Antigone / Oedipus the King / Electra by Sophocles
To you. For I have found how much you hate me.
CREON. One thing: first listen to what I have to say.
OEDIPUS. One thing: do not pretend you’re not a villain.
CREON. If you believe it is a thing worth having,
Insensate stubbornness, then you are wrong.
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OEDIPUS. If you believe that one can harm a kinsman
Without retaliation, you are wrong.
CREON. With this I have no quarrel; but explain
What injury you say that I have done you.
OEDIPUS. Did you advise, or did you not, that I
Should send a man for that most reverend prophet?
CREON. I did, and I am still of that advice.
OEDIPUS. How long a time is it since Laius . . .
CREON. Since Laius did what? How can I say?
OEDIPUS. Was seen no more, but met a violent death?
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CREON. It would be many years now past and gone.
OEDIPUS. And had this prophet learned his art already?
CREON. Yes; his repute was great—as it is now.
OEDIPUS. Did he make any mention then of me?
CREON. He never spoke of you within my hearing.
OEDIPUS. Touching the murder: did you make no search?
CREON. No search? Of course we did; but we found nothing.
OEDIPUS. And why did this wise prophet not speak then?
CREON. Who knows? Where I know nothing I say nothing.
OEDIPUS. This much you know—and you’ll do well to answer:
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CREON. What is it? If I know, I’ll tell you freely.
OEDIPUS. That if he had not joined with you, he’d not
Have said that I was Laius’ murderer.
CREON. If he said this, I did not know.—But I
May rightly question you, as you have me.
OEDIPUS. Ask what you will. You’ll never prove I killed him.
CREON. Why then: are you not married to my sister?
OEDIPUS. I am indeed; it cannot be denied.
CREON. You share with her the sovereignty of Thebes?
OEDIPUS. She need but ask, and anything is hers.
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CREON. And am I not myself conjoined with you?
OEDIPUS. You are; not rebel therefore, but a traitor!
CREON. Not so, if you will reason with yourself,
As I with you. This first: would any man,
To gain no increase of authority,
Choose kingship, with its fears and sleepless nights?
Not I. What I desire, what every man
Desires, if he has wisdom, is to take
The substance, not the show, of royalty.
For now, through you, I have both power and ease
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But were I king, I’d be oppressed with cares.
Not so: while I have ample sovereignty
And rule in peace, why should I want the crown?
I am not yet so made as to give up
All that which brings me honour and advantage.
Now, every man greets me, and I greet him;
Those who have need of you make much of me,
Since I can make or mar them. Why should I
Surrender this to load myself with that?
A man of sense was never yet a traitor;
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I have no taste for that, nor could I force
Myself to aid another’s treachery.
But you can test me: go to Delphi; ask
If I reported rightly what was said.
And further: if you find that I had dealings
With that diviner, you may take and kill me
Not with your single vote, but yours and mine,
But not on bare suspicion, unsupported.
How wrong it is, to use a random judgement
And think the false man true, the true man false!
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To spurn a loyal friend, that is no better
Than to destroy the life to which we cling.
This you will learn in time, for Time alone
Reveals the upright man; a single day
Suffices to unmask the treacherous.
CHORUS. My lord, he speaks with caution, to avoid
Grave error. Hasty judgement is not sure.
OEDIPUS. But when an enemy is quick to plot
And strike, I must be quick in answer too.
If I am slow, and wait, then I shall find
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That he has gained his end, and I am lost.
CREON. What do you wish? To drive me into exile?
OEDIPUS. No, more than exile: I will have your life.
CREON. 〈When will it cease, this monstrous rage of yours?〉*
OEDIPUS. When your example shows what comes of envy.
CREON. Must you be stubborn? Cannot you believe me?
OEDIPUS. 〈You speak to me as if I were a fool!〉
CREON. Because I know you’re wrong.
OEDIPUS. Right, for myself!
CREON. It is not right for me!
OEDIPUS. But you’re a traitor.
CREON. What if your charge is false?
OEDIPUS. I have to govern.
CREON. Not govern badly!
OEDIPUS. Listen to him, Thebes!
CREON. You’re not the city! I am Theban too.
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CHORUS. My lords, no more! Here comes the Queen, and not
Too soon, to join you. With her help, you must
Compose the bitter strife that now divides you.
Enter IOCASTA
IOCASTA. You frantic men! What has aroused this wild
Dispute? Have you no shame, when such a plague
Afflicts us, to indulge in private quarrels?
Creon, go home, I pray. You, Oedipus,
Come in; do not make much of what is nothing.
CREON. My sister: Oedipus, your husband here,
Has thought it right to punish me with one
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Of two most awful dooms: exile, or death.
