SOPHOCLES'
OEDIPUS THE KING
A Translation by D.W. Myatt

 Characters:
Oedipus, King of Thebes
Jocasta, his Consort and wife
Creon, brother of Jocasta
Tiresias, the blind prophet
A Priest, of Zeus
First Messenger
Second Messenger
A Shepherd
Chorus, of Theban Elders

Scene: Before the wealthy dwelling of Oedipus at Thebes

Oedipus Tyrannus

OEDIPUS

My children - you most recently reared from ancient Cadmus -

Why do you hasten to these seats

Wreathed in suppliant branches?

Since the citadel is filled with incense,

Chants and lamentations

I did not deem it fitting, my children, to hear

The report of some messenger - so I come here myself:

I, Oedipus the renowned, who is respected by you all.
 

As you, Elder, are distinguished by nature,

You should speak for these others. Is your manner

One of fear or affection? My will is to assist you

For I would be indifferent to pain

Were I not to have pity after such a supplication as this.

PRIEST
 

Oedipus, master of my land:

You see how many sit here

Before your altars - some not yet robust enough

To fly far; some heavy as I, Priest of Zeus, with age;

And these, chosen from our unmarried youth.

Enwreathed like them, our people sit in the place of markets,

20 By the twin shrines of Pallas

And by the embers of the Ismenian oracle.

Our clan, as you yourself behold, already heaves

Too much - its head bent

To the depths bloodily heaving.

Decay is in the unfruitful seeds in the soil,

Decay is in our herds of cattle - our women

Are barren or abort, and that god of fever

Swoops down to strike our clan with an odious plague,

Emptying the abode of Cadmus and giving dark Hades

An abundance of wailing and lamentation.
 

Not as an equal of the gods do I,

And these children who sit by your altar, behold you -

But as the prime man in our problems of life

And in our dealings and agreements with daimons(1).

You arrived at our town of Cadmus to disentangle us

From the tax we paid to that harsh Songstress -

And that with less than we knew because

Without our experience. Rather - and it is the custom

To say this - you had the support of a god

And so made our lives to prosper.

40 Thus, Oedipus - you, the most noble of all -

We all as suppliants beseech you

To find us a defence, whether it be from a god's oracle

Or whether it be learnt from some man.

For those who are practical are, by events,

Seen to give counsels which are the most effective.

Most noble among mortals - restore our clan!

But - be cautious. For now this land of yours

Names you their protector for your swiftness before -

Do not let it be recorded of your leadership

That you raised us up again only to let us thereafter fall:

So make us safe, and restore our clan.

Favourable - then - the omens, and prosperity

You brought us: be of the same kind, again!

For, in commanding a land, as you are master of this,

It is much better to be master of men than of an emptiness!

Of no value are a ship or a defensive tower

If they are empty because no men dwell within them.

OEDIPUS
 

You, my children, who lament - I know, for I am not without knowledge,

Of the desire which brings you here. For well do I see

60 All your sufferings - and though you suffer, it is I

And not one of you that suffers the most.

For your pain comes to each of you

By itself, with nothing else, while my psyche

Mourns for myself, for you and the clan.

You have not awakened me from a resting sleep

For indeed you should know of my many tears

And the many paths of reflection I have wandered upon and tried.

And, as I pondered, I found one cure

Which I therefore took. The son of Menoeceus,

Creon - he who is my kin by marriage - I have sent to that Pythian dwelling

Of Phoebus to learn how I

By word or deed can give deliverance to the clan.
 

But I have already measured the duration

And am concerned: for where is he? He is longer than expected

For his absence is, in duration, greater than is necessary.

Yet when he does arrive, it would dishonourable

For me not to act upon all that the gods makes clear.

PRIEST
 

It is fitting that you spoke thus - for observe that now

We are signalled that Creon is approaching.
 

OEDIPUS
 

80 Lord Apollo! Let our fate be such

That we are saved - and as bright as his face now is!

PRIEST
 

I conjecture it is pleasing since he arrives with his head crowned

By laurel wreaths bearing many berries.
 

OEDIPUS
 

Soon we will know, for, in distance, he can hear us now.
[Enter Creon]

 

Lord - son of Menoeceus - my kin by marriage:

Give to us the saying you received from the god!

