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.
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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, but 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?
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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.
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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?