all his frame,

  While o’er the sightless orbs his unkept locks

  Float in the breeze; and, as it were to match,

  He bears a wallet against hunger’s pinch.

  All this too late I learn, wretch that I am,

  Alas! I own it, and am proved most vile

  In my neglect of thee: I scorn myself.

  But as almighty Zeus in all he doth

  Hath Mercy for co-partner of this throne,

  Let Mercy, father, also sit enthroned

  In thy heart likewise. For transgressions past

  May be amended, cannot be made worse.

  Why silent? Father, speak, nor turn away,

  Hast thou no word, wilt thou dismiss me then

  In mute disdain, nor tell me why thou art wrath?

  O ye his daughters, sisters mine, do ye

  This sullen, obstinate silence try to move.

  Let him not spurn, without a single word

  Of answer, me the suppliant of the god.

  ANTIGONE

  Tell him thyself, unhappy one, thine errand;

  For large discourse may send a thrill of joy,

  Or stir a chord of wrath or tenderness,

  And to the tongue-tied somehow give a tongue.

  POLYNEICES

  Well dost thou counsel, and I will speak out.

  First will I call in aid the god himself,

  Poseidon, from whose altar I was raised,

  With warrant from the monarch of this land,

  To parley with you, and depart unscathed.

  These pledges, strangers, I would see observed

  By you and by my sisters and my sire.

  Now, father, let me tell thee why I came.

  I have been banished from my native land

  Because by right of primogeniture

  I claimed possession of thy sovereign throne

  Wherefrom Etocles, my younger brother,

  Ousted me, not by weight of precedent,

  Nor by the last arbitrament of war,

  But by his popular acts; and the prime cause

  Of this I deem the curse that rests on thee.

  So likewise hold the soothsayers, for when

  I came to Argos in
the Dorian land

  And took the king Adrastus’ child to wife,

  Under my standard I enlisted all

  The foremost captains of the Apian isle,

  To levy with their aid that sevenfold host

  Of spearmen against Thebes, determining

  To oust my foes or die in a just cause.

  Why then, thou askest, am I here today?

  Father, I come a suppliant to thee

  Both for myself and my allies who now

  With squadrons seven beneath their seven spears

  Beleaguer all the plain that circles Thebes.

  Foremost the peerless warrior, peerless seer,

  Amphiaraiis with his lightning lance;

  Next an Aetolian, Tydeus, Oeneus’ son;

  Eteoclus of Argive birth the third;

  The fourth Hippomedon, sent to the war

  By his sire Talaos; Capaneus, the fifth,

  Vaunts he will fire and raze the town; the sixth

  Parthenopaeus, an Arcadian born

  Named of that maid, longtime a maid and late

  Espoused, Atalanta’s true-born child;

  Last I thy son, or thine at least in name,

  If but the bastard of an evil fate,

  Lead against Thebes the fearless Argive host.

  Thus by thy children and thy life, my sire,

  We all adjure thee to remit thy wrath

  And favor one who seeks a just revenge

  Against a brother who has banned and robbed him.

  For victory, if oracles speak true,

  Will fall to those who have thee for ally.

  So, by our fountains and familiar gods

  I pray thee, yield and hear; a beggar I

  And exile, thou an exile likewise; both

  Involved in one misfortune find a home

  As pensioners, while he, the lord of Thebes,

  O agony! makes a mock of thee and me.

  I’ll scatter with a breath the upstart’s might,

  And bring thee home again and stablish thee,

  And stablish, having cast him out, myself.

  This will thy goodwill I will undertake,

  Without it I can scare return alive.

  CHORUS

  For the king’s sake who sent him, Oedipus,

  Dismiss him not without a meet reply.

  OEDIPUS

  Nay, worthy seniors, but for Theseus’ sake

  Who sent him hither to have word of me.

  Never again would he have heard my voice;

  But now he shall obtain this parting grace,

  An answer that will bring him little joy.

  O villain, when thou hadst the sovereignty

  That now thy brother holdeth in thy stead,

  Didst thou not drive me, thine own father, out,

  An exile, cityless, and make we wear

  This beggar’s garb thou weepest to behold,

  Now thou art come thyself to my sad plight?

  Nothing is here for tears; it must be borne

  By me till death, and I shall think of thee

  As of my murderer; thou didst thrust me out;

  ’Tis thou hast made me conversant with woe,

  Through thee I beg my bread in a strange land;