CREON
 

It is propitious, for I call it fortunate when what is difficult to bear

Is taken from us, enabling us thus to prosper again.
 

OEDIPUS
 

But what is it? I am not given more courage

Nor more fear by your words.
 

CREON

Do you insist upon hearing it here,

Within reach of these others - or shall we go within?
 

OEDIPUS
 

Speak it to all. For my concern for their suffering

Is more than even that for my own psyche.
 

CREON
 

Then I shall speak to you what I heard from the god.

The command of Lord Phoebus was clear -

That defilement nourished by our soil

Must be driven away, not given nourishment until it cannot be cured.

OEDIPUS
 

When came this misfortune? How to be cleansed?
 

CREON
 

100 Banishment of a man - or a killing in return for the killing

To release us from the blood and thus this tempest upon our clan.

OEDIPUS
 

What man is thus fated to be so denounced?

CREON
 

My Lord, Laius was the Chief

Of this land, before you guided us.
 

OEDIPUS
 

That I have heard and know well although I never saw him.
 

CREON
 

Because he was slaughtered it is clearly ordered that you

Must punish the killing hands, whosesoever they are.
 

OEDIPUS
 

But are they in this land? Can we still find

The now faded marks of the ancient tracks of those so accused?

CREON
 

Still in our land, he said. What is saught

Can be caught, but will escape if not attended to.
 

OEDIPUS
 

Was Laius in his dwelling, in his fields,

Or in another land when he met his death?
 

CREON
 

He said he was journeying to a shrine:

But, having gone, he did not return.
 

OEDIPUS
 

Was there no messenger, no other with him

Who saw anything and whom we could consult and thus learn from?
 

CREON
 

No - killed: all of them. Except one who fled in fear

And so saw nothing except the one thing he did speak of seeing.
 

OEDIPUS
 

120 What? One thing may help us learn many more

And such a small beginning may bring us hope.
 

CREON
 

He announced that robbers came upon them and, there being so many,

In their strength slew them with their many hands.
 

OEDIPUS
 

How could robbers do that? Unless - unless silver

Was paid to them, from here! Otherwise, they would not have the courage!
 

CREON
 

Such was the opinion. But with Laius killed

No one arose to be his avenger since we had other troubles.

OEDIPUS
 

What troubles were before you that with your King fallen

You were kept from looking?
 

CREON
 

The convoluted utterances of the Sphinx made us consider what was before us

And leave unknown what was dark.
 

OEDIPUS
 

Then, as a start, I shall go back to make it visible.

It is fitting for Phoebus, and fitting also for you

For the sake of him dead, to return your concern there

And fair that I am seen as an ally

In avenging this land and the god.

Yet not in the name of remote kin

But for myself will I banish the abomination

Since that person who killed may - and soon -

140 And by his own hand, wish to avenge me.

Thus in this way by so giving aid, I also benefit myself.

Now and swiftly, my children, stand up from these steps -

Raising your suppliant branches -

And go to summon here the people of Cadmus

For I shall do all that is required. Either good fortune -

If the gods wills - will be shown to be ours, or we shall perish.
[Exit Oedipus]

 

PRIEST
 

Stand, children, for that favour

For which we came he has announced he will do.

May Phoebus -who delivered this oracle -

Be our Saviour and cause our suffering to cease.
[Exit Priest. Enter Chorus]

 

CHORUS

Zeus - your pleasing voice has spoken

But in what manner from gold-rich Pytho do you come

To the splendour that is Thebes?
My reason is stretched by dread as fear shakes me -

O Delian Paeon I invoke you! -

And I am in awe. For is this new

Or the continuation of that obligation

Which each season brings again?

Speak to me with your divine voice,

You born from she whom we treasure - our Hope!
You I shall name first - you the daughter of Zeus, the divine Athene!

160 And then you, her sister, who defends our lands - Artemis! -

Whose illustrious throne is the circle of our market.

And you, Phoebus with your far-reaching arrows!

You - the triad who guard us from death! Appear to me!

