Masters of the Theatre

by Delphi Classics

  And no more harbor an inveterate sore.

  OEDIPUS

  What expiation means he? What’s amiss?

  CREON

  Banishment, or the shedding blood for blood.

  This stain of blood makes shipwreck of our state.

  OEDIPUS

  Whom can he mean, the miscreant thus denounced?

  CREON

  Before thou didst assume the helm of State,

  The sovereign of this land was Laius.

  OEDIPUS

  I heard as much, but never saw the man.

  CREON

  He fell; and now the god’s command is plain:

  Punish his takers-off, whoe’er they be.

  OEDIPUS

  Where are they? Where in the wide world to find

  The far, faint traces of a bygone crime?

  CREON

  In this land, said the god; “who seeks shall find;

  Who sits with folded hands or sleeps is blind.”

  OEDIPUS

  Was he within his palace, or afield,

  Or traveling, when Laius met his fate?

  CREON

  Abroad; he started, so he told us, bound

  For Delphi, but he never thence returned.

  OEDIPUS

  Came there no news, no fellow-traveler

  To give some clue that might be followed up?

  CREON

  But one escape, who flying for dear life,

  Could tell of all he saw but one thing sure.

  OEDIPUS

  And what was that? One clue might lead us far,

  With but a spark of hope to guide our quest.

  CREON

  Robbers, he told us, not one bandit but

  A troop of knaves, attacked and murdered him.

  OEDIPUS

  Did any bandit dare so bold a stroke,

  Unless indeed he were suborned from Thebes?

  CREON

  So ’twas surmised, but none was found to avenge

  His murder mid the trouble that ensued.

  OEDIPUS

  What trouble can have hindered a full quest,

  When royalty had fallen thus miserably?

  CREON

  The riddling Sphinx compelled us to let slide

  The dim past and attend to instant needs.

  OEDIPUS

  Well, I will start afresh and once again

  Make dark things clear. Right worthy the concern

  Of Phoebus, worthy thine too, for the dead;

  I also, as is meet, will lend my aid

  To avenge this wrong to Thebes and to the god.

  Not for some far-off kinsman, but myself,

  Shall I expel this poison in the blood;

  For whoso slew that king might have a mind

  To strike me too with his assassin hand.

  Therefore in righting him I serve myself.

  Up, children, haste ye, quit these altar stairs,

  Take hence your suppliant wands, go summon hither

  The Theban commons. With the god’s good help

  Success is sure; ’tis ruin if we fail.

  [Exeunt OEDIPUS and CREON]

  PRIEST

  Come, children, let us hence; these gracious words

  Forestall the very purpose of our suit.

  And may the god who sent this oracle

  Save us withal and rid us of this pest.

  [Exeunt PRIEST and SUPPLIANTS]

  CHORUS

  (Str. 1)

  Sweet-voiced daughter of Zeus from thy gold-paved Pythian shrine

  Wafted to Thebes divine,

  What dost thou bring me? My soul is racked and shivers with fear.

  (Healer of Delos, hear!)

  Hast thou some pain unknown before,

  Or with the circling years renewest a penance of yore?

  Offspring of golden Hope, thou voice immortal, O tell me.

  (Ant. 1)

  First on Athene I call; O Zeus-born goddess, defend!

  Goddess and sister, befriend,

  Artemis, Lady of Thebes, high-throned in the midst of our mart!

  Lord of the death-winged dart!

  Your threefold aid I crave

  From death and ruin our city to save.

  If in the days of old when we nigh had perished, ye drave

  From our land the fiery plague, be near us now and defend us!

  (Str. 2)

  Ah me, what countless woes are mine!

  All our host is in decline;

  Weaponless my spirit lies.

  Earth her gracious fruits denies;

  Women wail in barren throes;

  Life on life downstriken goes,

  Swifter than the wind bird’s flight,

  Swifter than the Fire-God’s might,

  To the westering shores of Night.

