425 BC

OEDIPUS THE KING

by Sophocles

translated by R. C. Jebb

Characters in the Play -

Oedipus, King of Thebes

Priest of Zeus

Creon, brother of Jocasta

Teiresias, the blind prophet

Jocasta

First Messenger, a shepherd from Corinth

A Shepherd, formerly in the service of Laius

Second Messenger, from the house

Chorus of Theban Elders -

Mute Persons -

A train of Suppliants (old men, youths, and children).

The children Antigone and Ismene, daughters of

Oedipus and Jocasta

OEDIPUS THE KING -

(Scene: -Before the royal palace of Oedipus at Thebes. In front of

the large central doors there is an altar; a smaller altar stands

also near each of the two side-doors. Suppliants-old men, youths,

and young children-are seated on the steps of the altars. They

are dressed in white tunics and cloaks,-their hair bound with

white fillets. On the altars they have laid down olive-branches

wreathed with fillets of wool. The PRIEST OF ZEUS, a venerable

man, is alone standing, facing the central doors of the palace.

These are now thrown open. Followed by two attendants, who place

themselves on either side of the doors, OEDIPUS enters, in the

robes of a king. For a moment he gazes silently on the groups at

the altars, and then speaks.) -

OEDIPUS MY CHILDREN, latest-born to Cadmus who was of old, why are ye set before me thus with wreathed branches of suppliants, while the city reeks with incense, rings with prayers for health and cries of woe? I deemed it unmeet, my children, to hear these things at the mouth of others, and have come hither myself, I, Oedipus renowned of all.

Tell me, then, thou venerable man-since it is thy natural part to speak for these-in what mood are ye placed here, with what dread or what desire? Be sure that I would gladly give all aid; hard of heart were I, did I not pity such suppliants as these.

PRIEST OF ZEUS

Nay, Oedipus, ruler of my land, thou seest of what years we are who beset thy altars,-some, nestlings still too tender for far flights,-some, bowed with age, priests, as I of Zeus,-and these, the chosen youth; while the rest of the folk sit with wreathed branches in the market-places, and before the two shrines of Pallas, and where Ismenus gives answer by fire.

For the city, as thou thyself seest, is now too sorely vexed, and can no more lift her head from beneath the angry waves of death; a blight is on her in the fruitful blossoms of the land, in the herds among the pastures, in the barren pangs of women; and withal the flaming god, the malign plague, hath swooped on us, and ravages the town; by whom the house of Cadmus is made waste, but dark Hades rich in groans and tears.

It is not as deeming thee ranked with gods that I and these children are suppliants at thy hearth, but as deeming thee first of men, both in life's common chances, and when mortals have to do with more than man: seeing that thou camest to the town of Cadmus, and didst quit us of the tax that we rendered to the hard songstress; and this, though thou knewest nothing from us that could avail thee, nor hadst been schooled; no, by a god's aid, 'tis said and believed, didst thou uplift our life.

And now, Oedipus, king glorious in all eyes, we beseech thee, all we suppliants, to find for us some succour, whether by the whisper of a god thou knowest it, or haply as in the power of man; for I see that, when men have been proved in deeds past, the issues of their counsels, too, most often have effect.

On, best of mortals, again uplift our State! On, guard thy fame,-since now this land calls thee saviour for thy former zeal; and never be it our memory of thy reign that we were first restored and afterward cast down: nay, lift up this State in such wise that it fall no more!

With good omen didst thou give us that past happiness; now also show thyself the same. For if thou art to rule this land, even as thou art now its lord, 'tis better to be lord of men than of a waste: since neither walled town nor ship is anything, if it is void and no men dwell with thee therein.

OEDIPUS

Oh my piteous children, known, well known to me are the desires wherewith ye have come: well wot I that ye suffer all; yet, sufferers as ye are, there is not one of you whose suffering is as mine. Your pain comes on each one of you for himself alone, and for no other; but my soul mourns at once for the city, and for myself, and for thee.

So that ye rouse me not, truly, as one sunk in sleep: no, be sure that I have wept full many tears, gone many ways in wanderings of thought. And the sole remedy which, well pondering, I could find, this I have put into act. I have sent the son of Menoeceus, Creon, mine own wife's brother, to the Pythian house of Phoebus, to learn by what deed or word I might deliver this town. And already, when the lapse of days is reckoned, it troubles me what he doth; for he tarries strangely, beyond the fitting space. But when he comes, then shall I be no true man if I do not all that the god shows.

PRIEST

Nay, in season hast thou spoken; at this moment these sign to me that Creon draws near.

OEDIPUS