When misfortune moved over our clan before

You came to completely drive away that injuring fire -

So now come to us, again!
Beyond count are the injuries I bear

And all my comrades are sick;

There is no spear of thought to defend us -

The offspring of our fertile soil do not grow

While at the birth there are no cries of joy

For the women stretched by their labour:

I behold one after another rushing forth - swifter than feathered birds,

Swifter than invincible fire -

Toward the land of the twilight god!
They are beyond count and make the clan to die:

180 For her descendants lie unpitied, unmourned on the ground

Condemning others to death

As both the child-less and the mothers gather

Around the base of the altars

To labour as suppliants with their injurious laments

Although clear are the hymns to the Healer

Above those accompanying wailing voices!

In answer, you whom we hold precious - daughter of Zeus -

Send us She of strength with the beautiful eyes!
Grant that fiery Ares - he who fights not with shield of bronze

But who burns as he encircles with his battle-cry -

Turns around to swiftly run back, away from our fatherland

With a fair wind following, to that great Chamber of Amphitrite

Or to that Thracian harbour where strangers are dashed,

Since what he neglects at night

He achieves when day arrives.

Thus - you who carry fire,

Who bestows the power of lighting -

All-father Zeus: waste him beneath your thunder!
Lord Lyceus! From your gold-bound bowstring

I wish you to deal out the hardest of your arrows

So they rise before us as a defence!

And you - Artemis - who by your gleaming light

Rushes through the mountains of Lycia.

And you of the golden mitre whose name

Is that of our land - I invoke you

Ruddied Bacchus with E-U-O-I! -

With your roaming Maenads

Come near to us with your blazing pine-torch

And gleaming eyes, to be our ally

Against that god given no honour by gods!
[Enter Oedipus]

 

OEDIPUS
 

You ask and what you ask will come -

For if you in your sickness listen and accept and assist me

You shall receive the strength to lift you out of this trouble.

I here make the declaration even though I am a stranger to that report

220 And a stranger to that deed. I, myself, would not have delayed

Tracking this, even had there been no signs.

But since it was after these things I became a tax-paying citizen among you citizens,

I proclaim this now to all who are of Cadmus:

Whosoever, concerning Laius son of Labdacus,

Knows the man who killed him

I command him to declare everything to me.
But if he is afraid, he can himself remove the accusation

Against him since what awaits him

Shall not be hostile since he shall pass uninjured to another land.

But if you know of another from another region

Whose hand did it, do not be silent

For I shall reward and confer favours upon you.

But if you keep silent because he is your own kin

Or because you yourself are afraid and so reject this -

Then hear what I of necessity must do.

I forbid that man, whoever he is, to be in this land -

This land where I have power and authority:

No one is to receive him nor speak to him;

Neither is he to share in your offering thanks to the gods,

Nor in the sacrifices or in the libations before them.

Instead, everyone shall push him away - for our defilement

Is, in truth, him: as the Pythian god

By his oracle just now announced to me.
Thus in such a way do I and this god

And the man who was killed become allies -

And so this pact I make concerning he who did that deed

Whether alone or together with others in secret:

Being ignoble, may his miserable life ignobly waste away.

And I also make this pact - that should he arrive at my dwelling

And with my consent stay by my hearth, then may that disease

I desired for those ones come to me!
So I command you to accomplish this

On behalf of me, the god and this land

Now barren, lain waste and without gods.

For even had no god sent you to deal with this matter

It would not have been fitting to leave it uncleaned

For the man killed was both brave and your own lord:

You should have enquired. However, I now have the authority

And hold the command that was his,

260 And now possess his chambers and his woman - seeded by us both -

And by whom we might have children shared in common had that family

Not had its misfortune and thus there had been a birth:

But it was not to be, for fate bore down upon him.

Thus, I - as if he were my own father -

Will fight for him and will go to any place

To search for and to seize the one whose hand killed

That son of Labdacus - he of Polydorus,

Of Cadmus before that and before then of ancient Agenor.
As to those who do not do this for me, I ask the god

That the seeds they sow in the earth shall not bring forth shoots

Nor their women children, and also that it be their destiny

To be destroyed by this thing - or one that is much worse.

But as for you others, of Cadmus, to whom this is pleasing -

May the goddess, Judgement, who is on our side,

And all of the gods, be with us forever.