  (Ant. 2)

  Wasted thus by death on death

  All our city perisheth.

  Corpses spread infection round;

  None to tend or mourn is found.

  Wailing on the altar stair

  Wives and grandams rend the air —

  Long-drawn moans and piercing cries

  Blent with prayers and litanies.

  Golden child of Zeus, O hear

  Let thine angel face appear!

  (Str. 3)

  And grant that Ares whose hot breath I feel,

  Though without targe or steel

  He stalks, whose voice is as the battle shout,

  May turn in sudden rout,

  To the unharbored Thracian waters sped,

  Or Amphitrite’s bed.

  For what night leaves undone,

  Smit by the morrow’s sun

  Perisheth. Father Zeus, whose hand

  Doth wield the lightning brand,

  Slay him beneath thy levin bold, we pray,

  Slay him, O slay!

  (Ant. 3)

  O that thine arrows too, Lycean King,

  From that taut bow’s gold string,

  Might fly abroad, the champions of our rights;

  Yea, and the flashing lights

  Of Artemis, wherewith the huntress sweeps

  Across the Lycian steeps.

  Thee too I call with golden-snooded hair,

  Whose name our land doth bear,

  Bacchus to whom thy Maenads Evoe shout;

  Come with thy bright torch, rout,

  Blithe god whom we adore,

  The god whom gods abhor.

  [Enter OEDIPUS.]

  OEDIPUS

  Ye pray; ’tis well, but would ye hear my words

  And heed them and apply the remedy,

  Ye might perchance find comfort and relief.

  Mind you, I speak as one who comes a stranger

  To this report, no less than to the crime;

  For how unaided could I track it far

  Without a clue? Which lacking (for too late

  Was I enrolled a citizen of Thebes)

  This proclamation I address to all: —

  Thebans, if any knows the man by whom

  Laius, son of Labdacus, was slain,

  I summon him to make clean shrift to me.

  And if he shrinks, let him reflect that thus

  Confessing he shall ‘scape the capital charge;

  For the worst penalty that shall befall him

  Is banishment — unscathed he shall depart.

  But if an alien from a foreign land

  Be known to any as the murderer,

  Let him who knows speak out, and he shall have

  Due recompense from me and thanks to boot.

  But if ye still keep silence, if through fear

  For self or friends ye disregard my hest,

  Hear what I then resolve; I lay my ban

  On the assassin whosoe’er he be.

  Let no man in this land, whereof I hold

  The sovereign rule, harbor or speak to him;

  Give him no part in prayer or sacrifice

  Or lustral rites, b
ut hound him from your homes.

  For this is our defilement, so the god

  Hath lately shown to me by oracles.

  Thus as their champion I maintain the cause

  Both of the god and of the murdered King.

  And on the murderer this curse I lay

  (On him and all the partners in his guilt): —

  Wretch, may he pine in utter wretchedness!

  And for myself, if with my privity

  He gain admittance to my hearth, I pray

  The curse I laid on others fall on me.

  See that ye give effect to all my hest,

  For my sake and the god’s and for our land,

  A desert blasted by the wrath of heaven.

  For, let alone the god’s express command,

  It were a scandal ye should leave unpurged

  The murder of a great man and your king,

  Nor track it home. And now that I am lord,

  Successor to his throne, his bed, his wife,

  (And had he not been frustrate in the hope

  Of issue, common children of one womb

  Had forced a closer bond twixt him and me,

  But Fate swooped down upon him), therefore I

  His blood-avenger will maintain his cause

  As though he were my sire, and leave no stone

  Unturned to track the assassin or avenge

  The son of Labdacus, of Polydore,

  Of Cadmus, and Agenor first of the race.

  And for the disobedient thus I pray:

  May the gods send them neither timely fruits

  Of earth, nor teeming increase of the womb,

  But may they waste and pine, as now they waste,

  Aye and worse stricken; but to all of you,

  My loyal subjects who approve my acts,

  May Justice, our ally, and all the gods

  Be gracious and attend you evermore.

