Antigone / Oedipus the King / Electra by Sophocles
OEDIPUS. You know, and will not tell us? Do you wish
To ruin Thebes and to destroy us all?
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TEIRESIAS. My pain, and yours, will not be caused by me.
Why these vain questions?—for I will not speak.
OEDIPUS. You villain!—for you would provoke a stone
To anger: you’ll not speak, but show yourself
So hard of heart and so inflexible?
TEIRESIAS. You heap the blame on me; but what is yours
You do not know—therefore I am the villain!
OEDIPUS. And who would not be angry, finding that
You treat our people with such cold disdain?
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TEIRESIAS. The truth will come to light, without my help.
OEDIPUS. If it is bound to come, you ought to speak it.
TEIRESIAS. I’ll say no more, and you, if so you choose,
May rage and bluster on without restraint.
OEDIPUS. Restraint? Then I’ll show none! I’ll tell you all
That I can see in you: I do believe
This crime was planned and carried out by you,
All but the killing; and were you not blind
I’d say your hand alone had done the murder.
TEIRESIAS. So? Then I tell you this: submit yourself
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To that decree that you have made; from now
Address no word to these men nor to me:
You are the man whose crimes pollute our city.
OEDIPUS. What, does your impudence extend thus far?
And do you hope that it will go scot-free?
TEIRESIAS. It will. I have a champion—the truth.
OEDIPUS. Who taught you that? For it was not your art.
TEIRESIAS. No; you! You made me speak, against my will.
OEDIPUS. Speak what? Say it again, and say it clearly.
TEIRESIAS. Was I not clear? Or are you tempting me?
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OEDIPUS. Not clear enough for me. Say it again.
TEIRESIAS. You are yourself the murderer you seek.
OEDIPUS. You’ll not affront me twice and go unpunished!
TEIRESIAS. Then shall I give you still more cause for rage?
OEDIPUS. Say what you will; you’ll say it to no purpose.
TEIRESIAS. I know, you do not know, the hideous life
Of shame you lead with those most near to you.
OEDIPUS. You’ll pay most dearly for this insolence!
TEIRESIAS. No, not if Truth is strong, and can prevail.
OEDIPUS. It is—except in you; for you are blind
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In eyes and ears and brains and everything.
TEIRESIAS. You’ll not forget these insults that you throw
At me, when all men throw the same at you.
OEDIPUS. You live in darkness; you can do no harm
To me or any man who has his eyes.
TEIRESIAS. No; I am not to bring you down, because
Apollo is enough; he’ll see to it.
OEDIPUS. Creon, or you? Which of you made this plot?
TEIRESIAS. Creon’s no enemy of yours; you are your own.
OEDIPUS. O Wealth! O Royalty! whose commanding
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art
Outstrips all other arts in life’s contentions!
How great a store of envy lies upon you,
If for this sceptre, that the city gave
Freely to me, unasked—if now my friend,
The trusty Creon, burns to drive me hence
And steal it from me! So he has suborned
This crafty schemer here, this mountebank,
Whose purse alone has eyes, whose art is blind.—
Come, prophet, show your title! When the Sphinx
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Chanted her music here, why did not you
Speak out and save the city? Yet such a question
Was one for augury, not for mother wit.
You were no prophet then; your birds, your voice
From Heaven, were dumb. But I, who came by chance,
I, knowing nothing, put the Sphinx to flight,
Thanks to my wit—no thanks to divination!
And now you try to drive me out; you hope
When Creon’s king to bask in Creon’s favour.
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You’ll expiate the curse? Ay, and repent it,
Both you and your accomplice. But that you
Seem old, I’d teach you what you gain by treason!
CHORUS. My lord, he spoke in anger; so, I think,
Did you. What help in angry speeches? Come,
This is the task, how we can best discharge
The duty that the god has laid on us.
TEIRESIAS. King though you are, I claim the privilege
Of equal answer. No, I have the right;
I am no slave of yours—I serve Apollo,
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And therefore am not listed Creon’s man.
Listen—since you have taunted me with blindness!
You have your sight, and yet you cannot see
Where, nor with whom, you live, nor in what horror.
Your parents—do you know them? or that you
Are enemy to your kin, alive or dead?
And that a father’s and a mother’s curse
Shall join to drive you headlong out of Thebes
And change the light that now you see to darkness?
Your cries of agony, where will they not reach?
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Where on Cithaeron* will they not re-echo?
When you have learned what meant the marriage- song
Which bore you to an evil haven here
After so fair a voyage? And you are blind
To other horrors, which shall make you one
With your own children. Therefore, heap your scorn
On Creon and on me, for no man living
Will meet a doom more terrible than yours.