OEDIPUS. I have: I have convicted him, Iocasta,
Of plotting secretly against my life.
CREON. If I am guilty in a single point
Of such a crime, then may I die accursed.
IOCASTA. O, by the gods, believe him, Oedipus!
Respect the oath that he has sworn, and have
Regard for me, and for these citizens.
[Until line 697 the parts given to the chorus are sung, the rest,
presumably, spoken.]
Strophe
CHORUS. My lord, I pray, give consent.
Yield to us; ponder well.
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OEDIPUS. What is it you would have me yield?
CHORUS. Respect a man ripe in years,
Bound by this mighty oath he has sworn.
OEDIPUS. Your wish is clear?
CHORUS. It is.
OEDIPUS. Then tell it me.
CHORUS. Not to repel, and drive out of our midst a friend,
Scorning a solemn curse, for uncertain cause.
OEDIPUS. I tell you this: your prayer will mean for me
My banishment from Thebes, or else my death.
CHORUS. No, no! by the Sun, the chief of gods,*
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Ruin and desolation and all evil come upon me
If I harbour thoughts such as these!
No; our land racked with plague breaks my heart.
Do not now deal a new wound on Thebes to crown the old!
OEDIPUS. Then let him be, though I must die twice over,
Or be dishonoured, spurned and driven out.
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It’s your entreaty, and not his, that moves
My pity; he shall have my lasting hatred.
CREON. You yield ungenerously; but when your wrath
Has cooled, how it will prick you!
Natures such As yours give most vexation to themselves.
&
CREON. I go,
Misjudged by you—but these will judge me better
[indicating CHORUS].
[Exit CREON
Antistrophe
CHORUS. My lady, why now delay?
Let the King go in with you.
IOCASTA. When you have told me what has passed.
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CHORUS. Suspicion came.—Random words, undeserved,
Will provoke men to wrath.
IOCASTA. It was from both?
CHORUS. It was.
IOCASTA. And what was said?
CHORUS. It is enough for me, more than enough, when I
Think of our ills, that this should rest where it lies.
OEDIPUS. You and your wise advice, blunting my wrath,
Frustrated me—and it has come to this!
CHORUS. This, O my King, I said, and say again:
I should be mad, distraught,
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I should be a fool, and worse,
If I sought to drive you away.
Thebes was near sinking; you brought her safe
Through the storm. Now again we pray that you may save us.
IOCASTA. In Heaven’s name, my lord, I too must know
What was the reason for this blazing anger.
OEDIPUS. There’s none to whom I more defer; and so,
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I’ll tell you: Creon and his vile plot against me.
IOCASTA. What has he done, that you are so incensed?
OEDIPUS. He says that I am Laius’ murderer.
IOCASTA. From his own knowledge? Or has someone told him?
OEDIPUS. No; that suspicion should not fall upon
Himself, he used a tool—a crafty prophet.
IOCASTA. Why, have no fear of that. Listen to me,
And you will learn that the prophetic art
Touches our human fortunes not at all.
I soon can give you proof.—An oracle
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Once came to Laius—from the god himself
I do not say, but from his ministers:
His fate it was, that should he have a son
By me, that son would take his father’s life.
But he was killed—or so they said—by strangers,
By brigands, at a place where three ways meet.
As for the child, it was not three days old
When Laius fastened both its feet together
And had it cast over a precipice. *
Therefore Apollo failed; for neither did
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His son kill Laius, nor did Laius meet
The awful end he feared, killed by his son.
So much for what prophetic voices uttered.
Have no regard for them. The god will bring
To light himself whatever thing he chooses.
OEDIPUS. Iocasta, terror seizes me, and shakes
My very soul, at one thing you have said.
IOCASTA. Why so? What have I said to frighten you?
OEDIPUS. I think I heard you say that Laius
Was murdered at a place where three ways meet?
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IOCASTA. So it was said—indeed, they say it still.
OEDIPUS. Where is the place where this encounter happened?
IOCASTA. They call the country Phokis, and a road
From Delphi joins a road from Daulia.*
OEDIPUS. Since that was done, how many years have passed?
IOCASTA. It was proclaimed in Thebes a little time
Before the city offered you the crown.
OEDIPUS. O Zeus, what fate hast thou ordained for me?
IOCASTA. What is the fear that so oppresses you?
OEDIPUS. One moment yet: tell me of Laius.
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What age was he? and what was his appearance?
IOCASTA. A tall man, and his hair was touched with white;
In figure he was not unlike yourself.
OEDIPUS. O God! Did I, then, in my ignorance,
Proclaim that awful curse against myself?
IOCASTA. What are you saying? How you frighten me!
OEDIPUS. I greatly fear that prophet was not blind.
But yet one question; that will show me more.