  CHORUS

  The oath thou profferest, sire, I take and swear.

  I slew him not myself, nor can I name

  The slayer. For the quest, ‘twere well, methinks

  That Phoebus, who proposed the riddle, himself

  Should give the answer — who the murderer was.

  OEDIPUS

  Well argued; but no living man can hope

  To force the gods to speak against their will.

  CHORUS

  May I then say what seems next best to me?

  OEDIPUS

  Aye, if there be a third best, tell it too.

  CHORUS

  My liege, if any man sees eye to eye

  With our lord Phoebus, ’tis our prophet, lord

  Teiresias; he of all men best might guide

  A searcher of this matter to the light.

  OEDIPUS

  Here too my zeal has nothing lagged, for twice

  At Creon’s instance have I sent to fetch him,

  And long I marvel why he is not here.

  CHORUS

  I mind me too of rumors long ago —

  Mere gossip.

  OEDIPUS

  Tell them, I would fain know all.

  CHORUS

  ’Twas said he fell by travelers.

  OEDIPUS

  So I heard,

  But none has seen the man who saw him fall.

  CHORUS

  Well, if he knows what fear is, he will quail

  And flee before the terror of thy curse.

  OEDIPUS

  Words scare not him who blenches not at deeds.

  CHORUS

  But here is one to arraign him. Lo, at length

  They bring the god-inspired seer in whom

  Above all other men is truth inborn.

  [Enter TEIRESIAS, led by a boy.]

  OEDIPUS

  Teiresias, seer who comprehendest all,

  Lore of the wise and hidden mysteries,

  High things of heaven and low things of the earth,

  Thou knowest, though thy blinded eyes see naught,

  What plague infects our city; and we turn

  To thee, O seer, our one defense and shield.

  The purport of the answer that the God

  Returned to us who sought his oracle,

  The messengers have doubtless told thee — how

  One course alone could rid us of the pest,

  To find the murderers of Laius,

  And slay them or expel them from the land.

  Therefore begrudging neither augury

  Nor other divination that is thine,

  O save thyself, thy country, and thy king,

  Save all from this defilement of blood shed.

  On thee we rest. This is man’s highest end,

  To others’ service all his powers to lend.

  TEIRESIAS

  Alas, alas, what misery to be wise

  When wisdom profits nothing! This old lore

  I had forgotten; else I were not here.

  OEDIPUS

  What ails thee? Why this melancholy mood?

  TEIRESIAS

  Let me go home; prevent me not; ‘twere best

  That thou shouldst bear thy burden and I mine.

  OEDIPUS

  For shame! no true-born Theban patriot

  Would thus withhold the word of prophecy.

  TEIRESIAS

  Thy words, O king, are wide of the mark, and I

  For fear lest I too trip like thee...

  OEDIPUS

  Oh speak,

  Withhold not, I adjure thee, if thou know’st,

  Thy knowledge. We are all thy suppliants.

  TEIRESIAS

  Aye, for ye all are witless, but my voice

  Will ne’er reveal my miseries — or thine. 2

  OEDIPUS

  What then, thou knowest, and yet willst not speak!

  Wouldst thou betray us and destroy the State?

  TEIRESIAS

  I will not vex myself nor thee. Why ask

  Thus idly what from me thou shalt not learn?

  OEDIPUS

  Monster! thy silence would incense a flint.

  Will nothing loose thy tongue? Can nothing melt thee,

  Or shake thy dogged taciturnity?

  TEIRESIAS

  Thou blam’st my mood and seest not thine own

  Wherewith thou art mated; no, thou taxest me.

  OEDIPUS

  And who could stay his choler when he heard

  How insolently thou dost flout the State?

  TEIRESIAS

  Well, it will come what will, though I be mute.

