Athens alone gives hospitality
And shelters the vexed stranger, so men say.
Have I found so? I whom ye dislodged
First from my seat of rock and now would drive
Forth from your land, dreading my name alone;
For me you surely dread not, nor my deeds,
Deeds of a man more sinned against than sinning,
As I might well convince you, were it meet
To tell my mother's story and my sire's,
The cause of this your fear. Yet am I then
A villain born because in self-defense,
Striken, I struck the striker back again?
E'en had I known, no villainy 'twould prove:
But all unwitting whither I went, I went—
To ruin; my destroyers knew it well,
Wherefore, I pray you, sirs, in Heaven's name,
Even as ye bade me quit my seat, defend me.
O pay not a lip service to the gods
And wrong them of their dues. Bethink ye well,
The eye of Heaven beholds the just of men,
And the unjust, nor ever in this world
Has one sole godless sinner found escape.
Stand then on Heaven's side and never blot
Athens' fair scutcheon by abetting wrong.
I came to you a suppliant, and you pledged
Your honor; O preserve me to the end,
O let not this marred visage do me wrong!
A holy and god-fearing man is here
Whose coming purports comfort for your folk.
And when your chief arrives, whoe'er he be,
Then shall ye have my story and know all.
Meanwhile I pray you do me no despite.
CHORUS
The plea thou urgest, needs must give us pause,
Set forth in weighty argument, but we
Must leave the issue with the ruling powers.
OEDIPUS
Where is he, strangers, he who sways the realm?
CHORUS
In his ancestral seat; a messenger,
The same who sent us here, is gone for him.
OEDIPUS
And think you he will have such care or thought
For the blind stranger as to come himself?
CHORUS
Aye, that he will, when once he learns thy name.
OEDIPUS
But who will bear him word!
CHORUS
The way is long,
And many travelers pass to speed the news.
Be sure he'll hear and hasten, never fear;
So wide and far thy name is noised abroad,
That, were he ne'er so spent and loth to move,
He would bestir him when he hears of thee.
OEDIPUS
Well, may he come with blessing to his State
And me! Who serves his neighbor serves himself. [5]
ANTIGONE
Zeus! What is this? What can I say or think?
OEDIPUS
What now, Antigone?
ANTIGONE
I see a woman
Riding upon a colt of Aetna's breed;
She wears for headgear a Thessalian hat
To shade her from the sun. Who can it be?
She or a stranger? Do I wake or dream?
'This she; 'tis not—I cannot tell, alack;
It is no other! Now her bright'ning glance
Greets me with recognition, yes, 'tis she,
Herself, Ismene!
OEDIPUS
Ha! what say ye, child?
ANTIGONE
That I behold thy daughter and my sister,
And thou wilt know her straightway by her voice.
(Enter ISMENE)
ISMENE
Father and sister, names to me most sweet,
How hardly have I found you, hardly now
When found at last can see you through my tears!
OEDIPUS
Art come, my child?
ISMENE
O father, sad thy plight!
OEDIPUS
Child, thou art here?
ISMENE
Yes, 'twas a weary way.
OEDIPUS
Touch me, my child.
ISMENE
I give a hand to both.
OEDIPUS
O children—sisters!
ISMENE
O disastrous plight!
OEDIPUS
Her plight and mine?
ISMENE
Aye, and my own no less.
OEDIPUS
What brought thee, daughter?
ISMENE
Father, care for thee.
OEDIPUS
A daughter's yearning?
ISMENE
Yes, and I had news
I would myself deliver, so I came
With the one thrall who yet is true to me.
OEDIPUS
Thy valiant brothers, where are they at need?
ISMENE
They are—enough, 'tis now their darkest hour.
OEDIPUS
Out on the twain! The thoughts and actions all
Are framed and modeled on Egyptian ways.
For there the men sit at the loom indoors
While the wives slave abroad for daily bread.
So you, my children—those whom I behooved
To bear the burden, stay at home like girls,
While in their stead my daughters moil and drudge,
Lightening their father's misery. The one
Since first she grew from girlish feebleness
To womanhood has been the old man's guide
And shared my weary wandering, roaming oft
Hungry and footsore through wild forest ways,
In drenching rains and under scorching suns,
Careless herself of home and ease, if so
Her sire might have her tender ministry.
And thou, my child, whilom thou wentest forth,
Eluding the Cadmeians' vigilance,
To bring thy father all the oracles
Concerning Oedipus, and didst make thyself
My faithful lieger, when they banished me.
And now what mission summons thee from home,
What news, Ismene, hast thou for thy father?
This much I know, thou com'st not empty-handed,
Without a warning of some new alarm.