CHORUS
 

Bound by your oath, my Lord, I speak:

I am not the killer - nor can I point out he who did the killing.

It is he who sent us on this search -

Phoebus - who should say who did that work.
 

OEDIPUS
 

280 That would be fair. But to compel the gods

Against their will is not within the power of any man.
 

CHORUS
 

Shall I speak of what I consider is the second best thing to do?
 

OEDIPUS
 

Do not neglect to explain to me even what is third!
 

CHORUS
 

He who sees the most of what Lord Phoebus knows

Is Lord Tiresias - and it is from his watching, and clearness,

My Lord, that we might learn the most.
 

OEDIPUS
 

I have not been inactive in attending to that:

Since Creon spoke of it, I have sent two escorts -

And it is a wonder after this long why he is not here.
 

CHORUS
 

What can still be told of those things is blunt from age.
 

OEDIPUS
 

What is there? For I am watching for any report.
 

CHORUS
 

It was said that he was killed by travellers.

OEDIPUS
 

That I have heard - but no one sees here he who observed that.
 

CHORUS
 

But he will have had his share of fear

Having heard your pact - and will not have stayed here.
 

OEDIPUS
 

And he who had no fear of the deed? Would such a one fear such words?

CHORUS
 

But here is he who can identify him. For observe,

It is the prophet of the god who is led here:

He who of all mortals has the most ability to reveal things.
[Enter Tiresias, guided by a boy]

 

OEDIPUS
 

300 Tiresias - you who are learned in all things: what can be taught; what is never spoken of;

What is in the heavens and what treads on the earth -

Although you have no sight, can you see how our clan

Has given hospitality to sickness? You are our shield,

Our protector - for you, Lord, are the only remedy we have.

Phoebus - if you have not heard it from the messengers -

Sent us as answer to our sending: release from the sickness

Will come only if we are skilled enough to discover who killed Laius

And kill them or drive them away from this land as fugitives.
Therefore, do not deny to us from envy the speech of birds

Or any other way of divination which you have,

But pull yourself and this clan - and me -

Pull us away from all that is defiled by those who lie slain.

Our being depends on you. For if a man assists someone

When he has the strength to do so, then it is a noble labour.

TIRESIAS
 

Ah! There is harm in judging when there is no advantage

In such a judgement. This I usefully understood

But then totally lost. I should not have come here.

OEDIPUS

What is this? Are you heartless, entering here so?

TIRESIAS

Permit me to return to my dwelling. Easier then will it be

For you to carry what is yours, and I what is mine, if you are persuaded in this.

OEDIPUS

Such talk is unusual because unfriendly toward this clan

Which nourishes you: will you deprive us of oracles?

TIRESIAS

Yes - for I know that the words you say

Are not suitable. And I will not suffer because of mine.

OEDIPUS

Before the gods! Turn aside that judgement! Here, before you,

All of us are as humble suppliants!

TIRESIAS

Since all of you lack judgement, I will not speak either about myself

Or you and so tell about defects.

OEDIPUS

What? If you are aware of it but will not speak,

Do you intend to betray and so totally destroy your clan?
 

TIRESIAS

I will not cause pain to either you or myself. Therefore,

Why these aimless rebukes since I will not answer.
 

OEDIPUS
 

Not...? Why, you ignoble, worthless...! A rock,

By its nature, can cause anger. Speak it! -

Or will you show there is no end to your hardness?
 

TIRESIAS
 

You rebuke me for anger - but it is with you

That she dwells, although you do not see this and blame me instead.

OEDIPUS
 

And whose being would not have anger

340 Hearing how you dishonour our clan!
 

TIRESIAS
 

By themselves, these things will arrive - even though my silence covers them.
 

OEDIPUS
 

Then since they shall arrive, you must speak to me about them!
 

TIRESIAS
 

Beyond this, I explain nothing. But if it is your will,

Become savage with wroth in anger.
 

OEDIPUS
 

Yes indeed I will yield to the anger possessing me

Since I do understand! For I know you appear to me

To have worked together with others to produce that deed,

Although it was not your hand that did the killing. But - had you sight -

I would say that the blow was yours and yours alone!
 

TIRESIAS
 

Is that so! I declare it is to the proclamation

You announced that you must adhere to, so that from this day

You should not speak to me or these others

Since you are the unhealthy pollution in our soil!
 