  OEDIPUS

  Since come it must, thy duty is to tell me.

  TEIRESIAS

  I have no more to say; storm as thou willst,

  And give the rein to all thy pent-up rage.

  OEDIPUS

  Yea, I am wroth, and will not stint my words,

  But speak my whole mind. Thou methinks thou art he,

  Who planned the crime, aye, and performed it too,

  All save the assassination; and if thou

  Hadst not been blind, I had been sworn to boot

  That thou alone didst do the bloody deed.

  TEIRESIAS

  Is it so? Then I charge thee to abide

  By thine own proclamation; from this day

  Speak not to these or me. Thou art the man,

  Thou the accursed polluter of this land.

  OEDIPUS

  Vile slanderer, thou blurtest forth these taunts,

  And think’st forsooth as seer to go scot free.

  TEIRESIAS

  Yea, I am free, strong in the strength of truth.

  OEDIPUS

  Who was thy teacher? not methinks thy art.

  TEIRESIAS

  Thou, goading me against my will to speak.

  OEDIPUS

  What speech? repeat it and resolve my doubt.

  TEIRESIAS

  Didst miss my sense wouldst thou goad me on?

  OEDIPUS

  I but half caught thy mean
ing; say it again.

  TEIRESIAS

  I say thou art the murderer of the man

  Whose murderer thou pursuest.

  OEDIPUS

  Thou shalt rue it

  Twice to repeat so gross a calumny.

  TEIRESIAS

  Must I say more to aggravate thy rage?

  OEDIPUS

  Say all thou wilt; it will be but waste of breath.

  TEIRESIAS

  I say thou livest with thy nearest kin

  In infamy, unwitting in thy shame.

  OEDIPUS

  Think’st thou for aye unscathed to wag thy tongue?

  TEIRESIAS

  Yea, if the might of truth can aught prevail.

  OEDIPUS

  With other men, but not with thee, for thou

  In ear, wit, eye, in everything art blind.

  TEIRESIAS

  Poor fool to utter gibes at me which all

  Here present will cast back on thee ere long.

  OEDIPUS

  Offspring of endless Night, thou hast no power

  O’er me or any man who sees the sun.

  TEIRESIAS

  No, for thy weird is not to fall by me.

  I leave to Apollo what concerns the god.

  OEDIPUS

  Is this a plot of Creon, or thine own?

  TEIRESIAS

  Not Creon, thou thyself art thine own bane.

  OEDIPUS

  O wealth and empiry and skill by skill

  Outwitted in the battlefield of life,

  What spite and envy follow in your train!

  See, for this crown the State conferred on me.

  A gift, a thing I sought not, for this crown

  The trusty Creon, my familiar friend,

  Hath lain in wait to oust me and suborned

  This mountebank, this juggling charlatan,

  This tricksy beggar-priest, for gain alone

  Keen-eyed, but in his proper art stone-blind.

  Say, sirrah, hast thou ever proved thyself

  A prophet? When the riddling Sphinx was here

  Why hadst thou no deliverance for this folk?

  And yet the riddle was not to be solved

  By guess-work but required the prophet’s art;

  Wherein thou wast found lacking; neither birds

  Nor sign from heaven helped thee, but I came,

  The simple Oedipus; I stopped her mouth

  By mother wit, untaught of auguries.

  This is the man whom thou wouldst undermine,

  In hope to reign with Creon in my stead.

  Methinks that thou and thine abettor soon

  Will rue your plot to drive the scapegoat out.

  Thank thy grey hairs that thou hast still to learn

  What chastisement such arrogance deserves.

  CHORUS

  To us it seems that both the seer and thou,

  O Oedipus, have spoken angry words.

  This is no time to wrangle but consult

  How best we may fulfill the oracle.

  TEIRESIAS

  King as thou art, free speech at least is mine

  To make reply; in this I am thy peer.

  I own no lord but Loxias; him I serve