ISMENE
The toil and trouble, father, that I bore
To find thy lodging-place and how thou faredst,
I spare thee; surely 'twere a double pain
To suffer, first in act and then in telling;
'Tis the misfortune of thine ill-starred sons
I come to tell thee. At the first they willed
To leave the throne to Creon, minded well
Thus to remove the inveterate curse of old,
A canker that infected all thy race.
But now some god and an infatuate soul
Have stirred betwixt them a mad rivalry
To grasp at sovereignty and kingly power.
Today the hot-branded youth, the younger born,
Is keeping Polyneices from the throne,
His elder, and has thrust him from the land.
The banished brother (so all Thebes reports)
Fled to the vale of Argos, and by help
Of new alliance there and friends in arms,
Swears he will stablish Argos straight as lord
Of the Cadmeian land, or, if he fail,
Exalt the victor to the stars of heaven.
This is no empty tale, but deadly truth,
My father; and how long thy agony,
Ere the gods pity thee, I cannot tell.
OEDIPUS
Hast thou indeed then entertained a hope
The gods at last will turn and rescue me?
ISMENE
Yea, so I read these latest oracles.
OEDIPUS
What oracles? What hath been uttered, child?
ISMENE
Thy country (so it runs) shall yearn in time
To have thee for their weal alive or dead.
OEDIPUS
And who could gain by such a one as I?
ISMENE
On thee, 'tis said, their sovereignty depends.
OEDIPUS
So, when I cease to be, my worth begins.
ISMENE
The gods, who once abased, uplift thee now.
OEDIPUS
Poor help to raise an old man fallen in youth.
ISMENE
Howe'er that be, 'tis for this cause alone
That Creon comes to thee—and comes anon.
OEDIPUS
With what intent, my daughter? Tell me plainly.
ISMENE
To plant thee near the Theban land, and so
Keep thee within their grasp, yet now allow
Thy foot to pass beyond their boundaries.
OEDIPUS
What gain they, if I lay outside?
OEDIPUS
Thy tomb,
If disappointed, brings on them a curse.
OEDIPUS
It needs no god to tell what's plain to sense.
ISMENE
Therefore they fain would have thee close at hand,
Not where thou wouldst be master of thyself.
OEDIPUS
Mean they to shroud my bones in Theban dust?
ISMENE
Nay, father, guilt of kinsman's blood forbids.
OEDIPUS
Then never shall they be my masters, never!
ISMENE
Thebes, thou shalt rue this bitterly some day!
OEDIPUS
When what conjunction comes to pass, my child?
ISMENE
Thy angry wraith, when at thy tomb they stand. [6]
OEDIPUS
And who hath told thee what thou tell'st me, child?
ISMENE
Envoys who visited the Delphic hearth.
OEDIPUS
Hath Phoebus spoken thus concerning me?
ISMENE
So say the envoys who returned to Thebes.
OEDIPUS
ISMENE
Yea, both alike, and know its import well.
OEDIPUS
They knew it, yet the ignoble greed of rule
Outweighed all longing for their sire's return.
ISMENE
Grievous thy words, yet I must own them true.
OEDIPUS
Then may the gods ne'er quench their fatal feud,
And mine be the arbitrament of the fight,
For which they now are arming, spear to spear;
That neither he who holds the scepter now
May keep this throne, nor he who fled the realm
Return again. They never raised a hand,
When I their sire was thrust from hearth and home,
When I was banned and banished, what recked they?
Say you 'twas done at my desire, a grace
Which the state, yielding to my wish, allowed?
Not so; for, mark you, on that very day
When in the tempest of my soul I craved
Death, even death by stoning, none appeared
To further that wild longing, but anon,
When time had numbed my anguish and I felt
My wrath had all outrun those errors past,
Then, then it was the city went about
By force to oust me, respited for years;
And then my sons, who should as sons have helped,
Did nothing: and, one little word from them
Was all I needed, and they spoke no word,
But let me wander on for evermore,
A banished man, a beggar. These two maids
Their sisters, girls, gave all their sex could give,
Food and safe harborage and filial care;
While their two brethren sacrificed their sire
For lust of power and sceptred sovereignty.
No! me they ne'er shall win for an ally,
Nor will this Theban kingship bring them gain;
That know I from this maiden's oracles,
And those old prophecies concerning me,
Which Phoebus now at length has brought to pass.
Come Creon then, come all the mightiest
In Thebes to seek me; for if ye my friends,
Championed by those dread Powers indigenous,
Espouse my cause; then for the State ye gain
A great deliverer, for my foemen bane.
CHORUS
Our pity, Oedipus, thou needs must move,
Thou and these maidens; and the stronger plea
Thou urgest, as the savior of our land,
Disposes me to counsel for thy weal.