OEDIPUS
 

It is disrespectful to bound forth

With such speech! Do you believe you will escape?
 

TIRESIAS
 

I have escaped. For, by my revelations, I am nourished and made strong.
 

OEDIPUS

Where was your instruction from? Certainly not from your craft!
 

TIRESIAS
 

From you - for against my desire I cast out those words.

OEDIPUS
 

What words? Say them again so I can fully understand.
 

TIRESIAS
 

Did you not hear them before? Or are your words a test?
 

OEDIPUS
 

They expressed no meaning to me. Say them again.
 

TIRESIAS
 

I said you are the killer and thus the man you seek.
 

OEDIPUS
 

You shall not escape if you injure me so again!

TIRESIAS

Shall I then say more to make your anger greater?

OEDIPUS
 

As much as you desire for you are mistaken in what you say.
 

TIRESIAS
 

I say that with those nearest to you are you concealed

In disrespectful intimacy, not seeing the trouble you are in.
 

OEDIPUS
 

Do you believe you can continue to speak so and remain healthy?
 

TIRESIAS
 

Yes, if revelations have power.
 

OEDIPUS
 

They do for others, but not for you! They have none for you

Because you are blind in your ears, in your purpose as well as in your eyes!
 

TIRESIAS
 

In faulting me for that you are unfortunate

Because soon there will be no one who does not find fault with you.
 

OEDIPUS
 

You are nourished by night alone! It is not for me,

Or anyone here who sees by the light, to injure you.
 

TIRESIAS
 

It is not my destiny to be defeated by you -

Apollo is sufficient for that, since it is his duty to obtain vengeance.
 

OEDIPUS
 

Were those things Creon's inventions - or yours?
 

TIRESIAS
 

It is not Creon who harms you - it is yourself.
 

OEDIPUS
 

380 Ah! Wealth, Kingship and that art of arts

Which surpasses others - these, in life, are envied:

And great is the jealousy cherished because of you.

It is because of this authority of mine - which this clan

Gave into my hands, unasked -

That the faithful Creon, a comrade from the beginning,

Desires to furtively creep about to overthrow me

And hires this performing wizard,

This cunning mendicant priest who sees only

For gain but who is blind in his art!
So now tell me: where and when have you given clear divinations?

For you did not - when that bitch was here chanting her verses -

Speak out and so give deliverance to your clansfolk.

Yet her enigma was not really for some passing man

To disclose since it required a prophet's art:

But your augury foretold nothing and neither did you learn anything

From any god! It was I who came along -

I, Oedipus, who sees nothing! - I who put and end to her

By happening to use reason rather than a knowledge of augury.

Now it is me you are trying to exile since your purpose

Is to stand beside the throne among Creon's supporters.

But I intend to make you sorry! Both of you - who worked together

To drive me out. And if I did not respect you as an Elder,

Pain would teach you a kind of judgement!
 

CHORUS
 

Yet I suspect that he has spoken

In anger, as I believe you did, Oedipus.

But this is not what is needed. Instead, it is the god's oracle

That will, if examined, give us the best remedy.
 

TIRESIAS
 

Though you are the King, I have at least an equality of words

In return, for I also have authority.

I do not live as your servant - but for Loxias -

Just as I am not inscribed on the roll as being under Creon's patronage.

Thus, I speak for myself - since you have found fault with me because I am blind.

When you look, you do not see the trouble you are in,

Nor where you dwell, nor who you are intimate with.

Do you know from whom your being arose? Though concealed, you are the enemy

Of your own, below and upon this land:

On both sides beaten by your mother and your father

To be driven out from this land by a swift and angry Fury -

And you who now see straight will then be in darkness.

420 What place will not be a haven for your cries?

What Cithaeron will not, and soon, resound with them

When you understand your wedding-night in that abode

Into where you fatefully and easily sailed but which is no haven from your voyage?

Nor do you understand the multitude of troubles

Which will make you equal with yourself and your children.
Thus it is, so therefore at my mouth and at Creon's

Throw your dirt! For there is no other mortal whose being

Will be so completely overwhelmed by troubles as yours.
 

