Give me no ground for confidence or fear.
CREON
4
If thou wouldst hear my message publicly,
I'll tell thee straight, or with thee pass within.
OEDIPUS
Speak before all; the burden that I bear
Is more for these my subjects than myself.
CREON
Let me report then all the god declared. King Phoebus bids us straitly extirpate A fell pollution that infests the land, 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?
5
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
6
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!
7
(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