OEDIPUS
Aid me, kind sirs; I will do all you bid.
CHORUS
First make atonement to the deities,
Whose grove by trespass thou didst first profane.
OEDIPUS
After what manner, stranger? Teach me, pray.
CHORUS
Make a libation first of water fetched
With undefiled hands from living spring.
OEDIPUS
And after I have gotten this pure draught?
CHORUS
Bowls thou wilt find, the carver's handiwork;
Crown thou the rims and both the handles crown—
OEDIPUS
With olive shoots or blocks of wool, or how?
CHORUS
With wool from fleece of yearling freshly shorn.
OEDIPUS
What next? how must I end the ritual?
CHORUS
Pour thy libation, turning to the dawn.
OEDIPUS
Pouring it from the urns whereof ye spake?
CHORUS
Yea, in three streams; and be the last bowl drained
To the last drop.
OEDIPUS
And wherewith shall I fill it,
Ere in its place I set it? This too tell.
CHORUS
With water and with honey; add no wine.
OEDIPUS
And when the embowered earth hath drunk thereof?
CHORUS
Then lay upon it thrice nine olive sprays
With both thy hands, and offer up this prayer.
OEDIPUS
I fain would hear it; that imports the most.
CHORUS
That, as we call them Gracious, they would deign
To grant the suppliant their saving grace.
So pray thyself or whoso pray for thee,
In whispered accents, not with lifted voice;
Then go and look back. Do as I bid,
And I shall then be bold to stand thy friend;
Else, stranger, I should have my fears for thee.
OEDIPUS
Hear ye, my daughters, what these strangers say?
ANTIGONE
We listened, and attend thy bidding, father.
OEDIPUS
I cannot go, disabled as I am
Doubly, by lack of strength and lack of sight;
But one of you may do it in my stead;
For one, I trow, may pay the sacrifice
Of thousands, if his heart be leal and true.
So to your work with speed, but leave me not
Untended; for this frame is all too week
To move without the help of guiding hand.
ISMENE
To find the spot, this have I yet to learn.
CHORUS
Beyond this grove; if thou hast need of aught,
The guardian of the close will lend his aid.
ISMENE
I go, and thou, Antigone, meanwhile
Must guard our father. In a parent's cause
Toil, if there be toil, is of no account.
(Exit I
SMENE)
CHORUS
(Str. 1)
Ill it is, stranger, to awake
Pain that long since has ceased to ache,
And yet I fain would hear—
OEDIPUS
What thing?
CHORUS
Thy tale of cruel suffering
For which no cure was found,
The fate that held thee bound.
OEDIPUS
O bid me not (as guest I claim
This grace) expose my shame.
CHORUS
The tale is bruited far and near,
And echoes still from ear to ear.
The truth, I fain would hear.
OEDIPUS
Ah me!
CHORUS
I prithee yield.
OEDIPUS
Ah me!
CHORUS
Grant my request, I granted all to thee.
OEDIPUS
(Ant. 1)
Know then I suffered ills most vile, but none
(So help me Heaven!) from acts in malice done.
CHORUS
Say how.
OEDIPUS
The State around
An all unwitting bridegroom bound
An impious marriage chain;
That was my bane.
CHORUS
Didst thou in sooth then share
A bed incestuous with her that bare—
OEDIPUS
It stabs me like a sword,
That two-edged word,
O stranger, but these maids—my own—
CHORUS
Say on.
OEDIPUS
Two daughters, curses twain.
CHORUS
Oh God!
OEDIPUS
Sprang from the wife and mother's travail-pain.
CHORUS
(Str. 2)
What, then thy offspring are at once—
OEDIPUS
Too true.
Their father's very sister's too.
CHORUS
Oh horror!
OEDIPUS
Horrors from the boundless deep
Back on my soul in refluent surges sweep.
CHORUS
Thou hast endured—
OEDIPUS
Intolerable woe.
CHORUS
And sinned—
OEDIPUS
I sinned not.
CHORUS
How so?
OEDIPUS
I served the State; would I had never won
That graceless grace by which I was undone.
CHORUS
(Ant. 2)
And next, unhappy man, thou hast shed blood?
OEDIPUS
Must ye hear more?
CHORUS
A father's?
OEDIPUS
Flood on flood
Whelms me; that word's a second mortal blow.
CHORUS
Murderer!
OEDIPUS
Yes, a murderer, but know—
CHORUS
What canst thou plead?
OEDIPUS
A plea of justice.
CHORUS
How?
OEDIPUS
I slew who else would me have slain;
I slew without intent,
A wretch, but innocent
In the law's eye, I stand, without a stain.