OEDIPUS
 

Am I to endure hearing such things from him?

May misfortune come to you! Go from here - without delay!

Away from my dwelling! Turn and go!
 

TIRESIAS

I would not have come here, had you not invited me.

 

OEDIPUS
 

I did not know you would speak nonsense

Or I would have been unwilling to ask you here to my dwelling.

TIRESIAS
 

So you believe I was born lacking sense?

Yet I made sense to those who gave you birth.
 

OEDIPUS
 

What? Wait! Which mortals gave me birth?
 

TIRESIAS
 

It is on this day that you are born and also destroyed.
 

OEDIPUS
 

All that you have said is enigmatic or lacking in reason.
 

TIRESIAS
 

440 But are you not the best among us in working things out?
 

OEDIPUS
 

Do you find fault with what I have discovered is my strength?
 

TIRESIAS
 

It is that very fortune which has totally ruined you.
 

OEDIPUS

I am not concerned - if I have preserved this clan.

TIRESIAS
 

Then I shall depart. You - boy! Lead me away.

OEDIPUS
 

Let him lead you away. While here, you are under my feet

And annoy me. When gone - you will give me no more pain.

TIRESIAS

I shall go but speak that for which I was fetched, with no dread

Because of your countenance. For you cannot harm me.

I say that the man you have long searched for

And threatened and made proclamation about for the killing

Of Laius - he is present, here.

Although called a foreigner among us, he will be exposed as a native

Of Thebes but have no delight in that event.

Blind, though recently able to see -

And a beggar, who before was rich - he shall go to foreign lands

With a stick to guide him along the ground on his journey.

And he shall be exposed to his children as both their father

And their brother; to the woman who gave him birth

As both her son and husband; and to his father

460 As his killer who seeded her after him. So go

Within to reason this out and if you catch me deceiving you,

Then say that in my prophecies there is nothing for me to be proud of.
[Exit Tiresias and Oedipus]

 

CHORUS
 

Who is the one that the god-inspired oracle-stone at Delphi saw

With bloody hands doing that which it is forbidden to speak of?

For now is the day for him to move his feet swifter

Than storm's horses as he flees

Since the son of Zeus - armed with fire and lightning -

Is leaping toward him

Accompanied by those angry

And infallible Furies!
It was not that long ago that the omen shone forth

From the snows of Parnassus: Search everywhere for that man who is concealed;

He who wanders up to the wild-woods,

Through caves and among the rocks like some bull -

He unlucky in his desolation who by his unlucky feet

Seeks to elude that prophecy from the Temple at the centre of the world -

That living doom which circles around him.
There is a strange wonder - wrought by he who is skilled in augury;

I cannot believe, yet cannot disbelieve, nor explain my confusion

For fear hovers over me. I cannot see what is here, or what is behind!

Yet - if there was between the family of Labdacus,

And that son of Polybus, any strife existing

Either now or before, I have not learned of it

To thus use it as proof to examine by trial and thus attack

The public reputation of Oedipus, becoming thus for the family of Labdacus

Their ally in respect of that killing which has been concealed.
Rather - this is for Zeus and Apollo, who have the skill

500 To understand, although that other man has won more

For his discoveries than I.

Even so, on some things nothing decisive is discovered:

As in learning, where by learning

One man may overtake another.

Thus not before I see that they who accuse him are speaking straight

Will I declare myself for them

For she was visible - that winged girl who came down against him -

And we then saw proof of his knowledge, which was beneficial to our clan.

So therefore my decision is not to condemn him as ignoble.
[Enter Creon]

 

CREON

Clansmen! Having learnt of a horrible accusation

Made against me by Oedipus the King

I hastened here! If, in these our troubles,

He deems that he has suffered because of me -

Been injured by some word or some deed -

Then I would have no desire to live as long as I might

Having to bear such talk! For it is not simple -

The damage that would be done to me by such words:

Rather, it would be great, for I would be dishonoured before my clan -

With you and my kinsfolk hearing my name dishonoured.

CHORUS
 

That insult perhaps came forth because of anger -

Rather than being a conclusion from reason.
 

CREON
 

And it was declared that it was my reasoning

Which persuaded the prophet to utter false words?
 

CHORUS