OEDIPUS. What? Am I to suffer words like this from him?
Ruin, damnation seize you! Off at once
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Out of our sight! Go! Get you whence you came!
TEIRESIAS. Had you not called me, I should not be here.
OEDIPUS. And had I known that you would talk such folly,
I’d not have called you to a house of mine.
TEIRESIAS. To you I seem a fool, but to your parents,
To those who did beget you, I was wise.
OEDIPUS. Stop! Who were they? Who were my parents? Tell me!
TEIRESIAS. This day will show your birth and your destruction.
OEDIPUS. You are too fond of dark obscurities.
TEIRESIAS. But do you not excel in reading riddles?
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OEDIPUS. I scorn your taunts; my skill has brought me glory.
TEIRESIAS. And this success brought you to ruin too.
OEDIPUS. I am content, if so I saved this city.
TEIRESIAS. Then I will leave you. Come, boy, take my hand.
OEDIPUS. Yes, let him take it. You are nothing but
Vexation here. Begone, and give me peace!
TEIRESIAS. When I have had my say. No frown of yours
Shall frighten me; you cannot injure me.
Here is my message: that man whom you seek
With threats and proclamations for the death
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Of Laius, he is living here; he’s thought
To be a foreigner, but shall be found
Theban by birth—and little joy will this
Bring him; when, with his eyesight turned to blindness,
His wealth to beggary, on foreign soil
With staff* in hand he’ll tap his way along,
His children with him; and he will be known
Himself to be their father and their brother,
The husband of the mother who gave him birth,
Supplanter of his father, and his slayer.
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—There
That I’m deceived, say then—and not before—
That I am ignorant in divination.
[Exeunt severally OEDIPUS, TEIRESIAS, and boy
Strophe 1
CHORUS [sings]. The voice of god* rang out in the holy cavern,
Denouncing one who has killed a King—the crime of crimes.
Who is the man? Let him begone in
Headlong flight, swift as a horse!
For the terrible god,* like a warrior armed,
Stands ready to strike with a lightning-flash:
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The Furies who punish crime,* and never fail,
Are hot in their pursuit.
Antistrophe 1
The snow is white on the cliffs of high Parnassus.*
It has flashed a message: Let every Theban join the hunt!
Lurking in caves among the mountains,
Deep in the woods—where is the man?
In wearisome flight, unresting, alone,
An outlaw, he shuns Apollo’s shrine;
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But ever the living menace of the god
Hovers around his head.
Strophe 2
Strange, disturbing, what the wise
Prophet has said. What can he mean?
Neither can I believe, nor can I disbelieve;
I do not know what to say.
I look here, and there; nothing can I find—
No strife, either now or in the past,
Between the kings of Thebes and Corinth.*
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A hand unknown struck down the King;
Though I would learn who it was dealt the blow,
That be is guilty whom all revere—
How can I believe this with no proof?
Antistrophe 2
Zeus, Apollo—they have knowledge;
They understand the ways of life.
Prophets are men, like me; that they can understand
More than is revealed to me—
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Of that, I can find nowhere certain proof,
Though one man is wise, another foolish.
Until the charge is manifest
I will not credit his accusers.
I saw myself how the Sphinx challenged him:
He proved his wisdom; he saved our city;
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Therefore how can I now condemn him?
Enter CREON
CREON. They tell me, Sirs, that Oedipus the King
Has made against me such an accusation
That I will not endure. For if he thinks
That in this present trouble I have done
Or said a single thing to do him harm,
Then let me die, and not drag out my days
With such a name as that. For it is not
One injury this accusation does me;
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It touches my whole life, if you, my friends,
And all the city are to call me traitor.
CHORUS. The accusation may perhaps have come
From heat of temper, not from sober judgement.
CREON. What was it made him think contrivances
Of mine suborned the seer to tell his lies?
CHORUS. Those were his words; I do not know his reasons.
CREON. Was he in earnest, master of himself,
When he attacked me with this accusation?
CHORUS. I do not closely scan what kings are doing.—
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But here he comes in person from the palace.
Enter OEDIPUS
OEDIPUS. What, you? You dare come here? How can you find
The impudence to show yourself before
My house, when you are clearly proven
To have sought my life and tried to steal my crown?
Why, do you think me then a coward, or
A fool, that you should try to lay this plot?
Or that I should not see what you were scheming,
And so fall unresisting, blindly, to you?
But you were mad, so to attempt the throne,
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Poor and unaided; this is not encompassed
Without the strong support of friends and money!
CREON. This you must do: now you have had your say
Hear my reply; then yourself shall judge.
OEDIPUS. A ready tongue! But I am bad at listening—